Explaining shared perceptions of people management in public organizations: an exploratory study in schools

When studying the effects of management and leadership, the focus in public management research predominantly lies on how managers deal with their external environment, whereas less attention is paid to how managers act within the organization to shape performance (Favero, Meier & O’Toole Jr., 2016, p.327). In this study, we respond to this gap in the literature by examining the internal management practice of people management, which can broadly be defined as a combination of the implementation of human resource practices (such as practices around training and development, appraisal or compensation and benefits) and supportive leadership by managers (Purcell & Hutchinson, 2007). More specifically, our aim is to examine and explain horizontal and vertical shared perceptions of people management in public organizations. Horizontal shared perceptions refer to the extent to which employees that have the same manager have similar perceptions of their manager’s people management. Vertical shared perceptions refer to the extent to which employees and their manager have shared perceptions of the manager’s people management. Shared perceptions are considered important for organizations for a number of reasons. First, horizontal shared perceptions will likely enhance outcomes of people management -such as performance- because this will create a situation in which employees know what behavior is expected and rewarded (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004, p. 204; Mischel, 1976). Second, vertical shared perceptions are important because these will increase the likelihood that people management will actually affect performance as intended. That is, empirical research shows that in many cases managers have a more positive perception of their people management than their employees (Knies, 2012). When employee’s perceptions are shared with their manager’s, people management is likely to have desired positive impact on performance. Thus far, little is known about the factors that influence shared perceptions of people management. We argue that it is necessary to know the factors that explain shared perceptions in order to gain a better understanding of the process through which people management leads to performance. Therefore, the central research question in this study is as follows: What are the factors that influence horizontal and vertical shared perceptions of people management in public organizations?In order to answer our research question, we adopt a grounded theory approach using a qualitative research design. This will allow us to explore what factors influence shared perceptions and build a theoretical framework for this (Boeije, 2010). More specifically, we will use data from semi-structured interviews among supervisors (N=11) and a delegation of the employees under their supervision (about 3 per supervisor, in total N=39) in two public secondary schools in the Netherlands. Adopting this structure of participants allows us to compare perceptions between employees and between employees and their supervisor, and explore what influences shared perceptions. The selection of schools was based on the school’s history with supervisors as people managers. This resulted in one school that has a long-, and one school that has a short history of supervisors with people management responsibilities.