Page:LewisMeriam-TheProblemOfIndianAdministration.djvu/194

Administrative Needs in Field of Personnel. Thus, to cite the principles which should govern in this field of personnel administration, so vital to the success of the Indian Service, is simple enough; and it is believed they will receive fairly ready acceptance in the abstract. The main question is how they are to be made administratively effective in a service containing approximately five thousand employees scattered to a degree scarcely equalled in any other branch of the government that approaches the Indian Service in its diversity of activities.

Need of Chief Personnel Officer. The primary need to make these principles administratively effective is to secure for the Indian Service a well trained, experienced chief personnel officer, who will devote all his time to the problems of personnel administration. His position should be classified in Grade 5 of the professional and scientific service with a salary from $5200 to $6000. He should have a liberal allowance for traveling expenses and for assistance, both clerical and technical. It is believed that about $15,000 would be required, in addition to what is now spent, for personnel records and employees to maintain them. It is difficult to think of any other way in which that amount could be spent that would do more in raising the level of the Indian Service, because it is a service in which personnel is the outstanding dominant factor.

The chief personnel officer would be a staff, not a line, officer. He would not directly administer anything except his own work and that of his immediate assistants. He would advise the Commissioner and the other chief administrators, both in the Washington office and in the field, in matters of general policy and procedure affecting personnel. In matters affecting individuals and particular situations his function would be to investigate and report, to recommend action, not to take action. Power to take action should be left in the administrative line. The function of this officer should be solely to give expert advice and the results of investigations made by a real specialist, not himself, directly involved in the administrative action which is being investigated.

His duties, briefly stated, would be somewhat as follows:

1. To know the duties and responsibilities of all the positions in the Indian Service and the qualifications required for the adequate performance of those duties. In order to get this knowl-