The four PADS functions and competing values in public human resource management

Human Resource in Its Entirety Question 1
The four PADS functions are planning, acquisition, development, and sanction. The planning constitutes preparation of the budget, outlining workforce planning, performance management, analysis of their jobs, and reviewing pay and benefits (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 18). The acquisition constitutes their recruitment and selection. Developmental stages involve the training and evaluation of the selected employees to be led to perform well. In contrast, sanction includes maintaining the expectations for each employee with relevance to discipline, health, safety, and rights.
Question 2
Public sector jobs are considered as a scarce resource since the government funds them, they are limited by the tax revenues, their allocations holds a noteworthy position in policymaking, and individual and groups compete for them as they are an indicator of social and economic status (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 20). The significance to public HRM is associated with this observation as the government bureaucracy has to be maintained with the employees who are qualified enough to fulfill the duties of a certain job position.
Question 3
The four competing values that have influenced the allocation of public jobs are political responsiveness and representation, efficiency, employee rights, and social equity (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 21). Political responsiveness refers to the political tendency towards specific support considered in the process of appointment as merit. Efficiency indicates making decisions about staffing based on the workers’ performance and abilities. Employee rights are the protections granted to the employees for their job security during their working tenure. Social equity is the equality given to a diverse workforce to maintain positivity in the organizational culture to facilitate productivity.
Question 4
The four traditional competing public personnel systems are political patronage, merit (civil service), collective bargaining, and equal employment (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 22). Political patronage supports a particular political party and the stakeholders that would play a part in administrative processes and policymaking. Merit is the system of allocating jobs based on one’s qualifications and skills suitable for a certain job position for the fair appointment. Collective bargaining is the negotiations taking place between unions and the management based on the employment terms. Equal employment means that every prospective employee should get an equal chance of being recruited regardless of any discrimination. The two emergent anti-government personnel systems that have recently been added are privatization and partnerships (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 27). Privatization refers to gaining ownership from public to private control, whereas partnerships are the cooperation among certain parties for personal accountability and sharing resources.
Question 5
There are 22 million public employees, and each level of the government has a specific number of employees working. At the national level, 2799,093 employees are working; at the state level, 528,962,544 employees are working whereas, at the local level, 13,951,387 are deployed (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 62). The federal government specializes in defense matters, postal service, and managing finances. The state and local functions include education, highway constructions and management, rectifications, social welfare, police protection, and social utilities.
Question 6
Elected and appointed officials contribute to public personnel management by estimating revenues, influencing values that would support the selection process, defining the agency, goals, and priorities, and determining suitable personnel systems (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 63). Managers and supervisors help manage the mission of budgeting, hiring, and firing the employees, ensuring the employees have clear goals and skills to meet them, and counseling and disciplining the workers following the policies. Personnel directors and specialists are responsible for developing job descriptions, implementing pay and benefits plans, training and evaluating the systems, identifying the hiring rules and procedures, and outlining the policies for testing drugs and maintaining order.
Question 7
The assumptions of traditional civil service systems are the organization of public sector work with relevance to the government considered as the service deliverer, dividing the work into separate packages of duties and responsibilities named as jobs, stability of duties and responsibilities over time, valuing the worker competencies concerning their jobs, and the analytical emphasis on jobs and the respective rational system for compensations and pay (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 99).
Question 8
The challenges posed by contemporary work and organizations are the work specialization and rapid change in the work characteristics; the challenge related to demographic trends are unpredictable shift of age distribution in the workforce these days and the replacement of young and old workers making changes in the retirement limitations; market-based values pose challenges like the employees’ own inclination for managing their success and failures, and is sufficient enough to manage their careers; the new concepts of governance are challenged by change in accountability and shifting in the corporate networks (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 100).
Question 9
Operators are those people who have the duty for fulfilling the major agency work whereas, in regards to political perspectives to HRM, they are the ones who fulfill the operational functions such as looking after working conditions of the employees, wages, supporting, etc. Managers build a connection between the operators and executives by handling the constraints that operators have to face and reach out to the executives to grant leverage for the facilitation of operators. Executives have to maintain legitimacy by staying alert to legislations and groups of interest (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 108).
Question 10
The comprehensive indicator system constitutes six elements: the right talent, an engaged workforce, strong leadership, public support, structures and systems, and high performance (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 116). The influence of these elements on public sector HRM is in planning for the recruitment and selection of the workforce, a committed workforce assisting in the meeting of goals with a clear aim set by the leadership, and supporting to achieve high performance for better outcomes.
Question 11
Policymaking, budgeting, performance management, and program evaluation are critical to managing public agencies since the elected officials of the respective departments can delegate the duties for legislative. Executive processes to perform better, along with conducting periodic evaluations for accurate resource allocation and funding for public projects (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 131).
Question 12
A job description is a summarizing proclamation that explains the duties of the job and minimum qualifications to be able to qualify for it (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 158). Position management is the procedure through which departments analyze how many jobs are needed for a certain position, and the organization’s structure should be maintained accordingly. Public HRM uses these concepts by assessing the political loyalty and the associations that would be used in the officials’ electing process. The position management would be done on the experience and the qualification of the job descriptions so that the appointed person can fulfill his responsibilities for public welfare.
Question 13
Each of the important groups involved in HRM policy or implementation has a different perspective on job descriptions and position management based on historical evolution and roles. Their roles are unique, and their qualifications and experience are distinct. Their opinions are shaped according to their respective responsibilities that have to be present for position management and representations so that responsiveness could be gauged for high performance, individual rights, and social equity (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 71).
Question 14
The traditional job descriptions do not help supervisors manage work since the traditional descriptions limit the job responsibilities and the efficiencies a person might hold to expand his horizon for high performance (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 165). The contemporary work conditions require a person to push himself to further boundaries that could be applied to a range of positions; however, this is not possible by traditional job descriptions that hinder the supervisors from managing work effectively.
Question 15
Traditional job descriptions limit and stereotype the HRM profession since the job descriptions might be useful for hiring and recruitment in modern times. Still, it becomes unfair when making evaluations, job analyses, and training needs since the value is not added (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 171). The control and patronage are restricted to a limited number of parties as was done in low-level and high-level hierarchical managers; however, the new management structures require to break free from historically defined roles and innovate for better HRM management.
Question 16
The current era defines the concept of the total compensation package in modern public HRM as the pay and benefits given to the employees to meet their needs and economically reward them for their efforts and worth (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 189). Also, these rewards should be attractive enough for employers to lure more employees based on their competencies needed by the public HRM.
Question 17
The required employee benefits constitute two categories naming entitlement or mandated benefits and discretionary benefits (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 213). Entitlement benefits are those that are given to the employees by law. Discretionary benefits are those that the employer would give based on his budget. Certain issues related to employee benefits issues are age discrimination, the accrual provision in public pension systems, and complexities of the worker compensation system that might be overlooked when employees are injured.
Question 18
Equal employment opportunity (EEO) refers to the process of treating all prospected employees equally and fairly in the employment process without any discrimination based on race and gender (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 240). Affirmative action (AA) means addressing the effects of any historic discrepancy when only EEO could not suffice the elimination efforts for discrimination. The mechanism associated with voluntary AA compliance includes identifying actual representation for qualified women and minorities, establishing full demonstration as an objective, developing strong plans for attaining full deployment, and making valuable progress towards it (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 243). The mechanisms in involuntary AA compliance involve the negotiated settlement, consent decree, or court order if the employer changes his personnel practices. An investigation has to be run for that purpose.
Diversity management means working of all individuals belonging to diverse backgrounds simultaneously in a workplace in a harmonious manner so that benefits of their diversity could be gained (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 240). Representative bureaucracy believes that genders and ethnic groups should be given equal representation in all public bureaucracies so that they should be able to serve the citizens equally in the public sector (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 252).
Question 19
The federal court system has enforced social equity by focusing on EEO principles, AA programs, and race-based non-discrimination policies (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 245). In the light of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Griggs vs. Duke Power Company was tried where Griggs, a worker at the stated company, was discriminated against African Americans in manual labor. The court established the three major points regarding Congress’s intent, employer’s personnel practices, and discrimination inference, and shifting the burden of proof to the employer that provided as a landmark case for the future learning of the employers.
Question 20
The acquisition function means that the company must acquire the required competencies to help the firm fulfill its mission (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 274). The competencies include information that the person must have to perform certain tasks, the skills gained from experience, and the abilities such as interpersonal skills, behaviors, and aptitudes for a particular personnel place.
Question 21
The value of individual rights influences the objectives of the acquisition function of HRM as the selection criteria must look into the protection of rights for the individual applicants to the jobs they are applying for so that fair treatment could be provided (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 275). The staffing process, promotions, and upward mobility in the HRM management create an influence so that compensations and sanctions are functionalized accurately.
Question 22
Political logic focuses on rules, strategy, and tactics for responsiveness and representation. The focus is external, and the communications take place via interests or symbols. Power is considered as the currency for playing in the dynamics of conflict, compromise, and change on a short-term basis (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 306). The administrative logic values its efficiency, and the focus is internal. The activities are carried out mainly for problem-solving, and the players are experts in their respective matters. They communicate via information, money, people, and things. Knowledge is considered as the key power for playing in the dynamics of synchronization, collaboration, steadiness on a long-term basis.
Question 23
The basic components of equity theory are the person being treated fairly for enhancing his loyalty towards the organization so that he could go the extra mile for goodwill and organizational citizenship (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 313). The components of expectancy theory comprise the mental expectations of an employee that he associates with a work objective when its goals are met, so that job satisfaction is boosted for high performance (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 314). Each theory contributes to understanding employee behavior and performance since the employers would translate the expectations into pay and compensations that the employee thinks he should get for his efforts. When he would get them, his performance would be naturally improved, providing an extra benefit to the organizational outcomes.
Question 24
The objectives of the three categories of development activities, training, education, and staff development, emphasize the strategic thinking of the training needs of the public personnel so that competencies of individuals and teams could be enhanced for skill building for particular job tasks (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 341). The development is further done to help the employees develop abilities to lead, problem-solving, and achieve results with factual communications so that supervisors, managers, and administrators are driven to deliver quality services.
Question 25
Performance management is crucial to employee productivity since improving performance becomes continuous in alignment with the organization’s set goals and strategic objectives. Performance appraisal helps in evaluating the technical and managerial skills of the employees so that the weak areas could be identified and further rectifications could be provided to the employees in the form of training for better performance and skills strengthening (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 371). It is important to evaluate performance so that management goals are communicated well across all hierarchical levels and all types of employees, motivating them by giving them constructive feedback, distribution of rewards for maintaining organizational justice, and enhancing the quality of work so that employee performance and commitment are boosted, and carrying out personnel management research (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 371).
Question 26
Health and safety is a sanctions-related issue; it is a legal requirement under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 to ensure safe working conditions for all employees and meet their minimum health and care standards (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 371, 409). There are audits and risk assessments carried out to avoid court trials if any risk is detected. It could be considered as a development-related issue if a faulty job design is detected; it could be altered to provide better work procedures free from stressful work conditions for the employees or avoidance from dangerous equipment related to the task. Besides, health and safety are considered allocation or planning issues since the employees would be delegated according to the occupational risk assessments and deployment of individuals based on their extensive training for high-risk jobs and incentives, compensations, and rewards for adequate motivation and appraisal for safety programs.
Question 27
The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 determined that employers must certify that the working conditions for all employees are safe and meet minimum health standards (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 409). Worker compensation constitutes the workers’ payment rates for their injuries and accidental risks that they have suffered in the form of insurance (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 410). The Americans with Disabilities Act forbids any employment discrimination based on his disability (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 410). The Family and Medical Leave Act was enacted for responding to the growing needs of employees for taking leaves in regards to medical emergencies, health problems, and assisting the working parents (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 411). The emergency issues posted by independent contractors comprise working from home and part-time working to promote employee health and safety. Telecommuting enables the employees to work from anywhere on their laptops and tablets with a working internet connection to ease their schedules and locations. In contrast, their health and safety could not be monitored in this manner (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 412). The issue of moonlighting also occurs in this context since working from home does not bound the employees to work a specific number of hours, leading them to become overworked for working prolonged hours of the day that creates a direct impact on their health (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 412).
Question 28
The sanction function entails meeting the employees’ expectations and the employers in public, private, and nonprofit arenas of employment so that the expectations are adequately fulfilled (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 449). It determines a form of a psychological contract in which obligations are to be met that causes an interchange of anticipations and contributions from both sides. The expectations in public organizations could be in the shape of the law, job tasks, rewards, or tangible or intangible sources within the firm’s structural mechanisms.
Question 29
Organizational justice, productivity, and workforce diversity affect organizational relationships. The diverse employees expect compliance from the employers not to discriminate and treat them fairly in terms of work, rewards, and compensation, which would help increase productivity and engagement from the employees’ side. As a result, this would create an organizational culture and environment of organizational justice in terms of strategic HRM management (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 75).
Question 30
In the private sector, collective bargaining has a bitter history because of labor relations and union matters. Fredrick Taylor believed that it would lead to scientific management that would be conducive to pleasant labor relations (Llorens, Klingner & Nalbandian, 2018, p. 497); however, with the change of times, the private-to-public employees’ ratio has been reversed, and the government has to relocate resources for catering equally to public sector employees. Globalization and diversity management have posed new challenges to public and private competitive sourcing so that collaborative actions for employee welfare could be organized. References