How Human Resource Management Research Articles

Green HRM fostering followers' green creativity: Unfolding the role of environmental concern and employee engagement with eco‐initiatives as a serial mediation

Recent literature in environmental management implies that employee behaviour is imperative for improving environmental sustainability. Despite this, little effort has been made into how human resource management (HRM) relates to green creativity. This research aims to examine if an organization's green HRM (GHRM) practices can foster green creativity among manufacturing sector employees through the serial mediation path of environmental concerns and employee engagement with environmental initiatives, using self‐determination theory (SDT). To conduct this research, we collected and analysed data from 309 employees of manufacturing firms in Pakistan using partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS‐SEM). The results supported a positive relationship between GHRM and green creativity and the role of environmental concern and employee engagement with environmental initiatives in mediating that relationship. Likewise, the findings indicated that the relationship between GHRM and green creativity would strengthen as employees become more environmentally concerned. Overall, this study contributes to the literature on HRM and environmental management by providing new insights into the critical role of GHRM in fostering green creativity. Using SDT as a foundation, this research provides theoretical and practical contributions and implications and valuable recommendations for scholars and managers in the manufacturing sector.

Research across disciplines: influence of human resource management practices

PurposeThis study aims to examine the connection between scholars' research performance and the multidisciplinary nature of their collaborative research. Furthermore, in response to mixed results regarding the effects of multidisciplinarity on research performance, this study explores how human resource management (HRM) practices may moderate this link.Design/methodology/approachThe authors built a model based on the theoretical arguments and empirical evidence found in the review of diversity and HRM literature. The authors also performed a quantitative study based on a sample of scholars in the field of management. Different econometric estimations were used to test the proposed model.FindingsThe results of this empirical analysis suggest that multidisciplinary research has a non-linear effect on research performance. Certain HRM practices, such as development and collaboration, moderated the curvilinear relationship between multidisciplinarity and performance, displacing the optimum to allow higher performance at higher levels of multidisciplinary research.Originality/valueThe paper provides advances on previous works studying the curvilinear relationship between multidisciplinarity and the researchers' performance, confirming that multidisciplinarity is beneficial up to a threshold beyond which these benefits are attenuated. In addition, the findings shed light on important issues related to team-oriented HRM practices associated with the outcomes of multidisciplinary research.

Can HRM lead to occupational integration? Evidence from Madagascar

In Madagascar, the number of underemployed has further outpaced the number of unemployed because of the gobal pandemic that has slowed down the economy. The concept of occupational or professional or vocational integration becomes more relevant in this context. While it was defined as access to the first job, it has been broadened towards the achievement of a stabilised position in the employment system. The aim of this study is to find out how Human Resources Management (HRM) can support the occupational integration of employees. The survey covered 222 young university graduates and 182 organisations that employed them. Cox regression was used to test the model for the influence of HRM modes and employment negotiation terms on the professional integration of young graduates. We found out that only the effect of the terms of employment negotiation by these graduates on his occupational integration is significant. The latter is important since continuity of operations depends on employees wanting to stay indefinitely.

Mitigating medical brain drain: the role of developmental HRM and the focus on opportunities in reducing the self-initiated expatriation of young professionals

Although ‘brain drain’ from emerging economies is a well-documented problem, research on how Human Resource Management (HRM) can potentially address it is still scarce. Based on Signaling Theory, we argue that developmental HRM practices in home countries reduce self-initiated expatriation (SIE) of young healthcare professionals by increasing their focus on opportunities in their home country. Additionally, we hypothesize that individual financial stability as a personal resource constitutes an important boundary condition, as developmental HRM’s positive effect on the focus on opportunities and its indirect negative effect on SIE intention may be even stronger for individuals with lower financial resources. We tested and found support for our hypotheses using a sample of 184 junior doctors in Lithuania in a time-lagged study. By bridging the HRM and SIE literature, our study extends the existing knowledge about the outcomes of HRM and highlights the importance of home country HRM in explaining SIE intention above and beyond its traditionally considered antecedents. In this way, our study has major theoretical and practical implications for decision-makers at organizational and national levels in managing brain drain from emerging economies.

The Role of HRM Practices on the Talent Management: Evidence from Jordanian Commercial Banks

This study aims to examine how human resource management (HRM) practices affect talent management in Jordanian commercial banks. Information was provided by 120 administrators and staff members working for Jordanian commercial banks. The questionnaire used in this study was developed based on a comprehensive review of relevant literature and underwent validity assessments by experts in the field. To ensure data quality, clear instructions were provided, and data collection staff were available for support. Steps were also taken to address common method bias, including participant anonymity, separate data collection points, and the inclusion of control variables in the analysis. These measures contribute to enhancing the validity and reliability of the study’s findings. The findings showed that administrative innovation is positively impacted by human resource management practices, while the study also showed that there is a positive, statistically significant impact of the dimensions of HRM practices (training and development, wages and incentives, performance appraisal) on administrative innovation in Jordanian commercial banks. By giving field indications on the nature of the interaction between these two variables in the workplace, the current research contributes to the development of the literature addressing the relationship between HRM practices and administrative creativity. Lastly, this research recommends the need for officials in Jordanian commercial banks to pay attention to human resource management practices as an important factor contributing to administrative creativity, and to focus on training practices as training is a strategic option for preparing creative human cadres.

Remote working during COVID-19 in Sri Lanka: lessons learned and what the future holds

PurposeThis paper aims to explore how Human Resource Management (HRM) practices were adopted to implement and manage remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic and identify whether and how remote working would/should continue in the future, in a developing and a unique cultural set up in the Asian context.Design/methodology/approachThe study was conducted using qualitative methodology with semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 26 Human Resource Professionals (HRPs) of different industries in Sri Lanka. The information was collected in two phases; at the initial stages of the pandemic during May–June 2020 and after one year and four months, in October–November 2021.FindingsThe findings explain the different HRM activities executed by HRPs, such as employee engagement activities, setting guidelines, employee support, performance management and training, to make remote working successful when it was implemented as an emergency and involuntary work arrangement with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka. However, over time, the interest and interventions of HRPs appeared to have dwindled, and many companies are waiting to revert to on-site work when the pandemic situation settles. It appears that remote working will remain a transitory work arrangement to respond to crises or exceptional circumstances rather than a permanent work arrangement for many companies in Sri Lanka.Originality/valueThe study contributes to and expands the knowledge of HRM in managing remote working during and beyond the pandemic in a developing Asian country perspective and the suitability of remote working and HRM practices for specific national cultural contexts.

Human resource development and organisational performance: Evidence from Pakistan

Purpose: This study is an endeavour to find the effect of human resource development on organisational performance. Human resource development is essential for better organisational productivity and effectiveness.Research purpose: This study specifically investigates the impact of organisational context, resourcing, training and development, skills, attitude and behaviour on organisational performance.Design/Methodology/Approach: This research study focuses on manufacturing companies in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan. A standardised questionnaire with a response rate of 85% was used to gather data from a random sample of 50 manufacturing companies. The structural equation modelling technique was used for data analysis.Findings: Organisational performance has a positive association with all the independent factors studied in this article: resourcing, training and development, employees’ abilities, employee attitudes, employee behaviour and the organisational context. In addition, the outcomes of this research support the idea that human resource development methods might have a favourable influence on manufacturing business performance. There is no direct correlation between resourcing and organisational performance, although training and development activities are favourably connected with it.Contribution: For the first time, this research aims to evaluate how human resource management (HRM) influences organisational performance in Pakistan by examining theoretically created pathways between key exogenous and endogenous factors.

Role of human resource policies in ensuring women’s safety in the workplace

This paper aims to assess how human resource (HR) management policies affect women’s workplace safety. In addition, this study analyzes the degree to which measures have been taken to ensure that working women have a safe environment. Responses from 208 women working in Saudi Arabia’s small and medium-sized private businesses were gathered. The paper employed a survey questionnaire using snowball sampling technique. Thus, critical HR practices that have an impact on workplace safety for women are highlighted. As women frequently face these difficulties, the findings suggested that HR policies should tailor working women’s needs in maternity, health, transportation, childcare, and a safe workplace. Moreover, support for divorced and widowed workers would significantly increase women’s safety at work. Compared to other HR policies, there is a stronger correlation between medical and maternity leave. This paper supports research on women’s safety and HR management in the Saudi context and has significant practical implications for practitioners. Acknowledgments The author thanks all the respondents who participated and contributed by giving their valuable opinions and making this study possible.

“Are your employees mentally prepared for the pandemic?” Wellbeing-oriented human resource management practices in a developing country

Employees are the most valuable asset of any service business because of its human-centric nature. However, in the crisis situations, the human side in crisis management strategy, particularly in the areas of human resource management is largely overlooked. The present study explores how human resource management (HRM) practices in the pre-crisis stage could build a good foundation of psychological capital (PsyCap) for tourism and hospitality staff to be mentally resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic. Grounded on the conservation of resource (COR) theory, research hypotheses are developed and then empirically tested using a sample of 760 employees in various tourism and hospitality companies. Research outcomes demonstrate that wellbeing-oriented HRM policies (specifically employee development and employee empowerment policies) in the pre-crisis stage increases employee PsyCap during the pandemic, leading to the preservation of their wellbeing. More importantly, employees’ family financial burden is found as a moderating factor, altering the influences of HRM policies on employee PsyCap and their in-crisis wellbeing. Therefore, wellbeing-oriented HRM could be part of crisis preparedness strategy for tourism and hospitality businesses as well as crucial element of the internal corporate social responsibility portfolio in tourism and hospitality businesses. In developing countries, where less financial support and fewer job security policies are available during crises than in the developed world, the application of wellbeing-oriented HRM becomes even more critical.

The impact of public responses toward healthcare workers on their work engagement and well-being during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Healthcare workers (HCWs) play an important role in fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they have been exposed to mixed public responses more significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, which have potentially affected their work and life. We aim to study what public responses toward HCWs existed, how and why such public responses impacted HCW's work engagement and well-being, and how Human Resource (HR) professionals navigate these impacts. These understandings are important for improving HCWs' work and life quality. We adopted a mixed approach including both quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate how the public responses impact HCWs' work engagement and well-being and how human resource management (HRM) shall intervene. Our quantitative study enables us to collect and analyze a large amount of public responses toward HCWs from the social media platform during the COVID-19 pandemic globally, and uncover the sentiments and topics of these pubic responses via big data and AI technologies. Our qualitative study allows us to understand how and why these public responses impact HCWs' work engagement and well-being via interviews and further identify how HR professionals shall navigate these impacts. The sentiment analysis showed that 55.9% of the discussions toward HCWs were positive, 27.2% were neutral, and 16.9% were negative. The topic modeling analysis indicated that the commonly identified topics were related to fear (the negative responses) and gratitude (the positive responses). The interviews with 18 HCWs revealed that HCWs' work engagement and well-being were decreased by negative public responses through experiencing tension or disappointment due to social and physical ostracism, rejection, discrimination, and criticism. On the other hand, positive public responses in terms of encouragement, recognition, and tangible donations increased their work engagement and well-being. The analysis also suggested that occupational calling served as a mechanism that explained why public responses had such impacts on HCWs. The interview results also highlighted the significance of HRM in bridging positive public responses toward HCWs and revealed problems with communication from HRM during the pandemic. This research provides practical implications about how to improve HCWs work engagement and well-being during the pandemic via public and HRM efforts.

Building organisational resilience capability in small and medium‐sized enterprises: The role of high‐performance work systems

AbstractAlthough organisational resilience is crucial to small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in turbulent business environments, research has yet to establish whether and how human resource management (HRM) systems can help build an SME's organisational resilience to influence firm performance. Drawing on the perspective of HRM as an internal capability builder and human capital resource theory, we develop a model that depicts how high‐performance work systems (HPWSs) build organisational resilience capabilities in the forms of bounce‐back and bounce‐forward resilience, leading to firm performance. We test our model using data from 1140 participants (including top management team members, middle‐level managers, and entry‐level employees) from 177 Nigerian SMEs. The structural equation modelling results show that HPWSs contribute to bounce‐back resilience via human capital value but to bounce‐forward resilience via both human capital value and heterogeneity. We also find that bounce‐forward resilience is related to firm performance but bounce‐back resilience is not.

Effects of green human resource management on green innovation through green human capital, environmental knowledge, and managerial environmental concern

The current literature in the environmental management domain proposes that employee behaviour is essential to enhancing environmental outcomes, but few studies have examined how human resource management (HRM) is linked with the green innovation of organisations. The study aims to investigate the interrelationship between green human resource management and green innovation in the hotel industry through the mediation of green human capital and environmental knowledge and moderation of managerial environmental concerns (MEC). The study was conducted on 209 participants from several occupational levels, including frontline workers, entry-level management, middle management, and top management employees of various hotel chains in Pakistan. Data were collected through stratified random sampling and analysed using the partial least structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique. Resultantly, GHRM positively contributed to the green innovation of organisations. The mediating roles of green human capital and environmental knowledge were also statistically significant. Furthermore, the results reveal that the link between GHRM and green human capital is stronger with MEC as a moderator. The study contributes to the body of knowledge by investigating environmental protection based on the human capital theory through empirical evidence on hypothesised relationships. Moreover, the study extends the GHRM scope by adding predictors such as environmental knowledge for efficient hotel industry performance.

Strategic sustainable development of Industry 4.0 through the lens of social responsibility: The role of human resource practices

AbstractResearch on sustainable development is significantly influenced by the trade‐off between the economic, social and environmental performance of businesses. Industry 4.0 development is a key business priority due to the promise of exponential increase in productivity, time efficiencies and cost reduction. However, Industry 4.0 development has been slow. Notably, human actors remain central to Industry 4.0, while the social responsibility component of sustainable development is a key prerogative for industry, championed through the UN sustainable development goals and European Commission. Therefore, we evaluate human‐related impediments for Industry 4.0 and critically explore how human resource management (HRM) can overcome these barriers using a socially responsible orientation. First, we analyse the human‐related challenges to Industry 4.0 through a thematic literature review. Thereafter, through an integrative literature review of different research streams (Industry 4.0, HRM and social responsibility), we critically argue novel perspectives on how human resource practices can enable sustainable development of Industry 4.0 in a socially responsible manner. Herein, we address a crucial literature gap. Our findings reveal numerous people‐related barriers, including change resistance, digital skills gap, employment threats widening socio‐economic inequalities, lack of industry‐wide collaboration, leadership and organisational culture challenges. We show that HRM can be a crucial enabler for sustainable Industry 4.0 development through socially responsible human resource practices. These include strategic multistakeholder collaborations, holistic talent management, change leadership, inclusive knowledge sharing, sponsoring education research and codesigning curricula, smart technology for upskilling and retention and rewarding inclusive Industry 4.0 ideas. We conclude with future research directions.

Factors of Athletes’ Work Engagement in South-East European Basketball Teams

The purpose of this paper is to examine how human resource management (HRM) quality and cohesion in post-transitional South-East European basketball teams influence athletes’ work engagement and their contribution to their team’s performance. The model was tested with structural equation modelling on a sample of 559 basketball athletes from four South-East European countries. The results show that the perceived quality of HRM directly affects the level of athletes’ work engagement, but does not directly affect the perception of cohesion or the self-reported contribution to the team’s performance. However, athletes’ work engagement mediates the effects of the HRM and cohesion on their contribution to their team’s performance. The study’s main contribution is the finding that work engagement in the context of basketball teams from post-transitional South-East European countries represents a mediator through which HRM can affect an individual athlete’s performance.

Sustainability through sensemaking: Human resource professionals’ engagement and enactment of corporate social responsibility

There is no shortage of normative models describing how human resource management (HRM) should integrate with corporate social responsibility (CSR), however actual evidence of this engagement is rare. So what prompts human resource (HR) professionals to engage with a CSR agenda? Using a sensemaking lens this study addresses this question by examining how HR professionals employed in organizations with a publicly espoused CSR mandate make sense of this agenda and glean understanding about the meaning-creation processes surrounding enactment. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with HR professionals employed in New Zealand and Australian organizations. Findings show that HR professionals draw on CSR-related organizational and social cues to make sense of integration, with their professional identity influencing approaches to operationalization. Evidence is also found to suggest levels and modes of CSR engagement are shaped by situational cues as well as the personal characteristics of HR professionals themselves.

Time Series Modelling of Academic Employee Commitment of a Sub-Saharan African University

The study objective is to see how human resource management (HRM) could rely on small data evidence-based analytics to gauge employee commitment in a sub-Saharan African University. A 7-point Likert scale questionnaire on academic employee commitment in Kenya Public Universities was designed, validated and pilot tested. Out of around 60 questionnaires administered, only 31 responses were obtained before the Corona Virus (COVID-19) pandemic lockdowns in Kenya. The responses were subjected to the Modeler analyses using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS version 21) to generate twelve optimal ARIMA (0,0,0) models for further statistical analyses. Results indicate 46.7% of employees want to spend the rest of their career in the organisation, over 61.2% of employees felt alienated and 34.9% were not emotionally attached. Around 59.3%, 64.0% and almost all employees tested on different metrics have difficulty leaving the organisation now. Although 28.9% of employees could leave abruptly, 64.6% of employees felt acculturated and 29.7% would remain at all costs. Overall, add-on effects of willingness to stay and bear with the organisation, emotional attachment, alienation, moral obligation, beneficial to remain, discouragement levels, organisational culture and being sold out to organisation could influence employee commitment levels. Thus, contributing to the HRM field, especially because the twelve-layered cascade of a series-parallel network made up of ladder and lattice structures of shared human and material resources management was used to deduce the Jackson’s theorem. Future research shall consider larger sample sizes to enable us to confirm or refute the conclusions derived in this study.

Optimising human resource system strength in nurturing affective commitment: Do all meta‐features matter?

AbstractThis study aims to examine three propositions of how human resource (HR) system strength meta‐features—distinctiveness, consistency and consensus—operate together to better understand how they relate to affective commitment. We test a continuum proposition based on an additive (the sum of all features) and a compensatory model (the features as counteractive), a precursor proposition based on a mediation model, and an equifinality proposition based on a configurational model (distinguishing between different profiles of the features). The findings, drawn from a survey of 2844 part‐time employees from a Dutch home care organisation, demonstrate that all three meta‐features are important for generating HR management system strength and affective commitment among employees, but not to the same extent. We also find evidence that consistency is positively and directly related, whereas distinctiveness and consensus are positively and indirectly related to affective commitment via consistency.

Motivating reflection habits and raising employee awareness of learning

PurposeWhile research has shown reflection is a valuable part of individual learning, developing reflection habits has remained notoriously difficult, particularly for working adults. We explore whether an intervention of being able to review previous reflections will affect employee engagement in future reflection activities and raise their awareness of learning opportunities at work.Design/methodology/approachWe conducted a large-scale field experiment, including 136 employees from an international bank in Europe, in which participants were asked to reflect twice a week for eight weeks. Participants were randomly assigned to either a group that was given access to their previous reflections, or a group that was not.FindingsWe found that individuals who were able to see their previous reflections wrote significantly more subsequent reflections than the other group. In addition, those who could see their previous reflections used more words related to learning and cognition.Practical implicationsOften employees may feel they are only learning when they attend formal trainings. However, this paper provides concrete guidance for how human resources management (HRM) managers can boost employees’ informal learning and awareness of the learning opportunities inherent in challenging work.Originality/valueThis study furthers research on using HRM interventions to facilitate informal learning activities, in particular, methods to motivate systematic reflections and raising awareness of learning opportunities. Our findings suggest that developing habits of reflection and improving awareness of learning opportunities encompasses more than simply writing reflections, but should include processing previous writings.

Employees’ perceptions on the relationship between human resource management practices and employee turnover

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore hotel employees’ views on how human resource management (HRM) practices influence their turnover intentions.Design/methodology/approachThe data for this empirical study were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 15 employees who had experience of working in various hotels in Macau, China. The thematic analysis approach was carried out to analyze the interview data and interpret the findings.FindingsThe findings of this study demonstrate that although employee-oriented human resource policies and practices are favored, the way HR department handles and implement those policies are valued more by hotel employees. Furthermore, the retention of an organizational culture that helps create a feeling of ownership among employees is highly influenced by employees’ turnover intentions. The current study demonstrates that the HR department in hotels holds a powerful position, and therefore, hotel employees expect their HR department to play greater and proactive roles in the HRM apart from providing equitable opportunities for their growth. This implication is particularly important for Integrated Resorts where a large number of employees collectively work to serve a range of customers who visit hotels for a variety of purposes.Practical implicationsThis study suggests that addressing employees’ needs particularly those related to resolving complaints and managing relationships with other colleagues and providing opportunities for employees’ family members to take part in the organization’s activities and use its facilities are important practices that HR department can initiate to encourage employees’ engagement in hotels. Furthermore, the study shows that managers need to understand their employees’ perspectives as they can help resolve problems at the root level where they grow, and send a signal to the employees that the management is genuinely interested in resolving their problems and making them happy and satisfied.Originality/valueAlthough several studies have provided valuable insights into the relationship between HRM practices and employee turnover intentions, most of those studies have used quantitative approaches to collect and analyze data. Furthermore, almost none of the findings were derived from the hotel sector. This study explores hotel employees’ views on the relationship between HRM practices and employee turnover intention using qualitative methods.

How Human Resource Management Practices Translate Into Sustainable Organizational Performance: The Mediating Role Of Product, Process And Knowledge Innovation.

BackgroundThis study examined how human resource management (HRM) can directly and indirectly influence sustainable organizational performance (SOP), with organizational innovation (OI) as a mediator.Research methodsFor this quantitative study, a 31-item questionnaire was used to collect data on HRM and SOP from 20 Shanghai branches of five Chinese banks. HRM was defined as multidimensional, consisting of employee staffing, staff development, performance management, and compensation and benefits. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM 3.2) was used to estimate the effects.ResultsThe HRM practices of performance management and compensation and benefits showed a direct and positive influence on SOP. Looking at indirect relationships, all four dimensions of HRM practices were positively related to OI (product, process, and knowledge innovation), which, in turn, was positively related to SOP. Organizational innovation was thus shown to play a mediating role between HRM and SOP.ConclusionThe study emphasizes that the banking sector of China consists of many employees who maintain old styles of working, alongside some who attempt to take on the new innovative working mechanisms and engage with staff development programs. This latter group of personnel make a valuable contribution to SOP. Moreover, the effect on organizational dynamics of implementing HRM practices aids in bringing about innovations in processes, products, and knowledge.