ABSTRACT
Public personnel has evolved into a field with complex functions and responsibilities, and with it, has adopted new titles to symbolize changes in philosophy and mission. This chapter briefly reviews the nature of these changes and the core functions of contemporary public personnel practice. These core functions are the subjects typically covered in greater depth in personnel and human resources texts. The chapter provides a constitutional framework for understanding the dynamics of public human resources practices. It argues that framework can help administrators cope more effectively with the underlying tensions and conflicts that pervade public personnel practices. Recruiting for public jobs in a democracy requires standards of openness, fair consideration, and equal opportunity that can draw out the length of the process considerably. Planning for human resource needs in public agencies is made difficult by the diffusion of authority among the political branches at all levels of government.
