Public Personnel Management in County Government

Abstract

In recent decades there have been many social, economic and political changes in society which have led to an emphasis on progressive public personnel policies and management. Some of the most salient changes for public personnel policy have been the increasing number of women in the workplace, a societal emphasis on equality and diversity, the unionization of government employees, and an increasing emphasis on employee lifestyle issues. This article investigates how well county governments have responded to these new workplace dynamics and the factors associated with adaptive change. The focus of the analyses presented is the adoption of progressive personnel practices and policies such as sexual harassment prevention training and complaint processing, affirmative action recruitment, collective bargaining rights, and employee assistance policies. Based on a survey of 790 counties in 1993, the results indicate that the adoption of formal sexual harassment, affirmative action, collective bargaining, and employee assistance programs is demonstrably related to level of urbanization, the presence of a professional personnel office, size of the workforce, local-level representation of women and/ or minorities in public office, and political culture.