Economy and Equity in Public Personnel Management: A Liberalism/Conservatism Synthesis

• Published date: 01 July 1979
• Author: Yearn H. Choi
• DOI: 10.1177/009102607900800404
• Date: 01 July 1979
• Subject Matter: Article

Economy

and

Equity

in

Public

Personnel

Management:

A

Liberalism/

Conservatism

Synthesis

YEARN

H. CHOI

Public personnel

administration

is

caught in a dilemma between econ-

omy and equity. Economy is necessary

for the government to balance

the

bud-

get and to avoid deficit spending to

placate

the

tax

paying citizens.

Equity

is the government's goal to

establish

equality as a social justice

and

democra-

cy. Economy and equity reflect

the

ra-

tional decision-making

and

political

decision-making models in contrast.

This paper raises

the

question:

Can

personnel managers in

the

public sector

accommodate both economy

and

equity?

And if so, how?

Economy and efficiency were building

blocks in making public

administration

an academic discipline as well as a

profession

at

the

turn

of

the

century.

Economy and efficiency were

the

major

motives of civil service reform (e.g., New

York Bureau of Municipal Research).

Economyand efficiency also contributed

to building a

merit

system which pri-

marily used competitive examination,

such as open service of work

and

man-

agement, position classificaion,

and

a

proliferation of specialization as a We-

berian model of

bureaucracy.'

'But

the

New Deal, New

Frontier

and

Great

Society programs made economy

and

efficiency a somewhat second moral im-

perative or something even less. The

public interest and participatory democ-

racy reduced the value of

the

economy,

and established equity as

the

moral

imperative. Lately, economy

and

effi-

ciency have come back to

the

center

of

public administration

with

the

new

name of productivity. Public Choice

scholars still

try

to combine

the

two

harmoniously.

Whatever paradigm we have today,

the U. S. government is

the

largest

employment and spending agency in

the

nation and the world. Thus,

it

is expen-

sive to operate. The government often

duplicates occupations in

the

private

field, such as

the

T.V.A., hospitals,

schools, and golf courses, among others.

The Second Hoover Commission'sreport

could he viewed as

President

Dwight

Eisenhower's and

the

Republican

Par-

ty's conservative manifesto

against

the

expanded government in

the

1950's.

ECONOMY

ANO

EQUITY

IN

PUBLIC

PERSONNEL

MANAGEMENT:

223