Staff Participation and Public Management Reform

DAVID FARNHAM is Professor at the University of Portsmouth and Visiting Professor at the Universities of Greenwich and East London. He was Visiting Fellow at the Catholic University of Leuven whilst this book was being written. He is Joint Convenor of the Personal Policies Study Group of the European Group of Public Administration and Chief Examiner for the CIPD, London. ANNIE HOGDEGHEM is Associate Professor at the Public Management Institute (Catholic University of Leuven). She is responsible for research, continuous education and advice concerning public personnel management and equa

This book explores the role of civil servants and their trade unions in the public management reform process, framing it in its economic, social, cultural and legal contexts.This book explores the role of civil servants and their trade unions in the public management reform process, framing it in its economic, social, cultural and legal contexts. Building on neo-institutional and stakeholder theories, the book shows how staff and their representative organisations have influenced the formulation and implementation of public management reforms in twelve OECD countries. This study challenges top-down elite theories that have dominated the existing literature, explaining how staff participation practices, both direct and indirect, have impacted on the implementation of reforms in different ways in different countries. The book concludes that variations in staff participation in the reform process depend upon institutional and political factors and the distribution of power in the employment relationship.