Understanding HR in the Morality Construction of Policy Analysts

Abstract

BRIEF SUMMARY: This study traces the influence of the Government of Canada’s human resources management system, as a form of organizational discourse, in how policy practice is constructed in a moral form within the institutional setting. The study aims to move beyond the conceptual and theoretical models of policy analysis present in the current literature to explore what policy ‘work’ entails in practice. RESEARCH QUESTION: How has organizational discourse, through the use of human resources management instruments, led to an institutional morality construction of the work of policy analysts within the Canadian civil service? THEORETICAL APPROACH: The study views the emergence of the policy analysis function as a response to early twentieth century modernization and rationalization reforms undertaken by western public administrations. By using Foucauldian perspectives on the exercise of power through the use of discourse, the study maps out how the Government of Canada used discursive instruments to instill particular values and behaviors on the manifestation of policy work by civil servants. METHODOLOGY: The study proposes the use of critical discourse analysis to study human resource management instruments, namely recruitment material, where written language is used to delineate an occupational jurisdiction for policy workers. The analysis of these texts will be used to formulate a morality for how policy analysis ‘work’ is ought to be practiced by policy analyst practitioners.