Key Differences between HR Management in the Private and Public Sectors - Speech or Presentation Example

Meeting Human Resources Management In the Public versus the Private Sector Parties present: Manager, Human Resources Division Line manager Transcript: Human Resources Manager: Good morning Mr Richardson Kevin and welcome to the department, you requested this meeting to discuss some of the key differences between HR management in the private and public sectors? Line Manager: Good morning. Yes, as you know I am new to the department and have a background in private sector management. I just thought it would be a good idea to speak with you about some of the key differences between Human Resources Management in the Public Sector, and ask what you thought were the most important things that I need to know as a line manager working in the public as opposed to the private-sector. Human Resources Manager: Certainly, there are major differences between public and private sector management practices. For instance, on the organisational level, the public sector is characterised by a lot of formal processes which are essential in ensuring for organisational functions. In addition, such processes exhibit some level of formalisation and more red tape is also included. Red tape is the procedures, regulations, and rules, which remain effective and involve a burden of compliance but does not have efficacy for the functional object of the rules. As compared to private sector, the levels of red tape in the public sector are exceedingly high, for the reason that authority has been divided amongst three main branches: the judicial, legislative and executive. To avoid power abuse as well as to make sure ensure the organisations are transparent, the level of formalisation within the public sector surpasses that of the private sector. Furthermore, public organisations’ objectives are more ambiguous; therefore, it is more challenging to calculate the extent of meeting them. On the managerial level, the process of decision-making is the key factor that distinguishes the public organisations’ managers from those in the private sector. You will agree with me that conflict in private organisations is seen by managers as a negative sign since some organisation members believe that the strategic action results of cannot be positive (Vanhala & Stavrou, 2013). In the public sector, on the other hand, a conflict that arises during the strategic decision is seen by managers as a positive component, given that it exhibits that different stakeholders are taking part in the decision-making process. In so doing, this ensures that the final decision considers the interests of all stakeholders. Therefore, managers in the public organisations value consultative practices during decisions making, especially on matters of budgets while those in the private sector prefer using the analytical practices. We at the public sector prefer maximising on the collective value unlike those in the private sector who espouse rational choice theory to maximise wishes of the shareholders. In terms of the labour force, there are major differences between employees in the private and public sectors. Generally, employees at the public sector focus on performing tasks that are beneficial to the members of the society unlike those in the private sector who value economic rewards they get. Public sector employees are unique; for instance, they are strongly committed in serving members of their community. Besides that, public sector employees are committed to accountability, they are responsible and contribute positively to the well-being of the community. The private sector employees normally work to fulfil official functions of their organisations, but they have many rights than those in the public sector. For instance, most public sector employees are not allowed to engage in union activities. Line Manager: What are the functions of human resource management in the public sector? Human Resources Manager: The HRM main function in the public sector is to offer the workers with the ability to manage: record keeping, benefits, promotion and advancement, compensation, and so forth. Another HRM function includes creating a management system that can attain long-term plans and goals. I believe HR management is the key for an organisation to efficiently be able to advance and grow. In the public sector, human resources are designed with the goal of managing the following: Records (personnel files, tax information and so forth) employee healthcare, employee benefits, compensation, wages and salary administrations, discipline, personal leave, recruitment as well as strategies for employee retention (Yahiaoui, Anser, & Lahouel, 2015). Private and public sector organisation are different in terms of their work culture and background. In the public sector, work culture is anchored on the socioeconomic responsibility concept, wherein profitability is not the primary goal. Private sector organisations, on the other hand, place much emphasis on profitability. Therefore, for the sustained growth and success in the public sector, it is important to create a pool of employees who are committed to finding out their job satisfaction. Basically, job satisfaction has an effect on employees’ commitment and performance, and this may impact the public sector organisation’s profitability and growth (Shrivastava & Gupta, 2015). I can distinguish public sector organizations from the private companies in a number of ways: the funding source for the former is taxation while for the latter is customers. Besides that the public sector is controlled by political forces while the private sector is by market forces. The HRM in Public sector is related to the softer norms as well as the ‘model employers’ ideal; therefore, setting standards in the workplace is different from the ‘hard’ (more calculative and formal) HRM model , which is utilised widely by the private sector organisations(Vanhala & Stavrou, 2013). Line Manager: What are some of the internal and external constraints and imperatives in the public sector context? Human Resource Manager: Public sector employees’ motivation is not mainly sources from the financial rewards as their counterpart in the private sector employees. They instead source their motivation from incentives and benefits. Basically, pay-for-performance, monetary rewards, or bonuses have less impact on the public sector employees’ motivation as compared to the private sector employees (Rashid & Rashid, 2012). In the public sector, a secure and stable future is considered to be the source of motivation. Furthermore, the public sector faces a lot of bottlenecks in terms of capacity and resource constraints, but the financial constraint is the major problem. Much focus should also be placed on the efforts for strengthening the organisations capacity (in terms of systems and human) through assistance packages. Furthermore, the public sector lacks implementable and coherent vision. Infrastructure and service delivery arrangements in the public sector are mostly an exception instead of the norm. Incoherence in the public sector is mainly attributed to mandates that are persistently ill-defined or obstinate incentives that confront the actors because some policies are in conflict (Tavakoli et al., 2012). Employee performance in the public sector is affected by a number of constraints as well as incentive problems: imperfections of the political market based on the relationships’ interruptions between citizens and politicians. Some of the interruptions are brought about by the lack of credibility amongst politicians that result in the formation of social fragmentation. Interruptions are also caused by policy contradictions and/or incoherence during the policy design when some of the roles or structures are unimplemented or unimplementable. This may result in the confused responsibilities and overlapping mandates amongst other public bodies. Other constraints are attributed to lack of oversight, where formal supervision and monitoring processes are not implemented or followed as well as inadequate informal processes. Therefore, there is the need to focus on the cases where the resources unavailability can reduce employee ability to deliver services efficiently (Wild et al., 2012). Line Manager: Are there any tensions involved in managing human resources in a public sector environment, and what are possible ways of dealing with them? Human Resource Manager: There are many tensions that are involved in the management of HRM in the public sector; for instance, the financial challenge makes employees be paid poorly as compared to their counterparts in the private sector (Rayson, 2013). Besides that, employees are heavily influenced by the government politics, and the organisational chart may change soon after the election. The federal law allows employees from the private sector to join unions, but not those from the public sector, and that’s why the number of employees strikes in the public sector is very high. Managers in the public sector are normally pressurised to increase cost-effectiveness and efficiency through high performance and advanced HRM practices. Therefore, understanding the HRM practices and the components of performance in the public sector can assist the public organizations to thrive as well as survive in the future (Albrecht, Bakker, Gruman, Macey, & Saks, 2015). In view of this, the public organisations should search for innovative ways of increasing efficiency as well as lower costs and ensure that quality services are maintained. Such efforts will obviously face a number of challenges, especially from the HR. the number of barriers that face the public sector organisations in terms of HRM includes, out-of-date IT systems, inadequate funding and poor management support. Besides that, the public sector has many aging workforces given that many young employees prefer working got private sector. Therefore, to make the public sector competitive, the organisations must introduce competitive pay system and reward programs that will enable the HR department attract and retain talented employees. Line Manager: Thank you a lot now I clearly understand the key differences between HR management in the private and public sectors? Human Resource Management: Your welcome sir and you can email me in case of any issue. References Albrecht, S. L., Bakker, A. B., Gruman, J. A., Macey, W. H., & Saks, A. M. (2015). Employee engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage An integrated approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 2(1), 7-35. Rashid, S., & Rashid, U. (2012). Work Motivation Differences between Public and Private Sector. American International Journal of Social Science, 1(2), 24-33. Rayson, M. (2013, March 6). ‘People are our key resource': the challenges facing public-sector HR professional. Retrieved from Personnel Today: http://www.personneltoday.com/hr/people-are-our-key-resource-the-challenges-facing-public-sector-hr-professionals/ Shrivastava, G., & Gupta, P. (2015). HR Practices: A Comparative Study of Public and Private Sector Banks in Indore. Altius Shodh Journal of Management & Commerce, 1(2), 318 - 323. Tavakoli, H., Booth, D., Simson, R., & Tilley, H. (2012). Can aid address key governance constraints in public service delivery? London: Overseas Development Institute. Vanhala, S., & Stavrou, E. (2013). Human resource management practices and the HRM-performance link in public and private sector organizations in three Western societal clusters. Baltic Journal of Management, 8(4), 416-437. Wild, L., Chambers, V., King, M., & Harris, D. (2012). Common constraints and incentive problems in service delivery. London: Overseas Development Institute. Yahiaoui, N., Anser, A., & Lahouel, S. (2015). Human Resource Management And Public Organizations. Global Journal of Human Resource Management, 3(2), 1-13. Read More