Strategic human resource management and resilience in public organizations: investing in human capital and behaviorist approaches

Abstract

This research will examine the significance of Strategic Human Resource Management formations in the modern Public Administrations reformation era, through a comprehensive literature review and a critical synthesis of works by numerous scholars on the field of Strategic Human Resource Management. Furthermore, the literature review will demonstrate the importance of investing in Human Capital in order to achieve Public Organizations’ Resilience-building. Specifically, it will focus on comprehending the behavior of employees and detecting the latters’ connection to the organizational strategies. The Behavioral Perspective will provide the model upon which the relationships between Public Organizations, civil servants and management policies are correlated. Importantly, a Public Organization should, by definition, tolerate disturbances, through people who are able to respond directly and effectively to changes; this is what this research will refer to as the Resilient Organization that should be identified in many Public Organizations. Moreover, Human Resource Management practices obtain a crucial role in cultivating that organizational environment, which facilitates responsiveness and recovery from radical changes. Although many barriers exist in the contemporary dynamic environment, such as bureaucratic procedures and rigid structures on public servants’ recruitment policies, the emotional capital that is created by a mutual psychological contract between public administrations and public servants, can contribute to surpassing those obstacles, adding a more anthropocentric approach to strategic human resource management study.