ABSTRACTTh. lr..doih Proj.ct w6 htoduccd in !rqulr.d MPA hum.n eshcs Ma8imc4t cours h sPrlrg l9y, ^s e hnon.tlve m.cltullm to frcillrte l.arirg |boullDw1m..lcm pubUc pqsm€l E$t.Nwdk.ft. rojc.t,a smcsrcflons sLnL !.doo thlt .au5 for lrndco$ ro build a pubu.pcrson l sysr.n fon lhc emsd up,rntoduces doff!.cialrst$ to lhe turcttond4P{B ot Publlc huo elowca m@gehcnt od m!kc! qpllcit ihc tlgh degxec oflnterd.pcldcN. bei{een ard modgrhcn.Tlli mtcle 3@s {5 m lltc.lmrpon od rhe m ofdE poj€ct and detalsilr $ulr5 of . fouffisrd puo! rcsi of$. tdea l1l the cLss@n DbcrNd aelem'lns objecdvcs md outcons, projeddesign, dd student ald lrshcio. elalu.tio.s inat spdk io dre ncdt oi rneFreedonh Pojed 6 a pedlgo8icai i@1, 6weu 6 ro ils ste€ths and weakn*s.

Building a Public Personnel Systemfor the City of Freedonia:

A NewApproach to TeachingHuman Resources Management

in an MPA Program

Martha J. DedeCalifornia State Uniuersity, Long Beach

The Freedonia Prqed was introduced in a rcquir€d MPA course inhuman re8ourc€s managem€nt ln Spring 1999 as an inno tive mechanismto facllltate learnlng about howAmerlcan publlc personnel systems work.The Prciect is a semester.long simulatiol that calls ior students to bulld apublic personnel system, ftom the ground up, for the rnlthical city ofFreedonia.r Ils overarching obiectiv$ are to introduce nonpersonn€lists tothe functional aspects of publlc human resources management and tomak€ €xplicit the high d€grce of intefdependence between and amongthem.

A review of approximately I 5 publlc personrcl textbook8 revealedagreement on the six functional areas, or fi.mctional ch$ters, that may besaid to encompass publlc human re8ourc€s mAnagement (e.9., Shafritz etal., 1992;S\;kia,1994;Hdys d.$d Kea$ey, 1995;Ban and Riccrcci, 1997jKlinger ard Nalbardian, 1998;Nigro and Nigo, 2000).These tunctionalareas or clustels, which serve as the backbone for the course, are l) posi-tion classilicatiol alrd compensation; 2) r€cruitmmt/examination/selec-tion;3) employee trainhg a1d development;4) performance appfaisavprc.motiotr /disciplinej' 5) labor rclations and collectiv€ bargaining; and Oequal emplo)'ment opportunity/diversity.

LEATNnG O8lncrl\rs

The Freedonia Project has drrce learning objectives, the fust of which isto me€t the instumental requirem€nts of a public human rcsouces mdn-agement cofe couse in dre MPA progmm, Hence, students arc expos€d toI-PAE 8 (2002) : 4 : 27 5-286

Jout aloJPublic AJJairy Education 275

Buihhng a Public Pe6onnel Sytem for tbe Cilt of Freedonitt

the six basic ftnctional areaJ/cluste$ that comprisepublic personnel systems and to how those arelswork. Assjgned texts, handouts, leclues, libraryres€arch, and class discussion adfuess those elementsof pubtc personn€l management as well as legislation and case law goveming public employmeot.

S€cond, the Freedorfa Project is d€signed tomake explicit the high degr€e of interdependenceb€tw€€n and among the six functional elements ofpublic human resources manag€m€nt.This is notsomething students irppear to know intuitivell asmany stud€nts seem to think the ftrnctions of publichuman fesources management arfe activated, in prac-tice, in linear fashion, and that they therefofe are tob€ tr€at€d as s€parate entities.Th€ ftlnctions in frictfeed a circular pfocess in which one infoms theothers, For cxrmple, the quality and hmctioning ofperformirnc€ appftrisal, compensationj imd employcctraining and development prcgrams not only alldcpend greatly upon one another but also upon thequality of an agency's recruitm€nt and s€lection prl).liftms. Hence, the Project end€avors to h€lp studentsappreciate those interrehtjonships.

Finally, th€ Project is mcant to h€lp studcnts honctheir critical thiiking skills. Each assignment overthe lllb of the semester requires that stud€nts reflectuponj synthesiz€j and lnte$ate what they havelearned into a unificd whole and make fiatlearning explicit h their fioal unit reports to theFreedonia City Council (see Scenario,Assumptions,and Design ).

PnDAc<)ctcIL GRoINDINGAt the hean of Russian psyclrclogist Lev

Vygotslry's thcory ofcognitive devetopment is his"zone of proximal development" collstruct.Vygotury's ide| is tha14n individual's cognitivego*'th-leaffing itseif -proceeds in evolutionary.dyrxmic stages. But it is a potential for ffowth only,h€ says, that is restricted at the lower reaches bythat which onc can accomplish alon€ and at theupper rcaches by that which one can accomplishwith ,rssistance,Thc tefritory between the lower anduppef reaches represents the zone of prcximaldevelopm€nt, where the "irnrn€diate potential '

(Dootittle, 1997,85) for cogoitive growth resides.

276 JoLtmal of Pt.tblk Affairs Educ,ttion

w€ might call the frst stage dependence. Early inthe learnfuU process, one needs a great d€al of assistance to accomplish a task.This is where the zone ofproximal development is embedded (Doolitde, 1997,8_).ln the .econd slage.learning and pra(tice gi!elif€ lo cognilive derelopment and less a\\i\lance isrequired.The hallmxrk of the last stage, indepen-denre. i. the person s.rbiliD to wo|k $i*rour a.\is-lance.Vygotsl_y suggests that what one can accom-plish "in collaboration today [he or she] will b€ ablelo do Lndependend) lomorrow (21Lempha\is in

origiml).Thlee fhcets of the zone of proximal develop-

ment .lIe cnrcial 10 its unfolding. First, an nspectcallcd whole, authenlic activities takes a page fromthe pra-xis book (e.g., White, 1977;Harmon andMayer, 1986tJm, l986iDenhndt, 1984) and suggeststhat iDdividual lcarning, expericnce,and xction aremutually rcinforcing. Hence,such whole activiti€smust hxve rcal-world rcle1,ance and mea.ning.Moreover, the student must "feel a n€€d for develop"menr ro occur"(Dool i lde. Iqq-,85,8-; 1996).

Second,Vyliotslry says thnt learning occursthrough social intemction. Of this aspect, Doolittlesays $at"[t]he essence ofdre zone ofproximaldevelopment is the interdepelrd€1rt social system inwhich cultulal meanings are actively constructed bybodr the sftdent and drc tcacher" (1997, 87.88).

Finally,Vygotsky's process of irdividrnl chang€posits thal, at its best) coFritive development pro-duces change in th€ indiidual.Taken as a social andeducationil ideal, then, cognitivc developfientslrculd promote an active pmcessing and modifica-lion of exp€rienc€ that occurs as people constnrctjengage in, and nurture social relationships.As thosedevelop, sfidents can apply learning derived there-from in productive ways to social and educationalmilieus so as rc facilitate both collaborative andindependent learning.

ScENAruo,AssuMPrloNs, DislcNOn 1Ie fust rfdt of dass, students arc presented

with the folbwiry (w.ritten) scenario irnd opcratin!!asslrmptions that prcvide tk context for theirundeflaking.

Fr€€donia incorporated as an indep€nd€nt munic-ipality vrheq fof rcasons too lurid to recount here, itseceded ftom Gland Fenwickj county. AlthoughFreedonia is less than a day old, citizens arc alreadymaking demands for services; the city, however, hasno pe$onnel to d€liv€r those services.

In an emerg€ncy meeting, the Fr€€donia CityCouncil vot€d to crcat€ the fust two agencies citi-zens had told them were most important:th€Department of Prblic Safery (DPS) and rh€Depanment ofvater and Pow€r (DVlt).Th€ citycouncil rlso cr€ated Freedonia's nftt adminisffativeagency, th€ Fr€€donia Hlunan Resourccs Depaftment(FHRD), fird charged it with two tasks: (l) stafflngthe two new igenci(.. DP5 and DWPand.12r usirgthe DPS and DWI as t€mplatcs, deftloping a com-prehensive public personnel system for Freedonia.

The Human Resourc€s Departnent is comprisedof six units or teams. lJnit names represent tle tradi-tional six ilnctional areas, or functional clusters, ofpublic human resources mmagement identiJied earli.er Each uoit is rcsponsiblc for rc$€ffching one ft|nc-tional arealcluster of public lluman resources mao-agement and for rcponing its findidgs to the mayorand city council. Sixteen week lrcnce-semester'send-the mayor and council expect both oral andwdtten repolts fiom each uoit.The oral report is a2o.minut€ ov€rview present4lion that is followed byquestions from the mayor and the council.The writ-len report must include the following elements:

' A brief history of the function's development atthe fede$l, state, and local levelsi

' Legisl4tion important to developmcnt of thefunction;

' Case law important to development of the fi,rnc-tion;

. Two or tluee examples of how some publicagencies. whether federal, state, or local, managethe lirnction (students are encolEaged to drawexamples ffom their own orgaflDations);

. An orTlanation of how the firnction rcinforcesand/or intericts with other pe$onnel functions;

. A review of what cuffent literaturc in academicjouffLds says about the f,nction;md

Building a Puhlx Pe$onnel SlstumJor the CitJr oJ Freedonia

. The answ€r to this questionr'What arc the threebiggest challenges public agencies face as theyatlempt to manage the iinction?

Unit members also afe advised of s€veral featrfesof Preedonia rhar ma) be imfonanr ru rhrir lasksAmolu them arc the following:

. Freedo0ia covers a 1O-square-mil€ area and has.r liofuhlion of J5.000.lt\ ethnic breakdown is5J percent whitc;24 perc€nt black;20 percentHispanic; 2 percent Asian; 1 percent NativeAm€rican.

. Crimes of all kinds are up about 20 percent inthe region over th€ last fiv€ years. Street €irLng:r(liviq h,l! bren on the ri\e lbr the sime peri-od, as have a l"ariety of drug-rclated cdm€s(e.g., butglary, car th€ft, domestic violence).

. Two yea$ ago, the largest industrial €mployerir the r€gion, Fly"hy"Night AircraftManutacturing, L.P, eliminaled 5,000 jobs.Tcenunemployment approaches 60 percent.'

. lvater quality is poor and mo$t people mustbuy drinking wat€r, which is becoming veryexpensive.The city council's objective is toeliminat€ this problem by the year 2010.

. h is estim4tcd that fie electrlc grid, \qhile suffi-cient at present, is not l,lrge €nough to supportadditional growth.'Ihe city council plans toexpbrc ways to meet the needs of a projected20 perceot increise in lopul,rtion in the nextd€cade.

. The Freedonix City Council also appointed thefollowing officials:

City Manager-Grizelda "Bobo" HugginsCity Attomey-Howie LuvlawPolice Chicf-Farl€y WoodFirc Chief*ChuckGeneral Manager of DWP-Bud Sludge

Projed DesignUnit Creation. Onthe frtst night of class. FHRD'S

six units are created by simL taneously drawing astudent's name ftom ofle hat and his or her unitassignment fmm anofhcrThereafter,studerts brieflymeer in \essron fof rhe fir\l tirne .rnd hegin lheir

JawndlofPublic Affa tr\ Educatrcn 2-7

Buiuin!1d Public Petsonnel SJstem for tbe Citlr oJ Freedonia

semestef's work togethef. Prior to the first classmeeting,l prepar€ a sketchy two, or ftrce-pamgaphdefinition/descripdon of each of the si\ HRM func-tions/fi.nctioni clu5ters.5 Once the uits areformed,I present these wfit€-ups to €ach group,aller which they discuss and rcpoft upon this ques,tion: "You are now a member of the [unit nane] .Although the Council knows you are new to the job,it would like your unit to ideitily the three mostimponant aspects you belieye att€nd your function."This exercis€ places students in the moment andh€lps them begin the group d€velopment process.

Table L Course Assignment! and their Connection to Compon€ntsofthe Final Report to the Freedonia Cit/ Council

Semester Actiuities. Fot the fust three-quaners of thesemeste! I inffoduce students to the basics of eachof the sk funclional areas/cluste$ of public person-n€l manag€ment.6 Te\1 readings, lectures, and hand,outs give sfudents grormding in som€ history theorylegislation, and case law att€ndant to each imctionalar€alclusterAl the same time, they ar€ told that suchir or y the beginning ot rhrir K\earch (includinglegal fesearch, for which they receive librafy tfain-ing).They must probe more deeply on th€ir own.

Lectutes, rcndings, and discussion on the six irnc-lional areds/clu\lers ',crur in the order earlier speci-

Componenr of Final Report

Brief history of the function\ use at the federal,state, and local levek

Legislation important to developmenr of rhe tunc-

Cas€ law imDortant to develoDm€nt of the function

CoLrrse CompongntJAssrsnmen!

Two or three examples of how some publica8€ncies, whether federal, state, or local,manage the function.

HandoutsStudent research

LeSal research workshopText readings

Student research

Legal research workshopT€xt readings

Handouts

Student experience/knowl€dge

14idterm exam,which asks that question specificallyHow does the function reinfor€e and/or int€mcrwith oth€r personnel functions?

What current literature in academic journals says

The answer to this question:What three contempo-rary problems do publ'c agencies face as theyaftemPt to manage this function?

Annotated bibliography

Final Exam,which asks that question specifically

27?i Iaumal ofPuhli. Afiair\ Educatrc

fied in this essay. It is tnle that units whose fllnc'tional arcas/cluste$ are covered early in the semes-ler m/) hJr€ an adtfflage over those whoce firnc-tions are not covered until later I desig:ned two activ'itie$ specificnlly to ameliorat€ this potential prcblem.First. one consl.rnr drring hnrh lr{turc di\( u\\ionand handouts in each class session was my r€p€a1edrcfcrcnce to the interd€pendenc€ among andbetween frrnctionnl ateas/clustefi, Second, at th€beginning of €ach function-specific class session/lec-ture,l asked students to identi!' and di$curis thewa]s in which that function was interdependent orinleracted with the othe$. The lntter activity, in par-ticular, was v€ry us€fuI because i1 helped $olidiry instudents' minds dre interdependent charact€r ofpublic hum4n resourcelj management inctions.

Each final writt€n unit report to the city councilmust include the sev€n elements listed in the"Sceoario and Assumptions" section, detailed above.To help facilitate completion of thc 6nal report, eachwritten assignment over the course of the semester(including midterm and final examinations) i$designed to contribute to it, as indicat€d in Tablc 1 .

Two eaamples of how the assignments contributeto the completion of the fhal report follow Oneis straighdorward, the other more complex,Thestrnightforward example concerns Compon€nt 6 ofthe final report, whlch calls for st{idenls to identirywhat clur€nt academic litemture has to say aboDtthe function/functional cluster for which th€ir unitis responsible. The assignmeot asks each student toprepare an annotated bibliogaphy from three diifer'ent academic or professional journals.Drch thenmust select and rcport on articles differcnt fromthose of his ol her uit colleagues, which llives themthe opponunity not or y to be expos€d to a range ofcontempor.uy issues of intefest but also to have arange of choices for inclusion in the flnal rcport.

The morc complex example involves Component5 of the final report, which ask sludents to discussthe ways in which their ulit's fulction/ftxlctionalclustei reinforces or interacts with oth€r pe$onnelfunctions.The successf,rl completion of this compo-nent is much morc difficult in that it rcquircs high€rlevel thinking (s),nthesis ,nd anrlysis) and, asDoolittle says, a felt need "for development to occur"

Buitdtng a publ pe60na?l \),t,a Io. th t'it) aI Fpftlonia

(1997,8r.I devised a number of disparate activitiesor insttuctions to help lbcilitate that development.

Fifst, helping students to rmderstand theinterconnectedness between and among the sixfunclionvcluslers is a specific leami\c objectirrthat is stated clea.ly in the syllabus. Second, and asnoted above, during both the introductory lectur€on public personnel systems and subsequentlectur€s and class discussions of individual fiinc-tions/functional clust€rs, I rcmind stud€nts of theinterdcpcndcnce between and among them.Third,the midterm €xamination, a single{uestion exam,speci-fically asks students to determine and discusshr,s any thftr fun(l i ! ,n./ l i rnL r iunalclLlstr15 rein-forc€ and/or int€ract with the others. Finally, becausethe Project's design calls for a high de$€€ of interac.tion bet$reen and among unit$, it is assumed that th€more students learn about their own ftlnction($),they can come to understand and articulat€ the r€jn-forcing and inlemctive charactedstics of each func-tion/cluster

END PRoDUcrsDuring the last tbJee weeks of th€ semester, units

pre$€nt their findings to the mayor and city councii(two reports per thf€e.hour session),during whichshrdents not on the f€pofting team act as thc citycoluncil. Robert's Rules of O/daf are followed so thntannrchy do€s not reign in the room,

In tleir roles as city council members, stud€ntsare assumed to be very political alimals.Thus, theyare €xpected to ask pointed qu€stions and to makechallenges duriog each presentation.To do this com-petentljr,lhey must rcview all rcading assignments aswell as handouts and lectufe material on th,rt ftlnc-tional area prior to €ach council meeting.To ensurethat such rcview occurs, the syllabus notes that l0perc€nt of e|ch student's firal grade is based on thequality of those questions and challenges.

At semest€r's end, each ffoup supplies everyother group with copies of its final repon in suffi'cient mrnber for each member. Thefe is an jmpor-lant insfumenta] r€ason for this requircmel1t. Thosefinal repofts, together with rcadings, lectures, handouts, and supplementary research feqrdred through-out the semester, provide all students with substafl-

Jaurnal oJ Publtc AfJa6 Educatrcn 279

BuiLJing a Public Personnel SJrstem .lbr tbe Cit! of Freedonia

tive and useful inforrnation about evefy fuirctionalarea of public human resourc€s management.As arcsult, students should have much ofwhat they needto study for comprehensive exams (a requircment inmany MPA programs, induding this on€), and have aready'made reference on the job-

EvAru,,r'floNStwlents

The Freedonin Project was introduced in theSpring 1999 semesrfr x\ il pilol lo lest fie idea inthc classroom.To dit€, it tus been employed fburlimes and has involved 90 students. At the concllrsion of €ach semester, students compl€t€d an anony,mouii ev4luation that sought information about theext€nt to which they believed th€ proiect facilitatedlearning and th€ opportunities and pi$a.lls theybelieved the pfoject prcs€nt€d. Of the 90 studentsparticipating, 66 (73 pefcent) completed question,naircs. Among the more impoftant lindings w€re thefollowing:

1 . Ninety-four percent of students found an alter"native coMse design like the Freedooia Proi€ctto h4ve more leaming utility than the tndition-al reading/lecture discussion vriety,

2.The Frccdonia Project offers stlld€nts ground-ing io each of the six functional areasklustersof public persomel managemcnt via te)$ read-ings, l€cture6, handouts, class discussion, andlibfaay research. At the same time, the projectrequifes studetts to conc€ntrate thek effonslarg€ly on a single public human r€sourcesmanagement fi.rnction or cluster Vhen asked ifthey be[eved a morc Iradili,rnirl comprehensi!emethod would hav€ had morc learning utilityfor them, 68 percent said no; whilc 3 I percentsaid they would have pref€ffed the more tradi-tion!,uniJied appfoach.This ftsponse,supporfed by fesponses to other survey questiotls, indi.cates that more than two{hirds of studentsseem to beiieve thirt nction-sp€cific readingsand handouts, together with weekly lectures,discussion, and outside research provide ade-quate fbundation for understmding each function.

3.About one-third of students found working withtheL student colleagues to be th€ least useftlel€ment of the project and cited as a signincantprcblem the failure of some gloup membe$ tocontribute, eithef ad€quately or at all, to thegfoup effon. Conversely, despite the fact thatthe Fre€dooia Project is a signilicant departurefrom the rad!rional reading/4(crur€/djscu55ionfomat, stud€nts found required reading to bemo$t helptul (58 perc€nt), followed by lecures(5J percent) and class discussion (48 percent).

InsttuctctrAlthough dala on the effectiveness of the project

is as yet nnecdotal, som€ obsen"ations about boththe design and its utility for stud€nts in an MPA pto-gtam, cast in t€Ims of the l€aroing obiectiv€sdetailed eadier, arc worthwbile.

First, semestedong simulations arc fragile drings,difncult to sustain.They also ale labof-intensiv€ andsometimes can pfoduce inter€sting ch4llenges lbrstudents and the instructor At the sam€ time,€achof the four itetations of th€ Freedonia Pfoiect prGduced impfovem€nts that reduced fragility andIabor"intensiveness.

For €xample, in the first two iterations, h,?otheticrl political and budgetary conditions and con-$lints wele included in the Scenario andAssumptionli;in the second two iterations tho6ewere eliminated. It had become clear thnt if th€ pro"ject were to succeed in achi€ving its learning c[ds-how public persornel systems work, and the inter-depende[ce bctween and among ftnctiona]irexsrchsters*political and budgetffy considera-tions mr$t necessarily be set aside, as they did littl€but add conilsion and complexity. Hence, for thesecond two itefationsj students wefe told to assumethat the budget was (uffealistically) unlimit€d, andthat politics were (unreirlisticaly) to be ignofed.

Another example conceflN time constniffs onthis particular popl ation of students. Neady all arcin'career, vrork i. l-time, many with families ano/orother nonschool obligetions, all of which creates apereonial diliculty among and between stud€nts tomeet outside clrrs.To help ameliorate this problem,I

280 tottrnal of Publtc Afihit\ Educatrcn

frst prepared an e mail/phone number rcster anddistributed it to the entirc class dudng the s€condd,rss meeling. ln rddilion. rpproximrlel) or)ce permondr dufing dre sernester, class time was allottedfor students to meet with their hdividual units.

The roster idea was workable, bul once'per-month in-class meetings were insufficient, and stu-dents routinely asked for more m€eting time duringd1e fi$t iterittron. As a rcsult, in succeeding iterationsI pared down in-class lecfi.m and discussion time toxccommodat€ them. Somewhat surprisingly, thisaclually proved to be useful for student leaming;stu-dcnts quickly discovered t}lat tlere was a trad€-offfor more meeting time.With less lecture and discus-sion time availabl€, thc more carcfi. ly they wererequired t() synthesiz€ and thirk critically aboutreading, l€clurc, and class discussion,

Second. m,m) sludies on ( oope tivc l(arninghdiclte that, to rnaximize llrorlp performahc€, atten-tion must be paid to $oup rewards (reward intede-p€ndence) And to individual m€mbff rewards forcontributions to the group effort (e.g., Cohen, 1994;Slavin, 1983iSlavin, 1987tDembo md McAr iffe,198D. For each ofthe four iterirtions, in an €ffort toencoumgc mlximum performimc€ ffom each unitmember,l awarded the sam€ grade to all members ofdre snme unit for the final report.

Other provisions in the Freedonia Proi€ct soughtbxlance in the r€wlrd structure.I mide clear thatpart and paacel of my job is to kiow who is per-forming aM who is not, Th€ instrllctor can knowthis in a vffiety of waysi by sitting in on a$d/orobserving iNlass unit meetings, which rcutinelyoccuffediby the quality and quantity of individuallrtudents' class prepar.niof and participation;and bythe quality of individual written assignments.

ln addition, 10 percent of a studenfs final gradewas awarded, or deducted, ba,5ed o the quality ofhis or l,Ier participation and preparation over thecourse of th€ semester Therefofc, stMents whocleady contributed sjgnificantly to class and to goup€ffbis werc rcwardcd, and those wllo clea y did 1Io1wefe penalized.

In retrospect, student evahrations of one another'sperfomance over the semester may have improved

Buiuinu a Public Pe$onnel Sslem .for tbe Cit! of Freed.ania

jndividua.l and group performance and minimizedsocial loafing (Bowditch and Buono,2001). In thefuture, such evaluation will b€come a course rcquf€-ment and will count sig:nincantly in each student'sfinal grad€.

Third, bccause the overwhelming majority of stu'denls in our prcgam work in public oryanizations,largely at the local level, they all have acces$ to a$eat deal of pdntcd information on public person'n€l q6tems, including, for example, performanceappraisal forms, Memoranda of Und€rstardhg(MOUS), and policies on discipline and t€rmination.From the outsct, it made no sense for stud€nts todraft snch documents from the bottom up;thatwould be a poor use of th€ir time .They thercforcwefe encouraged noi to reinvent the wh€el, but tomodiry such foms or policies to meet Frcedonia'sneeds,

students sometimes devclopcd quitc remarkabledocuments, giv€n that latitude. For example, onePerformance Appraisnl/Promotion/Disciplinc Unitre1,rcwed perforftrnc€ appraisal systems frcm fourlocal municipalities.Th€n, drawing on what they hadlearned in reading,lectMe, clnss discu$sion, and theirown rcs€archj they identified what they beli€v€d tobe the best and worst of €ach document,pick€d theforme! discarded the latter, rnd developed a verycompetefi performance appraisal system fbrFrcedonia, Likewise, one Labor Relations/CollcctiveBargaining llnit rcviewed two MOUS, one from alocal law enforcemeot agency and one from a localDPW This gave them inJomation specific toFreedonix's template agencies-Dl'S and DPV-andhow eadl MOU might therefore be modified.

Founh, thc class size for core courses in our MltAprogram lends to be rAdrer large (25-30 students p€rcliss).This certainly can present pfoblems in acoufse with a ffadilional strucnrre, In the case of thecourse design Lxrder discussion her€, how€ver, it maybe a benefit.To deliver a quality €nd-product-oralrnd q ri|cn un;r reporl! Io rhe freedonia Cit'Council-each of the sk units llencfllly need four tofive members (although we have farcd rather wellwith as few as three), Hence, one needs a crcwd, butnot a cast of thousands.

Journal of Public AIfai$ Education 281

Buiding a Public Pe$onnel SJstetu for tbe Cit! oJ Freedonia

WERI LEA$'rNc OBjxc,rnrs MEr?Ieaming Objectiue 1:Meet the ifisffumentalrequlfement oI a public buman resoafces management corc colrrse i tbe MPA ptogram

A majority of students believed the amount andquality of infofmalion gleaned ftom r€adings,lec-ffes, discussion, research, and access to copies of allfinal unit reports was sufficient to und€rsland allpublic personnel functions or functional cluste$.Nearly 70 percent of students thought dr€ FreedoniaProj€ct m€t their leafling nceds b€tter than themorc traditiooal approach. Thes€ results suggest thatthis l€afling objective was achieved.

Ielrnlng Obiectiue 2: Make explicit the hW degrceof interdependence behteen and amofig tbe sixf nctiofial elemehts of Public buman resources

As detailed under SemesterActivities, above, everyeffoft was made to facilit4te and reinforce uoder-standing of ftlnctional interdependenc€, and thre€measures determined whether students succeededin coming to appreciate such. First, as studentswo*ed in earnest on their filral unit reports, th€ycame to know that they could not prcpafe 4 compe"tent final report until th€y interacted and sharedin-folmatiod with othcr units. For example,ln oneiteration, a Recruitrnent/Examination/Selcction llnitquickly r€alized that it could not do its job compe-tently until the Classification/Comp€nsation Urlithad done its job.The latter, howevc! had reached thesame conclusion at about the same tifie aod, it thenext class meeting, deljver€d a preliminary draft ofjob classifications they believed were appropriate forboth DP\tr and DPS. Iater i the process, the lwounits also worked with the Equal EmploymentOppoftunity/ Diversity Unit to develop a realisticcompensation proEmm,

As another example, members of one EmployeeTraining and Development Unit rcalized that theyhad to deqign raining .md dfvelopm.nr progrrm\ insteps. That is, they first designed some generic rain-ing pro$ams (€.e. , employee orientafionj div€fsitytraining, sexual harassment prcvention), which theycould do wilhout much input from other units,

because those programs would be nfforded to €yeryFreedonia employ€e-At the same time, they reaiizedthey could not design a projected needs-specifictraining program until they knew more about iobclassifications,recruitment strategies,and equalemployment oppof tudty/diversity mendat€s. Theythercfore made good use of theb tim€ early in the$emestet on the genedc prcgmms, and later commu-nicated $'ith thos€ other units to dev€lop needs-spe,ciic training programs.

The second measure concerncd whethet the"nha! moment" (Robertson, 1997) affived for amaiority of students.The mid-term examinationoffered rhe potential for the "4hal mr,menr-lo arri\esooner |.ther than later, becaus€ it ask€d a singlespecific question aboul ftrnctionel jntetdependence.Review of all 90 exams indicat€s that most stude[tsdrought carefully aboul this question;and thal manypresented perfectly defenslble fespons€s to thequestion. One student,in fact,said this exam causedhim to bolt upright tn bed one night when rhe "ahal

moment"-however inopportun€ the timing-madells appeafance.

For most strdents, ho'q/ever, the recognitions€€med to arrive toward the end of tIe semester asstudents began to pi€ce togethef th€if written unitrepofts.This is both good and brd.lt is good becausethe moment, indeed, dld appear for most stud€nts. Iti5 hdd hecrurc thc level of frustration e\hjbired b)some students ovef dre cours€ of the sem€st€r indicared Ihey simply werc nol [r)der]lrnd'ng it. S'ncelirstration can b€ a conspicuous impediment toleaflring, metlods for facilitating th€ momenfsappearance earlief in the pfocess may be rcquifed.

At the same time, ol1e of the projccts obiectivesis to help students hone theil critical thinking skils.Frustration can be necess,.ry and useful to that end,Critical thinking is work, and ftustmtion is integal tothe competent synthesis and analysis thft may besaid to undergifd d€velopm€lt of good cdtical think'ing skills.This aspect of the project. then, is one theinstmctor would want to monitor closely, but maynot want necessarily to change inrmediately,

Th€ third measure involved the quality of thefinal unil reports. Higher'fmctioning student goups

282 Jaumal ofPuhli( Affatrs Educahan

t€nded to id€trtit coffecdy and to include from themid-telm exams th€ best responses on functionalinterdependence. Perhaps pr€dictably, the lowerflmctioning groups did not farc as well, but mor€than a suggestion of appreciation of imctional inter-dependence certainly was pres€nt in their final lnritrepons.Thken together, thetr, th€ measurcs used toderermine wherhcr srudenls had gained an apprecia-tion and understandlu of function,tl interdepen-dence indicate that the project met this leirningobiective quite capably

It should be noted that tru€ independence, asVygotsky intends the term, wa$ niely achieved with-in $oups, although it certainly was among individualstude s, That may w€ll be a function not only ofdisparities in individual capacity and willingless towork, but also of th€ degr€e 10 which some studentswefe able to move outside their comfort zone",while o$crii were nor. Moreover. allhough rhrFrcedonia Prqed was designed as a vrhole authenticactMt}i it also w,rs clear that some students did notfeel the deed for d€v€lopment to occur,This is acommon dLfficulry, however, and is likely never to beeliminated.

Leamlng ObJecttue 3:Help students bo e tbeb crtthal th/nkl.ng sk ls

Ba$ara Cohen (1994) distlrguishes betweenclnssroom activities that are procedurally cle,!r, wh€nlearning objectives attend to'routine academiclearingl' atd "illstructured" activities that s€rv€ to

Buiuing a Public Perionnel SJst.m for tbe Cit]) af Freedania

prcmote "learning fof urderstanding" or "corceptual'

ly leaming" (4).The kcy here is that th€ kind andquality of interaction must be appropfiate 1() theacriviiy rype. Hence. for rourhe academic lerming.the desiffd interacdon irvolves helping behavior.when students "help each other to understand whatthe teacher or the text book is saying and [when stu-d€trtsl off€r each oth€r substantiv€ and procedurilinfonMtion" (4).

Lt contfast, ill"stfuctur€d, noffoutine activities, fotwhich'therc are no standard recipes or procedures"(Cohen, 1994,8), rcquire int€raction that should be"mote of a mulual exchange prccess in which ideas,h)'potheses, $trntegies, and speculations are shar€d"(4). For this type of activity, Cohcn advances dr€proposition that gfoup succ€ss and productivity willdepend not only upon the quality, but upon th€ fre-quency of, such interaction (1994,8).

The Freedonia ltroject pnes€nts a number of ill'structufed tnsks that call for students to not onlyexhibit higher"order int€mction skill$ but also toappreclate clrcularity and integratiod.As noted, stll.dents g€nerally rose to the occasion for the instru-mental tasks und€r discus$ion; however, their effortstend€d to be directed toward task completion alone,and they se€med not only disinterested but quiteresistant to an un-famlllar int€raction method.This isnot to sugSest that stud€nts were disrcspectfrtl ofdismissive with one another;but only that they didnot or could nor relinquish lonS-J'racticed communi-cationy'interaction methods.

Table 2. Characteristics of HiSher-Functioning Groups

Higher-functioning groups t€nded to. have a preponderance ofSenerally motivated members of hiSh capacity.. be good students who also tended to be leaders both in th€ classroom and on the iob.. exhibit a high degree of frustration not only with the pace at which other,less motivated or capable mem-

bers worked, but with the quality ofthe those students'work.

Lower-functioning groups tended to be. less capable or motivated, and whose members t€nded to fide into the backround.! students content to take a "free rid€" on the coattails of their more capable colleagues or who allowed

srronSer members to "sreamroll' rhem.. content with producing what might be called a "lowest common denominator" final unir report.

Jout'nal of Public Affails ELhlcation 283

BuikitnB a Publi. Pt Fon\cl SJ,Jt.n lot lh t t0 of tricdonta

It also is not 10 sugg€st that students did not orwould not h€lp one atrother For example, in all iter-ations, inlomation shafing anong and betweengroups w,rs conmonplace, but this activity fdllsclcanly into Cohen's "routjne acadenic lealning" cat-egory which, in tum, falls fer short of the inlent fortlle project.

Th€ final unit rcports, both orril and wdtten, wercthe pdmary measure of whether students hadimprcved or honed their critical thinking skills.Asmight be expecled, l'righer-funclioning groups faredbett€r herc than the lower-functiofling froups.Th€

nLl,'mness of making u ir aesignments (drrwinSnam€s from a hat) r€sulted, of course, ir randomn€ssof gJoup compositioo. Erecudon of the prcject,however, led me to identiry a number of factors thath€lped distinguish higher"functioning from low€r-tunctioning €iroups (e.9., Schein, 1980t Goodman,Ravltn, and Schminke, 1987;Zandef, 1979). Th€sefactors app€ar inTabl€ 2.

In sum, using the final unit reporls as the mea"sure, did th€ pmject belp sndents hone their cdti-cal thinking skills? The quality of tle final unitreports generally dep€nd€d upon the quallty ofSroup cap4ciqi interaction, and motivation. In $omeca$es) the r€ports exhibit€d quite sophisticat€d lev-els of s)'nthesis and analysis. In others, the reportswere run-of-rhe-mill, unlnsplred, and exblblted low,or minimum,levels of synthesis and Analysis.Th€r€spons€ to dre questioD at the top of this pam-g$ph, then, is "it depends]

CoNcLUSIoNAs might be expected, th€ Fre€donia Project can

lay claim both to strengths and to weaknesses, Forthe most part, however, it seems that contimredexploration and remediation of the Prcject's weak'nc\r(s rnd . , rnl i r l l |ed hui lding ulnrn i rs .rr fngrhscan €nhance its value for teaching public humanr€soufces management in an MPA program.

Norrsl. ftc nme "F €edooia'ms aPl)otriared rmm the 191:l Md

Brodre^ ndie Drdl 5br2.2. lhe ntionde for .rerting this nnction d6tu pdiornmce

amEls.ylmnotion/disipline, en€r8ed for M re6oN.lnst, drdde only so moy .lacs meetin&s ln a single seneftr md one oii€nnust be a bit creltive so thlt cnough tlne Ls ruoned for .ovenSe of

bst tiE topic ftas secod,since pmnotion or dilciplinc crn6 nom, or can be decled bx pefonadce aplii*rl, it nde*.se to Soup dresenxrdion reas

3. "Gnnd FenwLk'also Ms ao)ml)riated fmn tbe novies lre nto6e

,i. A$LmptioN rbonl oveft! menplqnent *E scllded Ths {rssindy a. ov€selt, aM win be included in tuiE itemtiotu.

t. Opi.s of th€se bri€f wrireLps ar€ ruihbl€ upor re$est.AltcrndvelJl a good public l)edonnel ma.ag€oent sn€I tel:t ortao .an lovlde enou8h baslc lnlom ion fo. irbtnctos to dsel

6. cla$d neet ln the.hou in emenL\i orc cvcnldg lc scek' addeach of fie 3ix ftncdonal e$/.lo$e!s cdn bc 4ddr$cd ln roughlyooe and-lltrli cla$ se$iotrs.

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Building 6 Ptrblic Pe$ofiiql Sfstemfor the Ci\t of Freedonir.l

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Marthr J. Dede is m Nsistdr profesor of public adninistFtid itr the Cndlate Cenr€r foi hbltc Poltcy and A&ninisrrution 4tCalifonia State University Long !ech, whft she also is di€cror of rhe Bueru of Governmmt R€*dch md SeFice. Ed rsedhintertsts inchde pedagogX .midlm development, and dessment of student l@ing our.omes in p$lic administration maiter'sprc8rlnq md the vic role of nonprofit orgmizatiotr in deno@$c goyemance. She is in the pmccss of dereloping . concentnrionin nonprcnt nmagdent for |he tDng !€ich MPA poslm. Her most recflt cuicular imovarion rv6 a Anftatelev€l sufvey coutrin nonpmft m|negement, taudt for the fst tiDe in spdng 2002,That course, which had a sb6tative swiceleming componenr,wil sffi d the temDlaF f' the nonDrofit concdtmtion colrfs.

loumal of Public A,ffctbs Eclucrltion 285