New Manifestations of Open Systems: Can They Survive in the Public Sector?

Abstract

Public sector managers in the 21st century will have fewer workers and higher expectations from both the public and the workforce. Such a conundrum establishes a management challenge, which only the most skilled manger will be able to meet. Meeting the challenge means changing the culture in public sector organizations i.e., continuing the empowerment of the personnel function by changing to human resources management with a focus on total quality management.(1) As World War II ended, the Carlson(2) definition of personnel administration was dominant. The purpose of the personnel department was to: Assist management in meriting and obtaining the enthusiastic and constructive help of all employees in constantly improving services and reducing costs . . . as called upon to help management carry on the approved personnel policies . . . and to maintain close contact with management and work with them in connection with their personnel problems . . . to appraise employee attitudes and overall performance . . . and foster methods which enable management to utilize the maximum abilities and interests of employees . . . This notion conceptualized the personnel function as an apparatus in a closed system inherently committed to serving management by regulating employee behavior. During this period, hierarchical structure, bureaucracy, complex work processes, individual work, and rewards for longevity, were paramount. The Social Security Act amendments mandated merit systems in state agencies, which managed federally assisted programs in health, welfare, employment security, and civil defense. Rising Influences Spurred initially by the federal government and later by the private sector, traditional public personnel administration has changed from a control-oriented supplier of employees to a developer of employees as one of an organization's resources.(3) During the half century since the end of World War II, the roles of merit, patronage, professional human resources management (PHRM), and total quality management (TQM), have forged an orientation in which customer service has replaced bureaucracy. Horizontal structure has replaced hierarchal structure; simple work processes are more valued than complex work processes; on-line client servers have replaced patch process technology; team work has been exalted over individual work; and rewarding performance has supplanted rewarding longevity. Simultaneously, the rights of public sector employees have been increasingly recognized in the courts. Stimuli from the Courts Over the past two decades there has been increased emphasis on worker rights in the public sector work place (as opposed to management rights). Cases such as Board of Regents vs. Roth(4) and Perry vs. Sinderman(5) (both litigated in 1972) facilitated the introduction of of substantial interest, and brought new life to liberty and property interests in public sector employment. These cases could have generated personnel operating styles from management oriented, closed and adversarial postures to open or consensual systems,(6) ones that would capture the essence and spirit of PHRM. In 1976 the Court made it clear that it would use a more restrictive definition of liberty and property interests. In Bishop v. Wood(7) the Court decided not to set aside the dismissal of a police officer despite the fact that his employer refused to arrange a hearing. The Court based its ruling on its reading of city regulations, which did not appear to provide city employees with a right to be retained. There was, in other words, no property interest. However, in 1985 the decision in Loudermill v. Cleveland Board of Education(8) reaffirmed the doctrine of substantial interest when it mandated pre-termination hearings in due process procedures. This narrow but important ruling substantiates the fact of employment as a legitimate property interest. The decision, however, has not prevailed with the kind of command that would institutionalize egalitarian leadership styles. …