scholarly journals Introduction to the Themed collection: Public sector employment relations in turbulent times

2022 ◽  
pp. 103530462110725
Author(s):  
Michael O’Donnell ◽  
Sue Williamson ◽  
Michael Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Sector Reform ◽  
Jel Codes ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sector Employment ◽  
Turbulent Times ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Conditions Of Employment

We introduce a themed collection of articles examining how the public sector has responded to, and been impacted by, the COVID-19 crisis. Although the pandemic has affected the roles, functions, economies, governance and structures of public sectors, this themed collection focuses on public sector employment relations. Authors examine significant areas which have been subject to accelerated change stemming from the pandemic. Building on decades of public sector reform, these changes impact public sector enterprise bargaining, terms and conditions of employment, working arrangements and practices, and the relationship between public servants and their employer. The articles in this collection provide important insights into the longer-term influences of the COVID-19 pandemic for public sector workforces. The collection also raises questions around whether the positive lessons from this crisis can be sustained to help manage serious crises in the future, or whether the public sector will slip back into a state of unpreparedness. JEL Codes: J45, J5, J81

Pandemic effects on public service employment in Australia

2021 ◽  
pp. 103530462110560
Author(s):  
Linda Colley ◽  
Shelley Woods ◽  
Brian Head
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Considerable Change ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Public Sector Employment ◽  
The Impact

The COVID-19 pandemic is sending shockwaves through communities and economies, and public servants have risen to the novel policy challenges in uncharted waters. This crisis comes on top of considerable turmoil for public services in recent decades, with public management reforms followed by the global financial crisis (GFC) leading to considerable change to public sector employment relations and a deprivileging of public servants. The research adopts the lens of the ‘public service bargain’ to examine the effects of the pandemic across Australian public services. How did Australian public service jurisdictions approach public employment in 2020, across senior and other cohorts of employees? How did this pandemic response compare to each jurisdictions’ response to the GFC a decade earlier? The research also reflects more broadly of the impact on public sector employment relations and to what extent pandemic responses have altered concepts of the diminished public service bargain or the notion of governments as model employers? JEL Codes J45

IT and Enterprise Architecture in US Public Sector Reform

2012 ◽  
pp. 412-440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry F. Buss ◽  
Anna Shillabeer ◽  
Anna Shillabeer
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Enterprise Architecture ◽  
Government Reform ◽  
Public Sector Reform ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Sector Reform ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sector Reforms ◽  
Silver Bullet

This chapter looks at public sector whole-of-government reform from an Information Technology (IT) focused Enterprise Architecture (EA) perspective. The chapter summarizes reforms undertaken under three US presidents—Clinton, Bush, and Obama—and discusses how they have too frequently failed to meet expectations of policy makers, public servants, the public, and other stakeholders. We find that IT reforms in support of larger public sector reform have been ineffective and unsustainable, although many IT reforms have been successful in a narrower context. EA has suffered as a once promising methodology: it has not become the “silver bullet” in managing the IT and information infrastructure to support reform, knowledge management, and decision making. It was also seen as an important tool for reducing information management silos that successive governments have unsuccessfully tried to reduce. This chapter raises the spectre of endemic barriers to reform that must be overcome if EA and IT reform are to realize their potential, and offers recommendations for overcoming these hurdles in the context of whole-of-government public sector reforms.

The revolution in the public services sector in Portugal: with or without the unions

2007 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 631-652 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Stoleroff
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Services Sector ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Deficit ◽  
Public Sector Unions ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Relationship

Since the onset of the public deficit crisis in 2001–2002, three successive Portuguese governments have promoted a transformation of public sector employment relations with the aim of bringing them into line with the private sector. Given the importance both of employment in the public sector and of public sector unions to the overall labour movement, the outcome of these reforms will have a decisive impact upon industrial relations in Portugal. The Portuguese public sector unions have consistently claimed that the government has presented them with preconceived reform packages, has not bargained and has in fact imposed its concept of the reforms. This article analyses the relationship between the government and the unions in negotiating the reforms, focusing on the degree of conflict involved and the extent to which the reforms have proceeded within the framework of social dialogue.

scholarly journals Risk Aversion and Sorting into Public Sector Employment

2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Pfeifer
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Risk Aversion ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Risk Attitudes ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sector Employment ◽  
German Socioeconomic Panel ◽  
Unemployment Risk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This research note uses two German datasets - the large-scale German Socioeconomic Panel and unique data from own student questionnaires - to analyse the relationship between risk aversion and the choice for public sector employment. Main results are (1) more risk-averse individuals sort into public sector employment, (2) the impact of career-specific and unemployment risk attitudes is larger than the impact of general risk attitudes and (3) risk taking is rewarded with higher wages in the private but not in the public sector.

Public servants working from home: Exploring managers’ changing allowance decisions in a COVID-19 context

2021 ◽  
pp. 103530462110555
Author(s):  
Sue Williamson ◽  
Linda Colley ◽  
Meraiah Foley
Keyword(s):  
Employee Productivity ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Jel Codes ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Work From Home ◽  
Working From Home ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Organisational Level ◽  
Large Sections

Before the COVID-19 pandemic forced large sections of the workforce to work from home, the uptake of working from home in the public sector had been limited and subject to the discretion or ‘allowance decisions’ of individual managers. Allowance decisions are influenced by factors at the organisational, group and individual levels. This research examines managers’ allowance decisions on working from home at each of these levels. It compares two qualitative datasets: one exploring managerial attitudes to working from home in 2018 and another dataset collected in mid-2020, as Australia transitioned out of the initial pandemic lockdown. The findings suggest a change in the factors influencing managers’ allowance decisions. We have identified a new factor at the organisational level, in the form of local organisational criteria. At the group level, previous concerns about employee productivity largely vanished, and managers experienced an epiphany that working from home could be productive. At the individual level, a new form of managerial discretion emerged as managers attempted to reassert authority over employees working remotely. These levels intersect, and we conclude that allowance decisions are fluid and not made solely by managers but are the result of the interactions between the organisational, group and individual levels. JEL Codes J81, J32

Een nieuw en flexibel personeelsbeleid in de lokale besturen in Vlaanderen ?

Res Publica ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-97
Author(s):  
Trui Steen
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Personnel Management ◽  
Civil Service ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Employment Policy ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sector Employment ◽  
Personnel Policies

Personnel management in localgovernment in Flanders bas undergone some major reforms during recent years. We examine the purposes and the extent of these reforms. Also, the new personnel management in Flemish local government is evaluated in terms of flexibility. The Flemish civil service can be considered as an Internal Labour Market. The rigidity which characterises the Internal Labour Market in local government in Flanders is shown by the fact that local government lacks discretion in elaborating the personnel statute, which still constitutes the basis of personnel management. However, the thesis that the public sector employment policy is too rigid has to be nuanced. The civil service is familiar with irregular forms ofemployment. Infact, in Flemish local government only half of all personnel are employed according to a statute.Despite some constraints on the development of more flexible personnel policies, it is still possible to find opportunities which provide hope for the development of new and modern personnel management strategies in local government.

MPA Graduates and the Dilemma of Job Satisfaction: Does Crossing the Sector Line Make a Difference

1991 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barrie E. Blunt ◽  
Kris Anne Spring
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Work Satisfaction ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sector Employment ◽  
State Regional

This study examines levels of job satisfaction for MPA graduates employed in the public, private, and non-profit sectors. Findings are based on a survey and indicate that MPA graduates derive greater satisfaction with pay and promotion opportunities in the private sector than in the public or non-profit sectors. No significant differences were noted between the sectors with regard to work satisfaction or satisfaction with supervisor or co-workers. Further, no differences in levels of satisfaction were noted between four categories of public sector employment; federal, state, regional, or local.

The Effect of Public Sector Employment on the Earnings of White and African American Males: A Sample Selectivity Approach

1994 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-120
Author(s):  
Michael Greene ◽  
Emily Hoffnar
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Labor Force ◽  
Labor Force Participation ◽  
African American Males ◽  
Sample Selection ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Sector Employment ◽  
White Males

This research note uses a sample selection model to measure the earnings premium (or penalty) to public sector employment. A model correcting for both labor force participation and sectoral choice is estimated for both white and African American males. Results indicate that African American males are no better off in the public than in the private sector. Moreover, white males employed in the public sector earn significantly less than their private sector counterparts.

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