Public Service Management and Employment Relations in Europe ─ Emerging from the Crisis

Public Service Management and Employment Relations in Europe; Emerging from the Crisis? examines the consequences for public services and employment relations of the economic and financial crisis, placing these developments in a wider framework that incorporates the legacy of more than thirty years of public sector and workforce reform. It addresses the interplay between an emerging post-crisis public service sector and the consequences for the state, employers and trade unions in core public services (central government, local government, health and education).

Within public administration and comparative employment relations there has been recognition of diversity in national political, economic and institutional structures with variation in the patterns and outcomes of public sector reform. Recently, there has been a tendency to argue that the magnitude of the sovereign debt crisis and the ideology of austerity has led to a ‘European fixation on austerity as the only possible way forward’ (Blyth, 2013: 16) implying that all countries are pursuing the same policies with similar outcomes.

A key objective is therefore to examine the impact of the crisis on the reform of public services and associated patterns of employment relations.Public Service Management and Employment Relations in Europe; Emerging from the Crisis?takes up the challenge to explore and contest this influential interpretation of the impact of austerity on public service management and employment relations and will be vital reading for researchers, academics and PhD Students in the fields of Public Management, Public Administration, Employment Relations and Human Resource Management.

• Stephen Bach is Professor of Employment Relations at King’s College London

• Lorenzo Bordogna is Professor of Labour Studies at the University of Milan, Italy