Personnel Management in Government: Politics and Process

With over 20 million people on its payroll, the government is the largest employer in the country. Managing people who do the nation’s work is of critical importance to politicians, government leaders, and citizens alike. Personnel Management in Government: Politics and Process, eighth edition, examines the progress and innovations that public personnel professionals are making to address changes in the political, legal, and managerial environment of government. It provides students with a comprehensive understanding of human resource management within its historical and political context in the public sector.

A number of new developments are addressed in the eighth edition, including discussion of:

• Human resource management in nonprofit organizations in an all-new, dedicated chapter
• Current and future challenges to recruitment and hiring, including the use of social media in recruitment
• Privatization and contracting out
• The rise of employment "at will" policies
• Digital technology or "digitalization" in HRM and the need to enhance cybersecurity
• Managing performance with human capital analytics
• Increased reliance on telework
• States’ attacks on public sector labor unions
• HRM changes under the Trump administration

Since publication of the first edition in 1977, Personnel Management in Government has addressed issues not yet considered mainstream, but that have proven central to the development of the field over time. This long-standing but no less innovative textbook is required reading for all students of public, government, and non-profit personnel management.

Norma M. Riccucci is Board of Governors Distinguished Professor at the School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers University, Newark, USA. She is the author and editor of several books in the areas of public human resource management and public management, including Public Personnel Management, sixth edition, winner of the SPALR section of ASPA’s 2018 Best Book Award. Professor Riccucci has received a number of national awards including the American Society of Public Administration’s Dwight Waldo Award for a lifelong contribution to public administration. She is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA).

Katherine C. Naff is Professor Emerita with San Francisco State University, Adjunct Professor at the University of San Francisco, and serves on the board of directors of La Raza Centro Legal, a nonprofit providing free and low-cost legal services to low-income seniors, workers, and immigrants in the Mission District of San Francisco. She is the author of five books.

Madinah F. Hamidullah is Associate Research Professor and Director of the Undergraduate Program at the School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers University, Newark, USA. She is the author of Managing the Next Generation of Public Workers (Routledge, 2016).