Expanding customer orientation in the HR funciton

While it has long been recognized that the human resource function must take a more customer‐oriented perspective on the design and delivery of HR programs, this view has focused primarily on internal customers. However, external customers can provide important input into HR activities (e.g., job analysis information), they can participate in HR activities (e.g., selection decisions), and they can use HR activities (e.g., receive training). By expanding customer orientation in the HR function to focus explicitly on external customers, a more direct relationship between human resource management and competitive organizational performance can be established. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Triggers of HR outsourcing decisions – an empirical analysis of German firms

This paper takes an explanatory approach to the triggers of Human Resource (HR) outsourcing decisions and evaluates them empirically. Our data show that many German firms have never explicitly considered outsourcing of HR functions. Obviously, explicit outsourcing decisions do not come into being automatically but have to be triggered. We analyze theoretically and empirically which triggers are relevant. In our definition, HR outsourcing includes a broad range of internal HR functions and the respective, externally procured personnel services (e.g., temporary agency work, payroll accounting, interim management, outplacement services, HR consulting, placement services and others).     

Outsourcing HR as a competitive strategy? A literature review and an assessment of implications

HR outsourcing as an organizational strategy has increased substantially over the last decade. However, this trend has attracted little academic attention regarding how outsourcing decisions are made, the manner in which these decisions are implemented, how outsourcing effectiveness is measured, and its impact on organizational performance. In this article, we provide a critical review of the reasons for, the processes involved in, and the perceived effectiveness of HR outsourcing.We investigate the implications of HR outsourcing for the role of the HR function and for the various groups of people affected by this strategy. We argue that organizations should apply both the resource‐based view and institutional theory when making outsourcing decisions. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Recruitment and selection services: Efficiency and competitive reasons in the outsourcing of HR practices

While human resource (HR) activities have traditionally been performed internally, the outsourcing of HR practices is a rapidly increasing phenomenon. The accelerated rate of HR outsourcing also corresponds to a sweeping change in which non-transactional activities, such as recruitment, selection and training, are among the most outsourced HR practices. This article investigates the outsourcing decisions of recruiting and selection (R&S). It develops a predictive model based on efficiency drivers, rooted in transaction cost economy (TCE), and competitive motivations, derived from the resource-based view. The model has been tested in a sample of 276 medium and large enterprises in two specific contexts: the outsourcing of administrative R&S practices (job advertisement and pre-screening) and that of the more strategic R&S practices (colloquia and selection). Findings confirm the relevance of both categories of predictors, but they reveal how efficiency motivations are more important for the decisions to outsource administrative R&S practices while competitive issues matter more for the strategic side of R&S activity. Theoretical and managerial implications are offered on the basis of such evidence.     

Commitment-based HR practices,different types of innovation activities and firm innovation performance

Research on human resource (HR) practices and innovation has increased in the strategic HR management literature over the last decades. Scholars suggest that commitment-based HR practices contribute to innovation performance of the firm. However, prior research puts little emphasis on the causal linkages among commitment-based HR practices, different types of innovation activities and firm innovation performance. This article opens the black box of the relationship between HR management and firm performance by examining the causal relationships among a bundle of commitment-based HR practices (i.e. a commitment-based HR system), different types of innovation activities and firm innovation performance. On the basis of a survey of 103 Turkish firms, empirical results show that a commitment-based HR system has a positive effect on process, organizational and marketing innovation activities. Furthermore, a commitment-based HR system mainly affects organizational innovation activities and shows that these innovation activities are the core drivers of process and marketing innovation activities, leading to higher rate of product innovation activities. Subsequently, product innovation activities enhance firm innovation performance, emphasizing their determinant role.     

Global sourcing and quality recalls: An empirical study of outsourcing-supplier concentration-product recalls linkages

This study investigates how supply chain sourcing strategies are associated with product quality recalls. In particular, the research examines how make-or-buy decisions (i.e., outsourcing), the use of foreign suppliers (i.e., offshore outsourcing), the relocation of production to offshore markets (i.e., offshoring), and decisions to consolidate supply bases (i.e., the use of few vs. myriad suppliers) are related to product recalls. Product recalls are serious quality failures in supply chains with significant, negative impacts on firm performance. Product recalls are frequently connected to the globalization of supply chains. Globalization has, at times, promoted inconsistency in quality control and standards, leading to quality problems and failures. Data across multiple industries, with widely reported recalls, have been collected and analyzed using regression techniques. Our findings indicate that offshore outsourcing has a greater impact on recalls than offshoring without outsourcing; outsourcing domestically has the least influence. Outsourcing to a smaller supplier base may lead to fewer recalls at low levels of outsourcing. However, it may exacerbate the impact of outsourcing on recalls at high levels of outsourcing.     

Advertising,avoiding, disrupting,and tabooing: The discursive construction of diversity subjects in the Turkish context

This study investigates organizational diversity discourses in Turkey – a non-Western, politically relevant, yet underrepresented context. Using a Foucauldian perspective on power and discourse, we scrutinize how power relations in the Turkish context are (re)produced. Based on our analysis of company websites and semi-structured interviews with various actors (e.g., HR managers), we propose a conceptual framework of the discursive construction of diversity subjects at work along the dimensions of (1) visibility of organizational diversity discourses and (2) contestation of meaning within organizational diversity discourses. The combination of these dimensions yields four discursive dynamics as illustrated in our data (Advertising, Avoiding, Disrupting, Tabooing). This framework may inspire future context- and power-sensitive investigations on diversity discourses at the workplace.     

Examining human resource management outsourcing in Hong Kong

This study explored the state of human resource (HR) outsourcing in the Asian context, a particularly important subject given its rapid proliferation in Europe and North America, the inconsistent and limited evidence from prior research, and its strategic importance to the human resource management (HRM) function. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data and the transaction cost, resource-based, and institutional perspectives, we found that although respondents were generally favourable towards outsourcing, that in practice its adoption and diffusion were in a nascent stage in Hong Kong. Decisions to outsource were, by and large, incremental and experimental and influenced by a range of contextual factors (e.g., availability of in-house expertise, skills and creativity, strategic priorities, legislation (coercive), availability of external service providers, and industry and peer (mimetic) influence). Despite considerable pressure to cut costs, instead of outsourcing in the first instance, firms placed greater emphasis on maximising internal resource utilization (insourcing). Implications for practice and suggestions for future research are also provided.     

The impact of human resource activities on employee trust

Most of the literature on HR activities and trust has presumed that employees' trust affects the success and effectiveness of HR activities. However, social exchange theory suggests an alternative and complementary notion—that HR activities affect the development of employee trust. Previous research and exchange-based theories, including organizational justice, leader-member exchange, spiral reinforcement and perceptions of organizational support, suggest hypotheses that need to be investigated in order to understand the relationship between HR activities and trust better and to design HR activities to build trust and improve organizational effectiveness.     

Organisationales Commitment und seine Einflussfaktoren: Eine qualitative Metaanalyse

It is a result from increasing individualism and the ongoing deregulation of formal and psychological work contracts that organizational commitment has become one of the key concepts in management research and practice. There is growing empirical research not only on the effects of commitment on organizational performance, but also on its personal, organizational and contextual antecedents. In this literature review the state of the art in commitment-related research is presented and discussed. We refer to the grounding work of Meyer and Allen (1991) and their distinction between affective, normative, and continuance commitment. The paper is based on three meta-analyses and an additional systematic review of 61 empirical studies. They provide evidence for the fact that there is a shift from demographic to differential personality factors in research. Affective commitment and normative commitment can be explained by individual differences (e.g., self-efficacy and trustfulness), work environment (e.g., transformational leadership and controllability), and organisational characteristics (e.g., supporting human resources policy and interpersonal, distributive, and procedural justice). Continuance commitment has been found negatively correlated with affective and normative commitment. Significant antecedents are the same work-related factors as for the two other forms of commitment, but the coefficients are inverse. Contrary to former results, national culture has no effect neither on the link between other antecedents and commitment, nor on commitment itself.     

Strategic decisions regarding the vertical integration of human resource organizations: evidence for an integrated HR model for the financial services and non-financial services industry in Germany,Austria and Switzerland

We examine the drivers of vertical integration for an integrated and unified HR-process model for 42 large companies from the financial services (13 companies) and the non-financial services sector (29 companies). The basis of this paper is formed by the results of a survey analysing the structures, processes and sourcing activities of human resource organizations. We sent the survey to 500 companies in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The survey is based on an integrated process model that uses an employee life-cycle approach and differentiates between eight HR activities.

The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to gain insights into the current status of HR outsourcing and understand the differences between the financial services and the non-financial services industry. Second, to develop a theory-based framework (transaction-cost, resource-based, principal agent) enabling us to derive and test eight hypotheses using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS)-regression analysis in order to examine the determinants of the vertical integration of HR processes. Third, to analyse the impact of the vertical integration of HR departments on company performance and characteristics. We find significant differences in the level of vertical integration between the HR subprocesses analysed. Even the processes with increased outsourcing activities (i.e. a lower degree of vertical integration) still show a relatively high proportion of in-house production.

Regression analysis reveals a significant negative interrelationship between the relative size of the HR department compared to company size and vertical integration. This finding holds for the HR subprocesses ‘Personnel Administration’, ‘Payroll and Benefits’, and ‘Off Boarding’. Second, we find a significant negative correlation between financial performance in terms of Return-on-Equity and vertical integration of ‘HR-IT’. We also find support for the theoretical framework for the subprocess ‘HR-Top Management’. Six hypotheses (out of eight) are supported by the analyses; two of these are highly significant.

Three major findings are noteworthy when analysing company performance and the vertical integration of HR departments. First, we find that large companies (in terms of total staff and total assets) display significantly high levels of vertical integration for subprocesses which include a large amount of manual work and crucial managerial, controlling and reporting tasks (‘HR-Top Management’ and ‘HR-Controlling and Reporting’). Second, large companies (in terms of total company staff) show lower levels of vertical integration for the HR subprocess ‘HR-IT’. Third, companies that show superior financial performance in terms of Return on Equity (RoE) display lower levels of vertical integration for the HR subprocess ‘HR-IT’.     

A contextual framework for understanding impression management

Research on impression management within organizations is extensive and provides valuable insights regarding both impression management motivation and the ways in which impression management is enacted. However, inconsistent findings in the literature limit our ability to confidently glean clear research and practice conclusions. Further, current impression management perspectives are primarily based on face-to-face communication, but technology and world events have changed how we interact within organizations. Our integrative literature review examines the impression management literature, and integrates research from related literatures (organizational citizenship behavior, faking behavior, and computer-human interaction), to identify how context influences impression motivation and construction. Based on this review, we propose that impression motivation is shaped, in part, by the situation's evaluative potential (e.g., public behavior, high stakes), and the nature of the workplace interaction (e.g., anonymity, permanence, verifiability, and synchronicity) moderates the impression motivation-impression construction relationship. We then use the contextual framework to provide a better understanding of past research, stimulate new research, and provide practical recommendations for HR professionals.     

Content vs. Process in the HRM‐Performance Relationship: An Empirical Examination

This study investigates the impact of a human resource management (HRM) system, which integrates both content and process of human resource (HR) practices, on organizational performance, through collective employee reactions. The analysis is based on a sample of 1,250 Greek employees working in 133 public‐ and private‐sector organizations, which operate in the present context of severe financial and economic crises. The findings of the structural equation modeling suggest that content and process are two inseparable faces of an HRM system that help to reveal a comprehensive picture of the HRM–organizational performance relationship. Based on the findings that collective employee reactions mediate the HRM content (i.e., organizational performance relationship) and HRM process moderates the HRM content (i.e., employee reactions relationship), the study has several theoretical and practice implications. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Human resource manager insights on creating and sustaining successful reduced‐load work arrangements

Although human resource managers have critical insights into the successful implementation of reduced‐load work arrangements, relatively few studies focus on their perspective. These arrangements are a growing work form for employees who choose to work less than full‐time with a commensurate decrease in salary. Qualitative data analysis was used to identify key success factors noted in interviews with 52 HR managers in 39 companies. Individual employee characteristics (e.g., self‐regulatory work habits) were viewed as most critical. Also important were the design of the arrangement (e.g., clarifying the arrangement in advance) and workgroup relationships (e.g., positive supervisor‐employee relationships). We conclude with eight new takeaways for HR managers on how to create and sustain successful reduced‐load work arrangements and directions for future research and practice. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

About and beyond leading uniqueness and belongingness: A systematic review of inclusive leadership research

The purpose of this systematic review of 107 papers is to address the conceptual confusion about what inclusive leadership (IL) behavior entails and understand the theoretical development of IL. Synthesizing the divergent conceptualizations of inclusive leader behaviors, we propose a multi-level (i.e., employee, team, organizational) model of IL behavior consisting of four dimensions namely, fostering employee's uniqueness (e.g., promoting diversity); strengthening belongingness within a team (e.g., building relationships); showing appreciation (e.g., recognizing efforts and contributions); and supporting organizational efforts (e.g., promoting organizational mission on inclusion). Further, we provide a summary of studied variables as a nomological network in relation to inclusive leadership and an overview of the different theories (e.g., social exchange, intrinsic motivation) supporting the respective relationships and explaining the underlying mechanisms (e.g., reciprocity, motivation). We propose future research to empirically test the multi-level model of IL and examine the predictive value in terms of employee and organizational outcomes.     

Employee commitment to the organization and customer reactions: mapping the linkages

Although it has been claimed that the attitudes that employees have toward their work influence how customers react to the organization, its service and products, relatively little empirical research has examined these possible linkages. The focus in this article is on the relations between organizational commitment and customer reactions (e.g., customer satisfaction, repeat purchase behavior). Specifically, we review relevant theory and research, discuss methodological issues associated with examining this issue, and make recommendations for both researchers and human resource (HR) practitioners interested in mapping linkages between organizational commitment and customer reactions.     

Digging deeper or piling it higher? Implicit measurement in organizational behavior and human resource management

Organizational researchers can dig deeper into peoples' thoughts, attitudes, and self-concepts to understand how automatic processes may impact judgment and social behavior in organizations. Measures of these automatic processes, including the Implicit Association Test (e.g., IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998), Semantic Priming (e.g., SP; Wittenbrink, Judd, & Park, 1997), Affect Misattribution Procedure (e.g., AMP; Payne, Cheng, Govorun, & Stewart, 2005), Word Completion Tasks (e.g., WCT; Johnson & Saboe, 2011), among many others, deserve greater attention as alternatives or supplements to traditional self-report measures of variables important in organizations (e.g., job satisfaction, personality and trait measurement, diversity attitudes). In this paper, we first provide a primer on implicit social cognition and its relationship to automatic and controlled cognitive processes, discussing major types of implicit measures, how these might operate, criticisms of this approach, and how these implicit constructs may give rise to behavior in organizations. Second, we discuss models of automatic processes and explore their validity and how these may predict behavior. Third, we offer advice for selecting, constructing, and improving implicit measurements when used in organizational research to enhance human resources and organizational functioning.     

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).     

Identifying the moderating influences of external environments on new product development process

Few studies have attempted to investigate the following: (1) whether the firm's core capabilities or resources and routines (e.g., integration among functions) for product development, in the presence of environmental dynamics, become incumbent inertia or core rigidities? and (2) how environmental dynamics affect the influence of a project team's implementation capabilities in the new product development (NPD) process on new product launch performance? This study approaches these questions by addressing the three most indispensable NPD process components (i.e., marketing, technology, and organization) and incorporating new moderators, namely pace of technological change and competitive intensity, within a single study. It specifically examines the extent to which the latter two external environmental variables moderate the impact of NPD practices on new product launch outcome. Data obtained from a survey of NPD projects developed and launched by Korean manufacturers suggest that environmental dynamics would reduce the contribution of functional-specific sources of advantage (resources) and project-specific sources of advantage (e.g., integration among functions) to organizational implementation capabilities (i.e., a project team's proficiency in executing NPD activities). Moreover, the research also shows that market dynamics may increase the contribution of organizational implementation capabilities to NPD project performance.     

人力资源外包：对人力经理的影响及其应对策略

本文在阐述人力资源外包的概念和作用基础上,分析了人力资源外包后在战略规划、外包工作能力、沟通技能、职业角色转换等四个方面给企业人事经理带来的挑战。本文指出,在有效应对人力资源外包的挑战方面,人事经理最为关键的应对策略是掌握好外包工作和内部人力资源管理核心技能培养方面的平衡艺术。