工商管理专业英语有关英语论文及翻译.doc

1、Benchmarking of human resource management in the Public sector: Prospects, problems and challengesDavidM AkinnusiOrganisational/Industrial Psychology and Human Resources ManagementNorth West UniversitySouth AfricaCorrespondence to: David M Akinnusie-mail: david.akinnusinwu.ac.zaABSTRACTThis paper re

2、views the role of human resource management (HRM) which, today, plays a strategic partnership role in management. The focus of the paper is on HRM in the public sector, where much hope rests on HRM as a means of transforming the public service and achieving much needed service delivery. However, a c

3、ritical evaluation of HRM practices in the public sector reveals that these services leave much to be desired. The paper suggests the adoption of benchmarking as a process to revamp HRM in the public sector so that it is able to deliver on its promises. It describes the nature and process of benchma

4、rking and highlights the inherent difficulties in applying benchmarking in HRM. It concludes with some suggestions for a plan of action. The process of identifying “best” practices in HRM requires the best collaborative efforts of HRM practitioners and academicians. If used creatively, benchmarking

5、has the potential to bring about radical and positive changes in HRM in the public sector. The adoption of the benchmarking process is, in itself, a litmus test of the extent to which HRM in the public sector has grown professionally.Keywords: benchmarking, benchmarking process, human resource manag

6、ement, public sector, public sector managementIn any organised human activity, human beings naturally take precedence over other resources, as it is they and they alone who are capable of directing and utilising other resources. Effective human resource management (HRM) has, therefore, become crucia

7、l and critical to the achievement of individual, organisational, community, national and international goals and objectives. Ironically, even though human beings are widely considered as the most important assets of any organisation or nation, their development, motivation and utilisation have not a

8、lways occupied the central place in management (Bendix, 1996, p. 4-10). In the history of management thought, the neglect of the human side of enterprise brought the scientific school of management to its knees and led to the rise of the human relations and the behavioural schools of thought which f

9、irmly succeeded in putting human beings as the core of management (Carrell, Elbert & Hartfield, 1995). In the practical world, the commodification or de-personalisation of human beings during the industrial revolution was also associated with the rise of trade union movements, leading to government

10、interventions and regulations and the emergence of labour relations and personnel administration as fields of study (Bendix, 1995, p. 7). In the 1990s, personnel management metamorphosed into human resource management in clear recognition of its strategic role in the overall performance of organisat

11、ions (Authur, 1994; Cascio, 1995; Huselid, 1995; Gerber, Nel & van Dyk, 1998). THE STATE OF HRM IN SOUTH AFRICAThe history of South Africa, rising from the ashes of the apartheid regime, is replete with cases of poor HRM, to the point of constricting its development more than a decade after its inde

12、pendence (Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, 2006). The Deputy President while launching the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) remarked that:Nothing short of a skills revolution by a nation united will extricate us from the crises we face. We are addressing logjams, som

13、e of which are systemic and therefore in some cases entrenched even in post-apartheid South Africa. The systemic nature of some of our challenges undermine our excellent new policies, at least in the short term, hence the need for interventions such as JIPSAto enhance implementation of our policies

14、(http:/www.info.gov.za/speeches/2006/06032810451001.htm) Historically, South Africa has performed very poorly in practically all the criteria on the liability side of human resources balance sheet as measured by the World Competitiveness Ratings (1998, 1999). Some of these include equal opportunity,

15、 skilled labour, Aids, worker motivation, brain drain, unemployment, alcohol and drug abuse, values of the society, illiteracy, dependency ratio, human development index and competent managers. The field of labour relations (LR), like its human resources counterpart, reflects the countrys socio-poli

16、tical history which was characterised by deep divisions along racial and political lines, discrimination, unfair labour practices and gross distortions in the labour market systems, resulting in serious confrontations between the social partners and perennial industrial unrest (Bendix, 1996, p. 71-104).These stark realities have prompted the democratic government to enact a series of laws designed to bring radical changes in the areas of HRM and labour relations