Contracts,compacts and the common law Some problems with New Right theories of human resource management Contracts,compacts and the common law

The study of HRM in Spain is flourishing. We have seen the major international journals begin to reflect the work of Spanish academics in this area. The standard is high and the international network of Spanish scholars is increasingly developed. This paper attempts to review the work that is published in English and to see how Spanish HRM systems are represented externally. It tries to locate the discussion of the HRM research in Spain within its academic and social context. The authors argue that there are some characteristics marking this debate and development, which suggest that the study of HRM in Spain is hugely Americanized in terms of methods and content. The lack of synergies with sociology and political economy are evident. Moreover, the shortage of rigorous qualitative research, apart from that on employment relations and the sociology of work, raise some serious issues. The manner in which a discourse of HRM in Spain has evolved leaves many questions and issues unaddressed. While evaluating what we believe to be a relevant selection from HRM publications on Spain in English by Spanish authors in the last 15 years we do not attempt to present them all here. Instead, we try to isolate some representative articles. In sum, the paper aims to fill a gap in the Spanish HRM literature by studying the main debates, the research issues that are given priority and the methodological options. As a conclusion, we can say that it is necessary to encourage academic discussions regarding the features of the management of HR in Spain. In this sense it should be noted that the mainstream HRM approaches formulated in American Business Schools do not necessarily fit within the Spanish context.     

Towards a hybrid model? A systematic review of human resource management research on Chinese state-owned enterprises (1993–2017)

Abstract

Over the past two decades, there has been a proliferation of research on human resource management (HRM) in Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as a result of the wide-reaching state-sector reform of the late 1980s. This article aims to provide a systematic review of literature on this topic and capture the nature of HRM in Chinese SOEs, both in research and practice. The article draws on 178 studies from 43 English academic journals over a period of 25?years (1993–2017). In analysing this literature and by taking stock of theoretical frameworks, research methods, themes and analysis of academic articles in this area, we have gained a number of insights. The study has found that the research methods used have shifted from qualitative and interpretive methodology toward quantitative and sophisticated modelling. A further insight is that there has been a relatively heavy reliance on institutional theory in the earlier studies reviewed, and since then a switch towards organizational behaviour perspectives. The level of analysis has moved from macro to micro level and thematic foci have become more diverse and complex. We highlight a number of avenues, theoretical and empirical, for future studies in this field.     

Still in search of strategic human resource management? A review and suggestions for future research with China as an example

Strategic human resource management (SHRM) has been an important strand of research in the HRM field for over three decades, and has attracted heated debates in recent years. One main critique of the state of SHRM research is its increasing detachment from HRM practice, in the pursuit of more theoretical rigor and methodological sophistication. Our review article has two main tasks. First, we review SHRM research published in two leading HRM journals—Human Resource Management and Human Resource Management Journal—in the light of the criticisms on SHRM research and use this as a backdrop of our second task. Second, we critically examine SHRM research conducted in the Chinese context by drawing on a systematic review on extant literature. In doing so, we draw on a wider range of HRM journals such as Human Resource Management Review, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, and so forth. We find that while the trend of psychologization in SHRM research is gathering pace, the range of theoretical perspectives mobilized to inform the studies is actually expanding. We call for SHRM research to be more contextualized and more practical phenomenon‐driven SHRM research. We indicate several avenues for future research, using China as an example.     

Guest Editors’ Introduction: Is the HRM Process Important? Past,Current, and Future Challenges

Ten years ago, Bowen and Ostroff ( 2004 ) criticized the one‐sided focus on the content‐based approach, where researchers take into account the inherent virtues (or vices) associated with the content of HR practices to explain performance. They explicitly highlight the role of the psychological processes through which employees attach meaning to HRM. In this first article of the special section entitled “Is the HRM Process Important?” we present an overview of past, current, and future challenges. For past challenges, we attempt to categorize the various research streams that originated from the seminal piece. To outline current challenges, we present the results of a content analysis of the original 15 articles put forward for the special section. In addition, we provide the overview of a caucus focused on this theme that was held at the Academy of Management annual meeting in Boston in 2012. In conclusion, we discuss future challenges relating to the HRM process approach and review the contributions that have been selected—against a competitive field—for this special issue. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Conditional altruism: Effects of HRM practices on the willingness of host‐country nationals to help expatriates

The assistance of host‐country nationals (HCNs) both within the workplace and in the external environment plays a significant role in expatriate adjustment and work performance on international assignments. Extant research exploring antecedents of HCNs' attitudes and behaviors toward expatriates focuses on personal and intrapersonal factors but overlooks organizational contextual effects. In this study, we propose and test a model that HCNs' willingness to help expatriates is influenced by HRM practices in international subsidiaries of multinational enterprises (MNEs). Results of analyzing data collected from Chinese subsidiaries of South Korean MNEs showed that high‐commitment HRM practices directly and indirectly influence HCNs' willingness to help expatriates through the mediation of perceived organizational support (POS). Socially responsible HRM indirectly influences the criterion variable through the mediation of organizational identification. Moreover, POS and organizational identification sequentially mediate the effect of high‐commitment HRM on HCNs' willingness to help expatriates. These findings shed some light on organizational antecedents that go beyond personal and intrapersonal factors of HCN attitudes and behavior toward expatriates.     

On the shoulders of giants: a meta-review of strategic human resource management

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed significant growth in the field of strategic HRM. This article summarizes the literature in this field by conducting a meta-review, a review of the reviews that have covered various topics of strategic HRM. In doing so, the authors highlight theoretical frameworks and empirical findings of studies in the field over the past three decades, identify methodological issues and challenges in the previous research, and discuss recent trends in the field of strategic HRM. The author concludes by suggesting some interesting and important directions for future work.     

Organizational and comparative institutionalism in international HRM: Toward an integrative research agenda

Over the past two decades, a growing body of research on human resource management (HRM) has analyzed the relationship between international HRM and institutions. This work has primarily been informed by two leading streams of theory—organizational institutionalism and comparative institutionalism. However, these two dominant streams have seen much juxtaposition, but little logical integration. Moreover, scholars have paid little attention to the dynamics of contextualization (more specifically, institutional development and evolution), which limits the relevance of extant research. In this article, we review the extant literatures and their intellectual origins and develop an integrative research agenda that emphasizes the multilevel nature of HRM and evolution under external institutional change.     

Mapping Human Resource Management: Reviewing the field and charting future directions

Using recent advances in science mapping, this article systematically reviews the Human Resource Management (HRM) field. We analyze 12,157 HRM research articles published over 23 years to reveal the topic content and intellectual structure of HRM scholarship. A downloadable, searchable HRM topic map is provided (https://bit.ly/HR_Map) that reveals: a) 1702 HRM article topics, b) the number of articles on each topic, c) topic relations, trends, and impact, and d) five major HRM topic clusters. We discuss the overall intellectual structure of HRM scholarship and review the five topic clusters. Next, the topic content of HRM scholarship is compared to that of 6114 articles from the practitioner-oriented outlet HR Magazine. We identify 100 topics emphasized to a much greater degree in the practitioner-oriented literature. Seven key themes for future research that could help align HRM scholarship with the interests of HR practitioners are identified and discussed.     

Issue Information

The international human resource management (IHRM) field naturally lends itself to spotlighting the importance of internal and external organizational contexts to help understand how to manage employees in organizations effectively. However, we argue that the range of opportunities that the field creates to understand this context has not yet been fully embraced by IHRM scholars. To address this gap, this special issue explores: (a) the variety of approaches to theorizing how contexts promote or constrain organizational practice; and (b) relevant methodologies that might allow us to unearth novel context-dependent theory in international HRM. We propose a distinction between variable-oriented theorizing (that explains the effects of internal and external contexts on the phenomena under study) and context-dependent theorizing (that requires researchers become intimately familiar with the setting under study to understand context as a shaper of meaning). This editorial also highlights how the articles in the special issue contribute to stimulating further context-dependent IHRM research.     

Laying the foundations of international careers research

As an editorial to the special issue “new avenues in international careers research” this article discusses the roots of the international careers research stream, which sits at the intersection between career studies, HRM and international management. In order to support future studies in this emerging area of enquiry, we attempt to lay down the foundations of a research agenda based around what we see as the three core areas of interest: contextualised careers research, comparative careers research and careers research in internationally operating organisations. After providing some suggestions for the kinds of theoretical and methodological tools that will be required to build on these foundations, we introduce the five empirical papers that comprise this special issue.     

Sixty years of discrimination and diversity research in human resource management: A review with suggestions for future research directions

This article reviews discrimination and diversity research published in Human Resource Management (HRM) over the past 60 years. While discrimination and diversity are very different constructs, it is often informative to study them together, because when people recognize each other's diversity, this can result in bias, stereotyping, and discrimination. We conducted bibliographic searches for terms related to discrimination and diversity as well as a manual search through every title and abstract published in HRM over the last 60 years to assess article relevance. The search resulted in 135 research articles with 136 unique studies (i.e., samples) which are reviewed in this article. Sex and race are the demographics that have been examined the most in HRM, while religion has been examined the least. Moreover, the number of studies examining lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) employees in the workplace in HRM has grown quickly within the past 10 years, culminating in a recent meta‐analysis. Our review looks at some of the earliest research published, the most recent research published, and the overall trends we identified in the research over the years for both discrimination and diversity articles. We then make future research suggestions and recommendations to advance the study of discrimination and diversity in the coming years.     

Gender equality and comparative HRM: A 40-year review

Guided by comparative human resource management (HRM) research, we review and critically assess the literature on gender equality in work settings. To this end, we consider quantitative articles published between 1980 and 2021. We apply a multi-level and multi-dimensional framework focused on three gender equality perspectives (i.e., Hofstede, GLOBE, and socioeconomic) and the HRM chain (e.g., policies and practices) as well as individual and organizational outcomes. Consistent with previous literature in the field of comparative HRM, we find that the three gender equality perspectives explain significant differences in the HRM chain as well as in both individual-level and organizational-level outcomes. Extending comparative HRM literature, we find that the three gender equality perspectives influence our research community differently, show similarities and differences in outcomes, associate with different effects (i.e., enabling and enhancing), and differ in the direction of such effects. Our study contributes to evidence-based policy and practice in organizations that align their HR strategies to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 (Gender Equality).     

Human resource management–well‐being–performance research revisited: Past,present, and future

The authors provide an up‐to‐date theoretically based qualitative review of research dealing with the relationship between HRM, employee well‐being, and individual/organisational performance (HRM‐WB‐IOP research). The review is based on a systematic critical analysis of all HRM‐WB‐IOP studies (N = 46) published in 13 core HRM and management journals in the 2000 to 2018 period. The authors first identify different theoretical models of the HRM‐WB‐IOP relationship, which they then use to map research in the area. The results show that mutual gains conceptualisations play a dominant role in extant HRM‐WB‐IOP research, at the expense of alternative conflicting outcomes and mutual losses models, which are also shown to receive very limited empirical support across the 46 studies. As part of this mapping exercise, the authors identify important knowledge gaps in the area and conclude by setting out a number of key recommendations for future research to address these gaps.     

To integrate or not to integrate: HRM practice of Chinese banks in Canada

Abstract

Are emerging market banks necessarily prone to localize HRM when entering developed markets? According to this comparative case study of two Chinese banks in Canada, we instead found a trend toward the integration of HRM with the parent companies’ practices, with varying levels of integration based on factors such as international experience and investment method. Importantly, the current practice, which may appear to be suboptimal in light of the localization imperative, has not prevented the banks from attaining steady financial performance, partly enabled by the carrying-over of home grown customers and the presence of a distinct co-ethnic community. However, such practice may have adverse effects on their long-term success, especially given their claimed aim to become global competitors. A conceptual model is built upon these findings, which also offers important practical implications.     

Projective testing: Historical foundations and uses for human resources management

The use of projective psychological measures has intrigued scientists and the general public for nearly a century. In the following, we provide the historical and conceptual foundations for a variety of projective measures and review empirical research using them in application to areas relevant to human resource management (HRM). From these reviews, we argue that the slowing of projectives research in HRM applications over the past two decades does not appear to be warranted given these findings. Based on this historical account, we note two major barriers to the use of these measures in HRM. The first is the lack of an HRM-centric literature on projectives, as most research has drawn on theories and measures designed in the context of abnormal attributes. Secondly, subgroups of researchers have historically become mired in what we call philosophical deadlock, wherein the evidence provided by one group does not address the concerns of another and vice versa. We humbly provide some suggestions and hint at future directions for projective measurement in HRM.     

An employee-focused human resource management perspective for the management of global virtual teams

Abstract

The number of global virtual teams (GVTs) has increased in recent years due to globalization of business, improved information and communication technology, and higher innovation needs. Practitioners expect GVTs to be creative, innovative, and high-performing. However, GVT members suffer from interpersonal problems, stress, and misunderstandings based on cultural differences. It is therefore important that the HRM function intervenes in the functioning of GVTs. HRM and GVT research has mostly focused on instrumental practices to improve performance, but globalization and the dynamic business environment require international organizations to adopt new HRM perspectives. To advance research on GVTs and HRM, we draw on the job demands-resources model and research on quality of work life to introduce an employee-focused HRM perspective for the management of GVTs. This new perspective focuses explicitly on improving employee wellbeing in GVTs. We develop a novel theoretical framework that provides HR practitioners and leaders with several employee-focused management tools such as flexible work practices, international training and development opportunities, and fair pay and procedures. These tools are likely to help GVT members to cope with job demands and to improve their wellbeing, and are particularly useful for GVTs due to their interpersonal problems, stressful environment, and cultural differences.     

The role of Vartan Bhanji in implementing HRM practices in Pakistan

The local adaptation of Western HR concepts in more traditional societies is an important topic for international HRM research and practice. We analyze the role of Vartan Bhanji, a traditional notion constituting and governing local social networks, when implementing such concepts in the Pakistani context. Based on a detailed case study of a privatized hospital, our analysis shows that Vartan Bhanji is both supporting and limiting Western HRM practices, in particular recruitment and selection, appraisal, compensation and promotion. The study reduces the knowledge gap for Pakistan, a country underrepresented in the international HRM discourse; illustrates the role of traditional social networks in companies using Western HRM concepts and supports calls for contextualizing HRM practices and research.     

The profile of the ‘Good Judge’ in HRM: A systematic review and agenda for future research

In light of the pivotal importance of judgments and ratings in human resource management (HRM) settings, a better understanding of the individual differences associated with being a good judge is sorely needed. This review provides an overview of individual difference characteristics that have been associated with the accurate judges in HRM. We review empirical findings over >80 years to identify what we know and do not know about the individual difference correlates of being an accurate judge. Overall, findings suggest that judges' cognitive factors show stronger and more consistent relationships with rating accuracy than personality-related factors. Specific intelligences in the social cognition domain, such as dispositional reasoning (complex understanding of traits, behaviors and a situation's potential to manifest traits into behaviors) show particular promise to help understanding what makes an accurate judge. Importantly, our review also highlights the scarcity of research on HRM context (selection vs. performance appraisal settings) and judges' motivation to distort ratings. To guide future research, we present a model that links assessor constructs to key processes required for accurate judgment and ratings in HRM contexts. The discussion suggests twenty questions for future work in this field.     

Entrepreneurial team and strategic agility: A conceptual framework and research agenda

To be agile, responsive and innovative seems to have become prerequisites for long-term growth and success for any organizations operating in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world. This paper argues that such prerequisites, in turn, are dependent on the organization's abilities to harness team-level entrepreneurial behaviours, talents and activities as drivers of continuous strategic agility and innovation through an effectively managed HRM process. It illustrates this argument by conducting a synthesized review of the literature streams of entrepreneurial team and strategic agility and developing a conceptual framework that links them together. Rooted in the micro-foundational perspective, this review examines the relationship between key conceptual dimensions of entrepreneurial team and strategic agility, and explores the connections between these two literature streams. Our findings suggest the potential value from a cross-fertilization approach, and points out the future research directions through which these literature streams might be advanced collectively and effectively. Our research sheds some important light on the relationship between strategic agility and HRM through the lens of managing effective entrepreneurial teams in differing contexts.