PLSC 334 – Personnel Administration in Government Political Science Department College of Arts & Sciences Eastern Michigan University Fall 2014 Gregory K. Plagens 601J Pray‐Harrold (734) 487‐2522 gregory.plagens@emich.edu Course Description Class Time: 2:00 to 3:15 PM, Tuesdays and Thursdays 108 Marshall Office Hours: 4 to 6 PM, Tuesdays, Livonia Center 10 AM to Noon, Wednesdays, 601J Pray‐Harrold 12:30 PM to 1:45 PM, Thursdays, 601J Pray‐Harrold and by appointment In the United States, one of every six employed individuals works for a governmental organization. These individuals constitute what is referred to as the civil service. Cities, towns, townships, law enforcement agencies, fire services and school districts are examples of local governments that hire people. State governments and the federal government are also examples. Some governments hire a few people, such as small towns or townships, and others hire hundreds, thousands or even millions of people, as is the case with the United States government. This course is designed to introduce students to the processes by which governments attract, recruit, screen, hire, compensate, manage, evaluate and terminate their employees. In covering these topics, students will learn about the development of the merit system and the civil service, as well as about the development and effect of public‐sector collective bargaining. Course Objectives Students will learn… … to identify public organizations and to distinguish between them and their private and nonprofit counterparts; …to reflect on public personnel administration challenges that emerge in a democratic country with a federal form of government; …about the development of the merit system and the civil service; …about the ideas and ideals of public service; …about the elements of a personnel system and how their application in the public sector can be different than in the private or nonprofit sectors; …about the rise of and challenges created by organized labor and collective bargaining. Course Activities to Meet Objectives: Several assessments will be used to determine progress toward course objectives. 1. Exams  Midterm (25 percent): Oct. 23  Final (30 percent): Dec. 18 PLSC 334
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Exercises  One: Exercise in Job Classification (10 percent)  Assigned: Sept. 25; Due: Oct. 9  Two: Sexual Harassment Training Exercise (15 percent)  Assigned: Nov. 6; Due Nov. 13  Three: Labor Grievance Case (20 percent)  Assigned Nov. 25; Due Dec. 9 Exams The midterm and final exams will be of the same format: Both will be in‐class exams that require you to identify terms and respond to short‐answer questions. The terms and questions will be provided to you weekly as we begin covering material. A review session is scheduled before each exam, during which time you may ask clarifying questions. I do not preview answers to questions that students draft, but you are encouraged to begin writing out responses to the questions while the material is fresh in your mind (i.e., well ahead of the exam). Exercises There will be three exercises for you to complete this semester. Each is designed to deepen your understanding of some part of field. Public personnel administration is such a vast field that there are dozens of potential exercises that you could complete that would be meaningful (in my humble opinion) to your education. In the Job Classification Exercise you will be asked to review and compare different job descriptions provided by the instructor and to comment on the types of skills and training required of employees in those positions. The purpose of the exercise is to expand your understanding of how government employers attempt to differentiate between (and justify variation in) compensation levels among employees. In the Sexual Harassment Training Exercise you will be asked to complete an online training module to deepen your understanding of harassment in the workplace. The module includes an exam that you will take to demonstrate what you have learned. You will write a short essay applying the content of the training module and commenting on your experience. In the Labor Grievance Case you will be asked to review actual documentation from where an employee sought relief from perceived mistreatment by an employer. The purpose of the exercise is to deepen your understanding of how administrators and their subordinates attempt to clarify what is permissible in the workplace according to federal and state laws. You will be asked to write about the facts of the case and to form an opinion about its outcome. Grading There are six graded assessments, each one of which is weighted 10 percent, 20 percent or 25 percent of your overall grade. Assessments are graded on an A to F scale. Each letter grade corresponds to the following percentage. A = 97 A‐ = 92 B+ = 88 B = 85 B‐ = 82 C+ = 78 C = 75 C‐ = 72 D+ = 68 D = 65 D‐ = 62 F = 55 PLSC 334
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According to the Graduate School, as published in the Graduate Catalog, the grade of ʺAʺ is for ʺexceptionally high orderʺ and the grade of ʺBʺ is for ʺdistinctly above average.ʺ Students who consistently earn the grade of ʺAʺ on assessments can expect to receive an ʺAʺ in the course. Those who earn grades below ʺAʺ on assessments should not expect an ʺAʺ in the course. Final grades in the course are awarded on the following scale: A = 93 to 97 A‐ = 90 to 92 B+ = 87 to 89 B = 83 to 86 B‐ = 80 to 82 C+ = 77 to 79 C = 73 to 76 C‐ = 70 to 72 D+ = 67 to 69 D = 63 to 66 D‐ = 60 to 62 F = Below 60 University Services to Assist You in Learning Disability Resource Center It is my goal that this class be an accessible and welcoming experience for all students, including those with disabilities that may impact learning in this class. Students who believe they may have trouble participating or effectively demonstrating learning in this course should meet with me (with or without a Disability Resource Center (DRC) accommodation letter) to discuss reasonable options or adjustments. During our discussion I may suggest you contact the DRC (240K Student Center; 734‐487‐2470; drc@emich.edu) to talk about academic accommodations and the need for an accommodation letter. You are welcome to talk to me anytime during the semester about such issues, but it is always best if we can talk at least one week prior to the need for any modifications so that I can plan accordingly. University Writing Center The University Writing Center (115 Halle Library; 487‐0694) offers one‐to‐one writing consulting for both undergraduate and graduate students. Students can make appointments or drop in between the hours of 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Fridays. The UWC opens for the Fall 2014 semester on Monday, September 8 and will close on Thursday, December 11. The UWC also has several satellite locations across campus (in Owen, Marshall, Pray‐Harrold, and Mark Jefferson). These satellites provide writing support to students in various colleges and programs across campus. Satellite locations and hours can be found on the UWC web site: http://www.emich.edu/uwc The Academic Projects Center (116 Halle Library) also offers one‐to‐one writing consulting for students, in addition to consulting on research and technology‐related issues. The APC is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays for drop‐in consultations. Additional information about the APC can be found at http://www.emich.edu/apc. Students seeking writing support at any location of the University Writing Center should bring with them a draft of what they are working on and their assignment sheet. Course Resources Required  Riccucci, Norma M. 2007. Public Personnel Administration and Labor Relations. Armonk, N.Y.; M.E. Sharpe. PLSC 334
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Additional readings will be provided in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format on the course website. Access to the website if available at https://secure.ecollege.com/emu/. o If you have not yet used EMU‐Online or have forgotten your password, please be aware that your student ID number (EID) serves as your user ID. Either way, you must click the ʺForgot your Password?ʺ link to begin the password reset process. During this process you will need to provide your EMU‐Online user ID (your E#). A password reset link will be sent to your emich email account. Course Outline
Week One – Sept. 4 Course Overview Defining Personnel Administration Reading  None PART ONE: BACKGROUND Week Two – Sept. 9 and 11 Attitudes toward Public Employment Democracy, Federalism and the Public Employee Foundations of the Civil Service and the Merit System Michigan Civil Service Systems Required Reading  Fournier, Rob. 2013. “The Outsiders: How Can Millenials Change Washington If They Hate It?” The Atlantic, Aug. 26  Ingraham, Patricia W. 1995. The Foundation of Merit: Public Service in American Democracy. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. o Chapter 2. The Origins of the Merit System (p. 15‐29)  Michigan Civil Service Commission. 2013. “Civil Service Rules.” Last modified Oct. 1. http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mdcs/Michigan_Civil_Service_Commission_Rules_347183
_7.pdf (Table of Contents and Constitutional Authority, pgs. 1‐8). Recommended Reading  Riccucci, Norma M. 2007. Public Personnel Administration and Labor Relations. Armonk, N.Y.; M.E. Sharpe. o Chapter 2. “The Neutrality of the Public Service,” by David M. Levitan. o Chapter 5. “Understanding Attitudes toward Public Employment,” by H. George Frederickson.  Michigan. 1935. “Public Act 78: Firemen and Policemen Civil Service System.” Accessed August 14, 2014. http://www.legislature.mi.gov/%28S%28sgvz2bny3pqnu555kbmhpl55%29%29/mileg.aspx?page=
GetObject&objectname=mcl‐Act‐78‐of‐1935. Lecture Resource  Partnership for Public Service and the National Association of Colleges and Employers. 2014. “College Students Are Attracted to Federal Service, but Agencies Need to Capitalize on Their Interest.” Last modified March. http://ourpublicservice.org/OPS/publications/searchresults.php?keywords=&sort=&recordstart=0
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Week Three – Sept. 16 and 18 The Legal Framework of Public Personnel Administration Legal Issues and the Public Employee Required Reading  Riccucci, Norma M. 2007. Public Personnel Administration and Labor Relations. Armonk, N.Y.; M.E. Sharpe. o Chapter 22. “The Public Employment Relationship and the Supreme Court in the 1980s.” o Chapter 25. “Drug Testing in the Public Sector: A Legal Analysis.”  Taylor, Don. 2014. “Garity Rights: Garity Basics.” Accessed Aug. 18. http://www.garrityrights.org/basics.html. PART TWO: TECHNIQUES Week Four – Sept. 23 and 25 Job Analysis Classification Compensation Required Reading  Wilson, James Q. 1989. Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and Why They Do It. New York: Basic Books. o Chapter 8. “People.”  Riccucci, Norma M. 2007. Public Personnel Administration and Labor Relations. Armonk, N.Y.; M.E. Sharpe. o Chapter 7. “Merit Pay in the Public Sector: The Case for a Failure of Theory.”  Thomas, Stephanie R. 2013. “Compensating Your Employees Fairly: A Guide to Internal Pay Equity.” New York:Apress. o Chapter 9. Causes of the Gender Pay Gap  This chapter is available online through EMU’s Halle Library. Enter the title of the book into the search window to find it. You will be asked to use your Emich username and password to access the book. Lecture Resources  Klingner, Donald E. and John Nalbandian. 2003. Public Personnel Management: Contexts and Strategies. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall. o Chapter 6. Rewarding Work: Pay and Benefits Week Five – Sept. 30 and Oct. 2 Recruitment Selection Required Reading  Riccucci, Norma M. 2007. Public Personnel Administration and Labor Relations. Armonk, N.Y.; M.E. Sharpe. o Chapter 20. “The Winter Commission: Deregulation and Public Personnel Administration.”  Witt, Stephanie L., W. David Patton, and Siegrun Fox Freyss. 2009. “Recruiting for a High‐
Performance Workforce.” In Human Resource Management in Local Government: An Essential Guide. Washington, D.C.: ICMA Press.  U.S. Office of Personnel Management. 2008. “Structured Interviews: A Practical Guide.” September. o Section 1 PLSC 334
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Recommended Reading  Earley, Darnell. 2011. “A Case for the Rescission and Repeal of Public Act 78 of 1935.” May 23. Accessed August 14, 2014. http://www.mlgma.org/pdf/pa78‐position‐paper‐fd.pdf. Lecture Resource  U.S. Office of Personnel Management. 2014. “Assessment Decision Guide.” Accessed August 1. http://apps.opm.gov/ADT/Content.aspx?page=TOC&JScript=1. Week Six – Oct. 7 and 9 Performance Appraisal Training (Note: Nate Geinzer, assistant to the city manager in Farmington Hills, will join us this week to talk about training in local government.) Required Reading  U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board. 2011. “Making the Right Connections: Targeting the Best Competencies for Training.” February. o Chapters 1 & 2  Klingner, Donald E. and John Nalbandian. 2003. Public Personnel Management: Contexts and Strategies. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall. o Chapter 11. Performance Appraisal Week Seven – Oct. 14 and 16 Discipline Dismissal Required Reading  Guffey, Cynthia J. 2001. “Effective Employee Discipline: A Case of the Internal Revenue Service.” Public Personnel Management 30(1): 111‐27.  Sowa, Jessica E. 2009. “Employee Rights to Address Wrongs: Trends in State Government Grievance Practices.” In Public Human Resource Management: Problems and Prospects, edited by Steven W. Hays, Richard C. Kearney, and Jerrell D. Coggburn, 203‐16. New York: Longman. Lecture Resource  Wise, Charles R., Brian Clemow, Saranne P. Murray, Lisa B. Bingham, Arlene J. Angelo, and Siegrun Fox Freyss. 2009. “When Things Go Wrong.” In Human Resource Management in Local Government: An Essential Guide. Washington, D.C.: ICMA Press. Week Eight – Oct. 21 and 23 Review for Midterm Exam Midterm Exam PART THREE: ISSUES Week Nine – Oct. 28 and 30 Motivating Public Employees Ethics Required Reading  State of Michigan. 1999. “State Ethics Act: Standards of Conduct for Public Officers and Employees (Act 196 of 1973).” Accessed November 12, 2013. http://www.michigan.gov/mdcs/0,1607,7‐147‐6881_13592‐26139‐‐,00.html#print.  Rutzick, Karen. 2007. “Building a Better Carrot.” Government Executive, April 15. PLSC 334
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Lecture Resource  Gabris, Gerald T., and Trenton J. Davis. 2009. “Challenges in Motivating the Public Sector Employee.” In Public Human Resource Management: Problems and Prospects, edited by Steven W. Hays, Richard C. Kearney, and Jerrell D. Coggburn, 142‐59. New York: Longman.  Perry, James L., Debra Mesch, and Laurie Paarlberg. 2006. “Motivating Employees in a New Governance Era: The Performance Paradigm Revisited.” Public Administration Review 66(4):505‐14.  West, Jonathan P. 2009. “Ethics and Human Resource Management.” In Public Human Resource Management: Problems and Prospects, edited by Steven W. Hays, Richard C. Kearney, and Jerrell D. Coggburn, 127‐89. New York: Longman. Week Ten – Nov. 4 and 6 Performance Measurement Benchmarking Required Reading  National Performance Management Advisory Commission. 2010. “A Performance Management Framework for State and Local Government: From Measurement and Reporting to Management and Improving.” Accessed August 14, 2014. http://www.oregon.gov/DAS/CFO/docs/perf_excell_comm/gfoaperfmanagementframework.pdf. o Pages v to 10.  Ammons, David. 2005. “Benchmarking Performance.” In Handbook of Human Resource Management in Government, edited by Stephen E. Condrey, 623‐647. San Francisco: Jossey‐Bass. Lecture Resource  Hatry, Harry P. 2014. “Transforming Performance Measurement for the 21st Century.” The Urban Institute, July. Accessed August 14. http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?id=413197&RSSFeed=Urban.xml. Week Eleven – Nov. 11 and 13 Equal Employment Opportunity Required Reading  Smith, Robert Samuel. 2008. Race, Labor & Civil Rights: Griggs versus Duke Power and the Struggle for Equal Employment Opportunity. Baton Rouge, La.: Louisiana State University Press. o Chapter 4. Phase Two; Namely, Economic Freedom.  U.S. Government Accountability Office. 2005. “Equal Employment Opportunity: The Policy Framework in the Federal Workplace and the Roles of OPM and EEOC.” April. Accessed August 15, 2014. http://www.gao.gov/assets/250/246170.pdf. o Cover to Page 11.  U.S. Department of Labor. 2014. “Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs: Executive Order 11246.” Accessed August 15. http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/fs11246.htm. Recommended  Smith, Robert Samuel. 2008. Race, Labor & Civil Rights: Griggs versus Duke Power and the Struggle for Equal Employment Opportunity. Baton Rouge, La.: Louisiana State University Press. o Chapter 1. Race, Labor and Civil Rights Week Twelve – Nov. 18 and 20 Affirmative Action Diversity in the Workplace Required Reading  State of Michigan. 1963. “State Constitution.” o Section 26 PLSC 334
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U.S. Department of Labor. 2014. “Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs: Executive Order 11246.” Accessed August 15. http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/fs11246.htm. Anderson, Terry H. 2004. The Pursuit of Fairness: A History of Affirmative Action. Oxford: Oxford University Press. o Chapter 3. Zenith of Affirmative Action. Deslippe, Dennis. 2012. Protesting Affirmative Action: The Struggle over Equality after the Civil Rights Revolution. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. o Conclusion. Week Thirteen – Nov. 25 Foundations of Public Sector Labor Relations Required Reading  Kearney, Richard C. and Patrice M. Mareschal. 2014. Labor Relations in the Public Sector. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. o Chapter 1. History and Development Lecture Resource  Supreme Court of the United States. 1977. Abood v. Detroit Board of Education (431 U.S. 209) Week Fourteen – Dec. 2 and 4 Collective Bargaining Impasse Strikes Employee Participation Required Reading  Riccucci, Norma M. 2007. Public Personnel Administration and Labor Relations. Armonk, N.Y.; M.E. Sharpe. o Chapter 32. “Collective Bargaining in Public Employment: Form and Scope.” o Chapter 33. “A Union View of Collective Bargaining in the Public Service.” o Chapter 38. “Union‐Management Partnership in the U.S. Department of Labor.”  Davey, Monica. 2014. “Wisconsin Justices Uphold Union Limits, a Victory For the Governor.” The New York Times. July 31  Earley, Darnell. 2011. “A Case for the Rescission and Repeal of Public Act 78 of 1935.” May 23. Accessed August 14, 2014. http://www.mlgma.org/pdf/pa78‐position‐paper‐fd.pdf. Week Fifteen – Dec. 9 and 11 Reinventing the Civil Service Review for Final Exam Required Reading  Riccucci, Norma M. 2007. Public Personnel Administration and Labor Relations. Armonk, N.Y.; M.E. Sharpe. o Chapter 21. “Reinventing the Federal Civil Service.” Week Sixteen (Exam Week) – Dec. 18 1:30 to 3:00 PM 108 Marshall