The use of PC software in teaching public personnel administration.

Arguments are made for using personal computer software in the teaching of public personnel administration. While didactic personnel and related software are available, the undiscovered teaching resource is the growing volume of operational software. Examples of both didactic and operational

In this article the argument is made of use of commercially available personal computer software in the teaching of public personnel management in academic (and training) programs. The teaching of public personnel management is placed in its historical context, with the pre-and post-1960s era described as demarcator of changes in the nature of both the subject and students taught. The modern emphasis in personnel management, having shifted to operating management, requires an operating systems approach which the micro computer and relavant software provide. A selection of human resource management personal computer software is also described.

Impact of the 1960s on

Governmental Personnel Management

Governmental personnel systems operated in an atmosphere of relative tranquility prior to the decade of the 1960s insofar as core technology was concerned. For example, he McCarthy loyalty and security attacks on the civil service of the 1950s, while "gut-wrenching" for civil-rights, left core technology of personnel administration unaffected. By core technology is meant the processes most associated with achievement of objectives. The loyalty oath altered routines but slightly. There were, of course, pre-60s polemics and movements for change. With the exception of World War II, where many of the federal personnel rules were set aside, most of the arguments in the field were conducted from within the profession (Public Personnel Management articles, for example), through the reports of advisory groups and commissions, and at the level of legislative debate. As a result, changes in public personnel systems evolved and were not modified radically. A role governmental personnelists during this period was to inhibit change.

Beginning in the 1960s the environments of public organizations began to be relatively unstable. At this time the study of public personnel policy, never a major preoccupation before, emerged as a significant concern because of stress from sources such as organized labor, civil rights activists, youth and public attitudes in general about authority, and heretofore inarticulate groups such as racial minorities. These forces resulted in legislation and litigation which seriously affected personnel systems. Recapitulating this stream of history is beyond the scope of this paper, but the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Duke Power Case are examples of initiatives which had an impact. The traditional and gradual process of policy evolution was not working.

The private sector was experiencing the same types of changes. It was also first to feel the impacts of new technologies, another element of this turbulent environment. The response that evolved was strategic planning and management. To this day the ideas of strategic planning and management in government are not well conceived, probably because American governments remain basically reactive to environmental forces.

Part of the technological force that eventually affected governments is computerization. As long as programming and user languages were fairly difficult to learn, and computers were for the most part centralized and batch process driven, the real impact of computerization was held at bay by government except in science, engineering, and very large-scale data processing environments. However, especially within the last ten years, the microcomputer has changed this.

Micro Computers as a Changing Force

Another related trend which has emerged is the decentralization of personnel management. The complexity of environments has made it difficult to centralize personnel decision making in any but the smallest organizations. Important support for decisions to decentralize personnel management authority to even the lowest supervisory levels has been provided by personal computers, particularly with hard disk capacity, so-called "user friendly" menu driven software, and by the ability to network PCs through distributed processing. The latter means that data base sharing is possible and that constraints and controls on PCs in the network can be managed by a controller unit. All other processing is carried out on a disaggregated basis, not by personnel specialists, but by managers and supervisors.

These developments suggest three levels or domains of personnel activity, which, in effect, are becoming the basic divisions of the field vertically, as compared to horizontally, (or functional division): highest management, which is concerned with strategic analysis, new objectives, and plans; middle management, the heart of the control systems, but even this being decentralized; and operations. The latter are integrated with other elements in management. This is not to imply that experts and consultants in various areas of personnel management will be eliminated completely, but they will not be making the day-to-day decisions. The role of the personnel expert is more likely to be that of designer of new systems and system changes required by a adaptive and other initiatives.

Evolving Teaching Requirements

At this point we digress from the subjects of evolving personnel systems and the importance of micro computers to discuss teaching needs in the public management field. Two questions are salient. First: Who are we educating? Our students range across pre-service (both graduate and undergraduate), in-service (i.e., midcareer employees), and doctoral students, who may also be of either category.

The second question is : What content and emphasis did we and do we teach? Traditionally, content also spanned a spectrum: politics, law, and public policy; micromanagement and techniques; history and values; and combinations. The typical survey course - often the student's only contact with the subject in an educational program - continues to employ the combination strategy, with the strenghts an interests of the instructor dictating emphasis.

Prior to about 1960 most students were part-time, in midcareer, and had some sophistication about the personnel technology of the times through their employment. For pre-1960 type students education emphasis was basically nontechnical or, if technical, focused on the interaction of technology with the political and normative contexts. Since that time, however, students have increasingly been pre-career and generally lack experience in formal organizations other than having been objects of organizational processing.

Today, all of the student clientele and all of the emphases continue to be legitimate focuses of concern for the field and for curricular content. However, it is the context in which these subjects are taught that is of importance. The workplace context is a computer supported environment in which operations are carried out by generalist and specialist managers. Why shouldn't the educational process be superimposed on this environment to interrelate knowledge theory with applications? For illustrative purposes the three levels previously identified are altered to deemphasize direct control roles in management of personnel decision making. Operating and middle management are combined so that controls become integrated with data bases used in operations. Regulation occurs in processing. Regulations for control are changed as a result of the strategic and policy analyses by higher management and staff. The following are some examples of human resources management subject content which differentiate this new three level schema.

Operating systems: labor-management negotiation cost analysis

routines which estimate the cost-impact of various bargaining

packages and demands; a selection subsystem which tests and

scores candidates or which compares applicant qualifications with

job requirements; and, based on projections of demand for services,

models which allow us to answer the question, What are our

personnel succession requirements for various levels and occupational

specialties over the next five years?

Strategic analysis: socio-demographic trends in work force and

various occupational specialties; changes in technology; changes

in societal attitudes and changes in work force attitudes; news

media coverage of various topics; trends in legislation which may

affect management of the work force - bills proposed and legislation

at state, national and international levels.

Policy analysis. Strategic analysis of socio-demographic trends in

the work force and the directions of organizational changes reveal

that future opportunities for hierarchical promotion will diminish

in a frequently changing technical environment. Yet, the maturing

"baby boom" population group has high expectations for the economic

well being historically associated with climbing the organizational

ladder. Determination of optimal policies for the

motivation, retention, and development of this work force in a

highly technical and changing environment is an example of policy

questions to be analysed.

PC Software Applications

Next, we turn from what is/has been happening, to the implications of PC personnel software for the teaching of public personnel administration. It is argued here that three types of generic PC software which are available on the market should be used in the teaching of public personnel administration. These types of software are the following: personnel management operational systems; simulated human resource management exercises (i.e. teaching materials); and statistical analysis and management science and decision making software. Except for simulated human resource management exercise, it is necessary to develop the gaming-simulations, scenarios, etc., in order to use these systems.

Statistical analysis and management science/decision making PC software and texts can be used in analyzing and planning operations. While the texts have problem sets and data, relevant human resource management exercises need to be developed. The two main line statistical analysis programs, SAS and SPSS, are now available for PC/XT and ATs, but require large capacity hard disks. Text which use examples with small data bases to illustrate models are also available. Relevant problems and data bases could be developed for them.

One statistical analysis text is by Hall and Adelman.(1) It features a published text and PC models for: discriptive statistics, probability functions, random sampling, hypothesis testing, ChiSquared model, bi-variate regressions, multiple regressions, analysis of variance, nonparametric methods, Bayesian statistics, and time series analysis.

Two commonly used management science texts which feature models on PC diskettes are: Erikson and Hall,(2) and Dennis and Dennis.(3) They feature models such as: linear programming, integer programming, transportation, assignment, network flow and scheduling, forecasting, inventory, decision analysis, queueing, Markov Chains.

Simulated human resources management exercises are not too common in electronic form. They have traditionally been a source of noncomputerized didactic materials in the personnel field.(4)

One set of exercises operated from Lotus 1-2-3 templates.(5) Exercises include: human resources planning, function job analysis, recruitment and affirmative action, using biodata in selection, performance appraisal, market indexed compensation, merit pay, indirect compensation, training, attitude surveys, occupational safety and health, legality of preemployment questions, collective bargaining, validating selection procedures, career planning. Another gaming-simulation was described by Garson.(6) It is "Personnel Skills Selection Data Bank," which matches applicants to skill rather than jobs. Applicants are tested for skills.

Finally, the use of software in operating personnel systems can be directly applied in teaching. There is a growing supply of this software which is operable using PCs. Table 1 displays some examples of this software. Shown are supplier information, general purpose of the software, the functions it performs and its costs. Price information is not reliable and in some cases does not include training and installation costs. All of it is operable on IBM PC/XT,AT and compatibles with various hard disk capacity requirements. In some cases manufacturers will license a university program at low or no cost if the institution agrees to develop teaching applications.

[TABULAR DATA OMITTED]

As can be seen in Table 1, these systems range from limited purpose to comprehensive or multipurpose operations. Needed in every case are a data base and didactic materials such as game-simulations. Isolated exercises which utilize software capability are easiest to develop. It is possible to devise an integrated computer based personnel management system, including the strategic environment with this software. In these comprehensive simulations the effect of gamed decisions are felt as organizational consequences.(7)

Again referring to Table 1, we see several special and general purpose systems. SIMLAB and SIMSCRIPF II.5 or Micro Dynamo permit systems modeling. Environments can be described as objects and relationships as well as data. There are comprehensive personnel software such as SKOPS, Sectrum HR/2000, as well as more limited applications such as HRPRP (a data base management system), JOB TRAK (succession planning), SUPER PROJECT (project management), CHAPS (affirmative action planning), etc.

Notes

(1.) O. Hall and H. Adelman, Computerized Business Statistics (Richard D. Irwin, 1987). (2.) W. Erickson and O. Hall, Computer Models for Management Science 2nd ed. (Addison Wesley Publishing Co., 1985). (3.) T. Dennis and L. Dennis, Microcomputer Models for Management Science (West Publishing Co., 1985). (4.) G. Siegel, "Gaming Simulation in the Teaching of Public Administration, "Public Personnel Management 7 (July/August 1977) 236-49. (5.) N. Beutell and R. Schuler, Personal Computer (PC) Projects for Personnel and Human Resources Management, 3rd et., (West Publishing Co., 1987). (6.) G. Garson, "The Job Skills Data Bank: A Microcomputer Simulation in Public Personnel Administration," Review of Public Personnel Administration 6 (Spring 1986): 72-7. (7.) G. Siegel, "Building a Local Government Management Gaming Simulation." In Elliott, J., et.al., eds. Proceedings. Fourteenth Annual NASAGA Conference, October 23-25,:420-30.

Gilbert B. Siegel is Associate Dean and Professor, School of Public Administration, University of Southern California. He has taught, consulted, and published extensively in the public personnel field. He has also taught at the University of Pittsburgh where he received his Ph.D. in Political Science. In addition, he has had administrative experience with the Country of Los Angeles, California.

James R. Marshall is President of the CREDR Corporation, a management training and consulting firm. He has been developing a computerized comprehensive personnel management system with many automated features. He has consulted and trained extensively, has been a corporate director of human resources development, and university professor. He currently hold adjunct professor status at several institutions. He received his D.P.A. from the University of Southern California.