Adoption Factors of Electronic Human Resource Management (e-HRM) in Banking Industry of Bangladesh

Abstract

Abstract: The purpose of the study is identifying the important factors that contribute to adoption of e-HRM among banks in Bangladesh. Stratified random sampling technique was used to consider 265 respondents from twenty eight private commercial banks. A pre-tested and close-ended questionnaire adapting five-point Likert scale was used for data collection. In this study, descriptive statistics and exploratory factor analysis are exercised as statistical tools. The result shows that employee's individual attributes, top management support, compatibility, IT infrastructure and industry pressure are important factors that influencing management decision to adopt e-HRM among banks. The practical implication of the findings is discussed at the end of this paper and recommendations for further research are also addressed.Keywords: Electronic Human Resource Management (e-HRM), Adoption, Factors, Banks, BangladeshIntroductionNowadays, the performance of Human Resource Management (HRM) is directly linked with organizational success (Masum et al., 2015). To achieve organizational goal, traditional HRM tools and techniques have been shifted to strategic HRM through a significant contribution of Information Technology (IT) (Rodriguez and Ventura, 2003). Organizations are increasingly implementing electronic Human Resource Management (e-HRM) as well as Human Resource Information System (HRIS) to meet the needs of HR professionals, managers and employees in HR activities for gaining competitive advantages (Thite et al., 2012). These systems provide a vital link between IT and HRM. Bondarouk et al. (2009) have recently claimed that e-HRM has been interchangeably coined with Human Resource Information System (HRIS), virtual HRM, web-based HRM and Intranet-based HRM.In Bangladesh, large companies have started to implement e-HRM in last 5 years (Jahan, 2014). However, its implementation is still limited within the large companies in Bangladesh. Small companies and public companies have failed to realize the benefits of e-HRM and taken barely any inventiveness to implement the system. Since the discussion of e-HRM is still in its infancy, there is not much empirical research available glancing at the factors that foster the application of e-HRM (Jahan, 2014; Masum et al., 2013). So, the adoption decision and implementation of e-HRM can thus be seen as an innovation in Bangladesh. As like other countries, there are some factors that influence HR managers for implementing e-HRM in Bangladesh. This research will guide Bangladeshi managers to prepare for a successful shift from traditional HRM towards e-HRM and thus contribute to the economic development of the country.The main thrust of this paper is identifying the most important factors that are linked to organizational adoption of e-HRM in the private banks of Bangladesh. The structure of this study is divided into seven sections. The second section demonstrated the related factors of e-HRM adoption. The following section includes a conceptual framework for the study. The research methods are discussed in section four. The findings of the study and discussion are addressed in section five and six respectively. In last section, conclusion describes the future research and recommendations with managerial implications.2. Literature ReviewDue to the increasing use of Information System (IS) in the industrial operations, HR professionals became accustomed to use IS for HR activities from the early 1980's (Voermans and van Veldhoven, 2007). E-HRM is an integrated system covers a whole range of HR activities for the HR department. Usually, e-HRM contains some applications of labor force planning, supply and demand forecast, staffing information, applicant qualifications, information on training and development, salary forecast, pay increase, labor/employee relations, promotion-related information and so on (Bamel et al., 2014). Recent studies also confirmed that e-HRM improves the strategy formulation and decision making for HR activities. …