Acknowledging the revival of the debate around school management models, following the criticism neoliberalism has brought into discussion, this work focusses on the human resources management paradigm in the Portuguese compulsory public education system. Analysing secondary quantitative and qualitative data, it describes the observed performance comparing it to the expected one (strategic human resources management). The system's main coordination mechanism is the standardization of competencies, centrally delegated from the Ministry of Education and Science, as so, “mobilization” is the vector in which the system is more constrained towards the expected performance, harming its potential for flexibilization and adaptation. This work concludes there is no strategic human resources management in the Portuguese compulsory public education, despite some positive efforts already being taken to overcome such situation. These insights can be used as an analytical guide to the implementation of changes towards the expected performance in the Portuguese education system.
TopIntroduction
This work analysis the Human Resources Management (HRM) model applied in the Portuguese compulsory public education system, aiming to determine if there is a Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) paradigm. It is argued that this system’s incorrect investment in its human capital, which could provide it with a source of sustained competitive advantage, is one of the grounds for its inefficient performance: this is the main working hypothesis.
This research is relevant once the general tendency in conceptualizing the education system’s essence has been questioned with the triumph of Neoliberalism, raising a strong criticism to the Public School (Santos, 1997). The importance of rethinking the school management model stems from a set of trends that currently affect most European countries: the decentralization of educational policies, and the definition of national educational objectives and school achievement levels (Eurydice, 2004). Also noteworthy is the recent discontent of users and staff about the management deficiencies in the Portuguese education system, especially the public one, because being it a public service focused on welfare, such objectives would be undermined by the excessively economist vision of its functions, blindly subordinated to the prerogatives of austerity. The acuity of this research is also underscored by the scarcity of empirical work linking SHRM to organizational performance, especially those conducted in the Portuguese compulsory public education system.
This work divides into four parts. Firstly, we review literature about SHRM, referring to the factors that have encouraged the evolution of Human Resource Management Policies and Practices (HRMPP) towards this paradigm and its main characteristics. Later, we discuss the potentialities of applying SHRM models in the education sector. The theoretical model and the research hypotheses are, then, presented. On the second part we address the methods; on the third part we present the results, discussing them on the fourth part: the HRM model observed in the Portuguese compulsory public education system is described, comparing the observed and the expected performances, verifying if a SHRM model is being implemented. Conclusions and limitations of the study follow.
It was concluded that the Portuguese compulsory public education system does not present a SHRM model, as its concerns with saving assets underestimate the conceptualisation of Human Resources for Education (HRE) as the main source of this system’s sustained competitive advantage. This work simultaneously configures an analytical document and a guide for the subsequent design and implementation of strategies aiming to achieve a SHRM model in the aforementioned system.