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.     

Actions speak louder than words: how employees mind the implementation gap

Abstract

Integral to employees’ working lives are the HR policies and more importantly, the practices that follow those and their implementation, which employees experience directly. To date, research on HR implementation considers how HRM is ‘done to’ employees by management and therefore ignores the agency of individuals to shape how HRM is ‘done to them’. Taking the perspective of employees, in a qualitative study of female lawyers, this paper examines employees’ roles in shaping HR implementation, addressing a lack of understanding about the role of ‘others’ in the process. Drawing on the concept of social power, the article focuses on the implementation of agile working practices within UK-based law firms. It finds that despite lacking legitimate position power to influence processes, employees draw on a variety of other power sources (e.g. referent, information, coercive) and tactics (e.g. leveraging membership of professional networks) in order to influence their working environment with respect to HR policy and practice, particularly in response to perceived implementation gaps. The current study underlines that employees may be integral to bridging the gap between policy and practice and therefore to ensuring the link between HRM and organisational performance. It also proposes that behavioural responses to HR practices should be considered in future theorising of the HRM-performance relationship.     

The role of HRM practices in product development: Contextual ambidexterity in a US MNC’s subsidiary in India

Abstract

Recent studies have started exploring the linkages between organisational ambidexterity (OA) and HRM practices. OA is noted as a critical resource in achieving product, process, and business model innovations. By adopting an inductive case study of a US MNC subsidiary in India, we found empowerment-focused HRM practices were being used for exploration of new ideas and efficiency-focused HRM practices were adopted for the exploitation of the organisation’s existing strengths. Empowerment-focused HRM practices created a culture of openness and risk-taking, which facilitated the creation of an ambidextrous context. Further, ambidextrous learning was moderated by the adoption of a managerial/leadership style that focused on ‘mirroring competencies’ between the parent operation and its subsidiary. HRM practices were aimed at developing behaviours that valued the team-based co-development of graphic processor designs by means of a ‘parallel processing’ approach to product development. Additionally, the HRM practice of offering intrinsic employee rewards and both informal and formal training facilitated OA in delivering product innovation. This study represents a pioneering exploration of multiple levels of analysis (individual, functional, and organisational) for product innovation through the lenses of ambidexterity, innovation, and HRM practices. The implications for both theory and practice are also discussed.     

Beyond strategic human resource management: is sustainable human resource management the next approach?

Strategic human resource management (SHRM) emerged as a dominant approach to human resource management (HRM) policy during the past 30 years. However, during the last decade, a new approach to HRM has evolved. This approach has been labelled sustainable human resource management (sustainable HRM). It is an approach that seeks to link HRM and sustainability. The term sustainability is fraught with semantic difficulties, as is conceptualising its relationship to HRM. Consequently, sustainable HRM is viewed in a variety of ways. This paper examines the major features of SHRM, some of the meanings given to sustainability and the relationship between sustainability and HRM. It then outlines the major characteristics of sustainable HRM. Although there are a diversity of views about sustainable HRM, this approach has a number of features which differentiate it from SHRM. It acknowledges organisational outcomes, which are broader than financial outcomes. All the writings emphasise the importance of human and social outcomes. In addition, it explicitly identifies the negative as well as the positive effects of HRM on a variety of stakeholders; it pays further attention to the processes associated with the implementation of HRM policies and acknowledges the tensions in reconciling competing organisational requirements. Such an approach takes an explicit moral position about the desired outcomes of organisational practices in the short term and the long term. Sustainable HRM can be understood in terms of a number of complimentary frameworks.     

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.     

Shut the fridge door! HRM alignment,job redesign and energy performance

Anchored within the strategic HRM and alignment literature, and drawing on efficiency and legitimacy perspectives of organisational behaviour, we investigated a HRM intervention targeted at energy reduction goals in a large multinational retailer. The HRM intervention was focused on embedding the environmental and economic performance goals of the firm within the workplace through redesigning the job so that energy tasks were aligned with training and performance management systems, as well as organisational performance goals. Using a randomised control trial design, we tracked changes in energy behaviours and energy consumption in 769 retail stores (685 in the intervention condition, 84 in the control condition). The findings provide evidence that changing the alignment of HRM practices can influence both worker behaviour and organisational outcomes, including environmental outcomes. This work contributes to debates concerning the impact of HRM alignment on both the work and organisational performance context.     

Reporting on sustainability and HRM: a comparative study of sustainability reporting practices by the world's largest companies

As a response to the growing public awareness on the importance of organisational contributions to sustainable development, there is an increased incentive for corporations to report on their sustainability activities. In parallel with this has been the development of ‘Sustainable HRM’ which embraces a growing body of practitioner and academic literature connecting the notions of corporate sustainability to HRM. The aim of this article is to analyse corporate sustainability reporting amongst the world's largest companies and to assess the HRM aspects of sustainability within these reports in comparison to environmental aspects of sustainable management and whether organisational attributes – principally country-of-origin – influences the reporting of such practices. A focus in this article is the extent to which the reporting of various aspects of sustainability may reflect dominant models of corporate governance in the country in which a company is headquartered. The findings suggest, first and against expectations, that the overall disclosure on HRM-related performance is not lower than that on environmental performance. Second, companies report more on their internal workforce compared to their external workforce. Finally, international differences, in particular those between companies headquartered in liberal market economies and coordinated market economies, are not as apparent as expected.     

Union partnership as a facilitator to HRM: improving implementation through oppositional engagement

Abstract

This paper provides a nuanced insight into the workplace level interactions between a union and HRM systems within a union-management partnership arrangement. Soft outcomes of HRM systems typically suffer from compromised implementation by managers struggling to balance competing operational priorities, but we show how a union limits this poor implementation. Qualitative and documentary data were retrieved from a major UK retailer and a trade union to examine how union activity interacts with HRM delivery. Firstly, union communication systems enhanced or replaced company systems of employee voice. Secondly, union activity policed management implementation of HRM practices to limit their subjugation to short-term productivity increases, improving outcomes for employees and the HRM system for the company. These outcomes were achieved through oppositional engagement within the context of partnership, which points towards a persisting and productive pluralism within the cooperative rhetoric.     

Collaborative-based HRM practices and open innovation: a conceptual review

Abstract

This conceptual paper analyses the role of collaborative-based HRM practices in supporting open innovation. There is already an extensive literature that investigates the impact of HRM practices on organizations’ innovation performance. As organizational boundaries become increasingly permeable and knowledge flows more freely, open innovation continues to receive close attention in management studies. However, relationships between HRM practices and open innovation have still not been examined. From a knowledge management perspective, we identify three kinds of barrier that may deter or impede open innovation. These relate to cognitive biases, concerns about transaction costs, and shortfalls in terms of organization capability. We also discuss the role of four types of collaboration-oriented HRM practices (i.e., teamwork-based recruitment, training in teamwork skills, team-based appraisals and rewards, and rotational job design) in reducing barriers to open innovation. Based on our analyses, we envisage future research directions about the role of collaborative-based HRM practices in supporting open innovation.     

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.     

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.     

Human resource management practices and psychological contracts in Swiss firms: an employer perspective

This article investigates the relationship between HRM practices and organisational performance, considering the fulfilment of the psychological contract as an intermediate variable. Apart from testing the influences of a high-investment HRM system index on the psychological contract, the influence of individual HRM practices and their interaction was examined. The sample consisted of HR managers of 92 firms in Switzerland and the data were collected for the Cranfield Network project. The results showed that the high-investment HRM system index predicted the fulfilment of the psychological contract, and some of the individual HRM practices were correlated with the fulfilment of the psychological contract. The interaction effect of performance appraisal and performance-based pay on the fulfilment of the psychological contract showed that performance appraisal is only effective in combination with a tangible consequence in the form of performance-based pay. We neither found a mediation effect for the psychological contract nor an association with organisational performance. This might be due to the fact that the questionnaire was filled in during the financial crisis in 2008 and that the organisational performance was assessed in an economic crisis. Our study sheds light on the relationship between HRM practices and the psychological contract and contributes to the body of research on psychological contracts from a macro level perspective.     

A framework for comparative institutional research on HRM

Abstract

This article argues that awareness of institutional context has been singularly lacking in the most influential areas of HRM. This lack of attention to external context has resulted in findings that fail to reflect reality. We offer a layered contextual framework embedded in economic institutional theory. We propose that it forms the basis of a comparative research agenda for HRM. We validate the framework using extant publications on institutionally based comparative HRM, drawing on findings from the Cranet research network published in the decade 2007–2017.     

Exploring the power dimensions of the human resource function

While a large body of literature has investigated the content of human resource management (HRM) practices, this research explores the process through which the HRM function impacts on organisational performance. Specifically, the research explores the reasons for the success or failure of HRM initiatives that have been associated with organisational outcomes and classifies the reasons as dimensions of HRM power. Based on 26 interviews conducted in Australia with senior HRM executives, top management team (TMT) executives and two management consultants, we found that, in order to contribute to organisational performance, HRM professionals can effectively utilise three dimensions of power, namely power of resources, power of processes and power of meaning. The findings offer new insights to the relationship between dimensions of HRM power and organisational performance.     

The politics of HRM: waiting for Godot in the Moroccan civil service

This study illustrates the fundamental importance of a political understanding in order to improve HRM in both public and private organizations. It complements studies that have found a statistical relationship between public staff management and economic growth by presenting a case study of Morocco, using the strategic human resource management (SHRM) model as a framework.

There are several reasons why HRM in the Moroccan civil service has stagnated, notably unfamiliarity with HRM models and the French administrative heritage. But the fundamental reason is Morocco's political system, where real power resides in the Palace, and where political actors are reluctant to take bold initiatives. Thus a focus on the management level is currently misplaced, and fundamental political action harnessing the authority of the Palace without disempowering other political actors is needed.

The study implies that a political analysis is sometimes a prerequisite for improving HRM in both public and private organizations.     

Mind the gap: the role of HRM in creating,capturing and leveraging rare knowledge in hostile environments

Abstract

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) have increasingly entered markets in less developed regions of the world afflicted with weak institutions and political conflict. Some are characterised by ‘extreme’ cases of institutional voids and terrorism, creating a hostile environment for the organisation and its people. This in-depth qualitative study of a service company, a European telecommunications joint venture in Afghanistan, seeks to shed light and build theory on the human resource management (HRM) dimension of managerial learning and knowledge acquisition in hostile environments, as part of the MNE’s organisational learning process. Specifically, we investigate how knowledge gaps can be addressed through supportive HR practices, and how knowledge classified as ‘rare’ can be captured and leveraged through HR interventions such as debriefing. We stipulate that HR practices and interventions adapted to hostile environments, together with expatriate willingness to learn and share new knowledge, play a critical role in the creation, capturing and leveraging of rare knowledge for subsequent use by the MNE in other hostile locations. The study has implications for international HRM and organisational resilience, under the proposition that competitive advantage can be gained through exploitation of rare knowledge acquired in hostile environments.     

Union substitution effects of human resource management practices in South Korean workplaces, 2005–2013

Abstract

This article explores the association between various workplace-level HRM practices and a decline in union strength using a unique longitudinal survey data-set gathered in South Korea from 2005 to 2013. It addresses the underlying theoretical mechanisms by which HRM programs substitute for the roles labor unions have traditionally played. Suggesting more nuanced theoretical implications about HRM practices and union decline, statistical analyses reveal that workplaces that have implemented HRM practices have unions with a weaker organizational base than those without such practices, but that certain HRM programs correlate with unions with a strong collective voice in management decision-making. This article identifies the new roles for unions in South Korea in the era of HRM.     

Worlds colliding: the translation of modern management practices within a UK based subsidiary of a Korean-owned MNC

This paper explores the factors that served to dislodge an espoused strategy of quality management with ‘soft’ HRM within a British subsidiary of a Korean owned multinational company. Accounts from British and Korean managers revealed competing sets of tensions at three levels: external organizational, intra-organizational, and internal workplace. The case is important for a number of reasons. First, research on UK based subsidiaries tends to have focused upon American and Japanese owned companies, with less evidence from MNCs from later industrialized economies. Second, evidence suggests that MNCs from Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore have been experimenting with Western influenced high-performance work systems – but there is less evidence about how these are actually translated into the workplace. Third, there is a growing literature that suggests that the transfer of management practices in MNCs can be partly understood as a ‘negotiated process’, and disagreements may emerge between organisational actors in respect of the meaning and function of such practices. This article offers further support for this contention and offers insights into how these processes affected day-to-day management of the workplace and undermined the espoused strategy.     

Innovative human resource management and corporate performance in the context of economic liberalization in India

The Indian economy was forced to adopt a structural adjustment programme at the beginning of 1991. The structural adjustment programme or liberalization initiated the process of the opening up of an otherwise closed economy of India. Liberalization created a hyper-competitive environment and to respond to this turbulence, Indian organizations adopted innovative changes in their HRM practices. Current research shows that HRM practices are important for enhanced corporate performance but little has been reported on the effect of HRM practices and corporate performance in the context of economic liberalization of India. This study tries to understand the role of innovative HRM practices and specifically questions how HRM practices, such as the role of HR department, recruitment, retraining and redeployment, performance appraisal and compensation, enhance corporate performance during the change process. A multiple-respondent survey of 69 Indian organizations was undertaken to study the impact of innovative HRM practices on firm performance. The survey found that the innovative recruitment and compensation practices have a positive significant relationship with firm performance. It was observed that recruitment, the role of the HR department and compensation practices seem to be significantly changing within the Indian firms in the context of India's economic liberalization. The synergy between innovative HRM practices was not significant in enhancing corporate performance during the liberalization process.     

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.