HRM and social legitimacy in the public sector

Abstract

There is a dearth of studies of HRM in a public sector context that examine the legitimacy of HRM and its contribution to public service performance. This neglect is striking because public management studies acknowledge that public service performance is a contested concept involving many stakeholders with different views on what good performance is. The chapter describes how the classic bureaucracy and the NPM models of public governance embody different logics of legitimacy that have affected HRM policies differently. The legitimacy of today’s HRM policies and their public service outcomes are examined distinguishing between internal and external stakeholders. The literature review shows a range of significant HRM-related issues, including job insecurity, role overload, and mixed progress in equal-employment opportunities. These affect the internal legitimacy of HRM as perceived by employees but are also endangering the sustainability of various public services, thereby creating severe risks for HRM’s external legitimacy.