Human Resource Management in the Public Sector: Getting the Mix Right.

For much of the 20th century, the main governance structure and method of service delivery of the public sector in western democracies was the bureaucracy. In the late 20th century however, public choice theorists proposed that political self-interest, not public concern for providing a range of community services to citizens, caused significant growth in the size of government. Further, it was argued this growth was accompanied by inefficiencies aggravated by the absence of market competition. The response was the implementation of wide scale changes that have been variously described and grouped under New Public Management (NPM). The main thrust of NPM was that the public sector needed to be more market driven and therefore more like its private sector counterparts

Developmental managers: Line managers as facilitators of workplace learning in voluntary organisations

This research aims to identify the behaviours used by voluntary sector senior and first line managers when facilitating employee learning in the workplace. The thesis also considers the inhibitory behaviours used by line managers. The research topic is growing in importance given the increasing drive to devolve Human Resource Development responsibilities to line managers. Yet we have limited theoretical and empirical understanding of how managers deal with such responsibilities. Following an extensive literature review of the voluntary sector, learning, and the line manager as developer, five research questions were identified. These are: i. What do line managers do to facilitate learning. ii. What do line managers do to inhibit learning. iii. What motivates line managers to develop staff. iv. What influence do individual factors have on developmental behaviours. V. What influence do organisational factors have on developmental behaviours. Case study methodology, within the traditions of phenomenology, has been used to address these research questions The empirical research was conducted in two social care organisations in the voluntary sector. The culture and values of voluntary organisations provide relatively unexplored territory for management research and may provide an environment conducive for line managers to act as developers. Furthermore, exploration of the voluntary sector helps address a significant deficit in management knowledge. The findings reveal that environmental drivers such as the 'contract' culture created demand for learning in both organisations. Organisational factors such as organisational history, mission, strategy, structure, culture, the nature of the workforce, HRD strategy and learning climate all contributed to the nature of developmental interactions and relationships, and influenced the behaviour of line managers. In particular, the role of supervision in social care was seen to be significant. Individual factors such as educational background, career experience, learning style, motivation to learn and/or to support learning also influenced the growth of developmental relationships and the behaviours used by managers. The study has identified nine categories of facilitative behaviours: caring, informing, being professional, advising, assessing, thinking, empowering, developing developers and challenging. Eight categories of inhibitory behaviours, which mirror some of the facilitative behaviours, were identified and these are; being unassertive, not giving time, being task-orientated, withholding information, being dogmatic, not assessing, not thinking and controlling. The thesis concludes by discussing implications for theory and practice that have emerged from this study. This includes the presentation of a Developmental Manager model, a future research agenda and lessons for stakeholders, such as employers, HRD specialists, managers and the academic community. In this final chapter the author also engages in a process of epistemic reflexivity

Comparing the impact of management on public and private nurses in Bangladesh

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to use conservation of resources (COR) theory as a lens for comparing the impact of line management on Bangladeshi public and private nurses’ perception of work harassment, well-being and turnover intentions where Anglo-American and European management models have been super-imposed on an existing different culture. Design/methodology/approach Survey data were collected from 317 Bangladeshi nurses’ (131 from the public sector and 186 from the private sector). Structural equation modelling was used for analysis. Findings High work harassment was associated with low-being, and together with management practices, it explained approximately a quarter of private sector nurses’ well-being. In total, management, work harassment and employee well-being explained approximately a third of the turnover intentions of public sector nurses, whereas only work harassment explained approximately a third of private sector nurses’ turnover intentions. The findings suggest a differential impact of management on work harassment across the public and private sector. Research limitations/implications Cross-sectional data are susceptible to common method bias. A common latent factor was included, and several items that were explained by common method variance were controlled. Further, the findings are limited by the sample size from one sector and the use of only one developing country. Practical implications It is a waste of resources to transplant Anglo-American and European management models to developing countries without understanding the impact on nurses’ outcomes. Originality/value Anglo-American and European management models are not easily transferable to the Bangladesh context probably because of the impact of ties and corruption. Line management is a positive resource that builds employee well-being for public sector employees only

Comparing the impact of management on public and private sector nurses in the UK, Italy, and Australia

The research examined the impact of management upon employee outcomes (perceptions of discretionary power, well-being, engagement, and affective commitment), comparing public and private sector nurses in Australia, the United Kingdom, and Italy. Overall, 1,945 nurses participated in a self-report survey within these core- and laggard-New Public Management countries. While management influenced employee outcomes for each country, there were significant differences between the public and private sectors, with private sector nurses reporting higher perceptions of outcomes. Importantly, nurses’ engagement was affected by management practice for each country. This study raises important implications for nurse managers, especially public sector managers, described within