Commentary

• Published date: 01 October 1994
• Date: 01 October 1994
• DOI: 10.1177/0734371X9401400403
• Author: Gail Johnson
• Subject Matter: Articles

8

COMMENTARY

Teaching

Personnel

and

Human

Resource

Management

Gail

Johnson

11

of

us

work

with

others

as

we

carry

out

our

day-to-day

responsibilities;

many

of

us

supervise

and

manage

others.

Personnel

management,

therefore,

affects

all

of

us-not

just

the

specialists.

This

symposium

highlights

the

diversity

of

important

issues

covered

in

the

general

personnel

course

and

(Barth

and

Clay)

the

personnel

specialty.

Knowledge

of

these

issues

is

essential,

I

believe,

if

we

are

to

continue

to

improve

the

effectiveness

of the

public

service.

The

diversity

of

personnel

topics

is

not

surprising

(West).

Personnel

covers

nearly

everything

that

affects

people

in

organizations-processes,

law,

and

human

needs.

Nor

is

it

surprising

to

see

that there

is

little

consensus

about

what

the

core

topics

should

be;

few

topics

are

covered

in

all

versions

of

the

general

course.

Only

affirmative

action

is

taught

in

more

than

70%

of

all

graduate

college

and

university

offerings.

Other

topics

frequently

taught

tend

to

cover

process

and

law

issues:

constitutional

law,

compensation,

job

classifications,

perfor-

mance

appraisal,

labor

relations,

recruitment,

and

selection.

Other

important

topics

included

by

about

half of

the

graduate

schools

surveyed

are

sexual

harassment,

comparable

worth,

human

resources

planning,

and

training

and

development.

Some

topics

receive

little

attention-such

as

organizational

development,

quality

of

work

life

programs,

and

career

development.

Emerging

issues,

such

as

diversity

in

the

workplace

and

total

quality

management,

were

not

captured

in

this

study.

It

would

be

difficult

to

include

all

of

these

issues

in

a

one-semester

(or

one

quarter)

course.

While

my

bias

is

to

suggest

that

maybe

personnel/human

resources

should be

a

two-semester

course,

that

is

not

likely.

But

the

range

of

topics

speaks

to

the

richness

of

developing

and

managing

people

in

organiza-

tions--and

the

difficult

chore

of

deciding

what

to

include.

The

diversity

and

the

lack

of

consensus

are

quite

apparent

in

personnel/

human

resources

specialties

in

MPA

programs

(Barth

and

Clay).

A

range

of