POLITICS, LABOR RELATIONS, AND PUBLIC PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT: RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT

The establishment of collective bargaining in the government service necessarily heightens the political context of public personnel administration. The personnel process becomes a more open system for decision-making and consequently subject to a greater variety of influences. Especially in the implementation of policy, the personnel specialist acting as part of the management team shares responsibility with union representatives. Generally, human resource management is characterized by more give and take bilateral relations but the areas of greatest union impact are pay and discipline policies and practices. The viability of public sector labor relations will be severely tested in the eighties as governments face the dual demand for smaller work forces and increased productivity. The outcome will have a direct bearing on the work of public personnel administrators.