Public Personnel Management: Contexts and Strategies
- Book Review,
by Donald E. Klingner
Book Description
Reflecting contemporary political and managerial realities, this book provides a comprehensive exploration of the values, conflicts, political processes, and management techniques which provide the context for personnel administration in the public sector. A five-part organization covers an introduction to the world of public personnel management, planning, acquisition, development, and sanctions. For human resources personnel—especially managers.
From the Back Cover
Reflecting contemporary political and managerial realities, this book provides a comprehensive exploration of the values, conflicts, political processes, and management techniques which provide the context for personnel administration in the public sector. A five-part organization covers an introduction to the world of public personnel management, planning, acquisition, development, and sanctions. For human resources personnel—especially managers.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Public Personnel Management: Contexts and Strategies was first published in 1980. It continues to sell well, and we are gratified that readers and reviewers confirm its strengths. One reviewer characterized the book as having clearly stated learning objectives at the beginning of each chapter, with relevant practical examples, figures, and diagrams that summarize key concepts and relationships in a comprehensive yet readable manner; challenging case studies and exercises at the conclusion of each chapter to facilitate application; a comprehensive list of study questions to reinforce learning, and a listing of key concepts to guide study. Hence, the text is very student and user friendly. Every few years, we have revised this text in response to changes in the environment (social, economic, political, and technological) of the field, changes in law, and changes in organizational policy and practice. We have tried in this edition to focus more on the manager's perspective on human resources management rather than the personnel specialist's. With a new chapter, we have provided an explicit focus on strategic thinking in human resources management and throughout the book we relate how several human resource management activities are and should be related to the strategic goals and objectives of public employers. In addition, we have gradually increased our treatment of human resources management in developing countries, taking advantage of Professor Klingner's consulting experiences in Latin America and in Egypt. Each chapter has also been updated with current references, illustrations, and some new case studies that come out of out consulting and teaching experiences. But along with the changes, we also have tried to keep the familiar foundations. We are mindful that since its first edition this book has emphasized a coherent values perspective and is organized around four personnel functions that must be fulfilled in any complex organization. The values and the functions remain, and that framework continues to set this book apart from others. Here are some of the changes you will see. Chapter 1 (The World of Public Personnel Management) discusses the continued conflict and interaction among fundamental values, including the impact of performance contracting and privatization as alternatives to traditional civil service. And it discusses the evolution of public personnel systems under diverse conditions in developing countries, including the link between government capacity and democratization. Chapter 2 (Doing Public HRM in the United States) focuses on the practice of public personnel management in public agencies, including the roles of supervisors and managers in implementing the personnel policies approved by elected officials and designed by personnel specialists. Chapter 3 (Strategic Thinking about HRM) is a new chapter that focuses on the importance and interrelated impact of personnel functions on organizational effectiveness. Chapter 4 (Budgeting, Planning, Productivity, and Information Systems) puts more emphasis on privatization. Chapter 5 (Defining and Organizing Work) emphasizes the continued transition from position-based to performance- and employee-based jobs, underscoring the importance of job descriptions to performance contracting, service contracts, and other alternative personnel systems. Chapter 6 (Rewarding Work: Pay and Benefits) highlights the continued movement toward flexible performance-based rewards for individual and teams, and toward individually tailored benefits that emphasize family-work balance, flexibility, and cost-containment. Chapter 7 (The Saga of Social Equity: Equal Employment Opportunity) focuses on the continued transition from EEO and AA to workforce diversity, and from employment-related to contract-related diversity issues. Chapter 8 (Recruitment, Selection, and Promotion) highlights the importance that external factors have on hiring practices and includes a new case study on recruitment in the field of information technology. The chapter also explores the importance of competencies as a concept. Chapter 9 (Leadership and Performance in Turbulent Times) highlights the importance to human resources managers of being aware of the ways that expectations and obligations of employees and managers interact. Chapter 10 (Training, Education, and Staff Development) and 11 (Performance Appraisal) reflect the importance of connecting these development functions to strategic thinking of the organization and how focusing on the concept of competencies have helped do that. Chapter 12 (Safety and Health) focuses on management's responsibilities to provide a safe and healthy workplace. Chapter 13 (Organizational Justice) updates judicial decisions relating to human resources management and orients the chapter more towards managers. Chapter 14 (Collective Bargaining) focuses on the evolving role of public unions, including their efforts to emphasize employee rights in the face of global economic pressures. The new millennium marked the distribution of this text in Spanish and Chinese, as well as the English-speaking world. Under agreement with Prentice Hall/Simon & Schuster, McGraw-Hill Interamericana published La Administracion de Personal Publico in Mexico City for distribution throughout Latin America; and Rennin University Press (Beijing) announced plans to distribute it in China. Given our understanding of the relationship between public personnel management and democratization and the importance of human resource management to organizational effectiveness, we are both gratified at this interest and humbled by the responsibility it entails. We hope that you will find the book useful and a significant improvement over previous editions. As always, we invite you to share your comments and concerns with us. Donald E. Klingner John Nalbandian
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