The politics of HRM: waiting for Godot in the Moroccan civil service

Abstract

This study illustrates the fundamental importance of a political understanding in order to improve HRM in both public and private organizations. It complements studies that have found a statistical relationship between public staff management and economic growth by presenting a case study of Morocco, using the strategic human resource management (SHRM) model as a framework.

The view to which we are alluding is perhaps too well known to require rehearsing here. Readers not familiar with its origins or the policies to which it led can consult Williamson (1993).

There are several reasons why HRM in the Moroccan civil service has stagnated, notably unfamiliarity with HRM models and the French administrative heritage. But the fundamental reason is Morocco's political system, where real power resides in the Palace, and where political actors are reluctant to take bold initiatives. Thus a focus on the management level is currently misplaced, and fundamental political action harnessing the authority of the Palace without disempowering other political actors is needed.

The study implies that a political analysis is sometimes a prerequisite for improving HRM in both public and private organizations.

Keywords:

• Strategic HRM
• international HRM employee selection
• performance management
• Morocco
• civil service
• political will

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the government officials who agreed to be interviewed for this study.

Notes

The view to which we are alluding is perhaps too well known to require rehearsing here. Readers not familiar with its origins or the policies to which it led can consult Williamson (1993).

Curiously, these papers do not reference Evans and Rauch's research.

Similar claims were still being made in Britain as recently as the start of the reign of the current Queen, who remains the formal Head of the Church of England (Jones, 1973).

In Morocco's case, this view is enshrined in the French colonial distinction between the bilad al-siba (zone of rebellion) and the bilad al-makhzan (zone of government) (Pennell, 2000).

Quotations from interviews and from other French and Arabic sources are translated by the authors.

That is the word used in a United Nations Development Programme evaluation of the reform programme: see Proulx (1999: 41).

Staff reported that an unanticipated consequence for those ministries that have improved their practice is to raise the expectations of staff appointed, only to dash them when the appointee comes face to face with the less glamorous reality of Moroccan public administration.