Trends in Public Personnel Organization

There are at the present time at least four interrelated trends in the field of public personnel administration. In the first place, emphasis is shifting away from the old evangelism which emphasized the negative aspects of civil service toward placing greater reliance in the perfection of a technique of administration. Secondly, there is increasing dissatisfaction with removal provisions which require a formal hearing with right of counsel before a board independent of the administration. The third phase involves a changed status of the civil service commission: it is to be either abolished entirely or deprived of its administrative duties and confined to quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial activities. The administrative aspects of personnel work are to be placed under a single head responsible to the governor, mayor, or manager.