The effects of the new public management approach on human resources planning in the public sector: The case of Sakarya University

The main purpose of this study is to examine the theory and practices of the New Public Management approach. In a nutshell, New Public Management (NPM) can be described as the cultivation of the approaches such as meritocracy, flexibility and managerialism in public institutions. In this connection, this study analyzes the effects of theoratical changes in human resource management in general, and human resource planning in particular on the practices of a public institution that declares to have adopted New Public Management. This study employs a qualitative method and the data derive from semi-structured interviews and secondary data sources. Semi-structured interviews include 12 administrative personnel selected by the snowball sampling method. The common characteristic of these 12 individuals is that they have been working in the selected institution since its establishment. Secondary data sources are organizational documents, reports and website contents. The data were analyzed by content analysis. In light of our findings, it is evident that the Norm Staff approach is inadequate compared to the new human-oriented, flexible and managerial approach. To deal with this inadequacy, it is suggested that the public institutions which have adopted New Public Management should implement human resource planning processes which consist of the following phases: Human Resource Requirement Plan, Human Resource Procurement Plan, Human Resource Placement Plan, Human Resource Development Plan and Human Resource Downsizing Plan. This study is original in three respects. First of all, while the other studies in the literature just describe the Norm Staff approach, the present work provides a critical perspective to it. Secondly, the relation between the New Public Management approach and human resource planning has not beed explored by other studies in the literature. In that regard, this study is pioneering in this field. Finally, a new process that consists of different phases in human resource planning has been suggested. This new process is different from what has been suggested by other authors in the previous studies. This is also a unique contribution to the literature.