TY - JOUR

T1 - HR development in local government

T2 - how and why does HR strategy matter in organizational change and development?

AU - Bruns, Hans Jürgen

N1 - Funding Information: Recruiting/short-term training: Minor, weak linkage, internal recruiting and training on the job ‘learning by doing’, partial support by financial consultants (external) Objective setting/rewards: Minor, weak linkage, ‘planned project’ drawing on ‘NKF’-implementation

PY - 2014/6/1

Y1 - 2014/6/1

N2 - Human resource (HR) management has been proposed as being one of the core drivers of the modernization of the public sector, in particular with reference to the changing nature of people management and ‘HR-public service partnerships’ as an antecedent capacity of modernizing public service organizations. Notwithstanding the ongoing interest in the transformation of HR systems, this study explores how and why such relationships between HR management (HRM) and organizational change emerge. Considering a resource and capability-based approach, the analysis reveals strategic HRM practices as a useful concept to distinguish HR activities and the processes that are occurring when a HR strategy is performed. Moreover, using a multiple case study design, the study exhibits the antecedents and effects of HR strategy formation during accounting change in six German local governments. The results provide evidence that forces of either strategic or administrative patterns of alignment refer to different layers and the sequencing of HRM activities within a process of HR system change, thereby revealing the possibility of contradictory effects induced by HR change agency on either the ‘HR’ or the ‘public service’ side of the strategic coin.

AB - Human resource (HR) management has been proposed as being one of the core drivers of the modernization of the public sector, in particular with reference to the changing nature of people management and ‘HR-public service partnerships’ as an antecedent capacity of modernizing public service organizations. Notwithstanding the ongoing interest in the transformation of HR systems, this study explores how and why such relationships between HR management (HRM) and organizational change emerge. Considering a resource and capability-based approach, the analysis reveals strategic HRM practices as a useful concept to distinguish HR activities and the processes that are occurring when a HR strategy is performed. Moreover, using a multiple case study design, the study exhibits the antecedents and effects of HR strategy formation during accounting change in six German local governments. The results provide evidence that forces of either strategic or administrative patterns of alignment refer to different layers and the sequencing of HRM activities within a process of HR system change, thereby revealing the possibility of contradictory effects induced by HR change agency on either the ‘HR’ or the ‘public service’ side of the strategic coin.

KW - Human resource strategy

KW - Multiple case study design

KW - Organizational change

KW - Resource and capability-based view

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85058340507&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s40685-014-0002-z

DO - 10.1007/s40685-014-0002-z

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85058340507

VL - 7

SP - 1

EP - 49

JO - Business Research

JF - Business Research

SN - 2198-3402

IS - 1

ER -