HRM Driven Organizational Change: Developing a Game Simulation Model for Strategic HRM

Abstract

Deciding which HR-practices to select, and how to design them to be effective is challenging. Currently there is a lack of tools that aid HR-professionals in the design of effective HRM. A simulation model can fill this void. In this paper we present the design of, and first experiences with, a strategic HRM game-based simulation model that sets out to provide HR-professionals with insight into the quality of their selection of HR-practices while reflecting the complexity faced when designing HRM. The simulation model was built by specifying configurational HRM to a new level of detail using the competing values model and its suggested organizational change process as a framework. The game-based simulation model provides insight into the degree of alignment between strategy and HRM (vertical alignment), and between individual HR practices (horizontal alignment). Specifically, the model calculates how employee behavior changes over multiple years due to alterations in vertical and horizontal alignment. Results based on trial runs and application of the game-based simulation model in 31 serious game workshops (N= 423) show that the game-based simulation model is able to provide players (i.e. students, HR-professionals, general managers) with relevant insight into the vertical and horizontal alignment through fit scores. These fit scores enable players to tailor the HRM configuration to the organizational situation at hand. Furthermore, the game-based simulation model enables players to run the effects of HR practices on employee behavior over multiple (simulated) years. By doing so the model does not only represent a valuable tool to learn about HRM design, it presents a new level of detail in configurational HRM theory.