PADP 6920 Public Personnel Administration

Course Description

This course focuses on selected topics in the study and practice of public personnel administration (also known as public personnel management or public sector human resources management). We will review how public employees are recruited, selected, compensated, and evaluated. A variety of class exercises and case analyses will supplement the assigned reading. The central objectives for the course are to enable students to:

1. Develop an appreciation for the dynamic political environment and the Constitutional restrictions that distinguish public personnel management from its counterpart in the private sector.
2. Understand the history of the civil service in the United States.
3. Define the concept of merit in public employment and be familiar with the evolution of merit systems.
4. Demonstrate knowledge of issues associated with recent civil service reform.
5. Understand equal employment opportunity law.
6. Describe recruitment, examination, and selection procedures.
7. Be familiar with public sector job evaluation techniques.
8. Know how compensation structures are constructed.
9. Understand systems of employee performance appraisal.
10. Be knowledgeable of the role of public employee unions and systems of collective bargaining.