COMPONENTE SOCIOECOSISTÉMICO El componente socioecosistémico aporta a la

Transition from personnel management to HRM

Public services agencies in Australia until the mid-1980s were bureaucratic in structure and processes and often characterised by a functional demarcation of responsibilities within a highly centralised environment (Hughes, 1998, p. 177). This meant that personnel management was the responsibility of a personnel manager, with all administrative aspects of staff management being passed to this office. The normal procedure when staffing issues arose was for line managers to refer them to the personnel section for attention. The personnel manager kept all records associated with a person’s career, in addition to enforcing the legislative provisions concerning that employment. A high value was placed on the importance of the career service; staff entered at junior levels and, with experience and education, moved through the organisation to more senior levels (Exhibit 7.3).

The career service model has a long history, having been developed from the Northcote-Trevellyan inquiry in the United Kingdom from 1854. This review sought, among other things, to abolish patronage and nepotism in public

Points for reflection

Reflect on an organisation with which you are familiar. 1 Is the approach to HRM hard or soft, unitary or pluralist?

2 How does the approach affect the way people are managed in the workplace? 3 What improvements do you believe could be made to the human resource

function?

■ Recruitment by merit.

■ Unified service offering mobility across agencies.

■ Independent, non-political control of recruitment and conditions of employ- ment.

■ Rights of career public servants protected by regulations that discourage the recruitment of outsiders to positions above the base grade.

■ Legislated protection against arbitrary dismissal. ■ Hierarchical structure of positions.

■ Regular system of position classification of salaries with incremental salary adjustments within each classification.

■ Promotion based on merit. ■ Appeals against promotions.

■ Distinctive retirement and pension system to reward staff for long and loyal service. Source: RCAGA, 1976. EXHIBIT 7.3 Characteristics of the career service

sector appointments and promotions, and led to the emergence of centralised oversight of personnel.

The influence of the scientific management movement from the early years of the 1900s meant that a centralised approach to people management was maintained. It also entrenched a bureaucratic organisational design with its strict hierarchy, rigidity of processes and narrow job classifications. The scientific management approach tended not to give priority to the human side of work, and it was not until the Second World War with labour in short supply that managing people assumed greater importance.

The role of personnel managers until the 1970s was primarily an admin- istrative one, with the major concerns being efficiency, stability of operations and productivity (O’Neill and Kramar, 1996). Personnel managers became the custodians of data for record-keeping purposes with a compliance, rather than a strategic, focus. In the Commonwealth, compliance was facilitated through two primary mechanisms: (1) the Public Service Act 1922, which provided an extensive array of rules for managing staff; and (2) the Public Service Board, with responsibility to ensure that service-wide standards were maintained.

The reforms of the 1980s shifted the focus from compliance to the strategic advantage to be derived from improved management of staff. This was consistent with the private sector approaches on which the reforms were modelled. To signal this shift, the terminology ‘personnel management’ was replaced with ‘human resource management’ (although initially HRM in the public sector remained compliance-driven despite the name change).

7.2 HRM IN NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT

The reformation of HRM under new public management has been undertaken in a series of stages and parallels the first and second waves of strategic HRM. Public services are now characterised by both decentralisation and devolution of HRM functions, a renewed focus on strategy rather than process, and a stronger link between HRM, industrial relations and management.

Adopting a strategic orientation

The Financial Management Improvement Program of the mid-1980s (see Chapter 6) was instrumental in encouraging a stronger strategic approach to the management of government agencies. The more strategic orientation resulted in significant refinement of government programs and ways of doing things, replacing the previous more bureaucratic approach. Programs and intended outcomes were identified, and HRM changes occurred within this program format.

Devolving and decentralising HRM

The machinery of government changes resulting from the Efficiency Scrutiny Unit Report led to the abolition of the Public Service Board in 1987, to be replaced by the Public Service Commission. Subsequently, the Merit Protection and Review Agency was subsumed into the Public Service Commission, which became known as the Public Service and Merit Protection Commission (PSMPC).

The new structure resulted in some HRM functions being decentralised to other central agencies, with responsibility for other functions devolved to line agencies. Financial control of staffing matters was given to the Department of Finance. Responsibility for pay and conditions, human resource develop- ment, industrial relations and industrial democracy within the Australian Public Service fell to the Department of Industrial Relations. The Department of Employment, Education and Training assumed responsibility for training policy; the Public Service Commission assumed responsibility for Senior Executive Service (SES) staffing policy, recruitment and qualifications, merit, promotion, discipline, equal employment opportunity (EEO), grievance review, retirement, redundancy and redeployment (PSC, 1994). Functions devolved to line agen- cies included recruitment, EEO, performance, conflict resolution, and training and development, with the Public Service Commission retaining an advisory role in such matters (Exhibit 7.4). These changes were to impact heavily on

■ Provides advice to the government on the Australian Public Service (APS). ■ Provides advice to agency heads and managers on strategic people manage-

ment.

■ Supports the implementation of government policy on the APS in matters such as the APS Values, the code of conduct, ethics and workplace diversity. ■ Facilitates and supports quality people management and organisational per-

formance.

■ Contributes to effective leadership in the APS.

■ Facilitates and provides APS-wide development and training to meet current and emerging needs.

■ Administers and facilitates understanding of relevant legislation including the Public Service Act and the Merit Protection Act.

■ Evaluates and reports on the performance of the APS through the Public Service Commissioner’s State of the Service Report, and reports on demo- graphic information.

■ Makes information on the nature and composition of the APS accessible to the community.

The PSMPC also provides advice and assistance to agencies, on a fee-for-service basis, in areas such as training and development, and management of excess and surplus staff.

Source: www.psmpc.gov.au/about/role2.htm EXHIBIT 7.4

Role of the PSMPC

the uniform system that had existed, breaking down common terms and conditions of employment across agencies. Recent reforms to the industrial relations legislation through the Workplace Relations Act 1996 have reinforced these differences as agencies develop enterprise-based agreements.

While extensive, the central coordinating roles of the PSMPC represent a significant reduction in functional responsibilities and power possessed by the former Public Service Board. The effect of this reform was to remove uniformity of the public service employment conditions, although providing greater flexibility for departmental executives in their particular agencies. Devolving employment functions created the potential for inequities across agencies to exist. Until the mid-1990s there was concern about the continued fragmentation of HRM activities (PSMPC, 1995, p. 2), but with the recent changes to the industrial relations legislation this concern has been dismissed as agencies adopt strategies and practices suitable to their respective mandates and conditions. The increasing fragmentation has further reduced the role of the PSMPC and eroded the traditional notions of the career service that had been in existence for more than a century.

From HRM to employment relations

Throughout the 1990s, industrial relations developments have continued to reinforce HRM as a concern for all organisations. In adopting approaches to HRM which include greater use of contracts, enterprise and sub-group bargaining, and flexible conditions of service, public sector HRM is converging with private sector practices. This has been reinforced by the enactment of the Public Service Act 1999 and the Workplace Relations Act 1996 (see Chapter 9).

There have been concerns expressed about this convergence when it appears to challenge some of the previous achievements of HRM within the public sector, such as equity and access. For example, some indicators of diversity management in the Australian Public Service are showing signs of regression, possibly because compliance is not as rigidly enforced (see Chapter 8). With the introduction of the Public Service Act 1999 (legislation consistent with the

Workplace Relations Act 1996), accountability for HRM performance indicators has been curtailed and replaced with a limited sanction model for poor performance. In what is becoming labelled as an employment relations approach, roles are becoming more congruent with a unitarist model of HRM (Exhibit 7.5).

These roles require significant and complex skills in HRM, and it is doubtful that many professional human resource managers, let alone line managers, would possess most of these skills. As a consequence, some public sector agencies have chosen to outsource their HRM function. Exhibit 7.6 provides a case study of one Commonwealth agency which has adopted this strategy. It is likely that other agencies will follow this practice.

7.3 THEPUBLIC SERVICE ACT 1999—OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW?

There had been concern by practitioners and politicians that the Public Service Act 1922 was creating rigidities and inefficiencies. Managers wanted to have

Points for reflection

1 Does the outsourcing of HRM fit with Carrell et al.’s principles of HRM (Exhibit 7.2)?

2 Consider the impact of outsourcing the HRM function on staff in an agency with which you are familiar. Who would be the winners and losers in the workplace if this approach to people management were to occur?

■ Establishment, monitoring and control of equal employment and affirmative action.

■ Negotiation of agreements to the satisfaction of staff and the organisation with either individuals, workgroups and/or unions.

■ Selection, recruitment and induction of staff. ■ Occupational health and safety.

■ Establishment of workplace training programs. ■ Processing of staff records.

■ Preparation for any tribunal hearings that may eventuate from staff grievances.

Source: Adapted from PSMPC, 1999b.

EXHIBIT 7.5