Abstract
This article connects human resource management (HRM) research to studies of street-level bureaucracies and public professionals. It investigates the intermediary role of professional behavior in the HRM–individual performance link in the context of public human service organizations. The article hypothesizes that human resources (HR) practices, aimed at enhancing street-level workers’ abilities, motivation, and opportunities, strengthen these workers’ professional behavior; that professional behavior and individual performance are positively related; and that professional behavior mediates the relationship between HR practices and individual performance. The analysis of findings from a survey study of street-level workers in local welfare agencies implementing welfare-to-work policies in the Netherlands shows support for the mediating role of professional behavior in the HRM–individual performance chain. Based on this evidence, the article concludes that the professional behavior of street-level workers in public human service organizations deserves scrutiny of both HRM scholars and HR practitioners who are interested in promoting the performance of public professionals.
Highlights
This article elaborates on the academic literature about the human resource management (HRM)–individual performance link in public human service organizations (Abner et al, 2017; Giauque et al, 2013; Knies et al, 2018; Van Loon, 2017)
All items were formulated in such a way that they refer to concrete practices or behaviors
This study set out to investigate whether and to what extent professional behavior mediates the relationship between human resources (HR) practices and performance
Summary
This article elaborates on the academic literature about the human resource management (HRM)–individual performance link in public human service organizations (Abner et al, 2017; Giauque et al, 2013; Knies et al, 2018; Van Loon, 2017). It proposes and analyzes professional behavior in public organizations as one of the factors mediating the relationship between HRM and the performance of streetlevel bureaucrats. Street-level behavior has hardly been explicitly studied as an HRM issue, as pointed out by several authors (Brockmann, 2017; Hwang & Han, 2020; Petter et al, 2002; Van Loon, 2017)
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