Human resource management: The missing link

The complexity of the personnel performance appraisal process prompts the authors to label it the “missing link” in human resource management. Three major purposes or uses of appraisals are identified--motivation, information and development. In addition, four key factors are examined which influence the success of appraisals: (1) the timing of them; (2) the selection of the evaluator; ( 3 ) the variables used for evaluation; and (4) the appraisal technique used. Seven techniques are analyzed and shown to be different in their optimum uses. Addit- ional pitfalls are identified, based upon a thorough literature search, which are categorized into three separate categories: instrumental, evaluator and environmental pitfalls. The problems with the processes and techniques of employee performance appraisals are then examined in the light of the implications they raise for basic societal values such as the merit system, productivity and bureaucratic responsibility. Without drastic revision, the utility of appraisals is subject to challenge. Thus, this important technique of personnel administration threatens to remain the “missing link” in human resource management.     

The ‘fairness’ of the standard spending assessments underlying the community charge

In this paper average domestic rate levels per adult for 1989/90 are correlated with standard measures of the socio‐economic status of English local authority districts, derived from the 1981 Census. These correlations show that rate levels tend to be higher in areas of social disadvantage and lower in more socially advantaged areas. When introducing the provisional figures for the new Community Charge for 1990/91 the Secretary of State stressed that this new charge would be fairer than the system of domestic rates. If the community charge were fairer than rates, this paper argues, the charge would not depend upon the socio‐economic status of the area in the same way. However, it is shown that, quite to the contrary, the community charge is even more strongly related to the socio‐economic status of the local authority than are rates. By using alternative cost assumptions, from consultative documents submitted to the Government by the Local Authority Associations, it is shown that community charge levels are crucially dependent on the assumptions underlying the Standard Spending Assessments, the Government's assessment of what it costs to provide a standard level of service.     

Regions and the constitution for Europe: German and British impacts

Regions have attempted to influence the emerging constitutional order of the EU for around 20 years. The German Länder have made a particular impact in sensitising the Union to regional concerns at successive Intergovernmental Conferences since Maastricht. They were also the leading regional voice in shaping debates at the Convention on the Future of Europe, though the Scottish government also succeeded in leaving an imprint on the Constitution for Europe. This article contrasts the different understandings in Germany and Scotland of how regions should make their interests felt. The German Länder have opted for a strategy focused heavily on using the structure of the member state to limit EU regulation of their fields of competence, while the Scottish government developed a more open-ended and flexible strategy based also in constructive engagement beyond the member state at the EU level. In the light of the Scottish approach the article questions whether the Länder strategy is too one-dimensional, leaving them over-dependent on the German federal government.     

Devolution in the United Kingdom: Statehood and Citizenship in Transition

The United Kingdom evolved as a "state of unions," in whichgovernment arrangements were territorially varied in line withthe particular circumstances of the sequence of acts of unionbetween the core state territory of England and Wales, Scotland,and Ireland. The recent devolution reforms have built on thatterritorial nonuniformity, embedding a number of idiosyncrasiesinto the devolved UK state: a lopsidedness that leaves the biggestand wealthiest part of the United Kingdom—England—governedcentrally wihle the non-English nations have devolved government,devolved government arrangements for those nations that aremarkedly asymmetrical, and an underdeveloped system of intergovernmentalrelations connecting United Kingdom—level and devolvedpolitical arenas. Together these issues pose important questionsof whether the devolution reforms amount to a coherent overallpackage, whether the reforms are stable, and whether they erodea common UK citizenship.     

Mine smartness and the community voice in mine-risk education: lessons from Afghanistan and Angola

Mine-risk education programmes will fall short of their intended impact for as long as they fail to take into account local responses—knowledge, logic and everyday practices—to mine threats. Community information, systematically collected through household and institutional surveys, can help to define and understand endogenous ‘mine smartness’. The same evidence provides insight into the impact of mine-risk education, including its unintended consequences. Using six criteria of mine smartness, ciet carried out evaluations of mine-risk education in Afghanistan (1997) and Angola (1999). The first clear lesson to be drawn from these evaluations is that people in mine-affected areas do generate their own broadly effective means of facing the daily threat of mines. The second lesson is that people take risks for reasons that make sense to them: ‘education’ that landmines are dangerous probably adds little value for them. The third lesson is that mine-risk education that does not take into account these first two lessons can cause harm. The evaluations produced evidence of unintended risk-taking by people exposed to mine-risk education programmes.     

Public needs vs. private loss: land use regulation and property rights

Property rights and government regulation have been the subject of considerable discussion and controversy in recent years. The issue of “takings” has been raised in most of the state legislatures in the 1990s. Congress has considered legislation as well. Supreme Court decisions, in particular the Lucas and the Dolan cases, have focused judicial attention on the issue in recent years. Local elected officials, planners and local government administrators confront the issue increasingly as they attempt to respond to growth pressures and regulate land use. Unfortunately, a great deal the public's perception of property rights is myth or fable. This article addresses the issue of takings by putting it first into historical perspective. Thus, we see that regulation of private property by government is not new. The concern over “regulatory takings” is explored and traced briefly noting the entry of the federal government into the arena of land use regulation. Legislative responses are reviewed and finally the status of judicial consideration of the issue is brought up to date. The article closes with recommendations for those who confront the takings issue. While caution is indeed called for, regulation of private property is still a fact of life in American public administration and will be for some time to come.