Introduction
The term “public sector” has been defined as the synonym for the government, but, in general, it covers the public enterprises in addition to the government agencies. In a broader sense, it is described here to include the public enterprises plus government. Historically, the statisticians and the economists were more concern about the separate components than the public sector as a whole, but, later, it was suggested that the public sector are the appropriate concept for analyzing as well as studying various concepts of the economic policy (Dube & Danescu, 2011). While there is always a general agreement between the countries as to what constitutes the government, and this leads to different opinions about what makes a firm public.
And these differences between the countries regarding the definition of public enterprises are analyzed and regarded as one of the vital issues in making the international comparisons for various public sectors. Statistics are presented on the share of the public sectors in terms of value added, demand, net lending, and employment. It is always argued that there is rarely a different answer to the questions “how big the public sector is?” For most of the countries, the judicious selection of the careful definition and data leads to unmatched conclusions that are related to the size, growth of the public sector and future consequences. Due to the lack of the data, it sometimes becomes impossible to analyze the public sectors in the developing countries in the same manner as OECD countries (Hayes, 2014).
The evidences that are mentioned here in the report will clear some of the facts that will suggest you many things about the size of the public sectors, changes done in it in the past few years, impacts of these changes on the other developing countries, public relations, and more importantly, the nature and impacts of these changes in the future days. All these details will be looked at in the isolation, rather than a single entity (LÊgreid, 2017). The reason behind this is, there are so many questions to ask regarding the behavior of the government, which are not relevant to the public enterprises, and vice-versa also. The studies that are done here will be focusing on the kinds of services government given to the people in the recent days, how they vary from the past years, how they can serve a large community, how they are managing the public relations and employment, and on the other hand, the report will be more concerned with the efficiency as the producers that have a huge impact on the special privileges on the private sector (Feilder, 2012).
However, it is clear that there are several ways in which the purposes of the public, as well as the government enterprise, can be treated, and many of the countries are clear that what ways they should opt for making widespread changes in terms of the roles of the public sector producers, spender, employer and the borrower. The concern of this analysis mainly include the role of the public sector as a pace-setter in the field of wage bargaining, the impacts of the inflations on the public sectors, and the extent to which the investors of the public sectors may be crowding out the private investment (Gatenby et al., 2015).
Public Administrations
The public administrations are undergoing changes in the 21st century that are affecting several fields simultaneously, which are happening due to the advanced economies, globalization, and pluralization of services. These factors are considered as the driving forces behind the changes that are occurring in several countries, mainly in the Germany, UK, France, and Hungary (Mori, 2017). The changes in the policy are increasingly complex, global and wicked, linear and national in focus. However, the public sectors are reformed in this developing world and are influencing other division too. This report will consist the information about the public sector reforms or reconstruction in the developing countries like UK, Germany, Hungary and France to embrace these changes accurately and to draw the range of public management models which will be appropriate in various contexts while focusing and putting the needs and interest of the citizens at the heart of the reform consisting the new public service approach (Marsden, 1995).
Public sector restructuring and changes in management policies in France
In case of France, it is quite difficult to define the size of the public sector, which is due to the sheer number of types of the public employers as well as due to the personal grades. For years, all those have involved and agreed on various definitions of the public sectors. From public sector to legal standpoint, there are basically two components in France which are the civil service and public companies that has been changed to a great extent.
The civil service includes the central government (51% of personnel), health service (19% of personnel), and local government which includes the (administrative, regions and departments, 30% of personnel) (Eurofound.europa.eu, 2018). These are the reports of the present scenario, which is completely different from the past years. In the year 2004, the civil service workforce was 5.26 million that includes the assisted employment, which is resulted from the public employment policies, and this is the half of the total labor force. And the public companies that include the organizations where the state is a majority shareholder-state run postal services-state-run electricity company-the France National Rail company (Eurofound.europa.eu, 2018).
Impacts on industrial relations
At the end of the year 2004, there were total workforces of 713,000, out of which, 278,700 worked for La Poste in France. These two sectors, health and education, stand out due to the fact that both of them are including the private companies as well as the administration. In case of the education, research establishments and the public teaching includes the secondary, primary schools, sixth-form colleges, and universities (Pathirane & Blades, 1982). And the healthcare sector includes the private hospitals and the healthcare establishments. The main central government administration includes the sectors that are quite standard- Economy and Finance (around 196,000 civil servants), Education and Research (1.12 million civil servants that also includes the teaching personnel), Defense (400,000 civil servants), Infrastructure (124,000), home office (it includes the national policy-162,000), justice (58,000), employment (25,000), culture (13,000), foreign affairs (22,000), agriculture (33,000). As per the present day analysis, the employment in the central government is increasing at a very slow rate as compared to the two public civil services. And even there was a drop in the workforce of the different ministries for the first time (-0.2%) (Dube & Danescu, 2011).
As per the statistical analysis, from 1992 to 2002, the number of women those who were working for the central government, has been increased from 55% to 57%, where 51% includes the military. But in case of the private sectors, it increases from 37% to 42%. There are certain changes in their policies and systems, mainly in the civil service sectors where there were a specific number of people of non-permanent employees (302,000 in the year 2003, that is around 13%) (Eurofound.europa.eu, 2018). However, with the rise in time, the number of the non-permanent staffs has been increasing both in terms of the percentage and volume due to the changes in the middle of the period in the 1980s as well as because of the permanent appointment schemes.
Moreover, the fights which were against the lack of security become the objective of the government and has been the subject of periodic negotiations with the teams of the union (Robinson, 2015). And due to the specific mission in the regulations, National Public Institution has recourse or restructured the form of employment, where the result is like 67.2% of the non-permanent staffs compared with the 8% in the ministries (Eurofound.europa.eu, 2018).
In case of the ministries, there were not significantly more women non-permanent staffs. In the year 2003, the country has made of 57.5% of the permanent members of staffs as well as 57.1% of non-permanent staffs. On the other hand, the public institutions were having more non-permanent female staffs and that is 58.9% as compared to the 49.9% of the permanent female staff (Eurofound.europa.eu, 2018). As per the Eurofound.europa.eu, in case of the part-time central government personnel, there is a vast majority of the women, where there are 14.2% of the women who are doing the part-time, whereas the percentage of the male is very less and only 1.7% working in the part-time basis. Following the trend of 1990, the part-time working has slightly been decreased in the year 2002 and mostly dropped in 2003 (Eurofound.europa.eu, 2018).
This could be the result of 35 hours of working for a week and due to non-teaching staffs. Gradually with the pace of time, the working hours reduced and a section of part-time workers are on the verge of progressive retirement programs. This scheme was raised greatly in the year 2000-2003, but, soon it was drooped to a certain level due to the Civil Pension Reform in the year 2004 (32,000) (Eurofound.europa.eu, 2018).
Impacts on employment
In case of the employment regulation, the employees who are working in the public sectors are enjoying some of the benefits in the form of special status. These status are evaluated by the regulatory and legal provisions, whereas, the status of the employee working in the private sectors are governed by the collective bargaining and contract. The employment regulation and reform have been affected in the public sectors such as the central government after 1990 (Rose, Chaison & de, 2000).
The state modernization policies are targeting to enhance the relationship between the employees and administrations and have planned to make it better and efficient. To this end, the Human resources management has been borrowed from the private sectors and has applied in the public sectors, particularly skills and procedures, management in planning the jobs for personal evaluation and much more (Eurofound.europa.eu, 2018).
Many of the unions have opposed these changes to a great extent and have struggled to get the civil servants against the reform. In spite of the changes, the regulations are still governing the foundations of the civil servants and the employment relationship. The right to collectively bargain is quite limited in the central government as the reality has overtaken the law and distributed in the year 1990 to several new areas.
As per the changes, in the past few years, the main reform of the status of the civil servants has concerned with their retirement schemes. In 2003, the law has made the pension scheme contributions in the civil service which was closer to the private sector. This reform later gave rise to major strikes and unpleasant situations by the civil servants, but, however, these strikes couldn’t prevent the reform from being implemented.
Public sector restructuring and changes in management policies of United Kingdom
This group has been employed under the GEF and has divided into permanent staffs, which may be having open contracts or some fixed-term contracts for 12 months or more and temporary staffs, who are appointed on a casual ground or on a fixed-term contract that is less than 12 months. There are limitations in the agency staffs, in terms of the line managers, specialists, and contractors, those who are not employed under the GEF (Bach, 2016). There are no such guarantee and assurance in the favor of the life-long employment.
The public sector of the UK, mainly the civil servants, and employees in the non-departmental public bodies, make up near about 2% of the total UK employment as well as 11% of the public sector employment. The age of this civil service composition is generally consistent in a similar manner as that of the OECD average. As per the analysis, the percentage of the civil service employees who are 50 or above, 35.5% in 2012, which is the close analysis of OECD average and that, is 34.3%. This particular age group accounts for a greater portion of the civil service than the entire labor force as well as also growing at a consistent speed with that of the OECD average.
In addition to this, the proportions of the public sector employees under the age group of 30 years are approximately 10.5% in the year 2012, which slightly different from the OECD average of 11.7%. (Eurofound.europa.eu, 2018) But, the representation of women is always higher than the OECD average and they account 53% of the civil servants and near about 40.4% of the management staff in the same year. When this is compared with that of the OECD average, then the result is 49.5% and 34.7% in the year 2009 respectively (Oecd.org, 2018)
As per the reports, United Kingdom is one of the 27 OECD countries that have been reported with the anticipated decrease in the field of public employment levels due to the results of planned reforms (Oecd.org, 2018). A huge range of comprehensive measurements has already been applied in restructuring the public sectors. In addition to this, the administrative budgets of the entire departments/ministries have reduced to 33% to 42% by the end of the year 2014-15. And the general government employment has forecasted to fall it by 740000 positions by the end of 2016-17.
After the World War II, the civil service FTE is at the lowest levels and the share of the public employment has already fallen to over two percentages since 1993. Furthermore, there was merging or the abolishment of the arm’s length bodies, streamlining the senior civil service, reduces the management cost and layer, selling off the government and integrating the back office functions (Oecd.org, 2018). Due to the reforms in the public sectors, there are certain changes in the employment and are affecting more than 50% of the agencies and ministries since 2000. Some of the common changes are the change in retirement age, contracting out, restructuring and reorganization, devolution of the authorities over the various levels of management, dismissal/ discretionary hiring, and delegation of the semi-public or other public organizations. Apart from this, the United Kingdom has established some of the major changes on covering employee’s policy, resourcing as well as learning. This is regarded as the next part of the programs of HR practices. The next generation HR program in the year 2010 has implemented to simply the HR delivery across the civil services and to remove the duplications whenever possible. The central HRM body plays a major role in the strategic management and ordination that fairly brings a broad range of responsibilities and opportunities (Cornelissen & Cornelissen, 2017).
The management of the HRM problems is quite delegated to the ministries and mainly to the dismissal and recruitment. There are no HRM issues related to the unit/team level. The overall delegation has led to creating differences within the ministries as well as in the other sectors. The United Kingdom makes more use of the strategic HRM practices as compared to the OECD average. A proper accountability framework needs management in order to report the range of problems that are linked to the strategic objectives. The extensions in the departmental data, alongside the advice of the expert key service performance indicator, are used to explain the ways to which the centralization can happen and that can enable the departmental savings. Apart from this, there are other few changes in terms of the HRM targets, performance appraisal, as well as a regular assessment of the HRM ministries capacity, is undertaken. The average yearly working hours in the UK was 1667 hours in the year 2010, which is below the OECD average and that is 1745 hours.
This is driven by less working hours and some public holidays and is partially offset by the annual leave. The average number of the working hours per day was lost due to the sickness was 7.6 days in the year 2012 (Oecd.org, 2018). Apart from this, the paid sick leaves based on the medical grounds are also limited. The industrial relations are regulated by the civil service unions and they involve the industrial negotiations, and their casework is highly supported by the employers. As per the law, they must consult regarding the working conditions and remunerations, which will be later examined at the departmental level. Introduction to the new tools of management, employment framework, and government restructuring is evaluated by the delegated and central levels.
Public sector restructuring and changes in management policies of Hungary
The public service employees that are under the GEF in Hungary is governed by the Act CXCIX in the year 2011. There is small portion of the technical support staffs which are typically covered by the GEF and are also employed under the general labor law. There are certainly fixed contracts which are allowed and GEF makes no such guarantee on the life-long employment. As per the reports, the public service facilities in Hungary are using a very small portion of the part-time employees and they have analyzed that the age structure is not at all appropriate for the direct comparison of the OECD averages and they slightly differs.
Despite this, it has observed that there is more number of workers working in their twenties, and less in their forties as compared to the OCED averages. The percentage that was evaluated based on the number of employees aged 50 or above is 23.6% in the year 2012, and this is below the OECD average and that is 34.3% in 2009 (Oecd.org, 2018)-. As per the review of the collected data, certain conflicts emerged regarding the policies at an increasing rate which is related to the intake of young professionals in the public administration. As per the year 2006, there were 70% of the women who are working in the public sectors as public employees, and this is highest than the OECD average (Oecd.org, 2018)-. Some information is not available which could analyze easily the percentage of women in the management sectors (Bach & Bordogna, 2016).
There are various changes in the regional and central government of Hungary over the past few years in terms of the reductions in the ministries, changes in the regional jurisdiction and other substantial changes such as the measures to reduce as well as to analyze the operational cost that features fiscal consolidation plans of the government, also includes a freeze that helps to evaluate the gross wage bill and improves the asset management.
The dismissal is allowed when the government tries to seek to restructure, where the employees were receiving the regulated allowances and early retirement packages for their use. Apart from this, the general government sectors, excluding the public corporations, as a percentage of the labor force which is 20.1% in the year 2010, and this result is higher than the OECD averages of 15.1%. On the other hand, there is some compensation for the public employees as a result of the GDP and which is 10.9% in the year 2010 and is consistent with the percentage of OECD average, 11.3% (Oecd.org, 2018).
Due to the anticipated reforms, there are few changes in the employment levels and this leads to affect 50% of the ministries in the year 2010. There are specific changes in the retirement age, non-replacement of the retiring staffs, and much more. The central HRM bodies have some reasonable changes in terms of the responsibility and play a major role in the managing the coordination of the policies. Hungary uses least resources from the HRM practices as compared to the OECD averages (Oecd.org, 2018)-.
There are no such accountability frameworks for the management, and the HRM targets are not considered in case of the performance appraisal and in regular assessments of the ministries’ HRM capacity. Management is always required to report on reasonable changes or issues, and, however, in addition to this, forward planning is not so used. Hungary always uses a specific recruitment system that is more position based than the average OECD country. The entry to the public service is gained through direct interview and application for the specific post. There is no necessity for the openings to be published and the posts are open to all the external applicants. Special attention is given to the Roma people for preparing for the entrance examinations (Oecd.org, 2018).
Hungary mainly uses the performance assessment analysis method in the HR decisions to make some greater extensions than the OECD country. Hungary is, therefore, reforming or changing its performance assessment systems, targets to streamline the operation as well as introduce the real-time feedback process that allows immediate correction. Apart from this, the extensive criterion is used that includes certain activities, quality of the output are measured, the cost-effectiveness of the work, values, and improvement in the competencies. Civil service unions are therefore involved in the workplace negotiations as well as mostly funded by the public sectors. As per the law, the unions should consult regarding the base salary, employment framework, and working conditions with the negotiations that are taking place centrally. The agreements are mandatory with the unions regarding the minimum services and strikes.
Public sector restructuring and changes in management policies of Germany
As per the rules of this country, the public service comprises of courts, authorities, and other specialized institutes of the central government and the local authorities, federal states and associations, federal railways fund, and in those areas of indirect public service, social security bodies and legally independent public institutions. In the year 2004, there were only 10.7% employees those who were working in the part-time environment including the military, which is coming under the central government.
If any case the military is excluded, then the part-time rate will be 17.2%. Apart from this, 62% of the part-timers are women. The part-time rate of the white collar employees is evaluated as 26.3% (Eurofound.europa.eu, 2018). It is true that the public sectors employees are enjoying some of the special features in terms of the status, highlight the main differences with the private sector employee status, and if it is relevant, then only it is valid. The career public servants are enjoying some of the special statuses. As per the constitutional law, the career service employees are the individuals who are hereby appointed by the state. The most vital restructuring took place in Germany against the backdrop of the German unification as well as for the moving of large parts of the central administration from one place to the other, mainly from Bonn to Berlin.
This restructuring, however, didn’t affect the status of the employees and industrial framework in the central government. The privatization and the restructuring of the federal rail service in 1944, and federal post service in 1989 didn’t affect the status of those employees who are under the career public servants and it was no longer available for the future employees. The transport and the communication companies are under the private law and are from the privatization (Eurofound.europa.eu, 2018). The industrial relations are therefore managed by the workplace level in the firms and are governed by the works constitutions act, and these are no longer regulated by the federal staff representation act.
Conclusion
Public services have always been the subject of the continuous developments of the reform from decades. Nonetheless, the advent of public services in this era is forcing the firms towards the change in the employment as well as other public relations, which are now pursued with more enthusiasm and vigor by the present government. The traditional format of the uniform pattern of the public service was never fully developed and accurate and has been ebbing from the society for many years. But, certain changes were made in the rules and laws that enabled the public sectors to regulate their functions properly and thus by decreasing the impacts from the employment.
The promotions of the restricted roles have therefore helped in the expansion of various providers, are highly market-oriented, and thus have signified user-centered services, which are regarded as an increasing threat to the institutionalization employment relations in the respective sectors. This context provides challenges as well as opportunities for various stakeholders. For the policymakers, the public services always play the crucial role and have been cast as the role model employers especially for the procedural terms such as related to the employee’s voice and provisions of equality. The public sector restructuring and management changes also affect the HR capabilities within the firm to a great extent. At some point in time, employees may face the budgetary constraints and other issues, which can only be improved if specific rules get changes or with the implementation of the strategic challenges.
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