1. Lecture 1 Understanding Human Resource Management in the Public Sector
Introduction to
Public Personnel Administration
Spring 2014 1

2. Today’s Learning Objectives
Sectoral Distinction: Public vs. private personnel administration
Introducing HRM in the public sector: The general overview of the field
The characteristics of public workforces: the size and demographic profile

3. Public vs. Private Personnel Administration
Differences between public and private personnel management
1) Political context of public personnel administration
2) Different legal framework
3) Different goals and processes of personnel systems
4) Additional constraints 3

4. Politics and Public Personnel Administration
Politics and hiring
Political responsibility and democratic accountability: political control over administration to make public bureaucracy responsive to the public
Representative bureaucracy
- To correct historical discrimination against women and social minorities
“One that must consist of a reasonable cross section of the body politic in terms of occupation, class, geography, and the like, and must be in general tune with the ethos and attitudes of the society of which it is a part” (Van Riper 1958). 4

5. Representative bureaucracy
Related legislations
The United States: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; The Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972
South Korea: 1989 Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) legislation; the Gender Discrimination Prevention and Relief Act in 1999; The Ministry of Gender Equality
The lack of representation of women and minority groups especially in the higher grades and in local government. 5

6. Politics and Administration Dichotomy
The Progressive movement: In the early twentieth century, scholars separated policy or the political work of making policy from administration.
The generation of scholars rejected this politics/administration dichotomy because it is now obvious that administrative staffs share in the policy formation function.
Yet, the motivations and behaviors of policymakers and public administrators are very different (a KEY issue for public administration).

7. Politics/Administration Dichotomy
Wilson (1887): “Administrative questions are not political questions. Administration lies outside the proper sphere of politics.” “Although politics sets the tasks for administration, it should not be suffered to manipulate its offices.”
Goodnow (1900): Two distinct functions of government – politics and administration: the exercise of all the powers and duties of government, both general and local, which are neither judicial nor legislative; execution of policy.
Weber: His ideal bureaucracy would be insolated from politics and politically neutral.
Gulick and Taylor: Administrative management school and scientific management both emphasized a rational and scientific approach to management that served to buttress the dichotomy.

8. Rejection of the Dichotomy
Waldo (1948): Critical of a value-free and politically neutral science of administration driven by the pursuit of efficiency. PA should be in harmony with democracy and democratic values (democratization of bureaucracy).
Schick (1975): The dichotomy provided for the ascendancy of the administrative over the political (efficiency over representation, rationality over self-interest). Politics is an essential imperative of PA—it defines the administrative enterprise.
Stillman (1999): The powerful postwar attacks on POSDCORB and the dichotomy brought about an end to orthodoxy and ushered in a period of heterodoxy (multiple approaches to PA).
Rosenbloom (1993): Wilson’s dichotomy was untenable, yet it continues to pervade American administrative thought for political reasons

9. Key Values in Public Personnel Systems
Selection by merit (open exams)
Politically neutral competence
A high level of job security for all except political appointees
A workforce that is representative of the citizens
Managerial values
Efficiency and cost effectiveness of the personnel system itself
Strategic HR management in support of the agency’s mission 9

10. Characteristics of public employment
Demographic diversity: increasingly diversified and representative public workforce (employment of women and social minorities)
Expanded union representation
Education: increasingly professionalized, better educated, and more highly trained (competitive labor market) 10

11. New Public Management Reforms (NPM) in Public Personnel Administration
Osborne and Gaebler’s (1992) reinventing government movement in the Clinton administration
The NPM personnel reforms in Roh Moo-Hyun administration and Kim Dae-Jung administration
- Kim Dae-Jung administration (1998): Emphasis on competition and results by enhancing flexibility of the civil service system
- Roh Moo-Hyun administration ( ): Resumed the reforms from Kim Dae-Jung administration; established the Korean Civil Service Commission (CSC), as the central personnel agency

12. Source: Park, Chun-Oh and Jaehyun Joo. 2010
Source: Park, Chun-Oh and Jaehyun Joo “Control over the Korean bureaucracy: A review of the NPM civil service reforms under the Roh Moo-Hyun government. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 30 (2): 189—210.

13. The Proper Size of the Government??
Bureaucratic bigness and badness debates: The smaller, the better?
Downsizing efforts in other countries’ cases (US and British government vs. Nordic countries) and expending roles of governments (e.g., Welfare states)
The size of Korean government is appropriate to provide sufficient services to the public?
- 990,423 (including state and local governments); approx. 20% of the national budget for personnel costs ( 13

14. Discussion Issue: Bureaucratic Bigness and Badness Reconsidered
“Bigness is badness”
Growth, Aging, and Badness (Downs)
- “Wasted motion”
- Erosion of powers of control and coordination
- Rigidity by elaborate staff-monitoring system
- Resulting in rigid and ossified bureaucracy incapable of fast or novel action
Why is growth attractive to organizations?
- The increased power, income, and prestige of leaders and recruit better personnel
- Reduced internal conflicts and the enhanced probability of long-term survival. 14

15. Issue 1: Bureaucratic Bigness and Badness Reconsidered
Historical efforts to reduce the size of government
- Reinventing government movement
- Downsizing the federal government
- Cut-back management (England)
The smaller, the better??