Unlocking the Human Potential for Public Sector Performance

World Public Sector Report 2005

United Nations

Preface 

Acknowledgements

Executive summary 

Explanatory notes
     

    

Towards an Impartial, Professional and Responsive Public Service

 

 

Introduction

   

     
I.The globalization of public sector reform

 

  The changing role of public administration

 

  Traditional public administration

 

  Public management

 

  Responsive governance

 

  Emerging issues

 

  The resilience of traditional civil service values

 

  Public administration: responsive to whom?

 

  Responsiveness to politicians

 

  Responsiveness to citizens and customers

 

  Towards a new synthesis
 

 

 

 

 

II.Human resource management and government performance

 

   Why HRM matters

 

   The importance of merit-oriented HRM policies

 

   Government as a “model employer”

 

   HRM reform: “starting from where you find yourself”

 

   Reform requires sound political diagnosis

 

   Leadership commitment is necessary
 

 

 

 

 

 

III.Socio-economic challenges facing HRM

     Demographic changes

 

     Shortage of skilled labour 

 

     Labour migration 

 

     Potential benefits of labour migration 

 

     HIV/AIDS 

 

     Managing in an HIV/AIDS environment
 

 

 

 

 

 

IV.The mixed results of HRM reform

     Structural adjustment and downsizing

 

     New public management: lessons learned

 

     Outsourcing: a double-edged sword

 

     Performance-related pay: an unwarranted
     panacea?

 

     NPM: more than a doctrine

 

     Leap-frogging: a possibility?

 

     Labour relations in the public service

 

     Diversity management

 

     Gender imbalance

 

     Accommodating diversity
 

 

 

 

 

 

V.Managing people as a strategic resource

   Adopting a holistic approach to reform

 

   Building an effective HRM institutional
   framework

 

   Legal and regulatory reform

 

   Central government: assigning the HRM
   leadership role

 

   Central and line agencies: establishing the
   division of HRM responsibility

 

   Professionalizing human resource
   management

 

   HRM units: towards strategic specialization 

 

   Competence frameworks: setting the
   standard for performance 

 

   Merit-based appointment: getting the
   best person for the job 

 

   Developing a pay policy: attracting and
   retaining talent 

 

   Performance management and appraisal:
   supporting and developing staff

 

   Rightsizing: getting staffing back on track 

 

 

 

 

 

 
VI.Promoting organizational learning in
    the public service

    Organizational culture: changing
     mindsets 

 

    Compliance: a virtue turned vice 

 

    Organizational learning: a people-
    centred framework

 

    Strategic areas to promote organizational
    learning 

 

    Improve knowledge-sharing and management 

 

    Promote mentoring programmes for staff 

 

    Enhance the analytical capacity of
    government 

 

    Strengthen the career development system 

 

    Leadership as the facilitator of learning 

 

 

    Technical summary: Public sector performance,
    prestige and promotion

    Public sector performance

    Prestige of a public sector career 

    Promotion to high-level political posts
 

 

Bibliography

 

 

 

 

Boxes

 

1.Information and communication
   technologies

 

2.UN/DESA analysis of government
   performance

 

3.Political discretion in reform—Benin

 

4.Old age, new challenges—China

 

5.Pension reform for a sustainable
   future—Brazil

 

6.Turning brain drain into brain
   gain—Philippines

 

7.Stemming the brain drain—South Africa

 

8.The impact of HIV/AIDS on the
   public service—Malawi

 

9.Outsourcing public services: the National
   Health Service—United Kingdom

 

10.Performance-related pay: if you fail to
    prepare, you prepare to fail—Mauritius

 

11.The Public Service Modernization Act
     —Canada

 

12.The role of ICTs in facilitating
     decentralized HRM—Cameroon

 

13.A voluntary retirement scheme—India

 

14.Rightsizing the right way—Uruguay

 

15.Developing a shared vision—Germany

 

16.Leading by example—Namibia

 

 

 

Figures

1.Driving and restraining forces in Moroccan reform

 

2.Ten developing countries with highest emigration
   rates of highly educated people to OECD
   countries, 1999–2001

 

3.Ten largest developing-country recipients
   of remittances, 2002

 

4.Ten developing countries with largest ratios
   of remittances to GDP, 2002

 

5.Ten developing countries with highest proportion
   of adults living with HIV, 2003

 

6.Ten developing countries with the most
   adults living with HIV, 2003

 

7.Central government expenditure on wages
   in 49 developing countries, 1980–1999

 

8.Decision-makers one level below that of minister
   in the central administration of 30 European
   countries, by gender, 2004

 

9.Decision-makers two levels below that of minister
   in the central administration of 30 European
   countries, by gender, 2004

 

 

Scatter plots

1.Bureaucratic quality and merit

 

2.Integrity and merit

 

3.Bureaucratic quality and salary

 

4.Integrity and salary

 

5.Prestige and new public management

 

 

 

Tables

 

1.Three models of public administration

 

2.Six forms of accountability

 

3.Approaches for different stages
   of HRM reform

 

4.Composition of Chad’s civil service, 2002

 

5.Selected HRM features of the three
   models of public administration

 

6.Responsibility for HRM in central
   government agencies

 

7.A competence framework for HRM

 

8.Selected pay-scale compression
   ratios, 1991–2003

 

9.Wages and salaries in federal
   versus unitary states