Competency management has become a new trend in the public sector. There is some doubt, however, if competency management is really something new or whether it is just old wine in new bottles. Academics seem to be more sceptical about its novelty than practitioners. This article attempts to...

Human resource management in the public sector does not take place in a vacuum. It is carried out within a regulatory framework of laws, rules and regulations. Recent times have witnessed commendable efforts by many African countries to embrace democratic governance with its trappings of...

This article aims to examine the effects of the best value policy initiative on the human resource function in Scottish local government. The article examines whether best value provides the human resource function with the opportunity and ability to perform strategically, rather than in a...

Calls for public accountability in higher education are widespread and higher educational organizations are under pressure to demonstrate “value for money” performance. Organizational self‐assessment is one response to the pressure for public accountability but self‐assessment exercises...

Purpose – In Europe, the alignment of national public administration policies and practices to EU directions is regarded as a key factor in the process of integration. Administrative convergence within European public administration systems places new demands on human resource managers in...

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to examine the role of various management functions within the complex multi‐layered and multi‐faceted history and structure that is the National Health Service (NHS) hospital service and explore the legitimacy of the role of human resource...

Purpose – The management of human resources is of crucial importance in enabling the delivery of efficient and effective services. The purpose of this paper is to explore one issue relevant to Human Resource Management, that is, the management of hospital doctors in the NHS. The present‐day...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse Malaysia's shift towards results‐based management in two key areas of the public service: budgeting and human resource management. More specifically, it shows how and to what extent the values of results‐based management have been...

Purpose – The overall purpose of this paper is to explore the limits of HRM in public sector organisations, within the context of international public management. The cultural basis of HRM, derived chiefly from North America and Western Europe continues to underpin public sector HR reforms,...

Purpose – This paper seeks to examine the practice of human resource management (HRM) in the UK voluntary sector. In recent years many voluntary sector organisations have experienced a changing context, where they have become increasingly involved in contracting for the provision of publicly...