THE CHALLENGES RAISED BY NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT TO HUMAN RESOURCES: THE CASES STUDY OF A FRENCH TAX ADMINISTRATION
Keywords:
new public management, organizational commitment, quality of human resource management, tax administration, quality of services, nouveau management public, implication organisationnelle, qualité de la gestion des ressources humaines, administration fiscale, qualité des servicesAbstract
The modernisation of public management takes
place in a context of worldwide crisis with huge
public deficits and debts. This modernisation which
stems mostly from government willingness raises
the issue of new regulations set up by public
agencies and servants. The problematic under study
is based on an intervention-research led in 12
agencies of a tax administration with a 1040 people
staff. The problematic may be summarized in these
terms: why public servants who are generally proud
of serving public interests don’t commit themselves
more spontaneously towards public changes and
modernisation? The hypothesis which is here
developed shows that the commitment of public
servants is a key factor to succeed in improving the
quality of public services in a context of new public
management. In particular, the outcomes of the
study highlight the importance for a public
administration to build a strong human resource
system able to engender negotiations and
concertations between actors upon working
conditions and organisation and new organizational
goals to reach. In broad terms, the study shows that
the quality of human resource management is a key
factor to foster public agent commitment to
changes, and then a key factor to improve the
quality of services delivered to the public.
