Human Resource Management in the Public and Private Sectors - Speech or Presentation Example

Meeting Human Resources Management In the Public versus the Private Sector HRM in the Public Verses Private Sector Name Institution HRM in the Public Verses Private Sector Parties present: Manager, Human Resources Division Line manager Transcript: Human Resources Manager: Good morning Mr [John Bruno] and welcome to the department, you requested this meeting to discuss some of the key differences between HR management in the private and public sectors? Line Manager: Good morning. Yes, as you know I am new to the department and have a background in private sector management. I just thought it would be a good idea to speak with you about some of the key differences between Human Resources Management in the Public Sector, and ask what you thought were the most important things that I need to know as a line manager working in the public-as opposed to the private-sector. Human Resources Manager: Actually, there are no major differences, but it is important to note some factors, which are important to consider while executing some of the HRM responsibilities. It is important to note that every Human Resource Management, irrespective of whether in public or private institutions, aims to create excellence in their organization and improve the level of productivityi. However, the public sector does not strive much for excellence within the market but every activity undertaken under the HRM is for personnel management. Such responsibilities ensure performance of HRM piecemeal functions such as compensation, performance appraisals, placement, and recruitment without linking such activities with business strategies. Nonetheless, private institutions always have strategies of acquiring their desired competitive advantage; as a result, the HRM not only undertake the normal duties but also ensure recruitment of effective, efficient, reliable, and result oriented employees. According to Reissner and Pagan’s article, “Generating employee engagement in a public–private partnership: communication management activities and employee experiences,” the aim of most private entities is to ensure growth of their business operations to the global marketsii. Therefore, private entities require excellence in expanding their businesses and go for High Performance Work System that requires Strategic HRM. With reference to the objectives, the private and public institutions differ. Within the public context, the HR practices are rule based, process oriented, rigid, and position secured in comparison to the management practices within the private sector. According to Truss (2010), in the article “The distinctiveness of human resource management in the public sector,” what matters the most in the private sectors is the result but not the rules in place to achieve the desired results. Moreover, in the private sectors performance counts and failures could lead to retrenchmentiii. In such line, it is important to note that some OCECD countries undertook public management reforms in the 1990s with an aim of converting the HR practices with those within the private sectors. Accordingly, countries like Australia and New Zealand are currently moving the public sector management practices in line with those of the private sector owing to the increasing influx of managers from the private sectors into public sectors, as outlined in Jiang, Shen and Mu’s article. “To Exert the Role of Enterprises Culture, to Achieve Effective Human Resources Management.”iv Generally, the public sectors include the governmental institutions, which require the HRM to incline their roles, and strategies with the already established and restricted rules and regulations since the institutions do not aim to make profit. Besides, public sectors aim to provide goods and services efficiently to people without focusing of the profit but the solution (as stated in McGurk’s article, “Management and leadership development in public service organizations.” Consequently, modification and introduction of the new modernized rules and strategies might be very difficultv. Within the private sectors, there is diversification in the roles of the HRM as organizational structure allows them to make adjustments and modification to ensure improved organizational performance and productivity of the employees. The private institutions permit changes on frequent basis to enable the achievement of the competitive edge, as there are no commonalities among various business organizations. It is critical to note that the HRM within the public sector involves carrying out the generic responsibilities, which include employee management and planning, recruitment, promotions, and training and placements (as stated in Yahiaoui, Anser, and Lahouel’s article, “Human Resource Management and Public Organizations.” However, the processes are procedure oriented which in turn assist in building up the bureaucratic culture within the public institutionsvi. However, within the private institutions, the HRM play significant role in ensuring proper development of the strategic objectives through human talent management strategies and creation of vibrant organization with the ability to compete efficiently without straining organizations processes. Through such activities, the HRM create institutional culture that is responsive for the changes within the business. According Rabossi (2011), in the article “Differences between public and private universities' fields of study in Argentina,” public sectors recruit workers through national and regional examinations including the internal and external recruitsvii. For most promotions, the public sector focuses on internal evaluation through appraisals and performance auditing. Selection of the college graduates is another method used which involves government plans to select graduates who are excellent in both study and morality to enable them have the required grassroots experience. However, within the private sector, the concept of recruitment differs as they consider employees critical in gaining and maintain the core competitive advantages. The recruitment channels used by private entities include internal recruitment, job fairs, campus recruitment, newspapers, and online and internal staff recommendations. From the analysis, a clear differences can be drawn in the recruitment channels within the two sectors. Line Manager: From some of the analysis, it is clear that there are significant differences that I would have to work on to ensure proper alignment of my HRM experience to achieve the outlined objectives. However, as you mentioned that there are significant efforts undertaken to align the practices within the public and private sector, are there any operational scope within the HRM practices that have registered successful outcomes? Human Resources Manager: Thank you. With reference to incorporation of the two management styles, much research have not yet been done; however, it as well offers you the opportunity to review the HR practices in such practices for further research to establish the significance and effectiveness of such practices. Consequently, the incorporation is important considering the number of private managers moving to public institutions. Some responsibilities also overlap which makes work easier although there is need to focus on the outlined regulations guiding the HRM practice within the public sectorsviii. The role of the HRM is to ensure provision of employees with the capacity to manage benefits, compensation, healthcare, record keeping, and promotion and advancement (as outlined in Desmarais and Abord’s article, “Are There Still Differences Between the Roles of Private and Public Sector Managers?” With reference to employer benefit, the role of the HR involves creating a management system of achieving the long-term objectives and plans with the state allowing the practitioners to undertake the studies, target, and execute long-term goals through outlined legal structure. For any institution, irrespective of whether public or private, there is need for sufficient growth of which HRM is the key. In Ponomariov and Boardman’s article, “Organizational Behavior and Human Resources Management for Public to Private Knowledge Transfer,” an effective management of the human resources within the public sector in critical to ensure the efficiency of the public service and quality of services that the state offers to the general publicix. Therefore, the HRM is the centre of expertise that would guarantee success of the services offered. Within the public sector, there are already existing broad policy directions and standards that would enable every employee to undertake and fulfil their respective responsibilities. However, such management is not easy, thus, the incumbent have to device mechanisms that would ensure corporation of all the workers. There are several strategies available and applicable within the public and private HRM context, which are important for the management of people. These strategies include frequent monitoring and reporting on people management through undertaking the public service employee survey and managing accountability through the framework; the HRM could as well ensure provision of guidance on performance management using programmes such as performance management for both the executives and the employees. Prior to the pieces of research conducted on the HRM within the private and public institutions, reveal contradictory concept on the similarity against dissimilarity. On the contrary, the traditional ideologies pronounce the need of having similarity between the two sectors: public and private. Based on the institutional theory, the similarity hypothesis holds that public sector institutions adopt similar HRM practices to those within the private sectors with an aim of acquiring legitimacy with regards to the demands for the escalating cost-effectiveness. In contrast, the institutions within the public sectors are still viewed to represent the softer management model and HRM that majorly emphasize on the operational activities and a reactive responsibility in relation to the strategy. There are three major factors distinguishing the public sectors from the private entities: the ownership, source of funding, and control. When considering the ownership, it is important to consider members of political communities against the entrepreneurs, the source of funding involves taxation against customers, and control involves the political against the market forces. Furthermore, the public sector HRM is associated majorly with the soft norms involving the application of the “model employers” which requires the public sectors to set the standards such as training and ensuring equal opportunities within the workplace. Such application differs from “hard” method used by the private institutions that is more formal and calculative. Line Manager: Thank for such a wonderful clarification. However, from the differences mentioned, I realize that the major difference lies within the legal structure and objectives. Human Resource Manager: Yes. Such structures are very important and must be adhered to at every aspect of human resource management to ensure conformity with the state standards. Line Manager: Thank you once more for the clear presentation; I do appreciate your effort References Desmarais, C., & Abord de Chatillon, E. (2010). Are There Still Differences Between the Roles of Private and Public Sector Managers? Public Management Review, 12(1), 127-149. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233366748_Are_There_Still_Differences_Between_the_Roles_of_Private_and_Public_Sector_Managers1 Jiang, M., Shen, Q., & Mu, Y. (2011). To Exert the Role of Enterprises Culture, to Achieve Effective Human Resources Management. 2011 International Conference on Management and Service Science, 5(2), 7-12. Sourced from; https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/institute-of-electrical-and-electronics-engineers/to-exert-the-role-of-enterprises-culture-to-achieve-effective-human-Ox6fi0rxuo McGurk, P. (2012). Management and leadership development in public service organizations. Human Resource Management in the Public Sector, 12(3), 153-176. https://www.academia.edu/5697022/Management_and_Leadership_Development_in_Public_Service_Organizations Ponomariov, B., & Boardman, C. (2012). Organizational Behavior and Human Resources Management for Public to Private Knowledge Transfer. OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers, 4(3), 1-52. doi:10.1787/5k9d4gt7mdbp-en Rabossi, M. A. (2011). Differences between public and private universities' fields of study in Argentina. Higher Education Management and Policy, 23(1), 1-20. doi:10.1787/hemp-23-5kgglbdlpd0t Reissner, S., & Pagan, V. (2013). Generating employee engagement in a public–private partnership: management communication activities and employee experiences. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(14), 2741-2759. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263616729_Generating_employee_engagement_in_a_public-private_partnership_Management_communication_activities_and_employee_experiences Truss, C. (2010). The distinctiveness of human resource management in the public sector. Human Resource Management in the Public Sector, 7(5), 17-36. http://www.elgaronline.com/view/9780857937315.00010.xml Yahiaoui, N., Anser, A., & Lahouel, S. (2015). Human Resource Management and Public Organizations. Global Journal of Human Resource Management, 3(2), 1-12. Retrieved from www.eajournals.org Endnotes Read More