The dynamic nature of HRM implementation: a structuration perspective

Abstract

Over the past decades, scholars have dedicated substantial attention to the process of HRM implementation. Most progress has been made with debates on HRM system strength, roles of organisational actors in HRM implementation, and intended, actual and perceived HRM. In this paper, we challenge the current view on HRM implementation as being too static and one-directional. By building on structuration theory, we show that the process of HRM implementation is less straightforward than has been previously assumed. After their initial introduction, HRM practices evolve through turbulent developments. Furthermore, instead of neatly distributed roles following meticulously scheduled planning, HRM practices are influenced by various organisational actors. For successful implementation, HRM practices need to become inscribed into the interpretive schemes of organisational actors, resources have to be distributed, the HRM practice has to gain legitimacy. We develop a comprehensive framework that assists in understanding the process of HRM implementation.     

Human resource management – a national business system perspective

Abstract

Although a sizeable body of academic literature has attempted to explain the role of national business systems in the context of human resource management (HRM), there is still little research on the extent to which institutional features explain patterns of HRM in the emerging economy of Dubai. Different institutional settings tend to generate their own organisational arrangements to manage their employees, and it is important to understand how this interplay works. From an economic perspective, Dubai is important, mainly due to its promising diversification of its economy and its political stability. From a national business system perspective, the institutional environment represents a peculiar case, because it differs from many other emerging markets with respect to the strong co-ordinating role of the state, the strong segmentation and specialisation of tasks, roles, skills and authority, especially between nationals and expatriates, and a unique employment system. Thirty-two in-depth interviews with HR managers, and extensive document reviews, reveal that these elements of the institutional environment are related strongly to specific patterns of HRM practices, including distinctive policies for national employees and expatriates. The insights generated in this study explain the particularities of HRM in Dubai from a national business system perspective.     

Towards a strategic understanding of global teams and their HR implications: an expert dialogue

Abstract

Drawing on initial insights emerging from a panel at the EIBA 2016 Conference in Vienna, here discussants and expert panelists engage in a follow-on conversation on the HRM implications of global teams for international organizations. First we set out how HRM can enable global teams and their constituent members to overcome the new and considerable challenges of global teams. These challenges span levels of analysis, time and space. Next we debate global teams as a strategic response to the dual pressures of global integration and local adaptation. We consider what HRM is needed for global teams to successfully resolve this dilemma, challenging practitioners to move beyond the ‘best practices’ and ‘alignment’ dichotomy. Lastly we look to the future to consider implications for research. We propose a rich research agenda focused on the complexities of the global team context.     

Resilience,wellbeing and HRM: a multidisciplinary perspective

Abstract

Research on resilience has accumulated a vast body of knowledge which has assisted in comprehending complex HRM issues in diverse organizational settings. Yet, the existing studies have hitherto not paid sufficient attention to the multifaceted aspects of resilience and occupational contexts. We join the conversation with resilience, wellbeing and HRM by suggesting that investigating resilience from a multidisciplinary perspective situated in varying occupational contexts can advance our collective understandings of the phenomena in important ways. This paper has three general objectives. First, we show that resilience has been a long-standing issue in organizational behavior and organization studies and provide an overview of the puzzles that underpin and trigger this special issue. Second, we highlight the key insights and contributions of the papers included in this special issue by reviewing their theoretical underpinnings, methodological approaches and findings. Finally, we outline a future research agenda on resilience in organizations that can help advance international HRM research.     

Divergence in HR Functional Roles in Local Government

Abstract

In spite of a growing body of research on the position and role of HRM and the HR function in organizations, local government HRM has not received the attention it deserves. This article contributes to research on the role of the HR function by deploying a discursive perspective on how HR managers construct their function's role in the context of Finnish local government. Five discourses are located in the talk of HR managers, which show emerging discursive tensions and contradictions in the roles of the HR function in local government.     

Similarities and differences in international and comparative human resource management: A review of 60 years of research

In this article, we review similarities and differences in articles in the research field of international and comparative human resource management (HRM), published in Human Resource Management over the past 60 years. The extensive review and analysis, based on 189 conceptual articles, reviews, and empirical studies, identified several trends. First, the two distinct research streams in this research field (HRM in MNEs and comparative HRM) have grown over the decades and moved from conceptual articles in the beginning to almost exclusively empirical studies in more recent years. Second, in addition to the two research streams, in more recent years we identified a third research stream that combines elements of HRM in MNEs and comparative HRM research. Third, the research field has become more feminized, with an increasing number of female (first) authors, and has become more international, with more authors affiliated with non‐US universities in the more recent time periods. Finally, while the research streams show some differences in the content of their research, we do not find evidence that the streams developed in isolation. Based on our analysis, we provide suggestions for future research on international and comparative HRM and identify current implications for HR practitioners.     

Role of line managers in human resource management: empirical evidence from India

Of late, the line management role has been reorganized in business organizations and they are now increasingly taking up responsibility for core HRM functions. Line managers' role in HRM has been recognized in academic research but it is likely impact on the effectiveness of HRM that has remained relatively under researched, especially in India. The focus of the study was, thus, to empirically examine the relationship between dimensions of line managers' role in HRM and effectiveness of HRM in the Indian context. Primary data were obtained from HR managers of top-ranking companies through a single cross-sectional survey based on a research instrument designed by the researcher. The instrument was tested for unidimensionality, reliability and validity. SEM capabilities of LISREL 8.50 were utilized to test the conceptual research model based on the hypothesized relationships. The findings provided mixed support for the conceptual model. The present research has implications for both academicians and practitioners. The study is expected to serve as a guide in understanding the role of line managers vis-a-vis HRM, a largely unexplored area in the Indian context.     

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.     

Top management: the missing stakeholder in the HRM literature

Abstract

Despite the significant influence that top management exerts on different aspects of people management, it remains the missing stakeholder in the HRM literature. In this paper, we take stock of previous research, and conclude that it is scarce and lacks consolidation. On the basis of our findings, but also thinking in terms of what is still missing, we develop a conceptual framework that may guide further research, advocating for the need to consider co-evolutionary approaches in an attempt to integrate selection and adaptation perspectives, as well as multi-level and multi-actor factors. Future work should systematically address and distinguish top management characteristics from top management agency and link these more clearly to a diversity of HRM dimensions. By doing so, scholars will help to firmly incorporate the role of top management in the research agenda of HRM and pursue different avenues that can be scientifically sound as well as practically relevant.     

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.     

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.     

HRM and knowledge-transfer: a micro analysis in a Middle Eastern emerging market

This is a study surrounding the interplay between Human Resource Management (HRM) and knowledge transfer within an emerging institutional petro-state. It seeks to link HRM and knowledge transfer through individual-level mechanisms in response to the recent calls for more research on micro-foundations. Our findings provide empirical evidence for HRM-related factors influencing knowledge exchange in a sample of 815 employees in the national context of the UAE. We found that individual-level perceptions and extrinsic motivation have a positive impact on knowledge exchange; however, we found evidence to suggest only an indirect effect of individual perceptions of organisational commitment to knowledge exchange, via individual intrinsic motivation and social interaction. Unlike some existing accounts from the Western world, individual perceptions of organisational commitment to knowledge sharing had no direct positive impact on knowledge exchange – an issue that may be ascribed to the distinct institutional setting of the UAE. This paper adds to the existing literature on HRM and knowledge exchange by bringing to bear new evidence from a Middle Eastern emerging market setting – an area thus far relatively neglected in the literature.     

Partial least squares structural equation modeling in HRM research

Abstract

Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) has become a key multivariate analysis technique that human resource management (HRM) researchers frequently use. While most disciplines undertake regular critical reflections on the use of important methods to ensure rigorous research and publication practices, the use of PLS-SEM in HRM has not been analyzed so far. To address this gap in HRM literature, this paper presents a critical review of PLS-SEM use in 77 HRM studies published over a 30-year period in leading journals. By contrasting the review results with state-of-the-art guidelines for use of the method, we identify several areas that offer room of improvement when applying PLS-SEM in HRM studies. Our findings offer important guidance for future use of the PLS-SEM method in HRM and related fields.     

Institutionalism and its effect on HRM in the ASEAN context: Challenges and opportunities for future research

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has emerged as a dynamically developing market with remarkable economic achievements. However, HRM research in this bloc seems to lag behind Western countries. We conduct a systematic literature review to examine the development of HRM in ASEAN in accordance with its historical and institutional attributes and conditions. To do so, our analysis is mainly rooted in the relevant literatures on the core themes that are searched from a variety of databases such as ProQuest, ESBCO, books and webpages of relevant journals. This analysis helps to identify institutional constraints that may influence HRM practices in ASEAN, and thus develop an ASEAN-based HRM framework, and accordingly propose important directions for future research in this promising and under-researched context. This integrative framework would lay the useful foundation for researchers to theorize and examine the determinants of HRM and their effects on organizational performance.     

Disability status,individual variable pay,and pay satisfaction: Does relational and institutional trust make a difference?

Although prior research suggests that disabled employees have different needs in the context of some HRM practices, we know little about their reactions to reward systems. We address this gap in the literature by testing a model using the 2011 British Workplace Employee Relations Survey (disabled employees, n = 1,251; nondisabled employees, n = 9,959; workplaces, n = 1,806) and find that disabled employees report lower levels of pay satisfaction than nondisabled employees, and when compensated based on individual performance, the difference in pay satisfaction is larger. We suggest that relational (derived from trust in management) and institutional (derived from firm‐wide policies and HRM practices, both intended to provide equitable treatment to disabled employees) forms of trust play important roles. The results of multilevel analyses show that when trust in management is high, the difference in pay satisfaction under variable pay is reduced. We find just the opposite for employees who work in organizations with a formal disability policy but without supportive HRM practices; the gap in pay satisfaction is exacerbated. However, the combination of the presence of a firm‐wide policy and HRM practices reduced the difference in pay satisfaction. Implications of the findings for theory, future research, and management practice are discussed.     

Beating the advertising drum for the employer: How legal context translates into good HRM practice

The legal context is constitutive for the legitimacy of HRM practices. In this paper, we use an institutional work approach to investigate how a legal mandate requiring employers to state the minimum pay in job advertisements in Austria was translated into a legitimate HRM practice over time. In this process, HR practitioners translated the law into an HRM practice going well beyond the legal requirements. In contrast to merely constraining HRM practice, we find HR practitioners actively engaging with the legal context. In the discursive struggle over a legitimate translation of the law into practice, actors speaking ‘for HRM’ were mostly HRM consultants and service providers building on an individualist and unitarist frame of reference for employment relations. Our findings contribute to a contextualized understanding of HRM practices by considering the interaction of HR practitioners and legal context.     

Institutional duality and human resource management practice in foreign subsidiaries of multinationals

We examine how institutional context affects the decisions that subsidiaries of multinational corporations (MNCs) make in pursuing particular human resource management (HRM) practices in response to institutional duality. Drawing on Varieties of Capitalism, along with the concept of intermediate conformity, we argue that the use of particular HRM practices by MNC subsidiaries will differ depending on both the combination of home and host institutional contexts, and on the nature of the particular practice under consideration. Using data from a survey of HRM practices in 1196 firms across 10 countries, we compare HRM practices in subsidiaries located and headquartered in different combinations of liberal and/or coordinated market economies. Our study suggests MNC subsidiaries conform only to the most persuasive norms, while exercising their agency to take advantage of the opportunities presented by institutional duality to adopt practices that distinguish them from indigenous competitors.     

HRM implementation by multiple HRM actors: a social exchange perspective

Abstract

In this study, we understand HRM implementation as a social process that depends on the social exchange relationships between line managers and both HRM professionals and employees. As such, we offer a fresh approach to understanding HRM implementation by concentrating on the social exchange among HRM actors. We do so by investigating to what extent these exchange relationships influence HRM implementation, as reflected in employees’ perceptions of the presence of HRM practices and their affective commitment. We collected multilevel data from two sources (line managers and employees) and in two phases in a Dutch engineering firm, and obtained fully matched manager – employee information from 75 employees and 20 line managers. Our results show that employees perceive a larger number of HRM practices when they have a good relationship with their line managers and when their line managers are motivated to implement HRM practices. Line managers, in turn, reciprocate perceived support from the HRM department with greater motivation to implement these practices. We conclude that because HRM actors engage in social interactions, HRM practices will be implemented at the organizational level because employees perceive the presence of HRM practices and then reciprocate this with affective commitment.     

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.