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From Crisis to Opportunity: Human Resource Challenges for the Public Sector in the Twenty‐First Century
Author(s) -
Soni Vidu
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
review of policy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1541-1338
pISSN - 1541-132X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1541-1338.2004.00067.x
Subject(s) - public sector , human resources , human capital , government (linguistics) , public administration , human resource management , public service , presidential system , civil society , position (finance) , human resource policies , service (business) , public policy , resource (disambiguation) , public relations , business , political science , economics , economic growth , management , economy , marketing , politics , finance , law , computer network , linguistics , philosophy , computer science
A great deal of attention has been focused on the human capital crisis in the public sector since the mid‐1990s. Experts and practitioners give many reasons why the current crisis emerged. This article examines the important factors that led to the crisis, what is being done about them through presidential agendas, legislators, oversight agencies, professional societies, and public policy think tanks. Concerns are many in terms of a large number of upcoming retirements, early retirements, unplanned downsizing, difficulty in attracting new generations to public service, and the changing nature of public service. However, the human resource crisis also presents an opportunity to fundamentally change those features of public sector human resource management practices that have become outdated for contemporary organizations and position government agencies for the twenty‐first century by meaningfully reforming the civil service. This transformation would require public sector organizations to take a more strategic view of human resource management and to give greater policy attention to human capital issues.