Human resource strategies in response to government cutbacks: a survey experiment

ABSTRACT

Government agencies worldwide have faced budget cutbacks. The possible effects of budget cutbacks on human resource strategies have been studied a great deal; however, empirical evaluations are lacking. This study tests the contingency hypothesis that the severity of fiscal stress influences an array of HR strategies implemented by public managers. This study is based on a nationwide survey of health and human services directors in US county governments and employs an experimental design. The results show that the severity of cutbacks influences preferences for cutting strategies, in contrast to denial strategies, demonstrating the resource dependency of managerial strategy formulation.

KEYWORDS:

• Cutback management
• human resource management
• local government

Acknowledgement

This article is based on the first essay of my dissertation. I would like to thank Gregg Van Ryzin, Marc Holzer, Madinah Hamidullah, and Sanjay Pandey for general guidance and inspiration. Helpful comments on the manuscript were received from Gregg Van Ryzin, Sebastian Jilke, and Jiahuan Lu. I also thank Charles Gillon for providing survey support, as well as health and human services directors across the United States who generously participated in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. With respect to county population: 13.2 per cent population of 10,000–24,999, 18 per cent population of 25,000–49,999, 26.8 per cent population of 50,000–99,999, 21.5 per cent population of 100,000–249,999, 8.9 per cent population of 250,000–499,999, and 9.1 per cent population of 500,000 or more.

2. This study uses a 1–3 scale based on pilot testing of seventeen health and human services directors. Initially, a 1–7 scale was planned, but health and human services directors could understand the 1–3 scale more easily than the 1–7 scale. To assess robustness, this study tests the parallel coefficient assumption using the Brant test. The result of the Brant test shows that the parallel assumption is not violated significantly (p > 0.05).

3. Retrieved from https://www.cbo.gov/publication/42754 (accessed 28 August 2017).

4. This information was obtained from copies of each county’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFR) for the fiscal year ending 30 June 2015.

5. Retrieved from http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/fiscalmonitoring/index.htm (accessed 7 April 2018).

6. Retrieved from https://www.opm.gov/services-for-agencies/workforce-restructuring/outplacement-assistance/ (accessed 26 March 2018).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Korean Government Scholarship [grant number 2014-22].

Notes on contributors

Min-Hyu Kim

Min-Hyu Kim is an assistant professor at the School of Public Affairs, Arizona State University-Hainan. His research interests include human resource management, organizational behaviour, and local government. His research has appeared or is forthcoming in journals including Public Management Review, The International Public Management Journal, and The American Review of Public Administration.