Human resource development in local government: a management perspective

[摘要] ENGLISH SUMMARY : Municipalities are the sphere of government that is the closest to communities. The rapid transformation of municipalities has placed renewed emphasis on the employees in municipalities to be capacitated with the required competencies to meet the ever-increasing demands of citizens. This by implication means that human resources should be managed well, but many municipalities have a poor human resource development record. Human resource development is a fundamental component of human resource management. The effective management of human resource development activities and processes within municipalities has the potential to ensure that the municipalities continue to deliver services to their communities in an efficient and effective way.The research was approached from multiple angles. A municipal case study (qualitative) of the management of human resource development in the Netherlands was conducted. This was followed by an evaluation (quantitative) of the Saldanha Bay and Drakenstein Municipalities. Drawing on the different findings and the lessons learnt, it was concluded that human resources development should be managed in an integrated management way, with the collaboration of the organizational actors (human resource department, line managers and employees) and with appropriate external support.An Integrated Management Framework for Human Resource Development is dependent on the Municipality having in place human resource development policies that support the strategic objectives of the Municipality, and on the implementation of the policies through considering formal and informal development options. This in turn is dependent on how the HRD function is organized through the delegation of the HRD functions to operational directorates and specifically line managers. In this framework the employees are not passive recipients, but have to participate actively in the process, thereby entrenching internal democracy. At the centre of the Integrated Management Framework for Human Resource Development is a set of ethical values.A fundamental assumption of the IMF-HRD is that the organizational actors have the functional and collaborative competence to enable them to commit to achieving measurable HRD outcomes. These HRD outcomes lead to renewed organizational competence to deliver superior human resource development performance that results in a change in the overall management culture of human resource development in municipalities.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University