ANNEXURE D - Learnership Agreement ANNEXURE E - Learnership Project Plan
2.7 PUBLIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
would be its national economic and fiscal policies and the level of skills initiatives (Schwella et al., 1996: 16).
2.6.1.4 Administrative Responsibility
Administrative responsibilities are values relevant to public administration.
There are various aspects but the most important ones are cited hereunder as follows:
• Responsiveness – governments ability to react by providing timeous solutions (Starling,1998: 153);
• Fairness – ensuring that justice and equality is upheld;
• Flexibility – a diverse society like South Africa requires endemic and society driven solutions;
• Honesty – administration’s obligation to provide and the public’s right to know the truth;
• Accountability – an organisation must be answerable to the society it serves, and public officials must bear responsibility for their actions;
• Competence – public resources such as its limited skills base ought to be dispensed and utilised optimally, and
• Professionalism – an application of and commitment to the highest standards of morality and service by all public resource managers (Schwella et al., 1996: 17).
The above discussion is by no means a comprehensive list of values that ought to guide the proper functioning of public resource management. They are mere broad outlines that play no small part in influencing the decision- making processes. This research centres on skills development which finds reference in human resource management, which is a key sub-component of the broader discourse of public administration.
utilise intellectual assets in the organisation in order to achieve their goals. In simple terms, management can use or direct the people employed by the organisation to contribute to the organisations goals and objectives (Marx, 1998: v). Public human resource management focuses on the people aspects of the public organisation and their role in optimally attaining the organisations policy goals and objectives (Schwella et al 1996: 6).
Henceforth the term ‘public human resource management’ and ‘public personnel management’ will be used interchangeably for the purposes of this study. However, the use of the term public personnel management in this context does not delimit the significance of the contemporary approach to public human resource management. From the above outline and within a public management context, public personnel management is fundamental within an organisation to ensure the optimal administration and utilisation of resources such as financial, physical, information and natural resources.
Therefore the lack of an efficient, effective and motivated employee base with poor skills, will lead to reduced governance and wastage of scarce resources.
Public personnel management is crucial because of the costs involved. Cost comparison amongst the other resources reveal personnel costs as the largest item of government expenditure in South Africa. In some cases it comprises more than 60% of state expenditure (Chemais et al., 1998: 2).
2.7.1 STRUCTURE OF PUBLIC PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT AND ITS RELEVANCE TO SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
Personnel management continues to evolve more than any other resource management in South Africa. The main differentiating factor between private and public personnel management is the role played by politics. Changes in the political landscape, coupled with legal and economic alterations, are the main causes of this evolution. This basically has an impact on the framework of public personnel management in general, and skills development in particular.
Skills development implies the expansion of knowledge, improvement and/or acquisition of skills and an attitudinal adjustment. This entails a learning process in which information and skills are acquired, therefore personnel in the learning process will evolve and progress (Chemais et al., 1998: 188). In an emerging economy, the development of skills across the different personnel levels in the public sector is critically important.
Figure 2.5 illustrates Starling’s framework for analysing human resource management within the public sector and how they fit together (Starling, 1998:
464). It indicates the four personnel input systems for people entering the public service at the top. These are:
• Political appointees – those public officials appointed with policy- making powers, for example, cabinet officials and who are outside of the civil service system;
• General civil service – these consist of mostly white-collar personnel who perform the day-to-day activities within the public sector;
• Career systems – they consist of white-collar personnel, generally professionals and para-professionals such as military officers, health officials, fire fighters and police officials;
• Collective systems – these consist of mainly low skilled workers.
The five functions shown in the middle box indicate how they affect employees at the different stages in their careers. These are:
• Staffing – refers to the process of recruiting, selecting, and advancing employees on the basis of their ability, knowledge, and skill;
• Classification and compensation – this involves identifying the duties and responsibilities of each position in the organisation and grouping them according to their similarities. Compensation allotment must be market related, adequate and equitable;
• Training and management development – continuous education and training such as learnerships help prevent employees from
finding themselves with obsolete skills. Management development is a systematic process of training and growth in anticipation of an organisations future management needs;
• Advancement – promotional opportunities for employees.
Generally performance appraisal is used to measure an employee’s progress. An additional benefit of learnerships is it usage in evaluating employees performance;
• Discipline and grievances – discipline involves reprimands, suspensions, demotions, reassignments, and dismissals. They can have an adverse effect on the career of an employee.
Grievances allow the complainant the right to be heard.
Figure 2.5: Starlings framework for analyzing human resource management (Starling, 1998: 464).
Legal system Organisational culture
Discipline/grievances Advancement Training/management
development Classification/compensation
Staffing Collective
systems
Career systems
Dismissal Retirement Resignation
Political
appointment General
civil service
Finally, the exit component consists of dismissal, retirement, and resignation for departing personnel. All of this exists within a framework of the organisations culture and the legal system.
The above discussion succinctly locates training and management development as an essential component of the public personnel function within the organisation as a whole.