Decentralization of HR Functions

Abstract

In the past two decades, nearly every country in the world has felt the urge to decentralize some of its human resource (HR) functions. This article uses Singapore as a case study to illustrate how this urge has been addressed in civil service reforms during the past two decades. In so doing, the article also highlights the necessity as well as the theoretical and practical implications of the decentralization process to the organizational arrangement of HR functions in the civil service of Singapore. The article concludes that, as countries seek to decentralize HR functions in the civil service, understanding how this process works is cardinal to enhancing coordination and the efficient delivery of public services. For without this understanding, it is not possible to determine which functions must be decentralized and which ones must not be. Some popular myths and misconceptions about decentralization are also explored.

Administrative Values and Public Personnel Management

“…The past 35 years have seen significant experiments in the decentralization of virtually all functions of public personnel administration to strengthen managerial flexibility and allow line mangers to exercise more discretion (Brewer, 2000; Coggburn, 2001; Elling & Thompson, 2006; Feeney & Rainey, 2010; Jordan & Battaglio, 2014; Kettl, 1997; Tessema, Soeters, & Ngoma, 2009). Advocates for this reform argue that it will improve the government’s ability to recruit, select, manage, and retain employees.…”

Corrupção no Setor Público: Agenda de Pesquisa e Principais Debates a Partir da Literatura Internacional

“…Os dados secundários mais referenciados nos estudos que realizaram pesquisa documental, considerando toda amostra da pesquisa, foram os seguintes: (a) Published Documents, Media Reports; (b) Official Documents, Newspaper Reports; e (c) Police Documents, unpublished documents (Gong & Zhou, 2015;Cobarzan, Dragos, & Neamtu, 2008;Peisakhin & Pinto, 2010;Peacock & Cordner, 2016;Tessema, Soeters, & Ngoma, 2009) .…”

Enhancing HR shared service centers through resource orchestration: uncovering the dynamic capabilities of the administrative expert

“…The centralization-decentralization discourse is also conducted in the HRM literature and has resulted in many empirical studies (e.g. Kirkpatrick, Davies et al 1992, Hou, Ingraham et al 2000, Quintanilla and Ferner 2003, Schmitt and Sadowski 2003, Hays and Sowa 2006, Redman, Snape et al 2007, Tessema, Soeters et al 2009, Meyer and Hammerschmid 2010. These studies, however, focus on centralization and decentralization as alternative models instead of on their combination.…”