Bringing the Manager Back in Strategic HRM: Redefined and Enhanced Roles of Managers in HRM

Abstract

Strategic human resource management (SHRM) scholars and practitioners have long recognized the importance of HRM as a source of competitive advantage (e.g., Boxall, 1998; Coff, 1997; Wright, McMahan, & McWilliams, 1994), demonstrating that systems of effective and interconnected HR practices enhance the abilities, motivation, and opportunities of employees to meaningfully contribute to value creation in their employing organizations (Jiang, Lepak, Hu, & Baer, 2012; Lepak, Liao, Chung, & Harden, 2006). This literature has traditionally focused on the link between HRM and organizational performance, with a frequent emphasis on the alignment of HR practices – or HR content – as a coherent system (i.e., horizontal alignment) that supports the requirements of an organization’s environment (i.e., vertical alignment). It has been more recently that some SHRM scholars have begun to explicitly examine additional influences on the effectiveness of HRM, including HR process within the focal organization (e.g., Bowen & Ostroff, 2004), key organizational members (e.g., Jackson & Schuler, 2003) and changes in the external environment (e.g., Combs, Liu, Hall, & Ketchen, 2006). One key insight that has emerged from these research efforts has concerned the important role of managers – whether at the frontline, middle, or executive level, or at the organizational or functional level – in organizations’ efforts to achieve competitive advantage through HRM. The purpose of the present symposium is to build on this insight by bringing together research that explicitly investigates the redefined and enhanced roles of managers in human resource management and, in so doing, furthers our understanding of how, when, and by whom HRM contributes to competitive advantage. Our symposium is comprised of papers examining a broad range of such topics, including the roles of the dynamics characterizing organizational environments, internal HR actors, and the interaction between HR systems and managers as they contribute to (or hinder) organizations’ abilities to achieve a human resource-based competitive advantage. The benefits of such a symposium are two-fold. First, this symposium will allow for a richer discussion regarding the roles of managers and the contexts and mechanisms through which HRM creates and maintains the competitive advantage of organizations. Specifically, the papers in this session span research concerning the achievement of HR alignment via an agentic and process-based model (Kim), the value and benefits of HR functions and HR executives (Bentley, Han, & Choudhury; Chadwick & Jo), and the influence of HR systems and managers on employee creativity (Takeuchi, Lee, Kim, Jiang, & Liu). We aim to transcend the HR practice-oriented perspectives adopted in prior studies by highlighting the roles of managers in human resource management. Focusing on the “How” of HR Alignment: An Agentic and Process-based Model Presenter: Joonyoung Kim; Cornell U. The Strategic Value of the Formal HR Function Presenter: Clint Chadwick; U. of Kansas Presenter: Jinhwan Jo; Wright State U. When and How Firms Benefit from Having an HR Executive: A Longitudinal Analysis Presenter: Frederick Scott Bentley; Binghamton U.-State U. of New York Presenter: Joo Hun Han; Rutgers U. Presenter: Anwesha Choudhury; Binghamton U.-State U. of New York High-Investment HR Systems and Employee Creativity: A Multilevel, Integrative Perspective Presenter: Riki Takeuchi; U. of Texas at Dallas Presenter: Byron Y. Lee; China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) Presenter: Kaifeng Jiang; Ohio State U. Presenter: Zhiqiang Liu; Huazhong U. of Science and Technology