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To introduce the papers in the special issue.

Provides a brief review of the papers.

The papers cover a broad variety of human resource topics and the range of separate public services, including the impact of performance indicators on HRM practices in the NHS; the impact of Government policy on employment relations in the Fire Service; the use of 360° appraisal systems to improve performance management in the civil service; the impact of “best value” reviews upon HR in local government; the outcomes of new “partnership” relationships between management and unions in a local authority facing a “best value” review; and experimentation with job re‐design in the NHS.

Provides a summary of the perspectives considered within the issue.

This article looks at attempts made by a case study organization, Surrey County Council, to evaluate and restructure the employment relationship in the context of a range of financial, managerial and political pressures for change. The notion of the psychological contract is used to conduct this evaluation and restructuring. A survey eliciting the views of some 6,000 Surrey employees highlights major gaps in terms of what employees expect and receive from their employer as well as discrepencies in what employees feel they owe the employer and actually give. Consideration is given to how the authority has sought to address these concerns through a new deal with employees. The article provides insights into the contingent circumstances leading to changes in the employment relationship, information on the state of the psychological contract in local government and an illustrative case of how one local authority went about addressing employee concerns in the light of major constraints.

The range of pressures which has impacted on local government in the 1980s has forced the emergence of dynamic and sophisticated forms of industrial relations at the workplace level. It is clear, however, that with conceptual tools forged to analyse developments in the private manufacturing sector, very few attempts have been made by academics, policy‐makers or commentators to discuss the structures and processes which have emerged. The character of the changes at authority level are considered using material from a survey of personnel officers in over a third of authorities in England and Wales and within the context of prevailing analytical and theoretical frameworks. It is argued that the distinctive development of the personnel function in local government has resulted in a managerial process which conforms to key features of the human resource management (HRM) model, in particular the devolution of personnel responsibilities to line managers and the integration of personnel concerns at the strategic level. However, other features of this model are less in evidence. The search for employee commitment and flexibility remains patchy and often appears as a practical response to labour market and competitive pressures. Furthermore, collectivist features of employee relations remain well entrenched with the continued encouragement of both union membership and involvement. This is not to deny change beyond the HRM model. Thus, it is clear that established joint machinery is becoming increasingly unable to deal with ongoing issues while the trade unions are gradually being forced into a consultative rather than a bargaining role.

Systematically evaluates changes in people management in one case study, the London Borough of Brent, as the major arena for the regulation of employment relations in local government moves from the national to the authority level. Considers the impact of upstream decisions on mission, purpose and structure and of downstream decisions on employment relations, as they relate to the structure of the personnel function, the role of line managers in personnel activities, the way staff are treated and the role of the unions, based upon a strategic choice model. Argues that there are, indeed, strong linkages between Brent’s upstream decision to become a “competitive market” authority and devolve decision making to business units and the dimensions of employment relations distinguished. However, the consequences of the upstream‐downstream relationship were not necessarily as intended by the Borough, with some of the results having highly dysfunctional consequences for the organization.

The paper puts forward an analytical and conceptual model for studying the exercise of strategic choice and the development of new forms of employment relations in the public service sector. It then seeks to present some findings from the initial phase of a three year ESRC funded project related to research questions generated by this model.

The purpose of this article is to evaluate employee perceptions of pay practice in civil service executive agencies in the wake of changes in the established institutions of pay determination.

A survey design drawing original data from 1,057 civil servants, all members of the IPMS (now merged with EMA to form Prospectus), the union representing scientific, technical and professional occupations in the civil service.

The study distinguishes four distinctive pay practice systems. Pay satisfaction is found to be positively related to two principles: a clear effort‐reward link and an understanding of pay criteria. However, employees are more satisfied with pay when their organisational pay system accords with traditional rather than newer practices. This suggests that embedded norms continue to exert a powerful influence over employee perceptions of pay.

Whilst the respondent profile accurately reflects those working in the scientific, professional and technical grades (predominantly male, white, full‐time workers), aspects of this profile do not accurately reflect the civil service as a whole.

Old habits “die hard”. A sobering message for those practitioners who readily assume that forced change in pay systems will elicit “desired” employee responses.

Against a backdrop of fundamental changes in the character of pay determination in the civil service, this study presents employee perceptions of pay practices, shows how they combine in ways that reflect a distinct set of pay systems and reveals the impact associated with these systems on attitudes and behaviours.

To demonstrate how government policy on fires service reform was initially challenged by a stubbornly resistant fire service corporatism but finally dismantled following the 2003 fire service White Paper.

The paper is based on longitudinal case study data that includes 50 semi‐structured interviews with key fire service personnel at regional and national levels.

This paper examines the roots of corporatism at national and local levels and demonstrates how the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) had significant levels of influence on management decision‐making. This was strongly reflected in the key role of the FBU in the industrial relations process that enabled the union to protect “entrenched” working practices. However, at a local level longstanding corporatist partnerships began to break down as a financial crisis arose and management took a more proactive approach. Corporatist structures at a national level, though, remained and it was not until the Labour government's second term of office that these national structures were overhauled following a White Paper and legislation.

This paper demonstrates that whilst fire service management has consolidated its position under the Labour administration it has proved a disaster for the FBU.

To examine how an external performance review process introduced as part of the public sector modernisation agenda in England and Wales has impacted on HR service provision and processes in local government and the extent to which it has acted as a catalyst for the development of more integrative and innovative HR practices to support organisational performance.

A case study analysis of the Best Value Review (BVR) process of HR services at two county and two unitary authorities generated data from multiple sources including interviews, focus groups, consultative meetings as well as internal documentation. This approach was adopted to offer perspectives from different stakeholders in the employment relationship.

There was found to be a frequent lack of synergy between organisational goals, departmental plans and the performance objectives of individuals combined with an absence of shared understandings about human resourcing priorities or commitment to the processes needed to strategically integrate HR policies.

Whilst providing insights into the Best Value (BV) approach to public sector modernisation, a wider generalisation of the findings cannot be drawn from four case studies.

Line management and the HR function need to share better understandings concerning the HR practices needed to support the modernisation agenda and their respective HR responsibilities.

This paper reveals that the BV performance regime was not encouraging, and even limiting, a corporate approach to the HR policies and practices required to develop longer term organisational capability.