Overview

• Date: 01 October 1994
• DOI: 10.1177/0734371X9401400402
• Author: Patricia J. Fredericksen,Nicholas P. Lovrich,Rosanne London
• Published date: 01 October 1994
• Subject Matter: Articles

5

OVERVIEW

An

Analytical

Snapshot

of

the

Contemporary

Personnel

Course

Nicholas

P.

Lovrich,

Rosanne

London

and

Patricia J.

Fredericksen

As

the

professional

world

of

public

administration

explores

the

difficult

terrain

of

&dquo;reinvention,&dquo;

&dquo;re-engineering,&dquo;

&dquo;quality

processes,&dquo;

and

the

progressive

empowerment

of

employees

and

the

more

extensive

involvement

of

agency

customers

in

the

design

and

management

of

public

programs,

the

pressure

upon

the

personnel

function

in

government

to

explain

and

help

develop

these

concepts

has

become

intense.

Personnel

agencies

and

offices

themselves

have

been

reinvented

along

more

service

--

and

less

regulatory

-- lines

in

many

jurisdictions,

and

in

others

the

demand

for

practical

assistance

in

reassessing

and

rethinking

fundamental

policies

and

practices

has

been

unprecedented.

Given

this

broader

context,

what

can

be

said

of

the

academic

side

of

the

professional

personnel

enterprise?

Does

the

typical

contemporary

course

in

personnel

administration

reflect

the

current

tumultuous

public

management

environment?

Do

the

content

and

pedagogical

practices

of

these

courses

match

up

with

the

dynamic

character

of

the

times?

How

do

public

administration

and

business

administration

courses

and

instructors

compare

in

this

regard?

Are

they

moving

along

parallel

paths

in

course

content

and

pedagogy,

or

are

they

reflecting

very

different

values

and

practices?

Are

research

universities

more

or

less

likely

to

reflect

newer

thinking

in

course

subject

matter

and

teaching

methods

as

compared

to

teaching-oriented

colleges?

Are

women

instructors

more

or

less

likely

than

their

male

counterparts

to

be

making

use

of

somewhat

nontraditional

topics

and

pedagogical

approaches

in

their

teaching

of

the

personnel

course?

These

are

the

sorts

of

questions

which

need

to

be

examined

periodically,

and

the

present

circumstances

would

seem

to

make

this

a

particu-

larly

good

time

to

be

taking

a

measure

of

how

the

academic

side

of

the

professional

public

personnel

community

is

meeting

its

challenge.