Emerging Trends in People-Centric Human Resource Management: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Given the significance of human resources and people management in the current dynamic environment, this article systematically identifies, synthesizes and analyses the research published on various themes and trends in people-centric human resource management (HRM). The systematic literature review method proposed by Denyer and Tranfield (2009) has been adopted for this study. The 227 studies have been categorized according to themes and analysed to understand research trends, consequences, limitations and potential future research areas. The analysis of the literature reveals that HRM has become more strategic than transactional in its research. Researchers are concentrating on analysing and improving human resource methods, which have an interdisciplinary impact. The focus is more on people-oriented HRM like ‘employee well-being’, ‘employee voice’, ‘work–family balance,’ etc., suggesting that organizations consider people as a source of competitive advantage. The findings also present a clear route for future research in this domain. The major contribution of this article is in identifying holistic views of themes, variables and theories paramount to people-centric HRM research. Insights identified in this study would enable future researchers to design their conceptual and empirical studies on emerging and relevant topics.