An Emergent Taxonomy of Public Personnel Management: Exploring the Task Environment of Human Resource Managers in Spanish Local Government

• Author: Daniel M. Miller,Justo Herrera
• Published date: 01 December 2018
• DOI: 10.1177/0091026018791965
• Date: 01 December 2018
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026018791965

Public Personnel Management

2018, Vol. 47(4) 445 –471

© The Author(s) 2018

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DOI: 10.1177/0091026018791965

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Article

An Emergent Taxonomy

of Public Personnel

Management: Exploring the

Task Environment of Human

Resource Managers in Spanish

Local Government

Justo Herrera1 and Daniel M. Miller2

Abstract

This study presents a taxonomy for public personnel management based on emergent

profiles of local human resource managers in Spain. The analysis focuses on the

task environments of managers defined by three salient constructs from strategic

human resources management research. Specifically, this study looks at the level of

participation of human resource managers in strategic-level policy-making processes,

vertical and horizontal policy integration, and the flexibility of human resource

managers in interpreting and implementing key functions of personnel management

(i.e., recruitment, hiring, and remuneration). The results yield five distinct profiles

that describe different approaches of human resource management. The five

profiles include Technical Administrative (TA); Technical Functional (TF); Managerial

Administrative (MA); Managerial Functional (MF); and Strategic Executive (SE). The

profiles are not a linear typology of human resource management practices. However,

they do fit within a larger theoretical framework that captures central constructs of

strategic human resource management (SHRM).

Keywords

HRM, local government, strategic HRM, public administration, public management

1Universitat de Valencia, València, Spain

2ChangingSystems LLC, Greensboro, NC, USA

Corresponding Author:

Daniel M. Miller, ChangingSystems LLC, 404 Arrowhead Dr., Greensboro, NC 27410, USA.

Email: DanMMiller@aol.com

791965PPMXXX10.1177/0091026018791965Public Personnel ManagementHerrera and Miller

research-article2018

446 Public Personnel Management 47(4)

Introduction

Given the past two decades of global economic downturn, governmental agencies are

facing pressures to become more efficient and effective through reduced cost and

increased productivity. A critically important, yet costly element of every organization

is personnel. In both public and private sectors, personnel management is an area that

often garners a great deal of attention for enhancing efficiency and effectiveness

(Klingner, Nalbandian, & Llorens, 2010).

In the public sector, governmental functions range from relatively predictable

bureaucratic operations such as waste management to highly complex and adaptive

operations such as crisis response to human and/or natural disasters. Of the many gov-

ernment functions, personnel management impacts every division and agency.

Personnel management often spans a wide variety of functional units within an orga-

nization. Thus, personnel management functions (e.g., supervision, recruitment, train-

ing, remuneration, and evaluation) coexist with general organizational strategic and

operational aims and functions. Ideally, personnel management systems support the

well-being of employees and contribute to the effectiveness and efficiency of the

organization.

Innovative approaches to human resource management (HRM) that were previ-

ously confined to the private sector are finding a place in public personnel manage-

ment (Klingner, Nalbandian, & Llorens, 2010). In recent decades, some governments

have responded to pressures for increased efficiency and effectiveness by adopting

practices that have shown to be effective in the private sector. The response has

included streamlining processes, out-sourcing programs and services, and moving

away from bureaucratic features (e.g., top-down decision making, rigid processes,

divisionalized operations, etc.) in favor of more strategic, inclusive, integrated, and

flexible practices attributed to the New Public Management movement (Bryson,

Crosby, & Bloomberg, 2014; Klingner, 2012).

The dynamic nature of the public sector (e.g., context, structure, shifts in political

leadership and ideology, reallocation of resources, etc.) requires researchers and

practitioners to continue to look for dynamic ways to think about and research public

personnel management (Jordan & Battaglio, 2013). As public personnel manage-

ment develops in complexity, there is a need to continue to explore and develop new

ways to describe research and practice in this increasingly diverse and dynamic

landscape.

Human resource managers are at the nexus of these undulations in the public sector.

Some of the central questions that managers may encounter include the following:

Does a given policy make sense? Is the policy effective? Does the policy run at odds

with other functions/policies internal and external to the agency? Can the manager

shape/influence the policy process at the strategic level? Can the manager shape/influ-

ence policy procedures and implementation? This study presents a taxonomy that

builds on existing work to describe and understand some of these fundamental ques-

tions facing managers.