Human Resources Management in Schools: Understanding the Implementation Gap Through the Lens of Discourses

• In Event: Policy Issues Related to Teacher Pay and the Teacher Workforce

Abstract

Human Resources Management is increasingly viewed as a means to enhance teacher quality and performance. However, the implementation of HRM often stagnates at the school level. Using the Dutch Vocational Education and Training sector as an exemplary case, we show that the implementation gap can be understood by employing a discourse perspective. Specifically, the distinction between a control vs. a commitment approach to HRM served as a lens through which we analyzed how different stakeholders of the HRM policy (government, school management and teachers) perceived its necessity and contribution to teacher quality and performance. As expected, government’s discourse is mainly control oriented and it appears school managements’ move to integrate control and commitment aspects into their HRM policies.

Authors

• Piety Runhaar, Wageningen University

• Hens Runhaar, Utrecht University