Personnel Management

Personnel Management
Student’s name
Institution

Question One
The merit-based personnel system is a process of hiring and appraising an employee subject to their performance rather than any political affiliation. It is built on principles of fair rewards. The patronage system allowed for elected officials to reward loyal individuals with jobs and promotions. In public administration, there is a need for the leadership to ensure a thoroughly productive workforce that handles public affairs competently. This is a step that results in quality services from public officers. On one hand, employees under this system are more concerned with reaching the set workplace standards of quality in their tasks. Relevance and any rewards are built upon this. Morale is driven by a desire to achieve more towards better performance and a positive review. Therefore, any policies under development undergo a thorough review in order to produce the best of works. Besides better output, this in itself weeds out policies created to appease the patrons at a loss for the public. However, the system may prove destructive due to its eventual effect of creating competitive behaviors within (Dussauge, 2011). This in itself pits employees against each other leading to potential conflicts and an uncooperative workforce. The end result of this is a low work ethic.
Question Two
Employees of all kinds enjoyed various rights as accorded them by the constitution or company operation manuals. However, there is an apparent difference in the rights enjoyed by public sector employees and their private sector counterparts.

To begin with, public sector employees enjoy the freedom of speech to a greater degree than those in the private sector. Unless their remarks hurt an agency’s ability to perform its duties, the public worker is free to express their personal opinions. On the other hand, private workers may be fired at will if their expressed opinions taint an employer image. Second, all public employees are protected by the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination (Alexander & Alexander, 2011). They have no obligation to make statements that may be used against them in criminal prosecutions. The Fifth Amendment rights do not apply to those working in the private sector. However, they do have a right to union representation during investigations. The public sector employees tend to live satisfied due to the constitutional assurance of job security. Poor work ethics and performance are not a reason for termination. This means productivity in is overrun by the need to uphold employee rights.
References
Alexander, K., & Alexander, M. D. (2011). American public school law. Cengage Learning.
Dussauge Laguna, M. I. (2011). The challenges of implementing merit-based personnel policies in Latin America: Mexico’s civil service reform experience. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, 13(1), 51-73.