Public Sector: strategic Human Resources Management

The Strategic Role of HR in a State Government

In a growing number of organizations human resources are now viewed as a source of competitive advantage (Human Links , 2007 . For human resource to be competitive , it entails competencies that are obtained through highly developed employee skills , distinctive organizational cultures management processes and systems (Human Links , 2007 . The presence of these distinctive competencies marks most of the high-performance organizations

But the need for such organizations is not limited only to the private sector . Government organizations , particularly state and local governments , are

becoming increasingly accountable for results and the cost-effective use of taxpayer money spent on programs and services (TechRepublic , 2007 . Government organizations are like businesses businesses that may not be run for profit but rather are organized to meet a social goal in an effective and efficient manner (Mathys , 2006 Such said , Government organizations must be responsive , use their resources well , and provide good value to the user and accountability to the taxpayer (Mathys , 2006 . It is in this context that strategic human resource management has become just as important in the public sector . Strategic human resource management has been defined as `linking of human resources with strategic goals and objectives in to improve business performance and develop organizational culture that foster innovation and flexibility (Human Links , 2007 . The whole process of strategic human resource management includes the measurement of the impact of actions and decisions

Pressures on governments around the world have contributed to the rising adoption of performance management and measurement ' - a focus on program and service outputs and outcomes , and on managing for results (TechRepublic , 2007 . One method that has had significant demonstrated success to improve process efficiency , timeliness , and customer satisfaction in business is the balanced scorecard (Mathys 2006 . The Balanced Scorecard is a performance measurement that seeks to combine strategic planning with performance measurement (Rogers 2007 . Robert Kaplan and David Norton published works on the Balanced Scorecard in 1991 and considered four areas in assessing the effectiveness of an organization in meeting its vision and strategy These four areas or perspectives ' include : Financial , Customer Internal Business Processes , and Learning and Growth . According to Mathys , Kaplan and Norton 's model explains that visions and strategies are translated into objectives , measures , targets , and initiatives that answer the questions in each of the four categories Financial , the main question is : To succeed financially , how should we appear to our shareholders Customer , the focus is : To achieve our vision , how should we appear to our customers Internal business process focuses on the question : To satisfy our shareholders and customers , what business processes must we excel at Learning and growth category focuses on answering the question : To achieve our vision , how will we sustain our ability to change and improve

Essentially , this framework balances the value of strategic inputs "leading indicators ) with financial outputs "lagging indicators ) to enable an organization to improve the way it plans , measures and communicates success (Strategic Management Partners , 2007 . It is now being applied...