Week 9 Assignment
A. Harold
PAD 500
6/11/11

Explain both the Pendleton Act and the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act established the Civil Service Commission, which placed most federal government employees on the merit system and marked the end of the so-called spoils system. The act provided for some government jobs to be filled on the basis of competitive exams. The Pendleton Act served as a response to President James Garfield's assassination by Charles Julius Guiteau. The Act was passed into law on January 16, 1883. The Act was sponsored by Senator George H. Pendleton, Democrat of Ohio, and written by Dorman Bridgeman Eaton, a staunch opponent of the patronage system who was later first chairman of the United States Civil service Commission (Theriault, 2003, p.56). The Pendleton Act was primarily an effort to eliminate political influence from administrative agencies and, secondarily, an effort to assure more competent government employees. It pursued these aims through the following major provisions: 1. A bipartisan commission called the U.S. Civil Service Commission was created within the executive branch to establish and implement personnel rules and procedures for the federal government. 2. Open and competitive examinations to test job-related skills were developed wherever practical within the agencies covered by the law and were to become the primary basis upon which to make hiring decisions. 3. Employees were given protection against political pressures, such as assessments or “required” participation in political campaign contributions. 4. Lateral entry into government positions was encouraged. Lateral entry refers to entry at any level as opposed to entry only at the beginning level. 5. Positions in Washington offices were to be apportioned among the various states, in an effort to provide geographical representation in the civil service. 6. The president was given the authority to extend coverage to other groups of government employees beyond the approximately 10 percent of federal employees covered by the act ( Denhardt & Denhardt, 2010, p.288).

One result was more expertise and less politics. An unintended result was the shift of the parties to reliance on funding from business, since they could no longer depend on patronage hopefuls. The act also prohibits soliciting campaign donations on Federal government property. President Carter proposed the Civil Service Reform Act to “restore the merit principle to a system which has grown into a bureaucratic maze.” The Act sought to deal with the often contradictory roles of the Civil Service Commission by creating a new Office of Personnel Management responsible for policy leadership and a Merit Systems protection Board to handle investigations and appeals( Denhardt & Denhardt, 2010, p.290-91). Beyond establishing the two new agencies, perhaps the most striking feature of the Civil Service Reform Act was the creation of the Senior Executive Service, or SES. The SES created a separate personnel system for the highest-ranking civil service officials, permitting greater flexibility in assignments and establishing a new system of incentives for top-level managers. The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 abolished the U.S. Civil Service Commission and distributes its functions primarily among three agencies: the newly established Office of Personnel Management, the Merit Systems Protection Board, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) (“Civil Service”, 1978). The EEOC assumed responsibility for enforcing anti-discrimination laws applicable to the civilian federal workforce as well as coordinating all federal equal employment opportunity programs. Under the "rank-in-the-person" provision of the act, agency heads can move career senior executives into any position for which they are qualified. One provision of the act was the abolishment of the United States Civil Service Commission and the creation of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) and the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). OPM primarily provides management guidance to the various agencies of the executive branch and issues regulations that control federal human resources. FLRA oversees the rights of federal employees to form collective bargaining units (unions) and to engage in collective bargaining with agencies. MSPB conducts studies of the federal civil service and mainly hears the appeals of federal employees who are disciplined or otherwise separated from their positions. This act was an effort to replace incompetent officials.
List the steps in recruiting for a government position. A clearly defined recruitment process is key to successfully filling a position. The recruitment and selection process in government activities should reflect efficiency and effectiveness in the hiring process. According to Denhardt and Denhardt (2010), the recruitment efforts in the public sector must also be concerned with assuring fairness, openness, and representativeness (p. 296). The recruitment process involves the following steps: 1. Advertising or giving notice of a vacancy to be filled 2. Testing or otherwise screen applicants 3. Preparing a list of qualified candidates 4. Selecting someone to fill the position (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2010, p.296).
Identify methods of testing and screening applicants.
According to Denhardt and Denhardt (2010), screening can occur through: • a review of written applications and recommendations, • aptitude or ability tests that public organizations use, • general knowledge, • personality characteristics • specific job-related knowledge or abilities. • performance examinations, such as typing tests, measure specific job capabilities( p.296). The method of testing should relate to the job to be filled. These methods include: • Structured interviews- previously developed set of questions is used with each applicant. • Panel interviews- involve more than one interviewer • Assessment centers-puts job applicants through a series of job-related simulations to observe their performance under “real-life” conditions (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2010, p.296).
Discuss equal opportunity regulations, discrimination, and affirmative action.
Equal opportunity regulations and affirmative action focus is to correct patterns of discrimination hiring and treatment of women and minorities. Equal employment opportunity refers to efforts to eliminate employment discrimination on the basis of race, ethnic background, sex, age, or physical handicap. It simply seeks to ensure that all persons have an equal chance to compete for and hold positions of employment based on their job qualifications. Affirmative action, on the other hand, involves the use of “positive, results-oriented practices to ensure that women, minorities, handicapped persons, and other protected classes of people will be equitably represented in the organization” (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2010, p.311). The legal status of affirmative action was solidified by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This landmark legislation prohibited discrimination in voting, public education and accommodations, and employment in firms with more than fifteen employees. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act banned employment discrimination in areas such as selection, promotion, and training based on race, national origin, sex, or religion and created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate complaints of discrimination in the private sector (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2010, p.311). The coverage was extended to the public sector when it was amended in 1972. In 1972 the act was amended through the Equal Employment Opportunity Act to extend coverage to all public-sector employees (at federal, state, and local levels) and to provide for stronger actions, including filing suits against those who did not comply with the act (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2010, p.311-312).
The coverage was later extended to women. According to Denhardt and Denhardt (2010), President Johnson’s Executive Order 11375 later added women to the list of protected groups and specified requirements for affirmative action plans (p. 312). In the 1990’s disabled individuals were added to the protected class. In 1990, the American with Disabilities Act was passed. The Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, prohibits discrimination against 43 million Americans who live with some type of disability. The ADA prohibits employers of 25 or more persons from discriminating against people with disabilities who can satisfactorily meet the expectations of the job they hold or seek, with or without reasonable accommodation. With respect to public service, the ADA prohibits excluding a person from participating in programs or activities of a public entity or denying an individual benefit of it service. A public entity is defined to include not only the federal government but any part of state or local government (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2010, p. 313).
Discuss components of the bargaining process. Bargaining is the process of negotiating from a competitive orientation to maximize your outcomes. The first and major steps in the bargaining process are recognizing the union’s right to exist, determining the type of bargaining permitted, and determining the scope of bargaining (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2010, p.307). The components of the bargaining process include: 1. Determining bargaining units- Organizers who wish to represents employees petition the administrative authority to establish bargaining units that will represent the employees in conferring or negotiating various issues. (The decision to include or exclude certain groups in the bargaining unit is called unit determination.) The units can be recognized based on agency (Department of Social Services or Department of Mental Health) or occupational class (nurses, custodians, or security officers. 2. Determining coordination methods- some mechanism must be established to ensure coordination among the various groups to prevent whipsaw tactics (arguing that pay or benefits negotiated by one group should apply to others as well). 3. Determining inclusion and exclusion- drawing the line between managers and workers. 4. Determining recognition- the administrative authority may either voluntarily recognize a particular union, essentially by petition, as representing a group employees, or it may conduct an election to determine which, if any, union will represent the employees. 5. Determining representation- once recognized, it is usually granted exclusive representation of employees in the unit, including the ability to bargain on all issues required or permitted by law (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2010, p.307-308).
Bargaining involves a good faith effort to reach an agreement or compromise. However, when an agreement cannot be reached, then the issue can be resolved through: mediation, fact-finding, and arbitration.
Describe the components of effective listening. Listening is effective when the receiver understands the sender’s message as intended (Hellriegel & Solcum, 2010, p. 264). Effective listening requires both deliberate efforts and a keen mind. Effective listeners appreciate flow of new ideas and information. Effective listening promotes organizational relationships, encourages product delivery and innovation, as well as helps organization to deal with the diversity in employees and customers it serves. To improve your communication skills, you must learn to listen effectively. Effective listening gives you an advantage and makes you more impressive when you speak. According to Denhardt and Denhardt (2010), the principles of effective listening are: 1. Have a reason or purpose- this provides motivation to listen, and , generally speaking, you will do things you are motivated to do better than if you are not motivated.

2. Suspend judgment initially-you should wait until you hear the entire message before you can begin the evaluation.

3. Resist Distractions- the “distraction” principle tells us to fight back, to actively resist whatever may be distracting us by increasing concentration.

4. Wait before responding- the “response” principle suggests that one relax and wait for natural opportunities to speak instead of jumping into the conversation immediately.

5. Rephrase what you listen to in your own words- the “rephrasing” principle takes something you hear and put it into your own words. You then repeat it to the person who gave you the information and ask if that is what was meant.

6. Seek the important themes- the “thematic” principle indicates the main ideas are more important than facts, so important that they are the general keys to understanding and retaining what is said.

7. Use the thinking-speaking differential to reflect and find meaning- People think faster than they speak; we normally think more than three times faster than we speak. This differential creates an opportunity to listen more effectively or be distracted (p. 334-339).

Explain the six rules for effective managerial writing. Effective writing involves careful choice of words, their organization in correct order in sentences formation as well as cohesive composition of sentences. Sussman and Deep (1984) (as cited in Denhardt and Denhardt, 2010) offers six rules for effective managerial writing that they call the “Six C’s)” 1. Clarity- implies emphasizing on a specific message or goal at a time, rather than trying to achieve too much at once. Clarity in communication has following features: • It makes understanding easier. • Complete clarity of thoughts and ideas enhances the meaning of message. • Clear message makes use of exact, appropriate and concrete words. • One must put oneself in the reader’s position • Write in active voice

2. Courtesy- implies the message should show the sender’s expression as well as should respect the receiver. The sender of the message should be sincerely polite, judicious, reflective and enthusiastic. Courteous message has following features: • Courtesy implies taking into consideration both viewpoints as well as feelings of the receiver of the message. • Courteous message is positive and focused at the audience. • It makes use of terms showing respect for the receiver of message. • It is not at all biased.

3. Conciseness-the rule of brevity: Be short and to the point. Conciseness is a necessity for effective communication. Concise communication has following features: • It is both time-saving as well as cost-saving. • It underlines and highlights the main message as it avoids using excessive and needless words. • Concise communication provides short and essential message in limited words to the audience. • Concise message is more appealing and comprehensible to the audience. • Concise message is non-repetitive in nature

4. Confidence- Always write with confidence. Confidence is really a matter of the writer’s judgment, based on one’s knowledge of one’s readers.

5. Correctness- Correctness in communication implies that there are no grammatical errors in communication. Correct communication has following features: • The message is exact, correct and well-timed. • If the communication is correct, it boosts up the confidence level. • Correct message has greater impact on the audience/ readers. • It checks for the precision and accurateness of facts and figures used in the message. • It makes use of appropriate and correct language in the message.

6. Conversational tone- • Write the way you talk • Imagine one specific person to whom you are writing (p. 338-339).

Discuss how managers can use motivation and delegation. Delegation is the process of assigning tasks to others. To delegate well, you need to try to delegate equal amount of authority and responsibility for a job. Authority is the legitimate power to do the job, and responsibility is the accountability the individual has to you for getting the job done ( Denhardt & Denhardt, 2010, p. 340). It’s about being genuine in your desire to expand your staff’s participation in decision making and giving them the necessary authority to do the job properly (Volpe & Bloom, 2011, p. 35). Getting work done through others is central to the director’s leadership role. Good leaders, those who have refined the art of delegating, challenge staff with assignments that match their mental and physical capabilities. The benefits of delegating are multifold: delegation stretches people and provides job enrichment for staff; it makes them a more integral part of the center’s organization; it builds a more unified team spirit; and it forces directors to be more organized. The bonus for you, the director, is that when decision-making functions are shared, staff gain a greater appreciation for and insight into the dimensions of your administrative role (Volpe & Bloom, 2011, p. 36).

Motivation pertains to the reason that people do something. It is not directly observable, and reports of motivation may not reflect ‘‘true’’ motivation. In the tradition of principal-agent theory, motivation is inferred by revealed behavior. For example, if more pay leads employees to work harder, then the inference is that money is an extrinsic ‘‘motivator’’ or reward. If more control over their work leads employees to work harder, then the inference is that discretion is an intrinsic ‘‘motivator’’ or reward (Langbein, 2009, p. 96). Employees in public agencies work in a constantly changing political environment that is characterized sometimes by unclear goals. Motivators for public employees may be different than in private companies. Moreover, the author found in his study of public employees in New Jersey that people who work in public and nonprofit organizations tend to seek more than financial incentives: “If a public-sector employee is committed to his or her supervisor, he or she is more likely to remain with the agency and make an extra effort on behalf of the organization. In other words, a major motivating factor is not monetary reward, but an effective personal relationship among employees” (Lee, 2001, p.3). Pay-for-performance may boost some forms of productivity, but it shouldn’t be viewed as a building block for a truly high impact organization (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2010, p.344-45).

Effective goal setting provides motivation for individuals to achieve high performance. Difficult goals affect motivation and performance by: • Encouraging individuals to develop action programs to reach these goals, • Focusing individual’s attention on these goal-relevant actions, • Causing individuals to exert the effort necessary to achieve the goals, and • Spurring individuals to persist in the face of obstacles (Hellriegel and Slocum, 2011, p203).

Performance can be described as outcomes or results of the meeting the goals. To be effective they must: directly reinforce the desired behavior, given immediately, delivered personally, and valued by the individual. Managers would benefit from delegation by developing employees to make them more valuable and giving them the ability to promote with the department or to another agency.
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of group decision making. A group is any number of people who share goals, often communicate with one another over a period of time, and are few enough so that each individual may communicate with all the others, person to person (Hellriegel and Slocum, 2011, p. 348). An advantage to ggroup decision making is the process in which multiple individuals acting collectively, analyze problems or situations, consider and evaluate alternative courses of action, and select from among the alternatives a solution or solutions. Group decision-making can take advantage of the diverse strengths and expertise of its members. By tapping the unique qualities of group members, it is possible that the group can generate a greater number of alternatives that are of higher quality than the individual. If a greater number of higher quality alternatives are generated, then it is likely that the group will eventually reach a superior problem solution than the individual. Group decision-making may also lead to a greater collective understanding of the eventual course of action chosen, since it is possible that many affected by the decision implementation actually had input into the decision. This may promote a sense of ownership of the decision, which is likely to contribute to a greater acceptance of the course of action selected and greater commitment on the part of the affected individuals to make the course of action successful. The final step in the decision-making process is always implementation. If the people who make the decision are the ones who will be implementing it, commitment to the decision should help with implementation. Research also reveals that satisfaction with the group and its processes increases as the networks become more centralized (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2010, p. 349).

There are many potential disadvantages to group decision-making. Groups are generally slower to arrive at decisions than individuals, so sometimes it is difficult to utilize them in situations where decisions must be made very quickly. One of the obvious constraints on human beings that results in our “bounded rationality” is the constraint of time. Time is not only limits the efforts of individual decision makers to acquire and process information, but it also limits the possibilities for groups to make decisions. Normally, it takes a group much longer to make a decision that it takes an individual to make a decision about the same problem (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2010, p.350).

Cost is another disadvantage of group decisions. Even if a group decision making and individual decision making were equally fast, the group is still more expensive (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2010, p.350). One of the most often cited problems is groupthink. Groupthink occurs when individuals in a group feel pressure to conform to what seems to be the dominant view in the group. Dissenting views of the majority opinion are suppressed and alternative courses of action are not fully explored. The characteristics of groupthink are: • Illusion of invulnerability- shared by most or all team members, this creates excessive optimism and encourages extreme risk taking. • Collective rationalization- discounts warnings that might lead the members to reconsider their assumptions before committing themselves to major policy decision. • Belief in inherent morality of the team- this leads members to ignore the ethical or moral consequences of their decisions. • Stereotypical views- of rivals and enemies (other groups) picture them as too evil to warrant genuine attempts to negotiator too weak or stupid to counter whatever attempts are made to defeat their purpose. • Direct pressure on dissenters- makes clear that disagreement with the group is contrary to what is expected of all loyal members. • Self-censorship- members minimize their importance of their doubts. • Illusion of unanimity- meaning silence implies consent. • Self-appointed “mind guards”- members serves to protect team from adverse information that might shatter the shared complacency about the effectiveness and morality of their decisions (Hellriegel and Slocum, 2011, p374-375). .

List steps for effective negotiations.

Negotiation is the process in which two or more interdependent individuals or groups who perceive that they have both common and conflicting goals states and discuss proposals and preferences for specific terms of a possible agreement (Hellriegel & Solcum, 2011, p. 395). Negotiation can be used to avoid conflicts and decide something which would benefit all. Individuals negotiate with each other and try to reach to a solution satisfying all. Negotiation is not possible unless and until individuals learn to compromise to some extent and stop finding faults in each other. According to Denhardt and Denhardt (2010), the following are guidelines for successful negotiations: 1. Separate the people from the problem. 2. Focus on interests, not positions. 3. Generate a variety of possibilities before deciding what to do. 4. Insist that the result will be based on some objective standard (p. 357).

The guidelines for effective negotiations are also considered principled negotiations. A variety of principles and actions are recommended for successful integrative (win-win) negotiations. Principled negotiations refer to the prescribed ways in which the parties should negotiate to resolve disputes. It suggests that how the negotiation is accomplished may be as important as what they are negotiating about to achieve mutually satisfactory outcomes (Hellriegel & Solcum, 2011, p.397).

References
Civil Service Reform of 1978 (1978 October 13). In Wikipedia online. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Service_Reform_Act_of_1978.
Denhardt, R.B., & Denhardt, J.V. (2010). Public administration: An action orientation 2010 custom edition (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thompson/ Wadsworth.
Hellriegel, D., & Slocum, J. W., Jr. (2011). Organizational behavior: 2011 custom edition (13th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Langbein, L. (2009). Controlling Federal Agencies: The Contingent Impact of External Controls on Worker Discretion and Productivity. International Public Management Journal, 12(1), 82-115. doi:10.1080/10967490802649551.
Theriault, S. M. (2003). Patronage, the Pendleton Act, and the Power of the People. Journal of Politics, 65(1), 50-68. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Volpe, B., & Bloom, P. (2011). Dare to delegate. Exchange (01648527), (197), 34-36. Retrieved

from EBSCOhost.