Why do organizations respond differently to social policies? This is an important question because it gives us a clue as to why social progress is often slow even with successful legislation. We ...argue that HR professionals' conflicting roles within organizations affect modes of organizations' compliance with a law because HR professionals are expected to adjust legal pressure to business interests when translating external requirements into internal policies. How they manage this challenge depends on variation in the development of different dimensions of their professional agency: formalization and substantive empowerment. We demonstrate empirically this argument by taking the case of South Korea's parental leave policy. Using workplace-level data, we find that the presence of formal HR structures predicts that minimal compliance is more likely than is noncompliance, but is less likely than is maximal compliance, and that substantively empowered HR professionals contribute to making both compliance and maximal compliance more probable.
This study investigated the impact of electronic human resource management (e-HRM) implementation on the effectiveness of HRM system. The framework of this study was guided by three theories: unified ...theory of acceptance and use of technology, the social exchange theory, and the leader-member exchange theory. Covariance-based structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed model and hypotheses. The sample consisted of 282 responses from the employees of two telecommunications companies in Jordan. The research findings suggested that performance expectancy had a significant positive effect on behavioural intention to use an e-HRM system, whereas effort expectancy did not. Facilitating conditions had a positive significant impact on e-HRM system usage. Top management support and the HRM role of line managers positively affected behavioural intention to use e-HRM and actual usage of e-HRM, whereas the effect of HR professionals on e-HRM usage was negative. Finally, the actual usage of e-HRM had a significant impact on HRM system effectiveness.
Employee participation in formal and informal learning is essential for the economic viability and competitive advantage of organizations. Therefore, assessing outcomes of competence development ...activities is important. However, this domain of human resources (HR) practice is often neglected because of factors that are not well understood. Accordingly, this article addresses the question: What factors enable and inhibit HR professionals in assessing outcomes of competence development activities and initiatives? To answer this question, we conducted a review of articles that examine assessment of outcomes of competence development activities. The primary purpose of the review was to identify and categorize enabling and inhibiting factors so that the factors can be better understood by researchers and HR professionals. We also call upon voices from the field, using quotations from HR professionals to illustrate enabling and inhibiting factors. Analysis and synthesis of the literature informed the development of propositions to guide future research.
Purpose This study examines the perceptions of human resource (HR) professionals regarding the use of micro-credentials in the job market. The research explores the role of micro-credentials as ...emerging credentials in job requirements, continuing education, soft skills acquisition, job application evaluation (JAE) processes, qualification preferences in recruitment, salary/pay scale determination and promotional opportunities. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative research methodology was used to collect data through questionnaires distributed to 124 HR professionals. Findings The study finds that HR professionals recognize the value of micro-credentials in enhancing a candidate’s resume and aligning with their career objectives, as they offer personalized skill-building opportunities. However, some recruiters question the legitimacy of micro-credentials, perceiving them as informal and questioning their practical transferability. Originality/value This study highlights the importance for HR professionals to remain updated on emerging trends, adapt to the changing dynamics of the professional workforce and incorporate this into their recruitment and promotion policies. It also emphasizes the need for further investigation into the legitimacy of micro-credentials and their impact on the job market and presents the potential benefits of their integration into HR practices.
Orientation: Organisations are at the forefront of industry 4.0 and employees are witnessing the changes it brings.Research purpose: The objective of this study was to explore the role of human ...resource (HR) professionals in navigating industry 4.0.Motivation for the study: There is scant scientific research on the role of HR professionals in industry 4.0 within the South African context, although there are workshops and seminars in the field.Research approach/design and method: A qualitative research approach is used within an interpretivist research paradigm. We interviewed a purposive sample of 12 HR professionals. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to capture perceptions of HR professionals, and a thematic analysis was used to extract themes.Main findings: Seven prominent themes emerged revealing that HR professionals need to assume roles as strategic business partners and talent managers, necessitating HR competencies such as creative innovator, change agent, strategic partner and people enablement to take advantage of the opportunities of industry 4.0 and mitigate the associated challenges.Practical/managerial implications: HR professionals can use the findings as a basis for considering their role in industry 4.0. We propose a preliminary holistic model for navigating industry 4.0. Future researchers may use this study as a point of departure within the South African context.Contribution/value-add: There is limited research on this topic matter and is a response to this. The study makes an important practical and scientific contribution to understanding the role of HR professionals as it affirms their function has become an essential part of industry 4.0.
Despite the high potential of artificial intelligence (AI), its actual adoption in recruiting is low. Explanations for this discrepancy are scarce. Hence, this paper presents an exploratory interview ...study investigating HR professionals’ beliefs about AI to examine their impact on use cases and barriers and to identify the reasons that lead to the non-adoption of AI in recruiting. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 HR professionals from 21 companies. The results revealed that HR professionals’ beliefs about AI could be categorised along two dimensions: (1) the scope of AI and (2) the definition of instruction. “Scope of Al” describes the perceived technical capabilities of AI and determines the use cases that HR professionals imagine. In contrast, the “definition of instruction” describes the perceived effort to enable an AI to take on a task and determines how HR professionals perceive barriers to Al. Our findings suggest that HR professionals’ beliefs are based on vague knowledge about AI, leading to non-adoption. Drawing on our findings, we discuss theoretical implications for the existing literature on HR and algorithm aversion and practical implications for managers, employees, and policymakers.
PurposeOrganizational practitioners must often interpret accounts of workplace bullying. However, they are frequently reluctant to confirm the target's account and often fail to set effective ...intervention measures. Building on novel approaches in attribution theory, this study explores how causal explanations and blame pattern shape the labelling of a complaint and the subsequent recommended intervention measures.Design/methodology/approach187 Austrian human resource professionals, employee representatives and other practitioners were confronted with a fictional workplace bullying complaint including conflicting actors' accounts and diverse possible internal, relational and external causes. Since the prior low performance of a target might affect blame attributions, the previous performance ratings of the target were manipulated. Data were analysed via qualitative content analysis.FindingsWhen respondents reject the complaint, they predominately identify single internal causes and blame the target, and/or trivialize the complaint as “normal conflict”. Both low and high performance of the target trigger (single) internal blame. When the complaint is supported, deontic statements and blame attributions against the perpetrator prevail; however, blame placed on the perpetrator is often discounted via multi-blame attributions towards supervisors, colleagues and the target. Structural causes were rarely mentioned. Relational attributions are infrequent and often used to trivialize the complaint. Irrespective of the attributional blame patterns, most third parties recommend “reconciliatory measures” (e.g. mediation) between the actors.Practical implicationsTrainings to temper single internal blaming and raise awareness of organizational intervention measures are essential.Originality/valueThis is the first study to investigate workplace bullying blaming patterns and organizational responses in detail.
Despite the ongoing consideration of the ethical nature of human resource management (HRM), little research has been conducted on how morality and ethics are represented in the discourse, activities ...and lived experiences of human resource (HR) professionals. In this paper, we connect the thinking and lived experiences of HR professionals to an alternative ethics, rooted in the work of Bauman (Modernity and the Holocaust, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1989; Theory, Culture and Society 7:5-38, 1990; Postmodern Ethics, Blackwell, Oxford, 1991; Approaches to Social Enquiry, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1993; Life in Fragments, Blackwell, Oxford, 1995) and Levinas (Otherwise than Being, or, Beyond Essence, Duquesne University Press, Pittsburgh, PA, 1998). We argue that the study of HRM and ethics should be contextualized within the discourses used, the practices and activities of HR professionals. Through the analysis of interview data from 40 predominantly Canadian HR practitioners and managers we experiment with Bauman's notion of 'moral impulse' to help us understand how HRM is both a product and perpetuator of moral neutralization in organizations. We suggest that HRM as it is practiced is concerned with distancing, depersonalizing, and dissembling, and acts in support of the 'moral' requirements of business, not of people. However, we also recognize that HR practitioners and managers are often confronted with and conflicted by actions and decisions that they are required to take, therefore opening possibilities and hope for an alternative ethical HRM.
One of the strategic issues in human resource management (HRM) research is the recognition of HR professionals' roles, yet how effective HR professionals are performing these roles has seldom been ...studied. This article conducts a two-phase study to explore the role expectations, role effectiveness and discrepancies of HR professionals in the Chinese business context. In the first phase, six roles in three domains were determined using a qualitative method. In the second phase, hypotheses were proposed and tested empirically. The results highlight that the value of role effectiveness is significantly lower than that of role expectation. In terms of perceptive discrepancies between HR and non-HR individuals, significant differences exist on the expectations of the roles in the strategic domain (i.e. facilitator and supporter), and also on the effectiveness of the roles in all three domains, except for that of facilitator in the strategic domain. The results also indicate that the effectiveness of each different role has a distinctive weighting in explaining the overall effectiveness of HRM, and that different groups hold diverse views on the relationship between role effectiveness and overall effectiveness.
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