Human Resource Management and the Restructuring of Public Utilities: Water and Electricity in Africa
Author(s)
Lesueur, Jean-Yves; Plane, Patrick
Abstract
Most of the state companies producing and distributing water and electricity in sub-Saharan Africa are being restructured. The authors examine the role of human resource management in restructuring programmes implemented in some 20 companies in the 1980s. Under budget stringency reducing the wage bill is required, entailing a trade-off between employment and wage levels, the choice having an effect on productivity. Recruitment has been at the top and bottom ends of the occupational scale, while internal promotion has helped move many operatives into supervisory positions. Within individual companies, differentials in wages and fringe benefits have generally narrowed to the detriment of staff in the highest occupational categories.
