The Effects of Politicization on Performance: The Mediating Role of HRM Practices

• Author: Norma M. Riccucci,Javier Fuenzalida
• DOI: 10.1177/0734371X18758378
• Published date: 01 December 2019
• Date: 01 December 2019
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X18758378

Review of Public Personnel Administration

2019, Vol. 39(4) 544 –569

© The Author(s) 2018

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DOI: 10.1177/0734371X18758378

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Article

The Effects of Politicization

on Performance: The

Mediating Role of HRM

Practices

Javier Fuenzalida1,2 and Norma M. Riccucci2

Abstract

Since politicization persists, threatening public sector governance and management,

there is a need to further understand this phenomenon and its consequences.

Previous empirical studies conducted predominantly in the United States have found

a negative impact of politicization on performance; however, the reasons behind this

relationship remain elusive. In this article, we inquire into the effect of politicization

on organizational performance, and we propose that such influence can be explained

by a deterioration of human resource management (HRM) practices. Using data from

a national survey of municipal managers and mayors in Chile, our results confirm

the negative impact of politicization on the performance of public agencies, which is

partially mediated by politicization’s deleterious effect on their HRM practices.

Keywords

politicization, performance, civil service, patronage, human resource management

practices

Introduction

The politicization of the civil service speaks to the ageless tension between politics

and administration. The dominance of political and personal loyalty over merit-based

criteria in the upper reaches of government is the foremost bureaucratic control mech-

anism used by politicians, who pursue the effective implementation of their espoused

1Center for Public Systems, Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile

2Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA

Corresponding Author:

Javier Fuenzalida, School of Public Affairs and Administration, Rutgers University, 111 Washington Street,

NJ 07102, USA.

Email: javier.fuenzalida@rutgers.edu

758378ROPXXX10.1177/0734371X18758378Review of Public Personnel AdministrationFuenzalida and Riccucci

research-article2018

Fuenzalida and Riccucci 545

policy agenda. However, a key dilemma is how political authorities can exert such

control while ensuring that the bureaucracy preserves its capacity, professional values,

and performance standards to serve the citizenry (Svara, 2001, p. 179). Despite the

multitude of reforms fostered by governments to keep politics out, political values

continue to jeopardize the ability of nations to effectively govern and manage them-

selves (Grindle, 2012; Peters & Pierre, 2004).

In highly politicized bureaucracies such as in the United States and several Latin

American countries, there is a tendency to staff senior civil service positions with

political appointments that rely on patronage-driven criteria (Grindle, 2012; Lewis,

2008; Matheson, Weber, Manning, & Arnould, 2007). These designations generally

coexist with other mechanisms, which ultimately integrate merit and political loyalty.

In bureaucracies with stricter regulations as well as with a meritocratic and nonparti-

san tradition, politicization assumes other forms. Westminster-type governments and

French cabinet ministériels rely intensively on political advisors, who have a great

deal of influence on policy and administrative issues in public agencies (Eichbaum &

Shaw, 2007, 2008). Similarly, politicians and even bureaucrats in some Asian coun-

tries exploit procedural loopholes and hidden norms to informally bias the selection

and promotion of personnel. These include avoiding open and transparent publications

of job announcements, leaking exam questions, taking advantage from the high sig-

nificance of recommendations, or requiring prospects to affiliate the ruling political

party prior to joining the civil service (Poocharoen & Brillantes, 2013).

The persistence of politicization and the major threat it poses to public sector gov-

ernance and management reinforce the need for further inquiry here. Important con-

tributions have theoretically examined politicization (Bearfield, 2009; Peters &

Pierre, 2004; Rouban, 2007), whereas only some have empirically tested its conse-

quences, especially its deleterious impact on organizational performance (Gallo &

Lewis, 2012; Gilmour & Lewis, 2006; Hollibaugh, 2015; Lewis, 2007, 2008; Miller,

2015; Perry & Miller, 1991). Nevertheless, despite the remarkable value of these

findings, the reasons behind the negative effects of the politicization of the civil ser-

vice remain elusive; moreover, the impact of politicization on performance has been

mostly studied in the United States.1 Designing and implementing reforms to effec-

tively control politicization requires deeper insight into the areas where public agen-

cies are affected by politicization, and how it affects performance. Research findings

from lesser-developed countries are also useful in this quest, since politicization is an

extensive problem in governments with more fragile bureaucratic institutions and,

thus, represent a serious barrier for achieving development (Berman, 2015; Evans &

Rauch, 1999).

This article aims to further analyze the impact of politicization on public agencies’

performance and offers a causal mechanism for such a relationship. In particular, we

examine whether this effect is partially mediated by a deterioration of one important

dimension of organizations: their human resource management (HRM) practices.

Chile serves as the setting for this study. This developing country was selected due to

the emerging stage of its civil service. Indeed, Chile has one of the most developed and

effective civil services in Latin America but is still quite behind from its Organization