Review of Public Personnel Administration

As a result of court cases, Illinois state government and a number of local governments in Cook County have established nonpatronage staffing systems. An analysis of the impact of these staffing systems reveals that patronage has not been eliminated. It is still alive and well but has changed in significant ways. Although there have been positive impacts on staffing from nonpatronage systems, they tend to be overly centralized and bureaucratic. This causes time delays in filling vacant positions and requires additional time and paperwork on the part of hiring officials. Nonpatronage systems are not designed to attract the best and the brightest but rather to keep patronage-oriented applicants out. The author recommends that staffing systems be designed around a public service orientation to strike a balance between patronage and merit. Staffing such systems will de-emphasize centralized, bureaucratic antipatronage procedures in favor of more flexibility and accountability in the operating departments.

What factors explain the variation in number and types of family-friendly work-place policies implemented within public agencies? Is there any systematic attempt to measure the effectiveness of these programs? To what extent do these policies contribute to gender equality at work? To answer these questions, the authors surveyed all general and special purpose local governments in the state of Washington. They conclude that family-friendly workplace policies are adopted unevenly across local jurisdictions. Agency size, the presence of union representation, an agency’s adoption of a formal sexual harassment policy, and agency type account for much of the variance.

The value of conducting exit interviews and surveys (EIS) with public sector employees has been well documented and seems intuitively evident. Yet is the value of the information received through this technique worth the considerable investment in time and effort necessary to collect it? As a measure of accountability, this article introduces a method for determining the value of conducting EIS through the concept of return on investment (ROI). The advantages of employing an ROI analysis for EIS are fully explored, and a 7-step model for evaluating EIS through ROI is detailed.