This book provides public admninistration instructors with a holistic South African perspective presented by means of a systems approach, the addressing of current and future distinctive issues and challenges and the presentation of specific remedies, the application of proven private sector principles to the public sector and the use of case studies to place theoretical knowledge within a practical frame of reference.
Government and those executing its policies face the daunting task of delivering essential services to a dispossessed and hugely disadvantaged electorate. The authors of The Fundamentals of Public Personnel Management argue that, although the state controls a wide range of limited resources, only the effective management and judicious administration of its primary asset, its personnel, will allow it to translate physical, financial, material and technological resources into synergistic founts of national well-being. Trained and motivated public employees schooled in the ethics of their profession are essential to transforming inanimate structures and resources into people-oriented dispensers of sustainable service delivery.
This report discusses important themes in the field of human resource management for the public sector, including managing employee relations, strategizing and planning human resources departments, and selecting employees within the equal employment opportunity guidelines. Current legislation of the field is discussed and new theories on local and international applied research are explored.
"Representative Bureaucracy and Performance: Public Service Transformation in South Africa is a first-rate blend of quantitative and qualitative analysis of one of the major transitions in modern governance. Fernandez makes a major theoretical contribution to the literature on representative bureaucracy in demonstrating how descriptive representation translates into both active representation and better performance. His discussion of the crucial role of language and communication brings new insight to the literature on public administration and democracy."—Kenneth Meier, Distinguished Scholar in Residence, American University "This study of public sector transformation goes beyond the descriptive qualitative research largely found in South African public administration historiography by undertaking sophisticated quantitative analysis to show that representation of previously historically disadvantaged groups, under certain circumstances, can improve the performance of public organizations. This is an excellent contribution, not only to public administration scholarship in South Africa, but also to the sparse literature on public organizations in developing countries. The book should be of great value to scholars and practitioners of public administration, as well as to students of political science and organizational studies."—Robert Cameron, Professor, University of Cape Town "This book provides an excellent analysis of the theory of representative bureaucracy in the context of South African post-apartheid government. South Africa is an important and fascinating case. The work adds substantially to the literature on representative bureaucracy and will be of interest to all who are concerned with the effectiveness of government organizations."—J. Edward Kellough, Professor, University of Georgia Governments throughout the world seek to promote employment equity and ensure that bureaucracies are representative of the citizenry. South Africa offers a rare and fascinating case for exploring what happens to bureaucracies as they undergo demographic transformation. Grounded in the theory of representative bureaucracy and using a mixed methods approach, this book explores how major changes in the demographics of the South African public service have affected the performance of the institution. The empirical analysis offers compelling evidence that representative bureaucracies perform better. As public organizations become increasingly representative by hiring historically disadvantaged persons, especially Africans, their performance improves, controlling for a range of factors. Evidence indicates representative bureaucracies perform better because they empathize with and advocate for historically disadvantaged communities, are equipped with linguistic and cultural competencies to serve a diverse citizenry, and can induce compliance, cooperation, and coproduction.
Accommodation of population diversity is a vital issue for any multinational society. The legacy of Apartheid in South Africa complicates this effort considerably. Henrard introduces a theoretical framework regarding how to accommodate minority protection in the most appropriate way and analyzes the respective contributions of individual rights, minority rights, and the right to self-determination. Subsequent chapters examine the case study of post-apartheid South Africa and attempt to investigate its constitutional development. Henrard finds that provisions within the 1996 Constitution do acknowledge an interrelation between these three important factors; however, implementation of minority protection policy is often quite a different matter. In seeking appropriate means of minority protection, this study stresses inclusionism, integration, and the essential right to identity and real equality. While Henrard reviews and discusses the entire democratic transformation process in South Africa, she cautions that, because current developments are characterized by their unsettled nature, major transformation and flux, analysis of the implementation phase can be only indicative. The apartheid history does not in itself inhibit progressive stances on this important issue. Still, despite the promising nature of the 1996 Constitution, the picture that emerges in terms of policy development aimed at minority protection is ambivalent.
It is only through understanding diversity that businesses can achieve equality and cohesion in the workplace. Ozbilgin and Tatli's Global Diversity Management focuses extensive original research through a critical approach and arrives at a comprehensive real-world perspective of diversity in competitive organizations.
*Shortlisted in the Management and Leadership Textbook Category at CMI Management Book of the Year Awards 2016* Managing Diversity and Inclusion: an International Perspective is a hotly anticipated new text that has been written by an international team of experts and offers an in-depth and contextual account of enduring, contemporary and cutting edge theories and approaches to diversity and inclusion management. The book uniquely situates UK and European policies and practices of various dimensions of diversity firmly within the global context through an international and cross-cultural range of case studies and considers how national contexts have shaped the field. Key features: International and cross-cultural case studies, examples and comparisons from a range of countries including the emerging economies Case study approach illuminates complex theories by showing how they are applied in practice Criticality is central to the book with each chapter including critical analysis, critical questions and boxed critical insights and reflections Companion website with free full text journal articles.
