Human Resources in Multilevel Service Provision Performance: The Role of Field Offices and Local Organizations

Abstract

The public management literature has extensively explored human resources’ (HR) contribution to organizational performance. However, HR approaches are seldom explored when assessing multilevel service provision. This research studies the HR-performance relationship when organizations at different government levels contribute to service provision. Beyond directly engaged local organizations, HR in national organizations’ field offices providing ancillary services may influence local service performance; however, local organizations’ HR levels moderate this contribution. Education in Colombia allows testing this model. While local schools directly provide classroom instruction, a national agency’s (Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar, ICBF) field offices provide related services. Relative workforce size and educational attainment serve to assess HR of schools and ICBF’s field offices while high school enrollment and dropout rates capture education provision performance. Schools’ HR increase performance and moderate ICBF’s indirect influence, offering evidence for both substitutive and reinforcing relationships between local and national organizations in service provision.