Aliados

The concluding section returns to the bearing of developments in Ireland on the different views of the effects of the recession on HRM considered earlier. To take the commercial sector fi rst, it is clear that the recession has led to signifi cant changes in HR practices in fi rms as they have often struggled to respond to the commercial challenges unleashed. The dominant picture is one of retrench- ment, with fi rms implementing a variety of practices in different combinations or bundles to reduce payroll costs, while simultane- ously trying to maintain motivation and commitment on the part of their workforces. Relations with unions have been dominated by concession bargaining, where fi rms have traded pledges of improved employment security in return for pay freezes or reduc- tions, changes in working time and work practices, and sometimes redundancies for some staff.

HR functions have commonly become ‘leaner’ but also have fre- quently become more infl uential. No clear-cut change or disjuncture in work and employment arrangements, whether in the direction of the ‘market-driven workforce’/‘new employment deal’, or in the direction of a high commitment model, is evident in the Irish expe- rience. Although HR managers have often become more infl uential ‘business partners’, their newfound infl uence has been confi ned in the main to decision-making on measures for responding to immediate or short-term pressures. Their focus, like that of peer managers, has been on ‘working the pumps’. They have not com- monly used their new leverage to reposition HR in any radical way, either in response to the recession, or for recovery and growth – to some extent because the pressure of immediate challenges has allowed little time to focus on this. This was illustrated by the case study fi rms, selected for study because their approaches

to managing HR in the recession were widely admired by profes- sional peers and commentators. In these fi rms the main focus of senior HR executives has been on responding to immediate chal- lenges and for the most part on seeking to preserve pre-recession HR strategies and arrangements.

Overall, therefore, the pattern of response of Irish fi rms seems consistent with that perspective in the international literature that views fi rms in the recession as concerned in the main with imple- menting essentially pragmatic practices, geared to meeting current challenges, rather than with responding to recessionary condi- tions or opportunities by transforming or reconfi guring work and employment arrangements.

The picture in the public service is consistent with this perspec- tive. A series of changes have been made to weak and dysfunctional HR practices and systems and HR managers have responded to the recession largely in fi re-fi ghting mode. Concession bargaining, as provided for in the Croke Park and Haddington Road Agreements, has facilitated signifi cant reductions in headcount and payroll cost savings, changes in work practices and improved staff mobility. While there is clear evidence that private sector thinking and expe- rience is being brought to bear on the public service reform process, there is – at least as yet – no clearly articulated blueprint for the transformation of HRM in the public service.

Notes

1 _{The author would like to acknowledge the contribution of Paul Teague,}

Anne Coughlan and Majella Fahy to the research study on which this chapter draws. Research funding provided by the Labour Relations Commission is also acknowledged with gratitude.

2 _{For full technical details of the research see Roche et al. (2010).}

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