Challenges and Measures for Human Resource Management in Public Healthcare Sector

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human Resource Management
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
1. Introduction 2
2. Discussion 2
2.1 Challenges for the HR managers in the public healthcare sector 2
2.2 Measures to ensure HPWS are in place in a hospital 3
2.3 Activities, duties and attributes to be included in the role of HR managers in a hospital5
3. Conclusion 7
References: 9

2HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
1. Introduction
Human Resource Management or HRM refers to the function within a company or
organisation which focuses on the recruitment, management of the people who work in the
organisation and providing them proper direction (Armstrong and Taylor 2014). It is to note
that HRM has always been considered to be the backbone of the healthcare organisations.
There are several departments in the field of healthcare such as the different types of nurses,
technicians, physicians and administration. The Human Resources address the necessities to
make sure that each and every department of the hospital is well-staffed with both motivated
and qualified personnel. This report would elaborate on assessing and analysing the case
study named- “High-Performance work systems: the gap between policy and practice in
healthcare reform”. It will carry on identifying the challenges present for the HR managers in
the public health care sector based on the case study and would also provide certain measures
for ensuring HPWS are in proper place in a hospital. Furthermore, the paper shall also shed
light on the duties, activities and attributes that are required to be included in the role and
functions of the Human Resource managers in a hospital.
2. Discussion
2.1 Challenges for the HR managers in the public healthcare sector
a) Different levels of managers in the Australian health care sector have revealed the
difference in the perceptions of the strategic Human Resource Management in every
healthcare organisations (Cogin, Ng and Lee 2016).
b) There is presence of different inconsistencies in the clinical and the managerial hierarchies
that are dependent on the antiquated principles of scientific management.
c) The CEOs of the Australian healthcare organisations have reported that there is a presence
of more positive view of the Human Resource Management practices as compared to the

3HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
other senior managers who were included in the study. They have highlighted the existence
of irregularities in the management practices and perspectives.
d) There is very little or no trace of the evaluation or the implementation of the important
components of the HPWS (High-Performance Works Systems) in the healthcare
organisations in Australia (Kellner et al. 2016). According to the authors, most of the
Australian hospitals or healthcare organisations have no quality HPWS within the place. With
the same, the health reform have neglected to mark such a critical gap in the healthcare
practices and policies (Fan et al. 2014). This is why there is a very powerful need of re-
orienting the HRM practices and policies in the organisation in the Australian public
healthcare organisations towards the quality HPWS.
2.2 Measures to ensure HPWS are in place in a hospital
It is to note that HPWS refers to the set of Human Resource Management practices
which attempt to create an environment within a firm where the employees get a high
responsibility and involvement. As per the study conducted by Bryson (2018), the employees
who involve in conceiving and implementing the workplace processes and practices are much
more engaged in the overall business and they perform in better ways than the rest others. For
instance, a study analysing around 132 manufacturing companies in United States has found
that the firms that make use of the HPWS had a notably high level of labour productivity as
compared to their competitors (Murphy et al. 2018). Hence, it is very important to ensure
quality HPWs in place in the organisations. However, there are certain measures in which the
healthcare organisations in Australia or the management teams of these hospital could ensure
HPWS are in place. They are as follows:
a) The gap of policy-practice in between the existence of the HPWS in the hospital
sector and the worth of HPWS suggests that the leaders in the Australian healthcare