Human resource management in hospitals: A contested arena for jurisdiction

Abstract

During the past 10 years, financial pressures on health service providers have led toa quest for more efficient service delivery and many consequential changes to theorganisation and utilisation of staff. This study investigated the organisationalresponses to such pressures by four major South Australian hospitals and the level ofinvolvement of hospital human resource staff in the staffing issues associated withstrategic planning. With one exception, there was little contribution from qualifiedhuman resource professionals to staffing decisions involving medical and nursingpersonnel and little value was placed on their potential input by other professionalgroups. If, as suggested by writers on strategic human resource management, humanresource practice is moving toward a more strategic approach, then there is a largecredibility gap for human resource staff to overcome within the South Australianhealth service.