The Impact of Employee Participation for Transparency in the Hiring and Promotion Process of Public Agencies - Assignment Example

Prospectus The Impact of Employee Participation for Transparency in the Hiring and Promotion Process of Public Agencies “A Case Study of the Service Representative Unit of the Social Security Administration” Israel Chery Public Policy and Administration – Public Management and Leadership Walden University A00344741 The Impact of Employee Participation for Transparency in the Hiring and Promotion Process of Public Agencies “A Case Study of the Service Representative Unit of the Social Security Administration” Problem Statement The problem is that many public agencies are not being transparent in their hiring and promotion practices, and they are not seeking out adequate levels of employee participation throughout the process. The process of hiring and promoting employees is certain an exercise that takes place almost daily in large institutions, companies, and organization of various sorts. Without transparency and a level of employee participation throughout the process, however, it is often difficult to get rank and file staff members to truly commit and buy into the true vision of the organization (Stookey, 2010). Oddly enough, this is a problem that continues to persist despite numerous attempts to rectify the situation and create more transparency and opportunities for participation on the part of everyone in the organization. Much work still needs to be done in order to shore up the hiring and promotion process, particularly in public service agencies, in order to reduce incidences of hiring and promotion the wrong individual for important positions within the organization. Judging from the fact that the degree of inefficiency continues to persist, not necessarily because of an absence of a sound recruitment strategy, but as a result of the failure of existing strategies, the simple indication that it sends is that it is important to change the processes and methods involved in tackling the situation. The major problem, therefore, has to do with the failed attempt to identify the right approach or method in tackling recruitment in various organizations, most commonly as a result of a lack of transparency throughout the hiring and promotion process (Ruffini, 2013). This research work is well suited to the research topic of “The Impact of Employee Participation for Transparency in the Hiring and Promotion Process of Public Agencies” “A Case Study of the Service Representative (SR) Unit of the Social Security Administration (SSA) of the United States of America (USA).” This topic could be seen as touching on a number of aspects of the identified problem. The first has to do with the fact that the approach should aim at the direct setting where the hiring and promotion takes place in collaboration with employees of each unit, the immediate supervisor of the unit, a member of management, and the union representative or steward of said public agency. The second also has to do with the fact that the approach or method ought to involve the affected person who in this case is the existing human resource base or employee. Significance of the Problem Literature could be used to support the assertion that employee participation makes hiring and promotion both effectively transparent and efficient. It also improves a company’s strategic plan revolves around the human personnel who are hired and promoted to various positions (Ryan and Bernard, 2003). In the course of hiring and promoting therefore, it is always important to have a unique way of ensuring that the right persons are put at the right places so that the right and most desiring results can be achieved. Meanwhile, “Employee Participation” is a process, which gets employees, who are always the major stakeholders in hiring and promotion included in the processes. Subsequently, it is possible to get the most vital information from the very people who are concerned. A scenario can be cited as the Social Security Administration (SSA), an agency that needs to hire a Service Representative (SR), involving existing employees of the SR unit in the process. What happens is that because the employees of the SR unit have had some working experience and negative past hiring history with the company, they will be the best stakeholder to know the kind of qualities that need to be possessed by an applicant who wants to take up such a sensitive and important position. This may be a single case with the SR unit but, when replicated across the company, brings out the need of facilitating employees’ involvement in the hiring and promotion process in every department of the agency. (Deverick and Keith, 2010). Finally, the product of the present research is going to be a basis for future research in the selected area of study. Background of the Problem There are enough primary and secondary data available that touch on the use of employee participation in organizations and what the impact of this process is. In a personalized primary research undertaken by the researcher, it was discovered that 80% of respondents indicated that they had witnessed a number of tremendous benefits in practicing employee involvement in the field of hiring and promotion. This percentage is highly impressive and suggests the need for companies to hold on to employee involvement. Generally, a company that is practicing employee involvement is one that is practicing the democratic, impartial, and transparent style of leadership. In this form of leadership practice, the ideas, inputs, resources, skill, and competence of the entire workforce is considered in any major decision making process. As far as benefits are concerned, companies who have practiced employee involvement have enjoyed from diversity in the whole process of hiring and promotion because the human resource personnel and managers had the luxury of involving as many employees as possible, all of whom had some unique and different ideas to bring on board. But even as a couple of challenges may be faced with employee involvement such as the process being time consuming and cost involving, these do not in anyway represent demerits of the process and reasons why they should be ignored. Theoretical Framework The theoretical framework of competency training is examined. Theoretically, it is very important to appreciate the fact that employee participation should not be a basis for putting round pegs in square holds but that it should be accompanied with a comprehensive training and education program to ensure that the skill and knowledge of all employees available are enhanced to effectively undertake the roles of hiring and promotion that are assigned to them (Cumming and Olswang, 2009). Availability of time, staff training, logistical constraints, and bureaucracy have commonly been pointed out by human resource managers as a major challenge in undertaking employee involvement (Creswell, 2013). But if this challenge will continue to overtake the need to undertake practical education and training programs for employees, then the generalized output of results will be minimal (Craig and Stevens, 2012). Once employee involvement is selected as an approach by the company, it will be necessary for the human resource managers involved to appreciate the fact that these employees become a full time part of the recruitment team and so they deserve to be equipped with every needed training and education that will ensure that they gain the competency levels required of them. Research Questions Research questions are necessary to guide the research in the right direction. Upon considering the scope of this proposed study, the questions presented in this prospectus will prove useful in the completion of the literature review, and during the process of analyzing specific research options that will allow professional in the public sector determine how to be more transparent in both the hiring and promotion of civil servants across various agencies. The 4-D Cycle of Appreciative Inquiry should prove to be quite a useful model for this study. This particular technique allows the researcher to describe the cooperative search for best practices in a given social science or management area by using a process of discovery, design, and destiny among leaders and other stakeholders in the field. Using the 4-D Cycle of Appreciative Inquiry, as it relates to the research questions that will form the basis for this study, will lead to sound conclusions based on perceptions for past, present, and future implications on American society should public agencies lack transparency in the process of hiring and promoting employees. This qualitative study is designed to address specific questions related to the topic of the discussion. To effectively accomplish this, one primary research question, in addition to two secondary research questions, will guide the overall scope of the study. Primary Research Question How transparent is the hiring and promotion process of employees at the Social Security Administration? Secondary Research Question #1 How does a lack of transparency contribute to the problem of failing to hire and promote the most qualified civil servants within the public sector? Secondary Research Question #2 What can be done to improve the level of transparency in the hiring and promotion process at the Social Security Administration moving forward? Nature of the Study The research is going to follow the mixed research approach where there is going to be a combination of both qualitative and quantitative data (Hammer, 2012). Generally, the qualitative method is going to open its self up to the use of secondary data where data are going to be gathered from various literature sources that have some major relation to the current research topic. The quantitative method shall on the other hand make use of primary data that will be collected from an identified setting (Gerrish and Lacey, 2006). There are therefore going to be two major possible types and sources of data, which are secondary and primary data. With a combined source of data, the reliability as well as the validity of the data is going to be greatly enhanced. This is because whiles the secondary data ensures that the researcher is going to have the opportunity to gather as many empirical data that support the research questions, the primary data are going to ensure that the researcher has access to first hand data that can be justified and guaranteed on the grounds of authenticity. As far as primary data are concerned, the researcher is going to use an identified public agency as the setting of the research where data on employee involvement and the impact it has on recruitment are going to be examined. The primary research method will be done with the required request form to be sent to each participant employee with return postage paid envelop. Based on the preliminary data collected, a corresponding intervention shall be designed, after which a post-intervention data collection exercise shall take place to examine the impact of the intervention. Possible Types and Sources of Information or Data Based on the secondary data collection, data such as governmental database and facts on hand to mouth infections are going to be collected. With the primary data collection, data will be collected through three major forms of data collection instruments namely observation, interview and institutional tests. The observation will lead to collection of data on the style of leadership of human resource managers towards involving employees while the interview will examine major challenges that human resource managers face in implementing employee involvement. It will also collect data on history of hiring and promotion practices in the agency. 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