About the Study Group
Aims
The study group on Public Personnel Policies has been in existence since 1987. Its aims are threefold:
Working method
The study group chooses a theme to work on for two to
three years. The theme always deals with new developments in public
personnel policies. A call for papers is made for each EGPA-conference.
Participants are invited to present papers. They get feedback from
colleagues which they can take into account in revising their papers.
The result of our work is a publication which includes the most interesting
papers, covering different European countries or different aspects.
History
The Personnel Policy Study Group was formed in 1987. From 1987 to 1992 it examined a different issue each year and mainly provided a forum for academics to network. Convenors in this period were Prof. Roger Depré (University of Leuven) and Prof. Jean-Luc Bodiguel (France CNRS). From 1987 to 1991, the study group met in Valencia, Leuven, Chester, Madrid and The Hague. During these conferences different subjects on personnel policy were examined including recruitment and selection, training and career development.
From 1992 to 1995, at the Conferences in Pisa, Strasbourg, Bad Tadzmundorf and Rotterdam, the study group worked on the theme of the "New Public Manager". This was based on an agreed research framework and involved nine countries. This led to the publication of a book "New Public Managers in Europe: Public Servants in Transition" (Macmillan, 1996). Convenors since then still are: Dr. Sylvia Horton and Prof. David Farnham (University of Portsmouth) and Prof. Annie Hondeghem (University of Leuven).
From 1996 to 1998, at the conferences of Leuven, Budapest and Paris the study group examined the theme of "Flexibility of staffing and personnel systems in the public services". This project built on the "European Public Manager" study. The aim was to explore how managerialism, administrative reform and modernisation are impacting on people management policies and practices in Europe's public services. The work resulted in the publication of the book "Human Resource Flexibilities in the Public Services – international comparisons" (Macmillan, 2000).
From 1999 to 2000, at the conferences of Cape Sounion and Glasgow, the study group worked on the theme of "Competency management in the public sector". It identified the emergence of competency management in the private sector, its transference to public organisations during the 1990s and how competency based management is slowly being implemented throughout European public services. A special edition of the International Journal of Public Sector Management published some early papers. The output of the group has also been published as a book at the beginning of 2002 (Competency management in the public sector: IOS).
In 2001, at the conference in Vaasa, the study group started a new theme which deals with "Staff participation and involvement (SPI) in public management". Papers have been presented at conferences in Vaasa, Potsdam and Oeiras. These resulted again in serveral special issues of journals and a book "Staff participation and public management reform: some international comparisons" at Palgrave (2005).
The Ljubljana conference in 2004 marked the start of another new theme : The Future of Public Employment", which circles around the idea of Public Service Motivation. The aims of the Study Group convenors are to obtain refereed journal publications each year around the theme and the conference papers and produce a monograph/book at the end of the third year. It is intended to focus on sub-themes of this topic at the next three conferences.