ABSTRACT
How effective are human resource management (HRM) factors—pay, formal education, job training, and working hours—in shaping performance in the public sector? As far as formal education and job training are concerned, it is widely believed that a higher-educated and skilled public sector workforce performs better than a lower-educated and skilled workforce (Arrow, 1962; Becker, 1964). When it comes to pay and working hours, there are mixed views about the performance-enhancing effects of high pay and long working hours in the public sector (Golden, 2012; Grant, 2008a; Perry & Wise, 1990; Shapiro & Stiglitz, 1984). Some public employees who, for example, work long hours may believe that they are performing at high levels, but others may disagree that long working hours raise performance (Liu, Chen, & Gan, 2019; Taylor, 2018).
