To:
From:
Date:
Re:
Dr. Genie Stowers
Trever Pearson, San Francisco State University
February 13, 2013
UK’s Ministry of Defence and EDS Develop the Joint Personnel Administration Program
The Joint Personnel Administration Program (JPA) created between the UK’s Ministry of
Defence (MOD) and EDS is a clear example of some of the challenges faced by public
administrators as they attempt to balance the values within the field. While the MOD suffered
from quintessential public administrative issues such as structural inefficiency and a lack in
equity among personnel, contract management comes to the fore as well, highlighting the role of
public managers in the 21st Century. This memo seeks to explore these issues within the context
of the JPA program and to highlight their significance for the field of public administration.
An Inefficient System
It is hardly necessary to dig for evidence of inefficiency within the MODs separate
personnel IT systems. Three separate systems with three separate IT staff conducting much of
the same work, albeit with slight differences in nuance, might immediately be seen by many as
unnecessary and redundant. Regardless of the historical development behind the policies which
set these systems in place, the maintenance and associated costs required to update and manage
the triplicate infrastructure is an unnecessarily heavy burden to bear by public organizations. In
fact, many scholars perceive this as detrimental to the efficiency standard held by public
officials, with such duplication almost automatically being seen as waste (Landau, p. 347). In
Landau’s view, duplication and redundancy seek to prevent error, much like a dual-brake system
does in an automobile. However, three separate systems for which overlap is practically
impossible, redundancy in this case cannot be said to exist for the sake of error prevention. It was
a wise decision for the MOD to explore the merging of these IT systems to resolve the issue.
A Lack of Workforce Equity
Inefficiency is not the only reason it was wise for the MOD to tackle this project. The
differences in HR policies which developed independently out of the three systems call into
question the concept of equity within human resources. Different pay scales, contrasting
employee allowances, and policies and procedures that are unique to each branch of the military
can often be viewed as ‘subjective discrimination’ (Riccucci & Knaff, p. 396). This describes a
situation where employees experience discrimination when in fact there may be legitimate
administrative reasons for the differences. This was experienced by many troops in all three
branches of the UK’s military when coming together in “jointery” for battle in the Falklands and
in Afghanistan. Even the smallest disparities can affect worker morale and satisfaction (p. 399),
and it was clear by the sentiment of the UK’s military employees that this was an important issue
to address. The “harmonization” of the three personnel systems was required to alleviate this.
Especially with regard to different pay, the MOD’s triplicate structure highlights the issue
of “comparable worth”, which is a concept describing equal pay for different or dissimilar jobs
of comparable worth to the organization (p. 400). The three IT systems and their unique rules
and regulations miss the mark on pay equity, and is convoluted in its attempt to achieve
comparable worth, in numerous instances. The ability to allow for differences resulting from
branch-specific administrative variation while eliminating pay disparity is at the heart of the
efficiency-equity debate, and was problematic while attempting to harmonize the three systems,
as seen by both the MOD and EDS.
Ineffective Contract Management
As clear as the efficiency-equity debate is in the case of the JPA, what is less clear is the
role of public managers in the new landscape of network governance. With the new trend toward
privatization and contracting of services, public officials are faced with the challenge of
developing a labor pool with the skills to monitor and manage services provided by other
sources. “Government strategies, especially grants and contracts, do not manage themselves.
Rather, they require the cultivation of new skills to specify program goals, negotiate good
contracts, and oversee the results” (Kettl, p. 162). In fact, in the United States the Government
Accountability Office has identified contract management as one of the US federal government’s
most difficult problems (p. 162). It seems clear that it was problematic for the MOD as well.
In their case, what started as a simple contract turned into an intensely complicated joint
venture, two out of five common ways in which public-private partnerships are created
(Skelcher, p. 348). However, while Skelcher suggests that such a deal brings an assumed benefit
of greater diligence in project (or in this case, contract) management, (p. 357) this scenario could
not be used as an example. A better manager would have undertaken a thorough assessment of
costs, infrastructure and implementation requirements through one contract, and then drafted a
second for the actual work once the scope of the job was understood and agreed upon. This
would have prevented the constant revisions and deadline extensions, which ultimately locked
the MOD to a product they weren’t as satisfied with while one or both parties ate the cost.
This was a problem before the JPA ever got off the ground, although unfortunately, after
the contract had already been signed. With no way out of a practically impossible contract, both
organizations saw themselves in a complicated situation that could have been completely
prevented. The failure of the MOD in this regard highlights Kettl’s point; that governments must
develop contract management skills within their labor force in order to effectively and efficiently
provide services in the 21st Century. Doing so would prevent severe administrative headaches.
The JPA program created by the UK’s Ministry of Defence and EDS in their attempt to
streamline the personnel IT systems between the three branches of the military was wrought with
issues affecting efficiency and equity. Yet the MOD saw even greater challenges as a result of
ineffective contract management. Despite the difficulties however, the success of the partnership
and of the program allows for the optimism that such issues may be overcome, and underscores
the dynamics within the development of the field through time.
References
Kettl, D.F. (2002). The Transformation of Governance. Public Administration for Twenty-First
Century America. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press.
Landau, M. (1969). Redundancy, Rationality and the Problem of Duplication and Overlap.
Public Administration Review. Pp. 346-359.
Riccucci, N.M., Knaff, K.C. (2008). Personnel Management in Government. Politics and
Process. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
Skelcher, C. (2005). Public Private Partnerships and Hybridity. The Oxford Handbook of Public
Management. (Ferlie, E., Lynn, L., Pollit, C., Eds.). Oxford: The Oxford University
Press.