Jada Plowden
MPA 604
Human Resources Management
09/24/17
What are the values of American public personnel management throughout its history?
The history of the American public personnel management has experienced a lot of changes throughout its existence in this country. The two dominant systems being the spoils system and the civil system, both have played a huge part in human resource and public personnel. The roles of merit, political neutrality, and patronage are significant to the two systems. Throughout this paper, the history of the two systems will be discuss and its significance and importance in American public personnel management.
History The spoils system was a civil service that was dated from post- Civil War period. It was appointments to civil servants who were friends and supporters of the political group in power. It existed during the Jacksonian Era and flourished during that time. Jackson administration wanted this to be known as a reform and efficient system where the chain of command for all public employees can from the higher parts of the government. During the Lincoln era, spoil system started to decline but workers still maintained their career service and tenure. Changes to the spoils system began after the James Garfield’s assassination. The assassination occurred because a man named Charles Guiteau believed that if he advocated and helped support for the presidency of Garfield he would have a guaranteed office position in the Garfield administration. Once the assassination happened citizens demanded for reform, this is when the Pendleton Act of 1883 came to pass. This piece of legislation was an important part for personnel management until 1979. This legislation created “civil service commission as the personnel management arm of the president.” (Personnel Management in Government, pg. 7) This service reform tended to benefit those who had less merit than others. The civil service system is an administrative part of a government or the employees of a government excluding military personnel. This personnel system was based on merit. Civil service is a body of government with the administration of the country. A major reform in the civil service system was the Civil Service
Throughout the rigmarole of political history of the United States of America, the growth of the “fourth branch of government”, the Bureaucracy, has been a prominent, controversial topic. Peter Woll, in his article “Constitutional Democracy and Bureaucratic Power”, and James Q. Wilson, in his article “The Rise of the Bureaucratic State”, discuss this developing administrative branch. The Constitution has no written mention of an “administrative branch”, and today’s Bureaucracy is often tedious, corrupt, and even undemocratic. But such a branch’s development and expansion is necessary in order to keep par with an evolving and changing society.
President Jackson further strengthened the executive branch by utilizing the spoils system, a system in which a president rewards political supporters with public office. Instead of selecting individuals who were truly qualified for the job, Jackson elected his loyal, democratic followers, claiming the reason for the new appointments was to end entrenchment and transfer the power to the people. In reality, by selecting supporters, Jackson would have the ability to easily control the government. His appointment of Roger B. Taney to be Secretary of Treasury was done with the sole purpose to kill the second Bank of the United States. The bank favored the elite, and by killing it, Jackson hoped he would win over the country’s common man.
Issue Identification: This memo presents an analysis of the employment classifications for the state employees of New Mexico, specifically an analysis of the discrepancies that have been brought up regarding a position within the Human Services Department and the Department of Labor. Currently, the position of “Employment Counselor” in the State of New Mexico holds two different classifications under the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Human Services Department (HSD). Ms. Rose Paddock, an Employment Counselor for the state of New Mexico under HSD has acquired assistance from her union, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Local #2839 as they believe that the State of New Mexico has violated the principle of a public sector organization by not grouping the identical positions in the same classification. The issue at hand is whether same job titles can be classified differently by an employer even if the job specifications and qualifications are the same; the only difference is that these state employees are placed in different departments.
"Classical Organizational Theory deals with the 'systematic processes necessary to make bureaucracy more efficient and effective.' Name three scholars that are credited with the development of classical organization thought that most correctly fit into this definition of Classical Organizational Theory. What were the basic arguments articulated by each in their contributions to the development of Classical Organizational Theory?"
Jackson was the first president to arrange of presidential cabinet that was made of his personal friends and supporters. Known as the “Kitchen Cabinet” this was frowned upon by his opposers but Jackson believed that the presidency would be more productive if it was made up of the people he trusted. Jackson kicked out Republican Officials in order to put supporters in those roles. Jackson believed this would open up positions, so more people could serve in the government therefore ending lifetime official terms. This is known as the Spoils System, as the winning party gets to fire and appoint officials in federal jobs. These actions redefined how the newly elected President could control the office, and these are still used up to present day. Jackson set the standards for handling the role of President and increased the productivity of the executive
The increased of industrialization in American cities brought a new social demand to public officials who were unprepared to target the existing issues of society. Administrative officers started to gaining power to conduct intervention programs or institutions. However, people started to distrust public administrators and institutions for their inefficiency and incapacity they gave to the treatment of social issues. The author
Adams made, Jackson was furious, claiming that the election had been stolen from the people. Except, the “spoils system” was also created during Andrew Jackson’s time as president. Using this system, Jackson replaced all of the previous government officials with his own supporters. In the corrupt bargain, Adams made Henry Clay his secretary of state after Clay convinced the House of Representatives to elect Adams as president. Basically, the spoils system and the corrupt bargain were the same thing. Because of the people that Jackson put in office with the spoils system, it also allowed him to make more decisions, because they were all supporters of his ideas. So, there was less resistance when he decided something because there were fewer opinions on
This had upset the people who did not get the chance to be “spoiled” so the Mugwumps, people against the spoils system, wanted a merit system, a system where you get a job based off skill and knowledge instead of being promised it. In 1881 President Garfield was assassinated by Charles Gateau. Gateau said Garfield owed him because he helped him get elected and when Garfield did not “spoil” him he killed him, which provided support to the Mugwumps and their cause for a merit system. In 1883 the Pendleton Act was established which made it so all jobs were to be merit
Jackson was president of the United States from 1829-1837 in which he managed to do many things, for example made the common man feel powerful, made the spoils system a standard in political government. the Indian Removal Act and he also managed to “kill “the second BUS (Bank of the United States). What the spoils system did was remove everyone from the opposing party of their government jobs and are replaced with people of the same political party. According to Jackson this was just democracy in action. Jackson replaced 919 federal officials during his first year as president.
Andrew Jackson has made many unfair choices that has affected many people in the U.S unfairly. One reason why Jackson was a tyrant was the spoil system. The spoil system was when Andrew Jackson switched out many members that were anti Jackson to members that were pro Jackson. He switched out a total of 919 officials. Shown in the Document E many people were furious about this action and then regarded Jackson as a scumbag. Another reason why people had contempt for him, was when he vetoed bank charter that allowed the national bank to continue to run. Daniel Webster replied to this that,"It raises a cry that liberty is in danger, at the very moment when it puts forth claims
With the presidency of Jackson came the spoils system, which in theory is rewarding political supporters with public office. While this basic idea is “ as old as politics,” (The American Pageant p.271) it is Jackson that extended the system to involve more of the common person. In theory, this would re-enforce loyalties as well as making it possible for politics to become a full-time career. Instead it made government positions more about the spoils than the responsibilities.
Political authority over the bureaucracy is not in one set of hands, but shared among several institutions
The Spoils System was Jackson's way of getting out the people that disliked him and were against him in government. When he was president,
However, despite Max Weber’s theory that bureaucracies are like iron “iron cages” that are a efficient form of administration. Prior to modern government reform patronage, spoils, and bribery were just part of the political environment for Public Administrators. In today’s, modern government Public Administrators are hired based on the merit and technical qualifications that secure the individual can carry out the duties of the office. However, Public Administrators are forced to work in a hierarchical organization
The economic environment in nowadays dynamic, it is fairly important for organisations and managers to recognise the curtail of Human Resource Management. It is clear that Human Resource Management (HRM) has become one of the most recommend management strategy in the modern business (Leopold and Harris, 2009). Human Resource Management is a technique process of managing people in the workplace to enable and enhance organization performance (Leopold and Harris, 2009). This theory involved the responsible to attracting, selecting, training and managing people which make employees become more valuable to the organisations. It invests effect in learning and development at work. Also to communicate with all employees at each level to reward successful employee relations (Wilton, 2011). Human Resource Management plays a very important role in the operation strategy and management concerns in work organisations of all kinds (Leopold and Harris, 2009). In aim to justify this statement by evaluate the benefit and importance of Human Resource Management in contemporary work organisations. This essay will focus on analysis the advantages of use Human Resource Management in business also underline by explain more detail about the different HRM strategy brings benefits and give competitive advantages impact to the organisation success. Then summarise by a general conclusion on the importance of HRM in contemporary work organisations.