The long-awaited new edition of this highly praised text includes full coverage of policy issues and professional practice in nonprofit organizations, as well as at federal, state, and local levels of government. Retaining its accessible writing style, this sixth edition: examines the latest management theories (such as employee engagement and motivation) and current issues including disability, privatization, merit systems, and family and medical leave; roots the discussion in public policy issues, providing students with a better understanding of the actors involved and the broader context of personnel administration; provides abundant pedagogical tools, including learning objectives, summaries, and discussion questions, to guide student understanding and foster critical thinking; includes exercises and case studies throughout the book for individual or group work, helping students apply public personnel management concepts to real world situations. In addition to full coverage of the increasingly important role of personnel management in nonprofit organizations, this new edition has been thoroughly updated to include timely material on the effects of the 2008 global recession, public service contracting, public sector unions, security concerns, performance measurement, remote management, management of volunteers, the challenges and opportunities of developing an organizational culture, and lessons from the experiences of countries around the world. This is a textbook that is ideally suited to prepare students to manage people, effectively, whether in government, nonprofit organizations, NGOs, or in the private sector.

Public administration is a craft that demands real-world application of concepts and theories often learned in a classroom. Yet many students find it difficult to make the leap from theory to practice completely unaided. The Public Administration Workbook, 8e is specifically designed with the theoretically-grounded, practice-minded student in mind. It reviews scholarship in political science, law, industrial psychology, and the sociology of organizations and then allows students to see how these intellectual fields inform the analytical and managerial tasks that comprise public administration. Where standard public administration textbooks examine the nature of public agencies and explain how bureaucracies relate to other institutions, this workbook promotes a more effective way of learning-by doing-and more directly prepares those who will pursue careers in public agencies. Each chapter begins with a discussion of relevant concepts and scholarship before moving into a hands-on exercise analyzing core analytical and management challenges. This edition includes an all-new exercise on contract negotiation, many international examples interwoven throughout the book, and a fully updated HRM section to reflect alternative ranking and compensation systems. Each chapter is further supported by a detailed Instructor's Manual written by the author to guide instructors on solutions, explanations, and ideas for using or modifying the exercises to fit a variety of course needs, as well as downloadable datasets and exercises, providing students with a unique opportunity to apply and test classroom concepts outside of the job.