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The concept of strategic human resources management (SHRM) holds considerable promise for improving government performance. However, to realize this promise, it is necessary to invest the concept with clear meaning. This article explores unresolved issues regarding the meaning of SHRM and its relevance to public organizations. Arguing that the value of the concept is undermined by tying it too closely to strategic planning, the article offers an expanded, two-pronged understanding of SHRM. The personnel office, in addition to helping the agency implement strategic initiatives, also carries out an integrated personnel program guided by a coherent theory about what it should be doing and why.

The purpose of this article is to explore the concept of parenting plans as a positive next step in the evolution of child custody law. After establishing the need for a postdivorce parenting scheme more responsive to the real needs of divorcing families, this article will then detail both the conceptual framework of parenting plans and the mechanics of how they actually work in one jurisdiction.

The present study focuses on political events in Montana in 1983 as changes in its veterans' preference law were debated and legislated. It analyzes the problems that veterans' preference requirements pose for personnel management and the actions taken by one state in response to them. Analysis of this case indicates that the restrictions placed on the scope of employment preference for veterans resulted, in large part, from concerns over the effects of veterans' preference requirements upon equal employment opportunities for women Similar concerns may be reflected in recent efforts by other states to restrict employment preference for veterans

AbstractThe ultimate aim of this paper is to examine the compromises which can be made in order to reach a point where measurement and computation are feasible in some of the quantitative aspects of the social sciences.The basic mathematical theories upon which the social sciences depend include:1. Linear attrition theory including Feller's abstract formulation of parabolic equations.2. Utility theory as a branch of the calculus of variations, described, for example, by G. E. Evans.3. Combination of utility theories and competition in many play games, including Bellman's theory of dynamic programming.Basic empirical aspects of the social sciences include:1. The acquisition of information about probability distributions, such as distribution of demand.2. The testing of hypotheses related to reality, such as a hypothesis of rational behavior as formulated and tested by J. Marschak.3. The intelligent formation of a priori Bayes probabilities and their correction as demanded by L. J. Savage in his The Foundations of Statistics and as carried out by W. A. Smith.4. Observations of value of various competitive situations, based on simulation, experience, or other valid means of practical realization of quantities introduced theoretically in dynamic programming studies.Practical considerations require action after limited observation of existing conditions, and limitations of computational facilities may prohibit complete numerical analysis of situations whose underlying parameters are believed to have been accurately evaluated. This leads to an almost epistemological question as to what can be learned through aggregation of data related to seemingly similar situations and to difficult mathematical questions of reducing the computational extent of problems. Some means of examining these questions will be treated, but the paper will not attempt to present a unified theory covering any substantial set of these problems.