Public Personnel Administration and Constitutional Values (PDF)

Several Supreme Court battles during the Warren-Burger era finally brought public sector employees under constitutional protection, setting forth a new legal framework for personnel management. This new framework requires administrators to manage personnel foremost in compliance with the established constitutional principles without necessarily sacrificing efficiency. Public Personnel Administration and Constitutional Values is a sketch of this new framework in which constitutionalism and judicial accountability become defining characteristics.

In the text the author provides, for the first time, a comprehensive review of case law principles in non-technical terms that are central to today's personnel management and decision-making: First Amendment freedoms, procedural due process, equal protection of the laws with respect to anti-discrimination, affirmative action, and compensation, and governmental and official liability. The author concludes that although excessive legalism may undoubtedly cause administrative timidity, a constitutionally competent administrator should be able to overcome this timidity; more important, a democratic administration grounded in constitutional values promises the best of all possible alternatives. This book is an invaluable addition to education and training for the students of public administration, as well as public administration practitioners at all levels in the United States. It also provides an important insight for the scholars of public administration in other parts of the world.