Human Resources Management for Public and Nonprofit Organizations

A Strategic Approach

Joan E. Pynes

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781118460344
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Commerce
• Subtopic: Gestion des ressources humaines

Since the first edition was published in 1997, Human Resources Management for Public and Nonprofit Organizations has become the go-to reference for public and nonprofit human resources professionals. Now in its fourth edition, the text has been significantly revised and updated to include information that reflects changes in the field due to the economic crisis, changes in federal employment laws, how shifting demographics affect human resources management, the increased use of technology in human resources management practices, how social media has become embedded in the workplace, and new approaches to HRM policy and practice.

Written by Joan E. Pynes—a noted expert in public administration—this authoritative work shows how strategic human resources management is essential for managing change in an increasingly complex environment. The book

• Includes new material on workplace violence and employee discipline
• Reviews updates on the legal environment of HRM
• Contains suggestions for managing a diverse workforce
• Offers a wealth of revised tables and exhibits
• Updates the most recent developments in collective bargaining in the public and nonprofit sectors
• Outlines the most current approaches to recruitment and selection
• Presents an overview of recent information on compensation and benefits
• Gives an update of the technological advances used for strategic human resources management
• Provides examples of HRM policies from other countries

The book also includes an enhanced instructor's guide with examination questions, PowerPoint® slides, experiential exercises, and video vignettes that are coordinated with chapters in the book.

PART ONE

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN CONTEXT

Public and nonprofit organizations are confronting a variety of economic, technological, legal, and cultural changes with which they must cope effectively if they are to remain viable. The key to viability is well-trained and flexible employees. To be responsive to the constantly changing environment, agencies must integrate their human resources management (HRM) needs with their long-term strategic plans. The four chapters in this part explain how society and workplaces have changed and the strategic human resources management (SHRM) implications of these changes for organizations.

Chapter 1 discusses some of the differences between public sector agencies and nonprofit organizations. It reviews some of the external factors that affect the internal operations of an organization, such as changes in economic conditions and the fiscal uncertainty that such changes can bring to an agency, and the social and cultural changes affecting the demographic composition of the workforce. Most organizations today have a more diverse group of employees than ever before, bringing different experiences and new expectations into the organization. The legal environment must always be monitored for change. Equal employment opportunity, labor relations, and compensation and benefits are all regulated by law.

There is also an increased emphasis on accountability and performance management in public and nonprofit organizations. Staff need critical knowledge skills, abilities, and other characteristics to perform specific jobs, but they also need to be flexible and willing to deal with rapid and unstructured change. Knowledge-specific skills and general competencies are important. To make this possible, HRM needs to be more closely integrated with the organization’s objectives and mission.

Chapter 2 addresses the strategic side of HRM and the importance of strategic human resources and human resources planning. It explains why SHRM and HRM planning are critical to agencies’ missions. SHRM believes that realistic planning is not possible unless strategic planning takes into consideration information on current and potential human resources. Human resources planning requires the assessment of past trends, an evaluation of the current situation, and the projection of future events. The external and internal environments must be scanned, and changes that might affect an organization’s human resources must be anticipated and planned for. Also discussed is the effect of information technologies on SHRM. Technological changes such as the increased use of computers, information systems, databases, telecommunications, and networking have changed the way agencies are structured and work is organized and managed. Organizations need to recruit, hire, and provide training to individuals who have the skills and motivation to adapt to technological changes.

Chapter 3 focuses on the legal environment and the federal laws governing equal employment opportunity. Equal employment opportunity requires that employers not discriminate in the administration and execution of all HRM practices, such as recruitment, selection, promotion, training, compensation, career development, discipline, and labor-management relations. To understand the legal environment of equal employment opportunity, public and nonprofit administrators must be familiar with the laws and regulations that govern its implementation.

Chapter 4 is devoted to exploring the issues of managing a diverse workforce. As already noted, the composition of public and nonprofit workforces has changed. Women, racial and ethnic minorities, returning war veterans, and older, disabled, homosexual, and transgendered workers are more visible in today’s workplace than in the past. Other types of diversity issues exist in agencies as well. Diversity must be understood if organizations want to deal effectively with employees regardless of their different characteristics. When diversity is well managed, all employees are supported, valued, and included. A supportive work environment enables employees to achieve their fullest potential.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN THE PUBLIC AND NONPROFIT SECTORS

After reading this chapter, you should be able to

• Understand the responsibilities and roles of human resources management
• Understand what constitutes public organizations
• Explain why civil service systems or merit systems exist in the public sector
• Understand what constitutes nonprofit organizations
• Identify the challenges facing human resources management today

Human resources management (HRM) is the design of formal systems in an organization to ensure the effective use of employees’ knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOCs) to accomplish organizational goals. HRM concerns the recruitment, selection, training and development, compensation and benefits, retention, evaluation, and promotion of employees, and labor-management relations within an organization. In public and nonprofit agencies, the greatest expenses and the greatest assets are employees. Unlike many for-profit organizations that can use technology to automate the production of their products and reduce staff, public and nonprofit organizations typically provide some type of service. Thus, they rely on the professionalism and competence of their employees.

Machines cannot be substituted for most public and nonprofit employees. As a result, public and nonprofit agencies are labor intensive; employee costs are typically between 50 and 80 percent of their budgets (Cascio & Boudreau, 2008; Fitz-enz, 2000, 2009, 2010). Employees are also public and nonprofits’ greatest assets. Whether referring to top leadership, department directors or managers, or first-level employees, the quality and competencies of the workforce differentiate successful agencies or departments from others. Why is one police department more effective than another when dealing with similar problems and situated in local governments with similar incomes and demographics and with similar responsibilities? Why is one substance abuse treatment center more effective than another if they are using similar clinical protocols and techniques and have clients with similar problems? The answer is likely to be related to the professionalism and competencies of their employees. The study of HRM has existed for a long time, despite having different names. Scientific management addressed the principle of breaking job positions down into their simplest tasks. It was concerned with production efficiencies through making the best employee and job match and also addressed employee motivation by developing incentive pay systems.

Additional psychological aspects of HRM were developed to select individuals for military positions. Intelligence, aptitude, and psychological tests were developed to screen and place employees in various positions. The field of industrial/organizational psychology has played, and continues to play, a critical role in the development of HRM activities. Human resources management has evolved to encompass systems for the effective recruitment, selection, evaluation, and training and development of employees. Compensation studies to pay employees fair salaries and provide them with benefits that are important to them are also important components of HRM systems. Fair compensation serves to retain and motivate employees.

Human resources management responsibilities change as society changes. Today, public and nonprofit organizations are facing serious economic challenges, changes in the legal environment, and social, cultural, generational, technological, and educational changes. A strategic HRM system identifies these changes and challenges and develops effective strategies to address them.

The Public Sector

The public sector is composed of a variety of government organizations. Government agencies are owned and controlled by the people. Government is used to maintain a system of law, justice, and social organization. It protects individual rights and freedoms, provides security and stability, and provides direction for the nation. It also provides public goods, regulates certain industries and activities, and corrects problems that the markets create or are unable to address (Rainey, 2003).

In the United States, we have a variety of federal, state, and local government agencies. Federal employees work directly for federal agencies and receive their compensation and benefits from the federal government. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents are federal employees, as are doctors working for the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control. Other federal employees may work for the Federal Aviation Authority, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Food and Drug Administration. (To see the scope of federal departments and agencies, go to http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/independent-agencies.html.) In 2010, more than 3 million civilian employees were employed directly by the federal government (US Census Bureau, 2012h).

State employees work directly for state agencies and receive their compensation and benefits from state governments. Each state has a different number of agencies. The compensation and benefits given to state employees vary across the states. In 2010, 5.3 million employees were employed directly by state governments (US Census Bureau, 2012g).

There are more than eighty-eight thousand units of local government: counties, cities, villages and townships, and special districts such as school districts, fire districts, park districts, hospital districts, museum and zoo districts, and parks and recreation districts. Local government employees work directly for local units and receive their compensation and benefits from the local governments and taxing districts. The number of local units varies across the states, as do compensation and benefits given to local government employees. Even within the same county, county employees may be paid different salaries from employees working for city governments located in the county. Also, special district employees receive different salaries and benefits. There is often little consistency across local government units. In 2010, the number of local government employees was 14.2 million. Most public employees work for local units (US Census Bureau, 2012f).

Individuals working directly for federal, state, or local units are considered to be government employees. In a democracy, government is owned by all of its citizens, and most of the revenues that support government agencies typically come from taxes. Government’s objectives are political in nature. Public agencies are influenced by certain values found in the private sector such as efficiency, effectiveness, timeliness, and reliability. But they are also influenced by values not necessarily found in the private sector and often are in conflict with one another, such as accountability to the public at large and to elected officials, being responsive to the rule of law and governmental authorities, being responsive to public demands, being open to external scrutiny and criticism, adhering to strict ethical standards, and conducting public affairs with the goals of fairness, equal treatment, social equity, and impartiality (Rainey, 2003).

Civil Service and Merit Systems

Many public agencies are required to comply with civil service or merit systems to facilitate these values and objective employment practices in public agencies:

• Federal government. The Pendleton Act, passed in 1883, set up an independent, bipartisan civil service commission to make objective, merit-based selections for federal jobs. Those individuals best qualified would receive a job or promotion based on their KSAOCs. The terms civil service system and merit system are often used interchangeably. This is because merit provides the foundation for civil service systems. The ability to perform tasks is dependent not on political affiliation but on individual skills and abilities (i.e., merit considerations). The intent of the merit system was to remove the negative effects of patronage (granting jobs to political supporters) in appointing individuals to federal positions. Public employees were expected to perform their work in a politically neutral manner. In 1978, the Civil Service Reform Act made changes to federal personnel policies. The Civil Service Commission was eliminated, and the Office of Personnel Management and the Merit Systems Protection Board took its place. However, being politically neutral, along with experience, education, and expertise, are still important criteria for selecting federal employees.
• State governments. The federal government encouraged state and local governments to develop civil service or merit systems as a condition of receiving federal grants (Aronson, 1974). The federal government has a vested interest in seeing that state and local programs supported by its funds are administered in an efficient and professional manner. The recipients of federal monies were to ensure the proper administration of grant programs. Standards were initially issued in the 1930s and continued through the 1970s when the Intergovernmental Personnel Act of 1970 was passed, which gave grants to state and local governments to improve their personnel practices. The authority for state merit systems is typically outlined in state statutes, which direct a specified agency to issue the necessary rules and regulations that have the effect of law and the necessary administrative procedures to carry out its provisions. Most civil service systems h...