by performance measures has made it more diYcult to elicit the type of employee
performance needed to produce better-quality services.
An interest in the organizational-employee performance nexus has led to a
growing concentration on employee skills. This can be seen in attempts to develop
a more planned approach to service delivery, involving workforce planning and a
more considered approach to the development of employee skills. While the early
phases of modernization encouraged a focus on management development (Bach
1999 ), a wider skills deWcit has forced an emphasis on targeted overseas recruitment
and a focus on developing skills throughout the workforce. This emphasis is
reXected in the recent agreements reached in local government and health in the
UK where ‘skills escalators’ have been introduced to provide opportunities for
employee career progression.
These attempts to develop the public sector skill baseXow through to aVect
other HR practices. They require the creation of clear career pathways and the
dedicated application of performance appraisal systems which help staVwith their
skills development. This is a commitment-based HR agenda which, in focusing on
employee development, contrasts sharply with the cost minimization approach of
the NPM era.
At the same time, such attempts are based on heroic assumptions about the
willingness of employees to develop their careers in these ways. More profoundly,
they sit in tension with pressures which the performance and audit framework
continue to generate. In particular, performance targets continue to structure the
working lives of public servants, generating cumbersome procedures and ‘moun-
tains’ of paperwork which undermine morale. The principal reason for ongoing
recruitment and retention diYculties relates to perceived ‘burdens’ associated with
performance targets (Audit Commission 2002 ).
23.6 Conclusion
.........................................................................................................................................................................................
In recent years, the public sector in most countries has been caught up in
a continuous process of reform that has major consequences for HR practice.
The rise of the NPM movement signiWed a rejection of traditional models of
HRM in the public sector. The establishment of a more assertive managerialism
in conjunction with tighter control of resources, forms of marketization, and
changes in organizational structures ensured that the burden of adjustment was
placed squarely on the workforce. Although in many countries the public sector
became more eYcient, for the workforce this eYciency drive was mainly associated
with more intensive working practices, downsizing, tighter control of performance,
hrm and the new public management 485