This is a seminal book on the subject and profession of human resource management in governments. It is designed to enlighten readers and students of public administration on the management of civil service establishments by governments. It appraises the profession of public personnel administration in the context of changing political scenarios and other environmental forces. The author purports that his primer will induce not only the intellectual enjoyment of the subject, but that it will encourage readers to seize some of the exciting challenges of the profession and the emerging issues of personnel administration. The primer provides the reader with an adequate knowledge of personnel administration to appreciate and evaluate the activities and the effectiveness of the civil service of their respective governments.

Gebregziabher contends that in developing countries the public sector is poised to play a predominant and decisive role. These public bureaucracies, he warns, have taken the added responsibility of nation building, economic, social, political, and administrative development and that there are no limits to the service that the governments are called upon to perform. These increased and expanded functions have placed these governments at a focal point where their success or failures will determine the destiny of their nations.

The challenge of managing the civil service—what criteria and under what organizational arrangement would they select, train, discipline, promote and pay these public employees— is shown to be a constant challenge to both citizens and governments. The quest to develop and maintain a system to place the right person, at the right time, with the right and adequate compensation to ultimately enhance government services and to increase its productivity is the central theme of the primer.

The primer presents comparative analyses of the various systems developed by using the experience of the Federal Government of the United States in contrast with some selected African states and in the hope that such presentation will help to better understand and empower the readers to evaluate the existing systems and assess what can and has to be done to improve the current system.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Syoum Gebregziabher is an Associate Professor and Public Administration Program Coordinator at Medgars Evers College of the City University of New York. He has devoted most of his career to the field of Public Administration. After founding and chairing the Department of Public Administration at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia for several years, he was able to put theory into practice as the Lord Mayor of Gonder for over two years. He thereafter joined the UNDP and the ILO as their consultant in Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Bhutan for more than seven years.

CATEGORY

Personnel Management/AFRICA