ABSTRACT
Under the ideology of ‘small government, big individual’, outsourcing of public service functions is gaining momentum, particularly when it comes to certain professional areas such as human resource management (HRM). Upper tiers of the public service and managerial functions have largely been immune to outsourcing. The present studies on outsourcing are extensive, but are largely western-centric, and qualitative or quantitative in nature. This study combines qualitative and quantitative techniques, making use of survey questionnaires to explore the perceptions of bureaucrats and contractors towards public sector outsourcing against an Asian context comprising Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Thailand. The results suggest that the political contexts of the jurisdictions shaped certain perceptions of the respondents. However, for other attributes such as the reasons for outsourcing public services and the constraints facing them, the respondents generally shared typical stereotypes of contractors and bureaucrats.
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Lina Vyas
Dr. Lina Vyas is an assistant professor with the Department of Asian and Policy Studies (APS) of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (FLASS) at The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK). Dr. Vyas teaching and research interests are concerned with Public Sector Management, Human Resource Management, and pedagogical issues associated with the improvement and advancement of student learning. Dr. Vyas has published articles in leading international journals including Public Management Review, International Journal of Human Resource Management, International Social Work, and Public Personnel Management.