PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATION

UNIT-1
PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATION
 Contents

– Introduction
• Meaning and Nature and scope of Personnel
Administration
• Bureaucracy
• Types of Bureaucracy
• Weber; an model of Bureaucracy
• Merits and Maladies of Bureaucracy.
 INTRODUCTION
• Personnel Administration is an important area in the
study of Public Administration.
• It is called by different names such as Personnel
Management, Manpower Management, Labour
Management, Labour Relations, Industrial Relations,
Employees Relations, Human Resource Management,
etc. this study of Personnel Administration became
popular from 1930s.
• Let us discuss in this lesson the meaning nature scope
of Public Personnel Administration.
 Meaning of Personnel Administration

• 'Personnel' refers to employees in an organization; it includes all levels of

employees (superiors and subordinates). 
• This Course is about  'Public Personnel Administration' - i.e. the
management of employees in the public (government) sector. It must be
noted that 'Personnel Administration' is now commonly known as 'Human
Resource(s) Management' (HRM).
• Personnel Administration is concerned with the proper use of human
resources in an organization. It focuses on such areas like recruitment,
training, promotion, transfer, conduct, discipline, morale, motivation,
retirement and retirement benefits, etc.
• O.Glenn Stahl, says that Personnel Administration is an attitude
compounded of understanding both the forces which shape manpower
needs, supply and problems and at the same time the importance of human
will and personality.
• Personnel administration is that part of administration which is
concerned with people at work and with their relationships
within an organisation.
• It refers to the entire spectrum of an organisation's interaction
with its human resources from recruitment activity to retirement
process.
• It involves personnel planning and forecasting, appraising human
performance, selection and staffing, training and development
and maintenance and improvement of performance and
productivity.
• Personnel administration is closely related to an organisation's
overall effectiveness.
 Nature of Personnel Administration

• Personnel function is crucial in any administrative organization. The

organization cannot afford to ignore it.
• Hence it becomes a basic responsibility of the management, be in the
government or in semi or non-government organizations.
• The change in the socio-economic environment has its effect on
management.
• The management environment keeps changing due to the changes that occur
in the total socio-economic environment. The political environment also
affects the work environment in an organization.
• Such changes get reflected in personnel administration.
• These changes can be changing mix of the personnel entering government
service organization; changing values of personnel; increasing expectations of
the government from their employees, and increasing expectations of the
people from the government at different levels.
 Scope of Personnel Administration
• Personnel administration incorporates all aspects of management of persons in
organization.
• The primary objective of personnel administration, as we have read earlier in the
unit is to ensure effective utilization of human resources in pursuit of
organizational goals.
• The personnel administration departments should design and establish an
effective working relationship among all the members of an organization by
division of organizational tasks into jobs defining clearly the responsibility and
authority for each job and its relation with other jobs in the organization.
• Personnel administration must try to enthuse among the employees feelings of
commitment, involvement and loyalty to the organization.
• The aim is to establish cordial relations among the employees and do away with
frictional situations arising out of personal jealousies, rivalries and prejudices.
• Personnel administration also has to curb unfavorable practices like favoritism
and nepotism in an organization.
 Bureaucracy
• Bureaucracy, specific form of organization defined by complexity,
division of labour, permanence, professional management, hierarchical
coordination and control, strict chain of command, and legal authority.
• It is distinguished from informal and collegial organizations.
• In its ideal form, bureaucracy is impersonal and rational and based on
rules rather than ties of kinship, friendship, or patrimonial
or charismatic authority. 
• Bureaucratic organization can be found in both public and private
institutions.
• A system of administration characterized by expertness, impartiality and
absence of humanity”. -Max Weber
• “A systematic organization of tasks and individuals into a pattern which
can most effectively achieve the ends of collective efforts”. -J.M.Pfiffner
 Types of Bureaucracy
• Guardian Bureaucracy: ---Dedicated to general welfare
---Acts as a champion of justice ---Custodian of
community’s welfare.
• Caste Bureaucracy: ---Higher administrative positions given
to individuals from a specific social background. ---During
Mauryan period, senior government positions were given
mostly to brahmins.
• Patronage Bureaucracy: ---Public appointments are made
on the basis of personal favour or as political rewards.
• Merit Bureaucracy: ---Appointed on the basis of merit
through competitive examination. ---Most countries
practice this type.
 Weber; a model of Bureaucracy
• Max Weber, a German scientist, defines bureaucracy as a highly structured,
formalized, and also an impersonal organization.
• In his 1922 masterpiece, Economy and Society, Weber described many ideal
types of public administration and governance.
• His critical study of the bureaucratization of society was one of the most
enduring parts of this work.
• It was Weber who began the study of bureaucracy and whose works led to
the popularization of this term.
• Many aspects of modern public administration date back to him. This is
epitomized in the fact that a classic, hierarchically-organized civil service is
still called a “Weberian civil service. ”
• He also instituted the belief that an organization must have a defined
hierarchical structure and clear rules, regulations, and lines
of authority which govern it.
Major principles of Max Weber’s bureaucratic
form
• A formal hierarchical structure
• Rules-based Management
• Functional Specialty organization
• Up-focused or In-focused Mission
• Impersonal
• Employment-based on Technical Qualifications
 Merits of Bureaucracy
• There are clearly defined duties and responsibilities for each of the jobs so that there
is no conflict of duties and was up in jobs with each other.
• Workers become experts because of the division of labor and duties, and
their performance is improved considerably, which becomes helpful for the
bureaucratic organization to provide an improved output.
• A greater amount of consistency is seen in the employees of a bureaucratic
organization because of the rules and procedures which are pre-decided for every
work. The employees are made to follow the rules set by the organization, and the
authority is, which also makes the management process pretty easy.
• Merit is the primary criteria considered while the selection process and also during
the promotion so that the right person is put on the right job, which also helps in the
utilization of optimum human resources. This avoids conflict between the employees
and makes your organization doesn’t orient rather than relationship-oriented.
• Employee turnover of an does not affect the organization because another person
replaces when one person leaves the work, and overall, the work suffers less.
 Demerits of Bureaucracy
• It is found that bureaucratic employees do not have a feeling of
belongingness towards their organization. Because of the constant
turnover of the employees, they might have that this feeling.
• There is a lot of paperwork and red tape, which is the primary
criticizing point of every bureaucratic organization.
• Employees are seen often to resist change in the introduction of
new technology because they have become used to the system.
• The employees of the organization resign excessively on the set
regulations and rules, and because of these policies, the growth of the
employees is inhibited.
• This also makes the employees feel like machines and
not individuals because of which there is neglect in the human factor.
THANKS