Resumo

Organizations would benefit from flexible HRM practices that facilitate the development of issues related to employee well-being and resilience to promote a healthier and more productive organizational environment (Cooke et al., 2020). A substantial portion of the studies seems to pay more attention to large private organizations, neglecting public organizations, which play an equally crucial role in the economy (Al Damoe et al., 2017). This demands the development of a specific and customized scale to assess HRM practices from the perspective of public servants.

How to assess the perception of public servants in relation to the HRM practices implemented by the organizations they work for? The objective of our study is to get validity and reliability evidence of a measurement model of human resource management practices customized for the context of the public organizations, in order to bring greater integration of HRM practices and public organizations’ needs.

HRM practices are understood as articulated proposals of the organization regarding human relations, to achieve the desired results (Demo, 2016). It seems to be possible to affirm that HRM practices influence positive organizational behaviors, because the more the employee perceives practices that advocate their well-being, the more they will feel satisfied and affectively connected to work, thus contributing to greater organizational performance (Wu, & Lee, 2017).

The design of this study is descriptive, exploratory, cross-sectional and multimethod. This research is presented in two parts: scale development procedures (qualitative step) and the scale validation procedures (quantitative step). In the qualitative step, experts' analysis and semantic analysis were performed. At the quantitative step, the target audience was comprised of public servants. For the conduction of confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to verify the adjustment of the proposed measurement model, through the statistical program AMOS.

The product of the qualitative study was the application version of the Public HRMPS. In the quantitative step, the results of the exploratory analysis indicated four factors, Cronbach's alpha were considered reliable and very reliable, and total variance explained can be evaluated as a satisfactory result. In the confirmatory validation of the scale, Jöreskog's rho of the four factors was very reliable. HRM practices, measured by the Public HRMPS, have evidence of internal and construct validity, as well as reliability, and content validity.

We may conclude, in spite of the limitations pointed, that the main objective of this study was reached and an instrument to assess the perceptions of public servants regarding HRM practices was presented in an innovative way on the public organizations context. The Public HRMPS is an operationally valid and reliable measure to evaluate practices considered essential for strategic HRM and can be used as a diagnostic tool to support managers of public organizations in their decision-making, so they can promote a strategic evidence-based HRM.

Cooke, F. L., Dickmann, M., & Parry, E. (2020). IJHRM after 30 years: taking stock in times of COVID-19 and looking towards the future of HR research. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 31(1), 1-23. Demo, G. (2016). Políticas e práticas de gestão de pessoas: possibilidades de diagnóstico para gestão organizacional. In Mendonça, H., Ferreira, M. C., & Neiva, E. R. (eds.), Análise e diagnóstico organizacional: teoria e prática (pp. 117-147). São Paulo: Vetor.