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Public Employees as a Strategic Resource

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance

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Synonyms

Human capital; Human resources; People management

Introduction

Throughout the world, public employees play a vital role in determining whether a city, region, or country is a good place to live, work, and raise a family. Quality of life – from ensuring pedestrian safety to national security – depends to a large extent on the skills and effectiveness of those who serve in the government workforce.

This entry argues that governments can strengthen performance by adopting forward-looking, “strategic human resources management” (SHRM). There is an extensive literature devoted to proving that SHRM is the key to success for many leading organizations. In the private sector, this work includes numerous studies demonstrating the link between investing in employees and achieving better financial outcomes. A small but growing body of evidence shows that public and nonprofit organizations can also achieve significant gains in performance by treating their employees as a strategic...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University, 79 John F Kennedy Street B-409, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

    Linda J. Bilmes

  2. ICF, Fairfax, VA, USA

    Jeffrey Neal

Authors
  1. Linda J. Bilmes
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  2. Jeffrey Neal
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Linda J. Bilmes .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, USA

    Ali Farazmand

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© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

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Bilmes, L.J., Neal, J. (2017). Public Employees as a Strategic Resource. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_577-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_577-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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