Republic of the Philippines

Polytechnic University of the Philippines

Sta. Mesa, Manila

MIDTERM EXAMINATION
Public Personnel Administration
PUAD20053

Sano, Maria Teresa C.

BPA 2-3
 “Public personnel administration is the establishment and application of policies and procedures
for the procurement, deployment and maintenance of a public organization's work force” (Siegel & Myrtle,
1985). In today’s times, public personnel public administration is facing issues as they deal with many
factors- political, social and economic that impact both civil servants and the public. Personal
administration is also popularly known as Human Resources Management. Much as the citizens of a nation
are all their own, in the same way the workers (employees) are for the company to make it effective. In
similar with what the Florida Institute of Technology is saying about how does public administration move,
personnel public administrators must also think “outside the box” and make innovative strategies to manage
processes and the people that are responsible in an organization to address issues stated above. With the
use of emerging technologies and choosing right people who are informed and aware of shifts in this field,
government can possibly provide knowledge, formulate laws and manage processes in governing the civil
servants. This paper is giving insights on the future of public personnel administration in the Philippine,
what does an ordinary civil servant expects from the government and vice versa.

Personnel are to perform line and staff functions, line functions refer to those activities related to
the primary activity of the organization, while the staff functions are those which facilitate and assist the
performance of line work. Like staff perform the functions of processing and supplying required number
of personnel and training and development of personnel whereas those personnel perform the field and
executory works of the organizations goals and objectives.
Personnel administration also includes all those activities and functions relating to policy formulation,
planning, policy implementation, social change and modernization, administrative reforms and public
relations in an organization. The Government is the employer of all the agencies in the Philippines. Public
service makes the state visible to its citizens, often forming the main tangible link between governments
and their people. Public services promote and disseminate the values of the new nations and contribute to
the bond between the state and citizens.

The role of Public Personnel Administration and Management is responsible for keeping order
within a certain range and serving the needs of the public. The goal is to direct, guide and control citizens'
actions in order to optimize public interest, through the influence of various structures and relations. In
terms of politics, it can apply to government, which relates to the democratic administration mechanism
including the regulatory basis of political power, legislative approaches and human services management.
It focuses in particular on the role of political authority in upholding social order and the exercise of
administrative control in a specific area.
 Civil servants play a central role in the policy formation process. Policy ideas may originate from
politicians whose election platform might have included a promise to address a particular issue, or from
civil servants who point to the issue as requiring action. Once the political decision is made to pursue an
issue, civil servants begin discussing how the executive’s policy goals can be achieved. Civil servants play
a role in shaping policy at multiple points in the policy making process. They act strategically to achieve
public policy goals. The process of framing policy options provides civil servants with an opportunity to
guide the design of a particular policy, even when the political executive has specific policy goals.

One of many things I see as the future of public personnel administration is the manifestation of
public policy. Public Policy refers to a system of courses of action, regulatory measures, laws, and funding
priorities concerning to a given topic promulgated by the government. Sabatier, (1999) stated that “public
policy making process includes the manner in which problems get conceptualized and brought to the
government for solution; governmental institutions formulate alternatives and select policy solutions., and
these solutions get implemented, evaluated and revised.”

Constructed policy is a fruit of good policy-making process. A policy should be evidence-based as

a concrete consideration of the social basis. Government should lean on the voice of the minority in order
to hear their earnest requests. “Evidence-based policy making helps people to make well-informed
decisions about policies, programs and projects by placing the best available evidence from research at the
heart of policy development and implementation.” (King’s College London). Evidence-based policy often
makes clear what is understood by empirical evidence and most significantly, what it is in the unknown.
Additionally, this type of policy-making stood experimental evaluations and will show effectiveness
supported by data and studies. This is also the very reason why research is important in the Philippine
government, contradicting to the fact that Sen. Cynthia Villar is saying.

A failure to consult the people who will be affected by the policy (that the government is planning
to make) may result to a bad policy development. Moreover, lack of communication between persons (or
agencies) who are involved in the formulation of policy will cause confusion in its process and management.

Making sure everyone is on the same path is a sign of a developing leadership. This is a benefit of
transparency in public personnel administration. As what I have stated above, government is the central
employer in the personnel administration. It is a nature to expect worst when information is being withheld
to the public. People are craving for information, and if the government is not providing it, the gap between
may result to government’s control over the message and keep the public blind. "Transparency" is the
government's responsibility to share information with citizens needed to make informed decisions and also
to hold officials accountable for the actions of the people's business. In a democratic society, accountability
is the responsibility of the government to exchange knowledge with people. It's at the core of how people
keep their elected officials accountable. Governments are there to represent the people. Information about
how public servants perform public business and invest taxpayers' money must be readily accessible and
easily understood. This transparency enables good and just governance. Transparency builds public trust.
People deserve to see the truth to abide their thoughts on how to participate with the government.

Accountability is a kind of obligation relating to who, what and what is liable, that is understood
to be the duty for a trust holder to make his actions accountable, present and report to the trust-giver, who
is responsible, allowed to keep the accountability. Civil servants and Filipino people demand for
accountability and urgency because of one thing: we deserve those things. This is a call for action that
government should not only lean to the resiliency of the Filipinos. Accountability basically provides a very
important role in creating a good governance activity as a part of improving public confidence in
government performance.

“Working in government is different because we are not only looking out for ourselves or for
our organization. Our focus is delivering services for the benefit of our main clientele—the Filipino
people. We are primarily here to serve, and not to be served”, CSC Chairman Francisco T. Duque III,
(2014). “Public office is a public trust” means enable you to exercise allegiance over private interest
to the Constitution, rules, and ethical values. You do not have commercial interests that contradict the
diligent exercise of your duties. In relation to personal interests, the public trust doctrine allows a public
agent to promote the public interest. It again poses the topic of how to assess the public interest, or
whether it should be correctly said.

E-Government refers to the use of ICT to provide government services to people and businesses
more effectively and efficiently. It is the implementation of ICT in government activities, the achievement
of public goals by digital means. The underlying concept of e-government, backed by an appropriate
institutional structure for e-governance, is to enhance the internal functioning of the public sector by
reducing financial costs and processing times in order to better integrate workflows and processes and allow
the efficient use of resources across the various public sector agencies with a view to seeking sustainable
solutions. Through innovation and e-government, personnel public management can be more efficient,
provide better services, respond to the demands of citizens for transparency and accountability, be more
inclusive and thus restore the trust of citizens in their governments.

Electronic government includes all functions and operations of the government, formed by
information and communication technologies (ICTs). Beyond the analogies of e-commerce, it comprises
four domains of governance and public management: the social and economic programs of the state; its
relationship with the citizen and the rule of law (e-democracy), its internal operations and its connection
with the international context. E-government builds on three evolving forces: technology, management
concepts and government itself. Digital technologies can make a significant contribution to areas such as
online transactions, government subsidies transfers and procurement to improve efficiency and productivity
in government and public sector units.

E-Government is to encompass the reform in public management through the improvement of

service delivery to the citizen, the creation of economic activity and the safeguarding of democracy. It must
be oriented towards the citizen. As the citizen does not need to be aware of who exactly in the government
provides the required service, inter-agency and intergovernmental e-governance dimensions are essential.
E-government generated phenomena which became characteristics of an atmosphere for a redefined public
sector. These involve the rise of 'private societies' as well as more conventional entities explicitly connected
to e-government. E-Government has developed its own organizational ethos, one of which is international
benchmarking.

E-government have a huge effect on government management and reform the public service
climate, introducing new ideas and methods and adjustments in relative weight and ties between existing
public administration components. The reforms are happening only as for the government as a whole, and
it is impossible to foresee where they will lead. The presence of information as a core resource of
government needing its own rules, legislation and structures, is a feature of public administration in e-
government contexts. While data keeping and reporting were still a crucial part of government, only with
the advent of e-government were government information assets considered to be as important as the
conventional focus of government financial and human resources. A feature of government records
processing is that the concept long used by archivists should be considered in terms of the life cycle.

For one reason the data collected can be replicated and the storing of information in electronic
libraries opens up considerable options for information-sharing and new information and knowledge
development, as well as for relevant queries. This information can be stored as individual data components,
as data combinations to promote judgments and as cumulative experience and wisdom through application
of judgment.

Gathering confidential personal and company information requires mutual responsibilities among
the vendors to be truthful and full on what they report to government and government in order to ensure
that the information is properly handled and properly managed. The sensitivity of government-generated
and gathered information is also at the core of security approaches, both to information itself and eventually
to the state and society.
 Technology aims at making life more convenient and improving the quality of life by introducing
new methods and approach to service delivery. A development-=oriented public administration has to
consider as major concerns, productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, accountability, budgetary deficits and
unstable economy, among others. It must address the problems of poverty, ecology, social justice,
inequality, and disproportionate distribution of the goods in the society and power among civil servants.

According to the Indian Institute of Personnel Management, “Personnel management aims to

achieve both efficiency and justice, neither of which can be pursued successfully without the other.” Also,
it attempts to get the men and women who make up a business together to grow and to contribute best to
their growth, both as an individual and a member of a working group. It strives for a prosperous
organization.

Personnel management aims to ensure fair working practices for workers and job satisfaction.
However, manpower (raw labor or people who are able to do work) itself does not contribute to the
success/development of the organization. It has to be converted into human resources through systematic
planning, adequate training and proper education. Human resource is converted to human capital through
adequate administration and human resources are the most important and valuable asset and part of an
organization as over time their value never depreciates, in fact it only increases with the passage of time
unlike other assets and resources of an organization. Adequate usage of human resources/personnel
automatically ensures optimum utilization of financial, physical and technological resources.

With the advent of democratic institutions and the welfare state, government and corporate tasks
are on a steep rise, and so there is an increased demand for workers at all levels in terms of the efficient
performance of their duties, and it is the duty of the Personnel Administration Department to ensure that
this demand is met at the right time with the required candidates. Personnel function is concerned with the
procurement, development, compensation, integration and maintenance of the personnel and their inter-
relationships in an organization for the purpose of contributing toward the accomplishment of that
organization’s major goals and objectives.

As a result, the Personnel Administration that deals with recruiting, placement, training,
disciplinary procedures, curbing nepotism and favoritism, monetary and non-monetary compensation and
retirement benefits for workers within the company, as well as dealing with the complexities of staff
relations within the organization, as well as supporting senior management to negotiate with trade unions.
Personnel Administration is affected by the socio-economic-political environment as well. For example, in
the era of welfare and developmental programs, personnel/employees are now expected to be more
efficient, effective, sympathetic and competent. People's involvement in administration is also increasing
via Non-Government Organizations, NPOs, Civil Society and other policies and programs of the
government.

Thus, we can see that without effective management/management of staff or, more popularly, as
Human Resources Management leads to Human Resources/Personal Growth, it is difficult to achieve
organizational objectives and to become a profitable organization. Principles of public personnel
administration are universal but their applicability relevance may yet be conditioned by the physical and
social environment. The need for effective structures to resolve the issues is being introduced to a complex
turbulent world in which social, economic and political challenges escalate and demands for society
increases faster than the ability of sources available to support government and, in particular, the
administration for the execution of policies and initiatives and programs. These discussions are served with
evidences and answers on how the government look upon the situation of civil servants, and most
importantly, to the public.
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