Cultural Dimensions of Leadership
Introduction Leadership in organizations is dictated and determined according to a variety of reasons and factors including personality, cultural, and country and regional aspects. Among the various factors, the cultural dimension of leadership is often not highlighted as it is taken as a given. However, with globalization and the advent of tighter integration and interconnectedness, […]
The Political System and Civil Liberties: Theory and Practice
The Concept of Civil Liberties and Human Rights An important topic in political science concerns the provision of civil liberties and the practice of human rights in modern nation states. It goes without saying that in dictatorships, civil liberties are curtailed, and human rights are nonexistent. Hence, our focus in this article is on the […]
How to Improve Interpersonal Relationship at Workplace ?
An association between individuals working together in the same organization is called interpersonal relationship. An individual spends around seven to eight hours at his workplace and it is practically not possible for him to work all alone. One needs people to talk to and discuss various issues at the workplace. Research says productivity increases manifold […]
Overcoming Barriers to Change
Research has shown that the best way to get the senior managers at all levels interested in the change initiatives is by engaging them and seeking their buy-in for the change management process. Studies have proved that the managers in the upper echelons buy into the change from a strategic perspective where the accent is […]
Is the Nation State in Decline Because of Globalization ?
Global Crises Need Global Solutions Global crises require global solutions, so goes the new motto of policymakers around the world. As the world confronts economic crises that are systemic, climate change that cannot be solved by individual nations acting independently and security and other risks that need global responses, it is time to ask the […]
Employees form the core and the backbone of any organization and public organizations are no different. According to authors William Mosher and J. Donald Kingsley, the key to better governance lies in effective personnel management.
For effective personnel administration there are certain criteria that need to be fulfilled like:
Classification is the first step in personnel management wherein similar kinds of posts are grouped together based on their duties and responsibilities. A formal classification plan shows all the classes with each existing job and position suitably placed with respect to each other in an orderly manner. This in turn is supplemented by rules, regulations for their administration, interpretation and amendment.
The second step becomes position classification which explains the individual position of that role within the public administration machinery. It also defines the duties and responsibilities for which the individual holding the position shall be accountable for.
The third step is the process of recruitment. Recruitment in government organization is all about finding the right people for the right job. It involves having good public relations, employment campaigns and effective systems of selection of the people.
The next step is the training. Training develops skills and habits and also develops the requisite mental attitude and morale of the civil servants. Training helps the civil servants to carry out their day to day job related transactions with precision, adapt to the changing socio-economic needs, and understand the larger and broader picture of administration and also to make their job interesting and be able to take newer responsibilities.
Next comes, the promotion or the increase in rank or status. It is essential that the employees are provided with timely promotion to develop their talent and increase their morale and motivation levels. While the process means increase in pay grade and responsibilities for the employees, the same process allows the management to select and pick the best suitable person from an available pool to fulfill higher responsibilities.
The last step is the pay and service of the civil servants. The salary scales of civil servants are based on several factors like:
The service conditions include leave, holidays, hours of work, accommodation, healthcare, working conditions and other miscellaneous aspects.
One of the oldest problems that plague the personnel administration in all countries is the liberal seepage of politics in all its aspects. Despite of the attempts of the scholars to separate politics and administration, the divorce exists only in textbooks and on paper. The personnel administration of the public organization has emerged as a triumph of technique over purpose. While the civil servants are selected through rigorous methods of written examination, personal interviews, scores, the rule of three, split-digit ranking etc, but the question remains whether they actually serve the objectives of the organization.
The system which cites itself as based on merit degenerates into a protectionist system. The entrance exams are designed to test competence for jobs at junior levels only and later there is no system of objective evaluation of desired competence level for senior and complex roles. For most parts, these exams rarely test the attitude and seem outdated and redundant to meet the challenges of the current needs. The career growth as well, within the system is based on patronage and politics rather than qualification and merit. The disqualification based on incompetence is rarely ever heard in public organizations and even when it happens, the government bears heavy expenditure for the same. The presence of an unnecessarily large workforce also is a problem with the government organizations. A lean structure in these organizations would mean efficient and timely performance.
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