Abstract

The paper examines the innovative HR practices of regional administrations in Russia and the inter-regional cooperation between HR departments of regional governmental bodies; in practice the dissemination is complicated by their relations with the federal bodies (national level) responsible for civil-service regulation.

The authors use the case of Russia to describe the positive experience of blended inter-regional (horizontal) and federal-local (vertical) cooperation between HR departments of the civil service (federal, regional, municipal) that started as a “best practices” initiative, guided by the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Russia (MLSP of Russia) in 2015. Several cases of such cooperation are described as examples of positive influence on the civil service with pushing changes, and as a tool to foster civil-service reform.

Our findings lead us to the conclusion that the knowledge and motivation accumulated by the innovative HR practices in regional governmental bodies enables them to overcome political, administrative, financial and legal barriers in public-service reform. From a theoretical perspective, the research shows that the theories of public-administration service reform (institutional and instrumental) should take into account the regional HR practices and inter-regional cooperation that promote those practices. Specific features and benefits of regional innovations help to compensate for the lack of formal political support of reforms, or to conquer bureaucratic resistance to change. As it happened in Russia, the regional initiatives facilitated multiple leadership behaviors that have the capacity to increase the willingness to experiment, expand commitment to innovations, and boost motivation for professional development.

Future research on the influence of new regional HR practices on civil-service reform can be concentrated on the exploration of regional communities of practice (CoP) that are involved in the process of elaborating and disseminating new HR practices. It will provide a better understanding of the limits and possibilities of the regions to support civil-service reform on a national level.

中文翻译：

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区域行政管理的创新人力资源实践：这是俄罗斯新一轮的公务员制度改革吗？

摘要

本文考察了俄罗斯区域行政管理部门创新的人力资源实践以及区域政府机构人力资源部门之间的区域间合作；实际上，由于与负责公务员管理的联邦机构（国家一级）的关系，传播工作变得很复杂。

作者以俄罗斯为例，描述了从“最佳实践”开始的公务员（联邦，区域，市政）人力资源部门之间区域间（横向）和联邦地方（纵向）混合合作的积极经验。该倡议由俄罗斯劳动和社会保护部（MLSP）于2015年指导。这种合作的一些案例被描述为通过不断变化对公务员制度产生积极影响的实例，以及作为促进公务员制度的工具改革。

我们的发现使我们得出以下结论：区域政府机构中创新的人力资源实践所积累的知识和动力使他们能够克服公共服务改革中的政治，行政，财务和法律障碍。从理论的角度来看，研究表明，公共行政服务改革（机构和工具）的理论应考虑区域人力资源实践和促进这些实践的区域间合作。区域创新的特殊特征和好处有助于补偿缺乏对改革的正式政治支持，或克服官僚主义对变革的抵制。正如在俄罗斯发生的那样，区域性举措促进了多种领导行为，这些行为有能力提高人们进行试验的意愿，

关于新的地区人力资源实践对公务员制度改革的影响的未来研究可以集中在探索地区实践社区（CoP）上，这些社区参与了制定和传播新的人力资源实践的过程。它将更好地了解该地区在国家一级支持公务员制度改革的局限性和可能性。