Effective human resource management is a critical function in today′s public workplace, and the authors have written a book that helps readers develop key skills for success while also reminding them of the complex puzzles and paradoxes of management in the public sector.
The coverage of Human Resource Management in Public Service is exceptionally comprehensive and up-to-date. After reviewing the historical and legal traditions of HRM, readers learn the essential skills of recruitment, selection, training, compensation, and performance appraisal. The authors include two very timely chapters on family-friendly work practices and quality improvement.
This book has been carefully crafted to be an effective learning tool, with learning objectives, chapter reviews, and three sets of end-chapter study questions (class discussion, team activities, and individual assignments). The book concludes with a comprehensive glossary, and interesting and illuminating examples are liberally scattered throughout the book (more than 10 per chapter).
The authors have almost one hundred years of combined teaching and professional experience in public administration. According to their Preface, "Our intent is to make this material user-friendly and accessible by highlighting dilemmas, challenging readers to resolve them, and enticing them to go beyond the text to discover and confront others. Our goal is not merely to stuff minds but rather to stretch them."
Evan M. Berman is Professor of Public Management and Director of Internationalization at Victoria University of Wellington, School of Government. Prior, he was the Huey McElveen Distinguished Professor at Louisiana State University. His areas of expertise are human resource management, public performance, local government, and public governance in Asia. He is past Chair of the American Society for Public Administration’s Section of Personnel and Labor Relations. He has over 125 publications and 12 books, including People Skills At Work (CRC Press, 2011), Essential Statistics for Public Managers and Policy Analysts, Third Edition (CQ Press, 2012), and a trilogy of books on Public Administration in Asia (2010, 2011, 2013, CRC Press). He has published in all major journals of the discipline, is Senior Editor of Public Performance & Management Review, a Distinguished Fulbright Scholar, past University Chair Professor at National Chengchi University (Taipei, Taiwan), and a former policy analyst with the National Science Foundation.
James S. Bowman is a professor of public administration at the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy, Florida State University. Noted for this work in ethics and human resource management, Dr. Bowman is author of over 100 journal articles and book chapters, as well as editor of six anthologies. He is co-author of The Professional Edge: Competencies in Public Service (2nd ed., Sharpe, 2010) and Public Service Ethics: Individual and Institutional Responsibilities (CQ Press, 2015). For nearly two decades, he served as editor-in-chief of Public Integrity, a journal owned by the American Society for Public Administration. A past National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration Fellow, as well as a Kellogg Foundation Fellow, he has experience in the military, civil service, and business.
Montgomery Van Wart is a professor at California State University San Bernardino and a visiting professor at the University of Hong Kong. His publications include nine books and a substantial number of articles in the leading journals in his field. His most recent book is Leadership and Culture: Comparative Models of Top Civil Servant Training, with Hondeghem and Schwella (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). His research areas are administrative leadership, human resource management, training and development, administrative values and ethics, organization behavior, and general management. He also serves on numerous editorial boards and as the Associate Editor for Public Productivity & Management Review. As an instructor, he has spent as much time teaching and facilitating programs for executives and managers in public agencies as he has teaching graduate students. His training programs have been for individuals in all levels of government in the United States and executives and elected officials from foreign countries.
