Willy McCourt

Public Management in Developing Countries

Abstract Ten years ago public management in developing countries was reaching the end of a period in which the ‘Washington consensus’ model of a small state was dominant, with downsizing and privatization as its key mechanisms. With reform programmes in disarray and NPM an inadequate replacement, the subsequent decade has been one of ‘reculer pour mieux sauter’, with management dislodged from centre stage by a concern with the domestic and political determinants of reform. We have also seen the return of a poverty agenda, featuring education and health in central roles, to which management specialists have yet to respond fully. This review suggests the need for public management specialists to absorb a political analysis before returning to perennial management concerns.

Discussion Note: Using Metaphors to Understand and to Change Organizations: A Critique of Gareth Morgan's Approach:

A critique of Gareth Morgans approach to metaphor is used as the vehicle for an assessment of the value of metaphoric thinking to understanding and acting in organizations. Metaphor is shown to be an epistemologically valid approach to making sense of organizations, although not at the expense of traditional literal language approaches. Metaphoric thinking is located within the OD model of organizational change, where it functions as a valuable aid to cognitive change, while sharing some of the limitations of OD itself. Some issues for further research are outlined.

The Internationalization of Public Management

The Internationalization of Public Management constitutes one of the first attempts to examine the conceptual and practical problems which attend such policy transfers, and to make preliminary judgements about the successes and failures of public management reform in developing countries. The distinguished group of contributors offers instructive insights into the complex reality of the development state.

Using training to promote civil service reform: A Tanzanian local government case study

SUMMARY Since 1993, Tanzania has been pursuing a programme of civil service reform which hasemphasized job reduction. In local government the importance of reform and the lack ofprevious training for the manpower management o†cers (MMOs) responsible for job reduc-tion are an argument for training, while the complex institutional arrangements of localgovernment and the di†cult circumstances in which the MMOs work are a potential con-straint on its e•ectiveness. A programme of training for the MMOs and its theoretical under-pinnings in terms of transfer of learning are outlined. Discussion of the programme’se•ectiveness leads to a discussion of the limited e•ectiveness of even well-designed trainingin isolation, and of the complementary organizational and institutional development inter-ventions which are desirable in order to increase its e•ectiveness. Copyright # 1999 JohnWiley & Sons, Ltd. INTRODUCTION: THE IMPORTANCE AND DIFFICULTYOF TRAINING FOR REFORMThis article provides a brief description of civil service reform in Tanzania, focusingon the programme of job reduction which has been its most prominent aspect, andgives an account of some issues that have arisen in applying job reduction to localgovernment. It also describes a programme of training for senior manpower (sic)management o†cers (MMOs), the sta• responsible for human resource management(HRM) in Tanzanian local authorities, in which the authors of this article wereinvolved.While we hope that our description of the reform and the training programme areof interest in themselves, they also throw light on a perennial di†culty, that of thee•ectiveness of training as a vehicle for reform. Training of the public servantprotagonists of reform has been viewed as an essential component in reform e•orts aswidely separated as civil service reform in the transitional economies of EasternEurope (Collins, 1993), economic reform in Myanmar (Cook, 1993) and democra-tization in local authorities in Nigeria (O’Donovan, 1992). Yet in the developmentliterature we meet the widespread view that much administrative training activity indeveloping countries has been a failure (Reilly, 1987; Turner, 1989; Hulme, 1990).(Noristheviewconfinedtodeveloping countries: Mann’s (1984)descriptionofhowa

Political Commitment to Reform: Civil Service Reform in Swaziland

Abstract Lack of political commitment has been seen as a principal reason for the failure of development programs, and is the pretext for calls for “selectivity” in the allocation of donor aid. A new model of commitment is proposed, and applied to a case study of civil service reform in Swaziland. The failure of repeated reform attempts there is indeed due to a lack of commitment that has its roots in Swaziland’s unusual political system, in which ‘traditional’ rulers have effective power. Prospects for reform therefore depend either on fundamental political change, or on engaging with those rulers’ fear that reform represents a threat to their interests. Applying the model of commitment to the case study highlights the importance of a political analysis, and suggests constructive forms of engagement with uncommitted governments that go beyond the minimal involvement that the selectivity approach advocates. The model may represent a tool for predicting, and helping to generate, a government’s commitment to a given policy proposal.

Limits to Strategic HRM: the Case of the Mauritian Civil Service

Taking as its starting point the impressive evidence for the strategic human resource management (SHRM) models effect on organizational performance, and for the relationship between public staff management and economic growth, the paper offers the civil service of Mauritius as a case study of SHRMs relevance to developing countries. It finds that SHRM is not practised in Mauritius, nor is it feasible in the near future, because it is not widely known, because there is no strategic management framework, because staff management is highly centralized and because political will to make radical changes in staff management is lacking. The case study does not support claims that SHRM and its associated practices have a universal validity, or that public staff management is a ‘magic bullet’ that delivers economic growth. Improvements to staff management in Mauritius, and possibly other developing countries, will require a creative and piecemeal adaptation of Anglophone ‘good practice’ that respects political, economic and social realities.

Malaysia as model

Abstract This article uses a case study of public human resource management (HRM) in Malaysia to explore policy ‘transferability’, proposed as a refinement of Dolowitz and Marshs policy transfer framework. HRM in the Malaysian civil service is found to be relatively performance-orientated, though that is qualified by the Governments affirmative action policies. Malaysias approach is attributed to factors that have their roots in Malaysias history: the pervasive respect for authority, the ethnic mix, its Anglo-Saxon orientation, the successful economy, the National Development Policy of 1990 and the personal role of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed. These factors suggest that public management is both shaped and constrained by its historical roots. The case suggests that successful policy transfer requires an understanding of those roots, especially when there is a significant distance in cultural, political, economic or linguistic terms between the countries transferred from and to.

Global Human Resource Management

This book presents Human Resource Management (HRM) as a tool for improving the performance of organizations in developing and transitional countries. It does this through the presentation of an integrated model of human resource management, informed by the practical realities of applying such a model in developing and transitional countries.

Trabajadores de salud de nivel intermedio: un recurso prometedor

Mid-level health providers (MLP) are health workers trained at a higher education institution for at least a total of 2-3 years, and authorized and regulated to work autonomously to diagnose, manage and treat illness, disease and impairments, as well as engage in preventive and promotive care. Their role has been progressively expanding and receiving attention, in particular in low- and middle-income countries, as a strategy to overcome health workforce challenges and improve access to essential health services and achieve the health related targets of the Millennium Development Goals. Evidence, although limited and imperfect, shows that, where MLP are adequately trained, supported and integrated coherently in the health system, they have the potential to improve distribution of health workers and enhance equitable access to health services, while retaining quality standards comparable to, if not exceeding, those of services provided by physicians. Significant challenges however exist in terms of the marginalization and more limited management support of MLP in health systems. The expansion of MLP should have priority among the policy options considered by countries facing shortage and maldistribution challenges. Improved education, supervision, management and regulation practices and integration in the health system have the potential to maximize the benefits from the use of these cadres.

The Politics of HRM: Waiting for Godot in the Moroccan Civil Service

This study illustrates the fundamental importance of a political understanding in order to improve HRM in both public and private organizations. It complements studies that have found a statistical relationship between public staff management and economic growth by presenting a case study of Morocco, using the strategic human resource management (SHRM) model as a framework. The view to which we are alluding is perhaps too well known to require rehearsing here. Readers not familiar with its origins or the policies to which it led can consult Williamson (1993). There are several reasons why HRM in the Moroccan civil service has stagnated, notably unfamiliarity with HRM models and the French administrative heritage. But the fundamental reason is Moroccos political system, where real power resides in the Palace, and where political actors are reluctant to take bold initiatives. Thus a focus on the management level is currently misplaced, and fundamental political action harnessing the authority of the Palace without disempowering other political actors is needed. The study implies that a political analysis is sometimes a prerequisite for improving HRM in both public and private organizations.