This Article Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 0734371X09338898v1 29/3/293    most recent References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Battaglio, R. P. Articles by Ledvinka, C. B. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Privatizing Human Resources in the Public Sector

Legal Challenges to Outsourcing the Human Resource Function

The University of Texas at Dallas, battaglio{at}utdallas.edu

Christine B. Ledvinka

Cleveland State University, Ohio

The inclination to privatize public services has raised a number of challenges for practitioners and researchers alike. Although proponents of market reform continue to champion the promises of efficiency, a growing body of research would suggest that there is still much we do not know about privatization’s limitations. This article examines the legal challenges public managers may encounter when faced with the "make-or-buy" decision in human resource—related services. The analysis suggests that public managers have the potential both to reduce liability and to reinforce merit and equity by recognizing the need for expertise in constitutional, statutory, regulatory, and contract law and by working to use the outsourcing contract as a mechanism to integrate public values into private sector human resources production.

Key Words: privatization • legal • public values • contract law

This version was published on September 1, 2009

Review of Public Personnel Administration, Vol. 29, No. 3, 293-307 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0734371X09338898


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?