Human Resource Management Perspective Research Articles

Global organizations and supply chain

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to aim at proposing a research agenda in the intersection of strategic supply chain management and logistics (SCML) of global organizations from the perspective of international human resource management (IHRM).Design/methodology/approach– To disclose the intellectual structure of research to date across both fields, the content of up to 280 articles dealing with IHRM and 174 papers addressing challenges in SCML in global organizations from a human resource management (HRM) viewpoint were analyzed. A stepwise hierarchical cluster and discriminant analysis were conducted to map a joint research agenda. Approaches from Upper Echelons theory and Co-Evolutionary theory of global organizations were adopted.Findings– Top management teams (TMT) are crucial to manage SCML successfully in today’s global organizations. Research on this intersection should draw attention to find antecedents, consequences and the process showing how those talented people grouped in dispersed teams can be a source of competitive advantage. Six different areas of research are proposed. It is proposed that future research should focus on the human capital (HC); meaning those key individuals of an organization that make things happen. In the near future, the global organization’s competitiveness will be shaped by how the organization manages its HC in SCML. Methodologies such as meta-analysis are suggested to summarize the extant literature on IHRM when applied to SCML in global organizations.Research limitations/implications– The search was conducted in SSCI-ISIWoK and Scopus databases. As a limitation, some articles and other scientific contributions not abstracted there were not included. Nevertheless, both searches enabled obtaining balanced results between scope and richness of content.Originality/value– Only a marginal portion of literature reviews have been conducted by using mixed methods in the fields of IHRM and SCML. The results will be useful for scholars of both fields in their attempts to enlarge the knowledge boundaries in these areas. From a practitioner’s viewpoint, this research may provide an integrative framework for global organizations to build a competitive advantage based on managing HC and its SCML strategically.

Does the Japanese employment system harm productivity performance?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of employment systems on productivity performance in Japanese companies from the perspective of data envelopment analysis (DEA) and sustainable human resource management (HRM). Design/methodology/approach – In all, three employment models including employment indicators in addition to financial indicators are examined between 2006 and 2012 with 2,738 listed Japanese companies. This study verifies robustness of the results by testing multiple DEA measurements and conducting industrial analysis. Findings – The results indicate employment systems influence productivity performance in Japanese companies and the characteristics of Japanese employment systems harm productivity performance. In particular, higher liquidity of human resource is essential contrary to the philosophy of long-term employment. Furthermore, new initiatives such as promotion opportunities for women have not been successful up to now. Research limitations/implications – This study investigates limited aspects of HRM practices and employment systems in Japanese companies due to data availability. This study is designed to investigate mainly organizational outcome considering sustainability. More research is needed to identify comprehensive influence from Japanese employment system not only on corporate performance but also reduction of harm on a variety of stakeholders such as employee, community and government. Practical implications – These findings suggest that it is necessary for executives in Japanese companies to pay attention to their HRM practices under Japanese employment system, in particular, entry and exit of human resource and support systems for female employees. Originality/value – There are few studies that investigate the relationship between employment system and productivity performance in Japanese companies. This research provides empirical evidence for potential influence of the Japanese employment system.

Exploring teacher and school resilience as a new perspective to solve persistent problems in the educational sector

In this paper, we will explore the relevance, meaning and perspectives of teacher, team and school resilience. The central research questions are: does the concept of teacher, team and school resilience offer new and promising perspectives on persistent problems in the educational sector? And secondly; how can resilience at individual, team and school level potentially be strengthened? After an insight into the context of the educational system in the Netherlands, we describe the current challenges in the educational system and sector both internationally and for the Netherlands based on a dialogue with stakeholders, scientific literature and data from the Netherlands Working Conditions Survey 2010. We propose that the educational field would benefit from a proactive approach that includes interrelated levels of actors (i.e. individual, team and school). We elaborate on this argument by making use of four resilience-related theories developed in a variety of areas: Resilience Engineering (focusing on four abilities for resilience), organizational mindfulness (focusing on signalling early warnings threatening resilience), the human resource management perspective on resilience (focusing on constraint vs. commitment of employees) and resilience as a social system (focusing on resilience as an interpersonal asset). Each of these theories points out that multilevel approaches for developing resilience are useful. Thereafter, four abilities (anticipation, monitoring, responding and learning) that seem vital for the process of developing resilience are described and discussed at individual, team and school level making use of practical examples based on stakeholders’ experiences. We discuss that the resilience perspective is promising and deserves (co-created) experimentation in the educational sector. Due to the theoretical nature of this paper, the findings could be useful to set agendas, but they need carefully evaluated pilot projects for future confirmation.

A consideration of organisational sustainability in the SME context

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to consider organisational sustainability in the small- to medium-sized enterprises (SME) context focussing on a resource-based view. The paper overlays two contrasting perspectives: those of the SME and human resource (HR) perspectives to allow for the development of a composite model of organisational sustainability for SMEs.Design/methodology/approach– The paper overlays four models of Carson’s (1985, 1990) small firm evolution and unique characteristics of SMEs; Wrightet al.’s (2001) pertaining to the application of the resource-based view of the firm perspective to strategic HR and Boudreau and Ramstad (2005) model of effectiveness, efficiency and impact of talentship. The paper, in particular, considers the human resource management (HRM) perspectives pertaining to the overlay and considers how these might impact organisational sustainability.Findings– An outcome of the paper is the development of a composite model to the SME and HR perspectives of organisational sustainability and its applicability to the SME context.Research limitations/implications– The paper suggests a number of emergent areas for future research. Future research should focus on the intangible aspects and softer elements of the organisational resource base. The majority of work in this area is grounded in the positivist paradigm. Future research should consider a pluralists perspective and draw on traditions of the post-positivist paradigm, for example, social constructionism.Practical implications– SME-support agencies and consultants who work with SMEs need, therefore, to work with them in assessing their competency spectra and then to help them develop the talent pools required to effect continued growth and success. In doing so SMEs need to be guided towards a better understanding of the traditional temporal cycle of recruitment; in essence, they need to ensure that they have the right competency set in situ in the early stages of the firms’ development.Originality/value– This paper is unique in its approach to the examination of sustainability within the context of SMEs and, in particular, the HRM aspects which contribute towards organisational survival, growth and sustainability.

Career development and individuals with physical disabilities

Purpose– Few studies have focussed on the situation of employees with physical disabilities from the perspective of human resources management – in particular on the career development expectations of this group. The purpose of this paper is to meet this need by focussing on individuals with physical disabilities in Andalusia (Spain). It analyzes three key aspects: whether the perception of discrimination is related to the perception of inequity due to their disabilities, with this relationship being moderated by gender; whether these perceptions of inequality and discrimination lead to feelings of dissatisfaction with the employing organization; and whether the perception of discrimination mediates the relationship between perceived inequity and job dissatisfaction.Design/methodology/approach– Using the theoretical framework of organizational justice, regression analysis is applied to test the hypotheses in a population of 459 employed people with physical disabilities.Findings– The results show that perceived discrimination is due to perceived inequity when peers who do not have a disability are used as comparative reference; however, this relationship is not moderated by gender. These perceptions of inequity and discrimination cause individuals to feel dissatisfaction in organizations, and a mediating effect is found for the perception of discrimination in professional development opportunities. The control variables considered, age and education, are not significant in the relationships studied.Originality/value– An original and valued model is proposed to explain job dissatisfaction among employees with physical disabilities and the possibility of perceiving a dual disadvantage, in their possibilities for professional development. The model links together three variables that have not previously been linked all together in the literature – perceived inequity, perceived discrimination on the grounds of disability, and dissatisfaction – highlighting that perceived discrimination on the grounds of disability mediates the relationship between perceived inequity and dissatisfaction. This model can also examine whether a dual disadvantage is perceived owing to an individual's being a woman and having a disability, considering gender as a variable that moderates the relationship between perceived inequity and perceived discrimination on the grounds of disability.

How Does Relative Deprivation Influence Employee Intention to Leave a Merged Company? The Role of Organizational Identification

Recognizing the importance of postmerger integration from a human resource management perspective, this study explores the relationship between employee perceptions of relative deprivation during a merger and acquisition (M&A) process and their turnover intentions. Drawing on social identity theory, we investigate whether the relationship between relative deprivation and turnover intention can be mediated by employee organizational identification. The results, based on a two‐phase survey of 222 employees in a merged Korean company, show that egoistic relative deprivation, defined as people's feelings of deprivation due to their dissatisfaction with their position as an individual, predicts employee turnover intention. Moreover, employee identification with the postmerger organization was found to fully mediate the relationship between egoistic relative deprivation and turnover intention. The article concludes with theoretical contributions, practical implications, and future research directions. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The future of employment relations from the perspective of human resource management

This article defines ‘human resources’ as the overt talents and underlying characteristics that people possess, and identifies three agendas in human resource management: the individual, the organisational and the societal/global. The academic discipline of human resource management (HRM) has grown up around the second agenda: the needs of managers to hire, motivate and develop people with the talents that organisations need. Like the curate’s egg, it is of variable quality: a tension between ‘best-practicism’ and analytical thinking is still present in it. Research in industrial relations has been more helpful in describing the spread of employer behaviour and analysing the reasons for it. However, the growing emphasis in academic HRM on understanding the psychological and social processes inside the ‘black box’ of the firm is encouraging the study of mutuality and sustainability in employment relationships. This direction has the potential to make academic HRM more relevant at the societal level where we confront issues of underutilisation and overutilisation of human resources and where we have a mix of human resource philosophies that both help and harm society. The challenge is to build a theory of how organisations can meet their needs for profit and renewal while supporting employee fulfilment and well-being over the long-run.

Many moving parts: Factors influencing the effectiveness of HRM practices designed to improve knowledge transfer within MNCs

Minbaeva, Pedersen, Bjorkman, Fey and Park’s (2003) award-winning article highlights the importance of human resource management (HRM) practices for enhancing employees’ ability and motivation to transfer knowledge – practices that, in turn, affect knowledge transfer to subsidiaries within multinational corporations (MNCs). In the decade since their laudable article was published, some contributions have been made highlighting the contingencies related to the effectiveness of HRM practices in MNCs, especially those affecting an organizations’ absorptive capacity. These contingencies – the “moving parts” – include country-level differences in HR systems, cross-cultural differences in acceptance of HR practices and individual-level factors affecting the effectiveness of HRM practices. With an eye toward the future, I discuss these contingencies, paying closest attention to the effect of the individual differences affecting employees’ willingness to engage in knowledge sharing. From the perspective of HRM, this year's Decade Award article opened some significant doors for future research; my goal for this commentary is to highlight them and the many that remain relatively unexplored.

Identifying the role of human resource management in increasing performance and implementation of six sigma projects using fuzzy cognitive maps

Article history: Received December 10, 2013 Received in revised format 12 March 2013 Accepted April 14 2014 Available online April 16 2014 Six Sigma is known as the best quality management system, which has been applied in different places with distinct tasks. Any implementation of Six Sigma project normally can succeed only when human resource management is applied within the organization, properly. In this paper, we illustrate the intense of relationships between the human resources management indices and Six Sigma project implementation indices for some selected Iranian manufacturing firms. By using the fuzzy cognitive maps (FCM), we are able to show the strength of relationships among various indices. This study helps quality and human resource managers learn how to manage the critical indices to achieve their determined goals and to increase Six Sigma project performance throw human resource management perspective. © 2014 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Human Resource Management Problems for Insurance Company Mergers: A Case Study

In this study, we have studied a case of two leading insurance company merger, which are Aviva and Ak insurance companies operating in Turkey. The company merger case is studied according to the human resource management (HRM) approach. During the study, the HRM perspective of merger is based on the interviews by C-level executives and many HRM related outputs, like gender, age or education level statistics are collected from the company merger. The case, studied in this research, is the biggest merger in Turkish insurance sector up until now and the outputs first time published in this paper states a useful base line for further studies. In this paper, the qualitative outcomes of merger, like the number of employees, education levels or the gender and age distribution is published as well as the qualitative outputs like the strategic achievements, organizational commitment or the leadership model. Another important section is holding the steps followed by the HRM department after the merger operation. 

Vulnerable work and international migrants: a relational human resource management perspective

Previous studies have addressed the vulnerability of migrants in the workplace by focusing on problems related to one of four key factors: national context, networks, employment relationships and individual acculturation. In this paper, these past findings are reviewed and it is proposed that in order to obtain a thorough understanding of the reasons why migrants are vulnerable in the workplace, it is recommended that a relational perspective be adopted in which these factors are regarded as fundamentally intertwined. Theoretical propositions are provided to explain how these four factors interact in determining the problems faced by migrant workers. Finally, recommendations are provided to human resource managers based on the proposed framework, with the ultimate goal of ameliorating the vulnerability of migrants in the workplace.

Women in Professional Selling: A Human Resource Management Perspective

The authors present a set of human resource management tactics that can assist women who are pursuing sales careers and organizations that need effective salesforces. Topics discussed include recruiting selection, training, mentoring, managing and supporting.

TREINAMENTO E DESENVOLVIMENTO DE PESSOAL: ESTUDO DE CASO NA ÁREA OPERACIONAL DE UM BANCO ESPECIALIZADO EM FINANCIAMENTOS

This article attempted to identify the perceptions of employees from the operational area in relation to the training program and development of a bank expert in finance from the perspective of strategic human resources management. Through a case study with quantitative analysis were identified attributes relevant to the adequate management and preparation of the staff in special operations (analysts). By four thematic blocks the analysis initiatives have been proposed and illustrated the diagnosis of the organization, the final step being carried out by the technique of the content analysis.

Testing universalistic and contingency HRM assumptions across job levels

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the broad debate regarding universalistic and contingency perspectives of human resource management (HRM). Design/methodology/approach – Building on recent evidence of HRM differentiation within organisations, the present article studies variation in experienced HR practices across job level and whether the impact of HR practices on commitment, intention to quit and well‐being across job level is best explained by universalistic or contingency claims. Findings – Both studies found that employees in higher job levels report a greater number of HR practices. Findings further indicated that the associations between HR practices and the three outcomes were largely invariant across job level, thus supporting universalistic notions of HRM across job levels. Research limitations/implications – Data from both studies were cross‐sectional and single‐source, thus limiting causal inferences. More generally, there is a need to better understand HR differentiation within organisations and whether it offers an effective HR strategy. Originality/value – Few studies have examined systematic variation in HR practices across employee groups and universalistic/contingency arguments within organisations. The studies presented are among the first to offer an evaluative as well as descriptive analysis of the issues under investigation.

Strategic toolkits: seniority, usage and performance in the German SME machinery and equipment sector

This paper examines the strategic tool kit, from a human resource management (HRM) perspective, in terms of usage and impact. Research to date has tended to consider usage, assuming to a certain extent that knowledge and understanding of particular tools suggest that practitioners value them. The research on which this paper is based builds upon the idea that usage indicates satisfaction, but develops the usage theme to investigate which decision-makers are actually engaged in both tool appliance and the strategic process. Of particular interest to the researchers are the educational background, age and seniority of the decision-makers. In addition, potential links with HRM and organizational performance are also explored. The context of the research, the German machinery and equipment sector, provides an insight into the industry's ability to sustain growth in face of increasing international competition. The paper calls for a greater awareness, from a human resource perspective, and utilization of strategic management practice and associated decision-making aids.

Employee engagement, organisational performance and individual well-being: exploring the evidence, developing the theory

The development of mainstream human resource management (HRM) theory has long been concerned with how people management can enhance performance outcomes. It is only very recently that interest has been shown in the parallel stream of research on the link between employee engagement and performance, bringing the two together to suggest that engagement may constitute the mechanism through which HRM practices impact individual and organisational performance. However, engagement has emerged as a contested construct, whose meaning is susceptible to ‘fixing, shrinking, stretching and bending’. It has furthermore not yet been scrutinised from a critical HRM perspective, nor have the societal and contextual implications of engagement within the domain of HRM been considered. We review the contribution of the seven articles in this special issue to the advancement of theory and evidence on employee engagement, and highlight areas where further research is needed to answer important questions in the emergent field that links HRM and engagement.

HRD and HRM Perspectives on Organizational Performance

A systematic review of literature on the relationship of human resources (HR) and organizational performance (OP) revealed a dearth of contribution from human resource development (HRD) in establishing the linkage. This linkage, which refers to the significant relationship between HRD and OP, is an important topic relevant to research and practice. The review utilized OP as the dependent variable to survey the state of human resource literature and thus, includes contributions from human resource management (HRM). The literature review revealed similarities and differences in the conceptualization of OP as a dependent variable between the two fields. On further analysis, the similarities and differences reveal convergence in specific areas of inquiry as well as emphasize the underlying differences in the philosophical assumptions of HRD and HRM. The independent contributions of HRD and HRM in establishing the HR–OP linkage also reflect the utilization of diverse research designs, methods of data collection, analysis, and findings. Both fields have focused on strategic contributions for improving organizational performance and are very much connected in practice. Much of the separation therefore, appears to be academic where competing views highlight a tension that exists in theory, research and what we know about effective HRD or HRM in practice.

The Industrial Law and Right to Retrench in Malaysia from a Human Resource Management Perspective

This paper explores the legal right to retrench employees from a human resource management perspective in Malaysia. The paper is based on the analysis of the relevant statues on retrenchment such the Employment Act 1955, The Industrial Relations Act 1967, the Employment (Termination and Lay-Off Benefits) Regulations 1980 and the Code of Conduct for Industry Harmony 1975. The author has also used criterion based sampling of the Industrial Court and Superior Court awards to analyze retrenchment cases and to provide recommendations to human resource management practitioners. Findings from these cases analyses reveal that many of the retrenchment awards were made against the employers due to poor selection of workforce for retrenchment, and the handling of the retrenchment exercise itself which violated the relevant statutes and the established procedures. The author suggests that retrenchment should not be viewed as a reactive but a proactive exercise, which begins with effective human resource planning aligned with the organizational strategic plan. The retrenchment exercise should also need be seen as a last resort when limiting recruitment, reduction in working hours, helping the employees (workmen) to find alternative employment, encouraging early retirement, offer of voluntary separation scheme (VSS) and other measures have been exhausted. The author hopes with many proactive measures, taken by employers in the management of retrenchment, the number of unfair retrenchment claims made to the Industrial Relations Department will be reduced.

An Analysis on Characteristics of Schools that Implement the Teacher Invitation Scheme: from the Perspective of Human Resource Management

An Analysis on Characteristics of Schools that Implement the Teacher Invitation Scheme: from the Perspective of Human Resource Management

Decision support model for employee selection: A strategic human resource management (HRM) perspective

Human resource has been regarded as an important factor for an organization to gain competitive advantages. Employee selection is an essential decision especially to intellectual property technology service industry, since “human” is the theoretical basis of establishing the important assets for an organization. The decision makers should select the specialists who best match the needs of the organizational strategy by contemporaneously considering multiple and interdependent evaluation criteria. Thus far, literatures detailing employee selection problems assumed that the criteria for evaluating specialists are independent and ignore the strategic viewpoint. Since the process for employee selection is so complicated, an effective tool, especially for dealing with interdependence among criteria, is needed. Based on the viewpoint of strategic human resource management and resource-based theory, the study aimed to develop a systematic decision support model that combines an Analytic network process (ANP) with an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) for employee selection decisions. To implement the model, an empirical study for the intellectual property technology service industry in Taiwan was conducted. Moreover, an empirical example of specialist selection for company G demonstrated the computational process and effectiveness of the proposed model. The results calculated by the decision support model were confirmed to be a useful point of reference for decision makers during practical implementation. Key words: Analytic network process (ANP), analytic hierarchy process (AHP), employee selection, human resource management (HRM), resource-based theory.