Strategic Human Resources Management in Government: Unresolved Issues.(Brief Article)

An alternative understanding of what it means to manage human resources strategically has been suggested by Eugene McGregor.[24] The role of the personnel office, according to this understanding, is to help "manage strategic resources strategically." It begins from the premise that many, if not most, government jobs are knowledge-intensive, involving the creation of knowledge or the creation of "smart products" through the application of "trained intelligence." Where this is the case, the intellectual capital stored within the workers becomes the critical resource for the organization and must therefore be viewed as a strategic resource. Managing this strategic resource strategically involves determining essential knowledge, skills, and abilities; improving recruitment and selection methods; developing the capacities of all employees so that the agency can respond to any opportunity or threat appearing on the horizon; and fostering employee commitment so that human capital is not lost to other employers. In short, this alternative understanding envisions a personnel office pursuing an ongoing, integrated program for enhancing organizational performance by acquiring, developing, and managing human resources strategically.

With these observations in mind, it is possible to suggest an expanded, two-pronged approach to SHRM in which the personnel office, in addition to helping the agency implement strategic initiatives, also carries out an integrated personnel program guided by a coherent theory or philosophy about what it means to manage human resources strategically. A theory or philosophy of this kind specifies how human resources must be treated, how much money must be invested in developing human capital, the kind of culture and work climate that must be established, and the specific attitudes and behaviors that must be elicited if the agency is to achieve its vision of success. That personnel offices are rarely guided by such a theory has been cited as the primary reason for their low institutional standing.[25] If the personnel office succeeds in developing such a theory in consultation with agency officials and legislative bodies, the next step is to identify and implement appropriate human resource strategies. Six human resource strategies are identified in Figure 2. Although these strategies are neither exhaustive nor mutually exclusive, they nonetheless serve to illustrate the connections between values and vision, desired outcomes, and the programmatic means by which to realize them.

The cost-containment strategy tends, in practice, to serve as a default strategy. Although it is antithetical to McGregor's understanding of what it means to manage strategic resources strategically, it is often the strategy of choice among elected officials concerned with holding the line on labor costs and budget increases. Where there is no agreed upon vision of success, nor any theory regarding the strategic importance of human resources to agency performance, other strategies tend to receive little attention. However, the convergence of several factors in recent years, including tighter labor markets, a growing proportion of high-skill and knowledge-intensive jobs, a better educated workforce with heightened growth needs, and political pressures to improve government performance, has turned attention to alternative strategies. The performance management strategy, for example, has been adopted in jurisdictions where the values and assumptions of the managing-for-results movement have gained sway.[26] Similarly, because most government employees are knowledge workers who can sell their intellectual capital on the open market, many agencies are turning to a combination of the investment, involvement, and retention strategies to attract, develop, and retain the human resources they need to provide knowledge intensive services in an ever changing environment. The investment strategy in particular reflects a growing awareness that human competence is the engine behind the creation of value.[27]

The strategies or combination of strategies chosen, if any, depends on situational factors such as the nature of the work performed by agency staff, the agency's capacity for pursuing excellence, and the priorities of its leaders. Political and practical factors often divert attention from developing a human resource philosophy or expending funds to put it into practice. Indeed, as McGregor has noted, "in the minds of many a case-hardened practitioner, the idea of strategic public-sector human resource management may well be an oxymoron."[28] But if the prospects for implementing SHRM in the public sector are uncertain, the concept itself represents a valuable goal toward which to strive.

Conclusion

The concept of SHRM as outlined above calls upon the personnel office to adopt a strategic role in addition to its operational roles as rule enforcer and guardian of the integrity of personnel systems. For the personnel staff, adopting a strategic role means being more responsive to agency goals by acting as consultants and service providers to line managers; supporting the attainment of the agency's strategic objectives; and carrying out an integrated, philosophy-driven personnel program. Although the concept of SHRM is steeped in problematic, rationalistic assumptions, it nonetheless holds considerable promise for enhancing government performance. Its success depends on whether the personnel office can integrate its strategic and operational roles successfully and whether it can satisfy the norms of political and formal rationality simultaneously. Too much is at stake for this potentially valuable concept to become a label for yet another failed management initiative.

Notes

[1.] Tichy, Noel M., Charles J. Fombrun, and Mary Anne Devanna, "Strategic Human Resource Management," Sloan Management Review 23 (Winter 1982): 47-61; Cynthia A. Lengnick-Hall and Mark L. Lengnick-Hall, "Strategic Human Resources Management: A Review of the Literature and a Proposed Typology," Academy of Management Review 13 (July 1988): 454-470; Randall Schuler, "Strategic Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations," Human Relations 42 (No. 2 1989):157-184.

[2.] National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA), A Guide for Effective Strategic Management of Human Resources (Washington D.C.: NAPA, 1996).

[3.] Berry, Frances Stokes and Barton Wechsler, "State Agencies' Experience with Strategic Planning: Findings from a National Survey," Public Administration Review 55 (March/April 1995): 159-168.

[4.] Poister, Theodore H. and Gregory Streib, "Management Tools in Municipal Government: Trends over the Past Decade," Public Administration Review 49 (May/June 1989): 240-248.

[5.] Poister and Streib, "Management Tools," 244.

[6.] Kissler, Gerald R., Karmen N. Fore, Willow S. Jacobson, William P. Kittredge, and Scott L. Stewart, "State Strategic Planning: Suggestions from the Oregon Experience," Public Administration Review 58 (July/August 1998): 353-359.

[7.] Wheeland, Craig M., "Citywide Strategic Planning: An Evaluation of Rock Hill's Empowering Vision," Public Administration Review 53 (January/February 1993): 65-72.

[8.] Bryson, John M., Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations: A Guide to Strengthening and Sustaining Organizational Achievement (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1995).

[9.] Bryson, John M. and William D. Roering, "Applying Private-Sector Strategic Planning in the Public Sector," Journal of the American Planning Association 53 (Winter 1987): 9-22.

[10.] Osborne, David and Ted Gaebler, Reinventing Government (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1992).

[11.] Bryson, Strategic Planning; Paul C. Nutt and Robert W. Backoff, Strategic Management of Public and Third Sector Organizations (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1992).

[12.] Bryson, Strategic Planning.

[13.] Bryson and Roering, "Applying Private-Sector Strategic Planning," 15.

[14.] Mintzberg, Henry, The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning (New York: Free Press, 1994).

[15.] NAPA, A Guide for Effective Strategic Management of Human Resources, 17.

[16.] Porter, Michael E., Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors (New York: Free Press, 1980); Schuler, "Strategic Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations."

[17.] Wechsler, Barton and Robert W. Backoff, "The Dynamics of Strategy in Public Organizations," Journal of the American Planning Association 53 (Winter 1987): 34-43.

[18.] Popovich, Mark G. (ed.), Creating High-Performance Government Organizations (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998).

[19.] Ulrich, Dave, "Strategic and Human Resource Planning: Linking Customers and Employees," Human Resource Planning 15 (June 1992): 47+.

[20.] NAPA, A Guide for Effective Strategic Management of Human Resources.

[21.] Perry, James L. and Debra J. Mesch, "Strategic Human Resource Management," in Public Personnel Management: Current Concerns, Future Challenges edited by Carolyn Ban and Norma M. Riccucci (New York: Longman, 1997), 21-34.

[22.] NAPA, A Guide for Effective Strategic Management of Human Resources, 53.

[23.] Perry and Mesch, "Strategic Human Resource Management."

[24.] McGregor, Eugene B., Strategic Management of Human Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1991).

[25.] Christensen, Ralph, "Where is HR?" Human Resource Management 36 (Spring 1997): 81-84.

[26.] Lawler, Edward E., Strategic Pay: Aligning Organizational Strategies and Pay Systems (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1990); Popovich, Creating High-Performance Government Organizations.

[27.] Christensen, "Where is HR?"; Lee Dyer and Gerald W. Holder, "A Strategic Perspective of Human Resource Management," in Human Resource Management: Evolving Roles and Responsibilities edited by Lee Dyer (Washington D. C.: Bureau of National Affairs, 1988): 1-46.

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