Human resource management under change in the Romanian civil service in an international context

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a number of initiatives which have been spearheaded by the Romanian government in the field of HRM in the civil service. A more specific purpose is to determine the modelling strategy which best reflects the reform programme of HRM in the civil service, the topic of our study.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper attempts to supplement existing research into New Public Management (NPM) by outlining the modernisation of a range of public HR functions in the country, and it would like to explain how this special issue arose, to provide a historical perspective for the work undertaken by the Romanian National Civil Servant Agency (NACS) and to outline the context and significance of each of the attempts at modernisation in the HRM field.

Findings

Empirical evidence shows that the centralised Romanian civil service is in need of serious change if it is to deliver a more efficient and less politically driven level of practice. Many external and internal organisational forces such as the demographics of the labour‐force, technology and privatisation – as well as the erosion of confidence in government institutions have drastically altered the environment of the civil service in Romania. Consequently, traditional Human Resource Management (HRM) approaches no longer work.

Practical implications

At this point, in the authors' opinion, the time has come to devote more attention to decentralisation and to formulating the terms of so‐called best or good practice.

Originality/value

The paper seeks to bridge the gap by reporting on the research and consulting work of the authors in the Romanian civil service.

Citation

Poor, J. and Plesoianu, G. (2010), "Human resource management under change in the Romanian civil service in an international context", Employee Relations, Vol. 32 No. 3, pp. 281-309. https://doi.org/10.1108/01425451011038807