The History of Human Resource Management in Ethiopian Public Service Organizations:

Evidence based on Empirical Literature

Tensay, Assefa Tsegay
Department of Management, University of Gondar

Abstract
This article provides review of the history, and challenges of Human Resource Management
Practices in Ethiopia in the public service context. In addition, the way forward, to build sound
Human Resource Management System in the government organization was also included.
Despite the long history of Human Resource Management in Ethiopia, the public service failed
to build a strong and sound Human Resource Management system due to several challenges. The
finding of this study revealed politicization of the reform programs, lack of merit-based
leadership and weak civil service office in terms of Human Resource, support and capacity as
major challenges. Finally, the way forward was also included in this article.

Key Words: Human Resource Management, Public Service Organizations

1. Introduction
The effective management of HRM is essential to the efficiency, quality, and effectiveness of
public service (Yahiaoui, Anser and Lahouel, 2015). This indicates that to a very large extent, the
human resource and its proper management can enhance public service organization’s
performance. The public Service is one of the most important sectors that contribute towards the
economy growth of nations under the competitive and global environment. For example, the
share of the service sector in Ethiopia towards the economic growth is 46% (NPC, 2016). At the
global level, the contribution of the service sector in the economy of nations is a very big share.
It is widely recognized that government provides basic services such as health, education, water,
electricity, housing, sewerage, and so much more through its public service organizations.
However, proper provision of such services is not possible without the HRM (Becker & Gerhart,
1996). There are quite a lot of explanations why HRM is very critical in public services. This is
because, according to Wright and Gardner (2003), the public service organizations hold almost
50% of employment. Second, unlike the manufacturing companies, in a service organization, the
willingness, engagement, commitment and motivation of employees is highly required as the
service and the service provider are inseparable, showing that employees should be motivated
and willing to deliver service. Third, since service organizations provide the basic service such as
health, education, tax, energy and so much more, efficient and effective works are required in
meeting citizen demand especially in the developing countries. Finally, the service sector
contributing much part of the economy of nations.

It is the human resource with the necessary skill, ability and knowledge that provides the basic
services to the citizens. This resource should be managed and treated properly so that
governments can satisfy their clients and promote good governance. In other words,
organizations should build and implement sound Human Resource Management System to
recruit and select the appropriate personnel, provide training and development so as to improve
its skill, knowledge and attitude, conduct performance appraisal for performance improvements,
involve employees in decision making for fairness and justice and other HRM activities to
improve the overall performance of service organizations and ultimately meet their mission and
vision. In this regard, the role of Human Resource Management is very critical in public service
organizations (Tessema et al, 2006).So, the objective of this article is to review the practices and
major challenges of Human Resource Management in Ethiopia and suggest the public service
which helps the government organizations in modernizing their Human Resource Management
System.

2. Human Resource Management in Ethiopian Public Service Organizations

The inception of civil service (public service) in Ethiopia was back to the era of Minilik II (1889-
1913) (Mengesha and Common, 2007; MoCS, 2013), followed by his daughter Zewditu (1913-
1930). Previously to the regime, a number of monarchs were fighting against each other to
expand their territory. Following these conflicts in different regions, the country was unable to
establish centralized leadership (Markos, 2013). During this era, modern Ethiopia was
established with civil service organizations (Chanie, 2001). Despite the ancient history of
Ethiopia, the modern civil service structure was formed in 1907 during emperor Minilik II
(Mengesha and Common, 2007; MoCS, 2013). At this time, there were no legal documents to
operate the HRM functions. Mostly, employees are hired without formal procedures and they
were not salaried (Markos, 2013). As a result, the civil service organizations were not
modernized and can’t help in meeting society’s objectives. After the downfall of Minilik II,
Emperor Haileselassie rule the country (1917-1974). This period is remarkable in the history of
Ethiopia where the government made efforts to modernize the civil service with legal procedures
(Gebrekidan, 2011; MoCS, 2013). The law included several HRM practices such as recruitment
and selection, training, job description, performance analysis, salary increment, duties and
responsibilities of employees (Gebrekidan, 2011). In the period of Emperor Haileselassie,
Gebrekidan (2011) noted that the enacted law was directly adopted from western countries with
the objective of establishing uniform rules and procedures of HRM through the country. He
further explained that Central Personnel Agency (CPA) was formed with the responsibility of
guiding and directing the HRM activities throughout the civil service organizations in Ethiopia.
However, despite the introduction of the law in the civil service organizations, it was just mere
existence and continued with the traditional feudalist monarchy system (MoCS, 2013). The
government lacks strict adherence to the procedures. People employed and assigned in civil
service organization depending on blood connection, political loyalty and the amount and quality
of bribe presented to the monarchy (MoCS, 2013, Markos, 2013).
In 1974, military government came into power with socialist philosophy. Despite the political
change, the civil service continued with the same procedures (Semere, Negash and Asfaw, 2014).
The dergue regime follows a centralized system in the civil service organization where most of
the positions were filled by their political affiliation. The political cadres are responsible to
operate the overall HRM functions such as recruitment, training, promotion, appraisal and others.
During this period, the civil service was deteriorated and professionalism was given little
concern (Gebrekidan, 2011). As a result, the system was not efficient, corrupted and failed to
deliver to the needs of its society (MoCS, 2013). In 1991, the Military government was
overthrown by the people’s liberation and the EPRDF came into power with market oriented and
multi-party system (Mengesha and Common, 2007). The current government introduced
decentralized administrative system in the civil service organizations (MoCS, 2013). Following
the political change, the government introduced civil service reforms aiming at improving the
service delivery so as to bring economic growth. In 1996, the government introduced five major
Civil service reform programs. It was known that the HRM was not given much attention and in
many organizations, it was merged with finance and administration such as HRM and Finance,
HRM and Administration, Finance and General Service. Furthermore, the HRM department
focuses only paper works and routine works. Even the leaders of several organizations don’t
have the awareness that HRM can play strategic role in the organizations. It was after the civil
service reform that the HR is very critical for the success of any organization and the attitude,
skill and knowledge should be utilized and managed properly to improve public service
performances (MoCS, 2013). This implies that there is some respect given regarding HRM.

The HRM System sub program of the CSRP has many components such as recruitment and
selection, training and development, performance appraisal, compensation, job description,
information system, grievance, discipline, health and safety, and others practices (Markos, 2013).
The aim of HRM System is to create accountable, transparent, fair and efficient civil service
system that is capable of delivery the public service to its citizens (Mengesha and Common,
2007; Semere et al, 2014). The current government announced a proclamation on how HRM will
be treated and handled in the public service. The proclamation No. 515/2007 included many of
the HR practices which were adopted from the western countries (Gebrekidan, 2011). According
to him, the proclamation covers about recruitment and selection using fair and open competition;
equal opportunity; compensation; maintain high standards of integrity, performance
appraisal; training and development; discipline; grievance; health and safety at work place;
provision of information; promotion/demotion and transfer and other activities that are important
to the interest of both the employee and the employer. Of course, the previous proclamation
number (515/2007) was replaced with a new proclamation number 1064/2017 where current
trends and human rights are inculcated in the current proclamation.

The Ministry of Public Service and Human Resource Development is a government organ at the
federal level responsible to formulate and implement regarding HRM activities in the public
service (MoPS&HRD, 2016). Specifically, the responsibilities includes formulating HRM
policies and practices, providing standard HRM system in the public service, providing guidance
on performance measurement, modernizing the public service through the introduction of
reforms, monitoring public service performance, and other actions related to Human Resource
capacity development in the country (Markos, 2013). So, the government, through its Ministry of
Public Service and Human Resource Development, formulate, develop, follow and monitor the
HRM procedures and policies in the federal, regional and local civil service organizations.
Following this, all the public service organizations ensured the law concerning recruitment,
training, performance appraisal, promotion, health and safety, leave, grievance, disciplines and
other activities in their respective departments and units. The law clearly noticed that civil
service organizations should provide equal opportunity for all citizens that meet the minimum
requirements in terms of education, experience, and skill by fair and open competition.

Despite the uniform HRM Procedures and regulations formulated in the public service, there are
inconsistencies in implementing the HRM Practices among public service organizations due to
several reasons such as corruption, nepotism, lack of knowledge, and political interference
(Gebrekidan, 2011). To improve public service organization performance, the current
government tried to establish a transparent, fair and accountable system with an equal
opportunity to all irrespective of disability, race, gender, religion and culture. Following the
effort of government in monitoring and evaluating the performance of public service
organizations, positive results have been obtained and the country recorded economic growth for
the last two decades (MoCS, 2013). Notwithstanding the change in performance of public service
and the economic growth of the nation, the role of HRM in improving the performance of public
service and its contribution in the economic development was not evaluated in the Ethiopian
context.

3. Lessons and the way forward

4. Conclusion