Federal Ombudsmen through Personnel Administration

Definition:
According to Jay M Shafritz: Personnel administration is concerned with the recruitment,
selection, development, utilization and compensation of the members of an organization.
While the terms personnel administration and personnel management tend to be used
interchangeably, there is a distinction. The former is mainly concerned with the technical
aspects of maintaining a full complement of employees within an organization, while the
latter concerned itself as well with the larger problems of the viability of an organization’s
human resources. (Dictionary of Public administration). (Dr.Liaquat, 2009, p. 111)

Encyclopedia Britannica Defines personnel Administration as “the management of

the people in working organizations”.

Economic theory outlines 4 major and basic factors of production which one is
labour. Whatever the nature of productive operation may be skilled or unskilled labour is
always required: It is, therefore, the labour management that falls within the scope of
personnel administration. A term closely linked with the above concept is Human Resource
Management, which is modern development on the ideas of personnel administration.
(Dr.Liaquat, 2009, p. 111)

According to Michael Armstrong: It can be defined as “a strategic and coherent

approach to the management of an organization’s most valued assets-the people working
there.(Personnel Management practice)”

In Ombudsman:

The Aim of Personnel Administration:

The personnel administrators seek to emphasize:

1. The interests of management;

2. Adopting a strategic approach;
3. Treating people as assets to be invested into further interests of the organization;
4. Obtaining added value from people by the process of human resource development;
 5. Gaining their commitment to the objective and values of the organization.
(Dr.Liaquat, 2009, pp. 111-112)

In Ombudsman:

The Need for Strong Administrative Structure and Culture:

As Storey says, “It is a set of interrelated policies with an ideological and philosophical
underpinning.”

Felician. F. Foltman of the Cornell University in detail article recognizes the following
functions performed by public administration:

1. Organizing: Devising the organization structure of authority;

2. Planning: Forecasting policies and programs to fulfill administrative needs and
targets;
3. Staffing: Recruitment, Demotion or Promotion of qualified manpower;
4. Training and development: Assisting team members in their continuous personnel
growth, from pre-job training to executive training programmes, collective
bargaining;
5. Rewarding: Providing financial and non-financial incentives; general administration;
6. Audit, review and procedural analysis: Decisions are taken to enhance efficiency;
7. Administering Justice: Solving disputes on the workplace.

Therefore the task of personnel administration is one of continuous modification, so that

ever-new situation and circumstances have to be dealt with the established rules and
procedures. The public administrator is therefore both a specialist and generalist.
(Dr.Liaquat, 2009, p. 112)

In Ombudsman:

Techniques and Tools of Personnel Administration:

Techniques or tools of personnel administration are the following:
 1. Management by Objective (MBO)
2. Job Analysis
3. Job Evaluation
4. Performance Evaluation (Dr.Liaquat, 2009, p. 112)

1. Management by Objective (MBO)

“Management by Objective (M.B.O) is a process in which the superior and subordinate
managers of an organization identify its common goals, define each individual’s major area
of responsibility, in term of results expected and use three techniques as guides for
operating each unit and assessing the contribution of each of its members.”

By this technique, the subordinate improves his efficiency. At the end of the
tenn, the superior and subordinate manager again meet to evaluate the performance
and set new goals for next term, according to Strauss and Sayles in their book,
‘Personnel: The Human Problems of Management'. (Dr.Liaquat, 2009, p. 113)

In Ombudsman:

2. JOB ANALYSIS:
Job analysis is the process of recording information about the work performed
by an employee. Two kinds of information are normally collected:
(i) Information about job and
(ii) Information about people.

This is the view' of Robert Sibson in his book ‘Compensation’. The

technique is very useful because it is an essential element of effective manpower
' planning and better training. (Dr.Liaquat, 2009, p. 113)
In Ombudsman:

3. JOB EVALUATION:
According to O.E. Klinger in his book “Public Personnel Management’:
“Job evaluation is a comparison of jobs in order to determine
compensation”
These comparisons are used to justify differences in the pay rates of each job
In Ombudsman:

4. Performance Appraisal:
It is also called:
1. Performance evaluation or
2. Performance reporting

According to D.S. Beach from his book. ‘Personnel Management of People at Work", the
immediate superior writes the report of his subordinate official.
In Pakistan, the technique of MBO (Management by Objective) is hardly
used in Government departments. The method of job analysis is used in government
departments. Job evaluation is also done in Pakistan. As far as performance
appraisal is concerned, ii is highly useful for effective control of the public servants.
The superior by writing the ACRs (Annual Confidential Reports) of the
subordinate staff effectively control them. The qualities like leadership, integrity and
honesty, financial responsibility, punctuality, behavior with public etc. are
evaluated. The promotion is done on the basis of AGRs. If the ACRs are negative,
these remarks are communicated to the concerned staff. Their promotion is blocked
if they get negative remarks. Thus inefficient and. corrupt officials cannot be
promoted. These reports should be written impartially. (Dr.Liaquat, 2009, pp. 113-114)

In Ombudsman:

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MERIT SYSTEM

According to Glenn Stahl:

"The most distinctive characteristic of today's public service in the

United States as contrasted with that of the nineteenth century is the
merit system."

Spoils System:
After muddling through strained periods of part spoils system and part merit
for many years, the (American) nation happily has reached a point where merit is
clearly dominant. Yet, there are still provinces of patronage surviving, primarily in
state and local jurisdictions, and there are still apologists for the practice.

The thesis sometimes advanced that a reasonable amount of patronage is

necessary to nourish the particular kind of party machinery existent in the U.S. is
based on the false premise that motivation for party work can come only through
winning jobs. A change in the incentive system can also improve the quality and
motivation of party workers. (Dr.Liaquat, 2009, p. 114)

In Ombudsman:

Receding into History:

In its broadest sense a merit system in .modem government means a personnel
system in which comparative merit or achievement governs each individual's
selection and progress in the service and in which the conditions and rewards of
performance contribute to the competency and continuity of the service.

As the great day of patronage recedes into history, one is tempted to say that,
the advancing merit systems will not kill patronage before it withers and dies of its
own infirmity and old age (Frank R. Sorauf. The Silent Revolution in Patronage,
Public Administration Review. Winter 1960. p.34).

The United States Civil Service Commission, in a publication designed for

acquainting new political leadership with career service, has declared that "open
competition consists of the following principal elements;

(i) Adequate publicity: Job openings and requirements must be made public so
that interested citizens have a reasonable opportunity to know about them.

(ii) Opportunity to apply: Citizens who are interested must have a chance to make
their interest known and to receive consideration.
(iii) Realistic standards; Qualification standards must be reasonably related to the
job to be filled and must be applied impartially to all who make their interest
known. .
(iv) Absence of discrimination: The standards used must contain factors which
 relate only to ability and fitness for employment.

(v) Ranking on the basis of ability: The very essence of competition implies a
ranking of candidates on the basis of a relative evaluation of their ability and
fitness, and a selection process which gives effect to this ranking.

(vi) Knowledge of results; The public must be able to find out how the process
works, and anyone who believes that the process has not been applied
properly in his own case must have a chance for administrative review. (Dr.Liaquat,
2009, pp. 114-115)

In Ombudsman:

History of the Merit System:

Colonial America grew up under a spoils system. Public office had been
treated by the British aristocracy as the special preserve of a privileged class, which
led colonial legislatures first to try to restrict the appointing power of royal
governors and, after the Revolution, to frame measures to prevent reappearance of
this monopoly.

In spite of chaos in the states and cities and then the Four Years Law, it is
generally conceded that the first presidents maintained substantial standards of
competence in the federal service, although political orthodoxy was by no means
omitted as an element of fitness for office.

It was progressive degradation and degeneration of public life under the spoils method that
finally called forth a movement in the 1860s which demanded reform of civil service in the
name of governmental efficiency and public morals.

Meanwhile, contemporary stirrings of reform were taking place at the state

level, with New York leading off by adopting a statute in the same year as the
federal law, IS83, followed by Massachusetts (1884), Wisconsin and Illinois
(1905). (Dr.Liaquat, 2009, p. 115)

In Ombudsman:
 EVOLUTION OF THE PERSONNEL FUNCTION

The report Better (Joveriiment Personnel by the Commission of Inquiry

on Public Service Personnel (1,935), stressed the need for a career service that
would attract the best minds of the nation. (Dr.Liaquat, 2009, p. 115)

Scope of Merit Systems:

In the federal civil service the break with the patronage system has been
pretty complete. Except for a few categories of jobs like those of attorneys and
overseas posts, employment and advancement in the federal government is
genuinely controlled by what a person knows and how he performs rather than who he
knows. This takes into account that special merit systems, to one degree or
another independent of the general system administered by the Civil Service
Commission, cover many thousands of jobs in such agencies as the Department of
Medicine and Surgery of the Veterans Administration, the Tennessee Valley
Authority. Tire largest category of "exempt" jobs is certainly not open to political
influence, namely, those filled by foreign nationals at American defense bases or
other missions overseas.

As for state personnel administration based on merit, the most powerful

impetus was the federal intervention provided by the Social Security Act, which
became effective in 1940. Because of this requirement that federal funds for
employment security, welfare, health, and other grant programs must be
administered by state agencies operating under merit systems, every state has at least
a major portion of its civil service subject to modem personnel practices.'

Diversity and complexity are hallmarks of state personnel administration. In

addition to the variations occasioned by parts of all state services coming under
federal standards, special systems often exist for such groups as state police and
state universities. Often law provides-these for separately. According to Glenn
Stahl, it is common to find several different personnel systems at the state level. (Dr.Liaquat,
2009, pp. 115-116)

In Ombudsman:
Jurisdiction of Merit Procedures:
In the exempt class are found those positions, which may be filled without
examination of any kind. Usually, these fall into four groups:
i. Labourers;
ii. Positions of a "confidential" or "policy-determining" character;
iii. Part-time or temporary position's;-
iv. Positions, which have not been filled satisfactorily by examination methods.

Case of Labourers is widely defended because of the nature of the

employment and on the specious ground that labours jobs is too unimportant for the
attention of the personnel agency. Employees whose work is of a confidential
nature, like private secretaries or personal assistants to top official,';, arc commonly
exempted to give the appointing officer a free hand in the choice of those upon
whom he depends most directly., Part-time or temporary positions are often
exempted for two reasons. In the first place, the length of employment and its
character may not warrant the effort and expense of selection by examination; in the
second place, it has often been difficult to secure qualified workers who would
accept temporary employment. Finally, there may be a few positions with duties or
requirements of so peculiar a character that selection by examination does not yield
the best results.

Undoubtedly' the principles and practices of good management could never

have been extended to the sphere of public administration had not civil service
reform created a stable body of qualified public employees. As it has developed
into an affirmative style of modem personnel management bent upon seeking out,
motivating, rewarding, and making effective use of talent for the general welfare,
the merit system has provided a far more effective answer to' the need for popular
control of far-flung big government than the rewarding of party workers with jobs
ever did or could. (Dr.Liaquat, 2009, pp. 116-117)
In Ombudsman:
 TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS:

“Training is widely accepted as a necessary function of managing

larger enterprise”.
“The development of the staff is the very essence of supervision, and
it, clearly assumes a role of great significance to tlie quality of service
and long range effectiveness (Public Personnel Administration.
p.2O4).

Concept of formalized training started in the United States during 193O's.

THE STATUS OF TRAINING:

Those who were not in favour of training were of the view that qualified employees
hired under a merit system were already trained for their jobs. Training
need was emphasized on round the globe by two authrities;
i) Fred Tickner, Training in Modem Society, State University of New York, Albany,
1966.

ii) Handbook of Training in Public Service, New York, United Nations, 1966.

Some realities deserve setting forth here;

1. People require orientation in the work of the particular agency or unit.
2. Public Programmes are revised by legislation, hence training is essential.
3. Occupations limited to public service like mail carriers, food inspectors, tax
assessors, policemen, Firemen, sanitary engineers, social workers etc. do not
get skills from general educational institutions.
4. “Training is the process through which specialists can keep abreast of their
specialty.” - •'
5. “It is more efficient to improve the skills of existing employees to an
optimum les el.” (Glenn. Public Personnel Administration. p.2O5).
6. It is not good to leant by trial and error. Training devices are mostly the followings:
i. Films
ii. Talks
iii. Interesting reading material
iv. Seminars
 v. Planned staff conferences etc.
7. By training cohesiveness and coordination in an agency is achieved. It builds
mutual respect and confidence.

8. By training, one leam.s rules of his organization, courtesy, attitude towards

the public, interest in work and skill and speed in performing a service
((.Henn, Public Personnel Administration. p.2()6).

9. T raining must be well conceived, planned and carefully consummated.. It must be

systematic, efficient and useful.
According to Marion S. Kellogg:

Training brings many benefits. The organization is eternally fresh”

(Closing the Performance Cap; Results-Centered Employee Development, p.201).
(Henk W.M. Gazendam, NA, pp. 117-118)
In Ombudsman:

PRE-ENTRY EDUCATION:
In the United States university-level curricula aim at preparation for the public service and
include the following subjects inter alia:

1. Forestry
2. Public Health

3. Welfare
4. Highway Engineering
5. Recreation
6. Library Science
7. City Planning
8. Agriculture

Professional education is imparted in professional schools.

Glenn Stahl Says:

"The great bulk ol recruits Io public jobs, however, come from

educational background much the same as those of entrants to the
nonpublic sector. In the professional fields of medicine, law,
economics, statistics, accounting, engineering, and the sciences,
graduate school programs are generally concentrated on the substance
of the field with little or no regard for the locus of the graduate’s
ultimate employment. Obviously, an increasing proportion of such
graduates have been entering upon public service careers; and the
brunt of acquainting them with public issues, with governmental
machinery, and with the problems of administering the huge
complexes serving the public interest has therefore fallen upon
government agencies, themselves (Public Personnel Administration,
“The United States did not go the way of the British and continental
tradition or of their colonial offspring in Asia and Africa, under which
“administration” was viewed as a thing apart and therefore a field of
work for which recruitment was to be made more or less exclusively'
from one or another brand of liberal arts education. The British, for
example, since the mid-nineteenth century, had assumed that the best
and to some extent the only education that prepared men for high
administrative responsibilities was training in the classics. Although
there had come to be gradual modification in this dictum by' the mid-
twentieth century, a major overturn of the policy was not signaled
until the Fulton Committee Report was made in 1968. That body
sought to move away from the elitism of an exclusively prepared corps
of “generalists” (who lacked subject-matter skills) to man key
positions in the career service toward a more open system, like that in
the United States, where persons from any or all specializations could
aspire to and be developed for the highest posts” (Glenn Stahl, Public
Personnel Administration, p.2O9).

Keeping in view above discussion, there is need for training in the following
fields;

(i) Budget Administration

(ii) Personnel Management

(iii) O & M (Organization & Methods) analysis

(iv) Computer Programming
 (v) Property Management

(vi) Public Purchasing

(vii) Administrative Research

(viii) Public Information Development

(ix) There is need to tram the women (officers) as well. (Dr.Liaquat, 2009, pp. 118-119)

In Ombudsman:

IN-SERVICE TRAINING POLICIES AND PURPOSES:

In-service training is never fully accomplished; it is always in process. It is concerned
with initiating new recruits. It focuses generalized knowledge on specific
functions of government programs. It seeks to keep employees abreast ot
developments in their fields of activity, in government aims and strategy, and in
national and worldwide conditions that affect their work. It help.s to equip them for
higher responsibilities or to diversify their skills. It is. like so many ol the other
personnel duties of the organization, a never-ending proceeding (Glenn Stahl.
Public Personnel Administration, p.2JJ).

In-service training should include the following:

1. Planned Courses / Formal Lectures

2. Conferences (Question & Answer Session)

3. Reading / Systematic Circulation of Periodicals, Specialized Libraries & New
books
4. Drills
5. Practical Sessions
6. Tours
7. Surveys / Case Studies
8. Task Forces
9. Home Assignments
10. Any other technique to generate the learning experience.

“Training is management. It is an experience”, to quote Harold J.

Laski (The Limitations of the Experts, Harper’s Magazine, December
30, pp. 101-110). (Dr.Liaquat, 2009, pp. 119-120)
In Ombudsman:

POLICY FOUNDATIONS:
1. Training should be properly organized. Learning is a lifelong process.
2. The job itself is a formidable instrument for training: Stagnation is fatal.
There should be good in-service training.
3. There is also need to train the lowest clerical echelon.
4. This is a great advantage in introducing fresh, new and even controversial
ideas into an organization.
In effect, then, the training policy may more accurately be termed the growth
policy of the enterprise, for its ramifications and its significance to development of
the organization are at least as vital to success as any other aspect of human
resources administration. .'

The basic premises for training and its goals were set forth as follows in the
U.S. by the Presidential Task Force on Career Advancement;

 Self-development requires employee initiative and persistence.

 Learning arises from experiences that change the individual or the group.

 The best learning occurs when supervisors develop work environment which
encourages employees to seek it actively.

 Training provides management-sponsored, goal-oriented learning

experiences.

 The work itself provides a variety of experiences, which managers can use
for training.

 Training meets the organization's needs for change. (Dr.Liaquat, 2009, p. 120)

In Ombudsman:

DIAGNOSING TRAINING NEEDS:

A number of conditions give signs of training needs:
1. Low Production
 2. Slow Service
3. Low Mobility of Personnel
4. Poor Supervision
5. Lack of Coordination
6. Client Complaints etc. (Dr.Liaquat, 2009, p. 121)
In Ombudsman:

RESOURCES FOR TRAINING:

Federal Government is in position to arrange training facilities. Harvard School of
Public Administration is a good example in the U.S. (Dr.Liaquat, 2009, p. 121)
In Ombudsman:

THE ENDS OF TRAINING:

(i) After induction, it provides orientation.
(ii) It leads to performance improvement.

(iii) It broadens staff usefulness.

(iv) It improves supervision.
(v) It prepares for greater responsibility.
(vi) It develops top leadership.

In conclusion, we must remind ourselves that a staff grows and develops not
just by use of formal training alone but also by living with an environment, with an
attitude of management, permeating all operations, that makes growth and
development natural, attractive, and satisfying. But it seems to be a fact of life that
the very existence of complex bureaucratic structures fosters inertia, resistance to
change, and acceptance of the status quo. As John M. Pfiffner was once heard to
say, “Organizations resist intellect”. The perpetual task of training is to help
intellectual influences blow' their fresh winds through the stale airs of bureaucracy.
(Dr.Liaquat, 2009, p. 121)

In Ombudsman:

CAREER SYSTEMS:
According to Glenn Stahl;
 “The term career is an old one. It has been widely used to denote the
progression of an individual in a field of work tlirougliout the
employable years of his life. A career in business or in a profession
is a commonly understood concept. Sometimes it means devotion to
a-specialty; sometimes it means a series of employments that are only
loosely related to each other.

In the United States government this compartmentalization of careers is further'

demonstrated by the separate career systems that exist outside the general civil service
system—four different military .systems, the Coast Guard, the Foreign
Service, the commissioned corps of the Public Health Service, the Coast and
Geodetic Survey, medical services in the Veterans Administration, and the separate
merit systems existing for such agencies as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the
Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Atomic Energy Commission, Careers in state
and large municipal services are likewise commonly limited to individual units—a
department of health a water department, a highway or street department, and the
like". (Dr.Liaquat, 2009, pp. 121-122)

In Ombudsman: