Met the expectations? A meta-analysis of the performance consequences of digital HRM

Abstract

As the digitalization of Human Resource Management (HRM) has been going on for more than half a century the performance and, thus, the future continuance and intensification of digital HRM is regularly taken for granted. While there is a growing and increasingly unmanageable number of research contributions on the performance consequences of digital HRM, core reviews fail to offer consistent and convincing evidence on digital HRM performance. Current sentiments and implementations are based on implicit expectations rather than on explicit evidence. To provide the future digitalization of HRM with the necessary evidence, we conduct a meta-analysis on the performance consequences of digital HRM. Concretely, we analyze the performance of individual users, the operational, relational, and transformational performance of HRM, and the corporate performance of the entire organization. Based on evidence from 96 empirical studies with a total sample size of 37,924, our meta-analysis finds significant medium-sized associations between digital HRM and all performance categories. We also resolve the partially contradictory findings, quantify and compare performance effects, and uncover moderating effects. Our paper provides the so far lacking evidence that digital HRM constitutes a successful endeavor, which meets its performance expectations and thus should be continued and intensified in the future.