Human Resource Management

1. Human Resource Management Denhardt Chp. 6

2. Spoils system • Spoils a reaction to early elitism in US Government • Purpose of spoils to involve common people • Assume most jobs could be done by anyone • Consequences of spoils • Buying positions/corruption • Incompetence

3. Merit system • Pendleton Act of 1883 • US Civil Svc Commission • Open competitive exams • Job security in face of political pressures • Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 a correction • OPM and Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) • Prior rules were overly technical • Prior rules gave mgmt little flexibility • Hard to discharge poor employees • Poor minority & female representation • SES: theoretically top managers can move between agencies

4. Current situation – Federal govt. • About 90 percent of Govt. positions are merit • About 2500 political appointees in policymaking positions (“excepted” instead of “career service” • Continued pressures to increase the number of excepted service employees • Agency heads appointed by president, top echelon confirmed by Senate

5. Current situation –State governments • After a slower start, States also turned to the merit system • About 60 percent of State/local employees have similar protections • Department chiefs and other top executives usually part of “excepted” service

6. Position classification • Job categories, each with a job description and set of qualifications • Grade systems, denote increasing levels of respby within a job category • Steps within grade usually based on tenure

7. Compensation • Pay comparability to civilian jobs • Supposedly Government employment pays less • Some jobs not done in private sector • Largest compensation gap at higher levels • Benefits and job security usually good

8. Employment testing • Job-relatedness • Validity • Reliability • Predicting performance • Assessment centers attempt to measure job-related skills using simulation exercises

9. Drug testing • Always, when making hiring decisions • Always, on reasonable suspicion • Once hired, random drug testing permissible: • If position is public-safety related • If potential hazards to other employees (e.g., use heavy machinery)

10. Sexual harassment • Federal and State laws hold agencies responsible for taking reasonable steps to provide a harassment-free workplace • Faragher v. City of Boca Raton (no. 97-282, 1998). Employers must exercise reasonable care to prevent sexual harrassment by a supervisor. Employers responsible when harrassment has tangible job consequences, such as discharge, demotion or undesirable reassignment. • Burlington Industries Inc. v. Ellerth (no. 97-569, 1998). When there are no tangible job consequences, an employer can avoid liability if it has taken "reasonable care to prevent and correct promptly and sexually harrassing behavior“. Employers liable “if [they] knew or should have known about sexual harassment and failed to stop it”.

11. ADA - Americans with Disabilities Act • A “disability” is a condition that substantially limits a major life activity. • Common health conditions such as poor vision and high blood pressure that can be corrected or mitigated are not "disabilities“ • Being precluded from a specific job (e.g., airline pilot) is not a limitation of a "major life activity" under the ADA (Murphy v. UPS and Sutton v. United Airlines, 1997). • A "qualified individual with a disability“ is someone who is disabled under the ADA, meets legitimate requirements of a job they hold or seek, and can perform the essential functions if given “reasonable accommodation” • State governments are immune from being sued under the ADA (University of Alabama vs. Garrett, no. 99 -1240, 2/21/01) • BUT - California public agencies subject to California anti-discrimination laws that mimic the ADA (Govt. Code, sec. 12940-12951)

12. Firing and discipline • California is an “at will” State – can be superseded by contracts and statutes • Public sector • If adverse action contemplated must place employee on notice and give them an opportunity to respond • If discharge is contemplated a hearing may be necessary • Additional protections for public safety officers (California public safety officers bill of rights) • Progressive discipline: an increasingly severe set of disciplinary actions, starting with an informal reprimand, ending with termination • Police agencies try to objectify conduct by categorizing misbehaviors • Severity and prior conduct also taken into account • One criticism of LAPD discipline is that past Chiefs failed to distinguish between willful misconduct and “working mistakes”

13. Federal labor relations • Sovereignty • Federal government will not defer decision-making to non-governmental entity • Unions • Non-public safety employees can unionize • Bargaining generally restricted to conditions of employment, not wages & benefits • Strikes prohibited to prevent holding the public hostage • Example of Reagan firing striking Air Traffic Controllers

14. State labor relations • State laws much more liberal than Federal laws • All California government employees can unionize • Can bargain all conditions of employment • Process • Union petitions to establish a bargaining unit • First step in negotiation  good faith bargaining • If impasse, third parties step in, conduct mediation, fact-finding and (if called for in contract), arbitration • After best and final offer, employer can impose terms • Strikes by public safety employees are prohibited • Pressing issue: bargaining away management prerogatives

15. Affirmative Action • Purposes • Level the playing field • Help minorities and women break thru the “glass ceiling” • Try to increase representation of minorities and women in the workplace • Female dominated professions have traditionally paid less • Comparable worth: Principle that persons doing work that requires similar skills and training should be paid equally • In 1996, California Constitution (Article 1, Sec. 31, prop. 209) was amended to prohibit using race and gender preferences in hiring • On July 27, 2004 a judge ordered San Francisco to stop granting advantages to minorities and women in bidding for City contracts

16. Political appointees -v- career officials • Democracy calls for representative government • Should bureaucrats be policymakers? • Presidents and Governors come in with agendas to “clean out” the bureaucracy • Political appointees bring new policy mandates • Political appointees may be inexperienced in substantive areas • Federal example – ambassadors

17. Career employees may resist change • Usually more substantive knowledge than appointees • Their point of view may run counter to political imperatives • Effects of political influence • See-sawing policy (whenever administrations change) • Poor decisions • Political appointees lack job security and may fear to do the right thing