Suchergebnisse

Employee perceptions of performance appraisal processes have received considerable attention in the public management literature, but the views of supervisors who actually conduct the appraisals have received relatively little consideration. This article addresses that gap in the literature by examining supervisors' perceptions of individual employee performance appraisal in the U.S. federal service in an attempt to identify structural and operational problems associated with that system as viewed by those responsible for making it work. Data are drawn from a Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), Merit Principles Survey, which contained a section asking supervisors to evaluate nine potential problems associated with performance appraisal. Responses indicated that inflated ratings, flawed standards, and a lack of support were the most problematic aspects of the appraisal process. An agency's use of performance-based rewards, a supervisor's belief that his or her own performance is assessed objectively, and supervisor age are consistent predictors of supervisors' perceptions.

This article reports the results of a survey designed to assess the extent to which public administrators are knowledgeable of federal Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) law. Findings suggest that there is significant variation among county administrators and department heads in their levels of knowledge, and that they are more familiar with Title VII of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 than they are with other laws examined. Those who have had employment law training, who hold a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree, and who serve as human resources directors are more knowledgeable than others. Female administrators are more knowledgeable in some aspects of the law than their male counterparts.

Current literature on civil service reform lacks any studies that examine how these reforms impact employee behavior. The research presented here links the presence of alternative personnel systems and perceptions of procedural justice in 2005 to the rates at which complaints were filed in 2006 in the federal government, after controlling for the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Among the findings, agencies with alternative personnel systems exhibit lower complaint rates as compared to those with traditional personnel systems. Additionally, indicators of perceptions of procedural justice exhibit a curvilinear relationship with complaint rates; as perceptions of procedural fairness increase, the rate of complaints initially increases and then decreases. Finally, ADR does not appear to influence complaint rates. Adapted from the source document.

The theory of representative bureaucracy suggests that a demographically diverse public sector workforce (passive representation) will lead to policy outcomes that reflect the interests of all groups represented, including historically disadvantaged communities (active representation). Implicit in the passive-active link is the expectation that minority public administrators, in particular, will have similar attitudes to minority citizens on issues of critical import and relevance to those citizens, and those attitudes, in turn, will influence policy decisions. This research examines the attitudes of citizens and administrators on a series of survey items focused on the responsibilities of local government administrators to advocate for the interests of the African-American community. The survey results confirm the hypothesis that African-American citizens and administrators are more likely than white citizens and administrators to support governmental behaviors that specifically target the interests of the African-American community and that African-American citizens and administrators hold markedly different attitudes from white administrators. Most significantly, attitude congruence with the views of African-American citizens by administrators is shown to be a significant predictor of the adoption of an African-American representative administrative role, overwhelming the influence of other variables including race. Adapted from the source document.

Trends in states' civil service reforms since the Winter Commission's report was published in 1993 are described and evaluated in the context of its recommendations. The authors argue that the commission's reform agenda relies on a public service bargain that requires public employees, elected officials, and other stakeholders to respect, trust, and support each other's efforts to serve the public interest. Its recommendations for modernizing state and local personnel systems are discussed and related to the "reinvention" and New Public Management initiatives of the past 20 years. Many of these ideas have been adopted by state governments, but there is no single reform model that has been followed across the states. Some states, such as Georgia and Florida, have engaged in radical reforms that include replacing traditional merit systems with at‐will employment models. The general pattern involves decentralization, deregulation, and limitation of employee protections. While many of the management‐oriented changes advocated by the Winter Commission are staples of states' civil service reforms, its emphasis on a "trust and lead" strategy based on public service values, partnership, and leadership in the public interest has not received much attention. In general, objective evaluations of states' reforms are needed to determine whether their purposes are being achieved.

As the movement toward greater decentralization of the federal recruitment and examination process gained momentum, new innovations emerged involving the use of Internet-based technologies which hold the promise of combining the advantages of centralization and coordination with the improved efficiency and timeliness that has been sought through decentralization. One of the largest efforts to leverage these new capabilities is the federal government's Recruitment One-Stop project organized by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Recruitment One-Stop can briefly be described as an attempt to both centralize many of the government's myriad recruitment processes and leverage current technologies available to advertise, recruit and fill positions throughout the government. This article provides an analysis of the federal government's efforts to implement automated recruitment processes and discusses the implications of implementing the Recruitment One-Stop project in a decentralized personnel environment.

As is widely known, the state of Georgia transformed its civil service system in the mid-1990s. A new performance management & pay-for-performance plan was put into place, & authority for personnel policy was significantly decentralized, but perhaps most notably, all employees hired or promoted after July 1, 1996, were placed in the state's unclassified service where they were required to serve on an at-will basis. In stark contrast, state workers hired into their positions earlier continued to enjoy an array of job protections & appeals rights as members of the traditional classified service. This article seeks to understand the impact of such dramatic public service reform on the attitudes of employees. A survey of unclassified (at-will) & classified employees conducted four years after the reforms revealed generally negative views toward the array of changes in the state's personnel policies, but interestingly, unclassified employees were significantly less negative about the full range of reforms than their classified co-workers, even when differences in age, tenure, & other factors were held constant. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.

This article reports the results of a survey administered to 160 federal agencies and subagencies to gauge the extent to which they have developed diversity management programs. Many agencies report that they have implemented numerous programmatic elements recommended by the growing body of literature on diversity in the workplace. In contrast, other agencies indicate that they have very limited programs or that they have simply repackaged their traditional equal employment opportunity and affirmative action initiatives. A primary determinant of the level of development of agency or subagency diversity programs is support from the head of each organization.

Reform is a common theme in American public administration. During the twentieth century at least 12 major administrative reforms have taken place at the federal level and countless others in state and local governments. Frequently, these reforms have addressed the operation of public personnel management systems. Recent efforts associated with the reinventing government movement, for example, have proposed numerous alterations to civil service rules and procedures, and many jurisdictions have implemented significant changes in their personnel practices. This article examines the extent to which these kinds of personnel reforms have been implemented by state governments. A reform index is developed to document the considerable variation among the states in their approach to personnel practices. Several state characteristics are associated with scores on this index, including legislative professionalism, which bears a positive relationship to reform, and the level of unemployment within a state and the proportion of state employees associated with public employee unions, which are both negatively associated with reform.