Human Resources in Public Administration – Current Challenges and Expectations (The Polish-Lower Silesian Perspective)

Jerzy Korczak

doi:10.1515/wrlae-2015-0050

Abstract

The paper touches on issues of contemporary public administration in the context of the condition of its human resources, taking as a starting thesis the dependence of the effectiveness of the administration on the effectiveness of its personnel which is a function of the level and quality of qualifications. The article points out that legislation setting forth employment guidelines for civil service positions affects the quality of the personnel. The regulations affect personnel selection, development of its professional career paths and, through appropriate assessment, not only a reasonable promotion but also a necessary selection. The instability of the regulations and their poor quality adversely affect the condition of the personnel, which is mirrored in the low-quality effectiveness of actions taken by the personnel as well as in the sagging interest of younger generations in public administration jobs, which threatens a disruption in the natural generation exchange. Keywords: contemporary public administration, human resources, effectiveness of administration, effectiveness of administrative personnel

Highlights

The issue of administration personnel continues to be valid in research into public administration, especially in the research area of administration studies
It should be stressed most importantly that since World War II Poland has never returned to the civil service model most common in Europe, a model of a public service career treating civil service law as a law of a public organization of the administrative personnel and using a corps system to this end
The paper presented the legal conditions of employment in each public administration sector

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The issue of administration personnel continues to be valid in research into public administration, especially in the research area of administration studies. Górzyńska’s dissertation: “Legitimate theoretical assumptions, good law, thought-out structures and meticulously developed working methods will practically turn really efficient only if they are effected by a personnel that understands the essence and objectives of public service, a personnel that is professionally and morally prepared for the assigned tasks”[1] The date of this statement is worth underlining – 1985 – i.e. 30 years ago, the days when Poland was part of the so-called people’s democracies camp and followed a socialist state regime no matter how abstract and culturally alien to its citizens were the system's ideological assumptions taken, given the society’s tradition of fostering a system of values absolutely at odds with the ideology’s values. Over the past twenty five years Poland’s democratic system has seen the country’s political decision makers either fail to look into the condition of the legal regulations at all[3] or made it a point of serious political disputes[4] or blatantly made it an instrument for getting at hasty political objectives.[5]

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE POLISH CIVIL SERVICE LAW

Findings

CONCLUSION