ABSTRACT
The heart of any government agency, or any organization for that matter, is its personnel. How effectively an agency accomplishes its mission is heavily determined by the skill, determination, and morale of its employees. These are the central concerns of human resource management, a subfield of public administration sometimes known as “public personnel management.” The main job of the personnel administrator is to make sure that an agency has working for it the most capable people possible. This means not only hiring the best candidates for each job to begin with but also ensuring that the people who already work for any agency have the requisite knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform their jobs effectively. Thus, human resource management involves all of the following administrative processes: determining organizational needs, recruiting and hiring appropriate employees, evaluating performance, training and developing personnel, and disciplining and compensating employees. The exercises in Part III are designed to give you an opportunity to learn firsthand some of the techniques used by human resource managers. And, of course, this provides you with an opportunity to learn about getting hired and making the most of your employment.
