Exploring the implementation gap: organizational autonomy and line managers’ participation in human resource decision–making

ABSTRACT This article explores the assumption that the level of human resource (HR) autonomy of an organisation influences line managers’ participation in HR decision-making, and it seeks to understand to what extent such a participation affects the effective implementation of HR practices. The results of an empirical study of HR policies and practices in three public hospitals in Pakistan reveal that greater level of HR autonomy of an organisation, with less pressure to comply with public personnel policies, leads to increased participation of middle managers in HR decision-making. This, in turn, helps to reduce the gap between the intended and implemented HR practices, which is important for human resource management (HRM) – organisational performance linkage. These findings contribute to ongoing discussions related to HRM in the public sector context and line management enactment of HR practices by highlighting the profound implications of the institutional context on the HR management of public hospitals. Additionally, this research proposes a bottom-up approach to HR practices, through its focus on the participation of managers in HR decision-making as a possible solution to better implementation of HR practices.