Lecture 1
Introduction
Human resource management refers to the policies, practices, and systems that influence
employees’ attitudes, behavior, performance.
Human resource management is a distinctive approach to employment management which
seeks to obtain competitive advantage through the strategic deployment of a highly
committed and skilled workforce, using an array of cultural, structural and personnel
techniques.
HRM practices are programs, processes and techniques that actually get operationalized
in the unit’
- ‘Things that happen’
- Concrete ways in which people are managed in the organization
- Certain level of facticity
Versus...
HRM practices are the actual, functioning, observable activities, as experienced by
employees’
- Actual practices and experiences
- Observable
Five core HRM practices:
1. Employee relations and collective communication
2. Recruitment and selection
3. Performance management
4. Rewards
5. Training and development
HRM practice 1: Employee relations and collective communication
Employee relations concerns matters of overarching employment or collective workforce
policy, such as bargaining (the traditional focus of industrial relations), and expression of the
collective voice of employees.
Current trends and challenges:
Changing nature of work: remote working
E-HRM
Importance of employee relations and collective communication for employee commitment
and retention e.g., exchange theory
HRM practice 2: Recruitment and selection
One of the purposes of recruitment is to determine present and future staffing needs in
conjunction with job analysis and human resource planning. Selection is a linked but
separate practice after recruitment, then involves the identification of the most suitable
person from a pool of applicants.
Current trends and challenges:
Personnel shortages
War for talent
,HRM practice 3: Performance management
The name of performance management is given to the formal conversations between line
manager and employee about priorities and their achievements. But also, that HR is
designed process designed to align the workforce with the strategy.
Current trends and challenges:
HRM analytics
Effects on outcomes:
Expectancy theory
HRM practice 4: Rewards
People are the largest single operating cost item of most businesses. Using rewards to
motivate employees and/or engender their active commitment or engagement.
Current trends and challenges:
Bonuses
Performance related pay
Pay differences
Effects on outcomes:
Motivation theory
Efficiency wage theory
Rewards are:
1. Direct financial rewards (pay and incentives)
2. Non-direct or delayed financial rewards (perquisites and benefits)
3. Non-financial rewards (learning and development)
4. Non-financial rewards (work environment)
HRM practice 5: Training and development
Training is the planned and systematic modification of behavior through learning events,
programs and instruction which enable individuals to achieve the levels of knowledge, skill,
and competence to carry out their work effectively. Development is the growth or realization
of a person’s ability and potential through the provision of learning and educational
experiences.
Current trends and challenges:
Talent management
Employability
Learning organization
Effects on outcomes:
Psychological contract theory
Lecture 2
HRM and context
Relevance of international HRM and comparative HRM
- Business and management has globalized
o A growing extensity, intensity and velocity of global interactions associated
with deepening impact, such that the effects of distant events can be highly
significant elsewhere
- Management should be international and outward-looking
, - Requirement to compare and learn from different nations and cultures
- MNCs need international management skills and knowledge transfer to subsidiaries
- Strategic and governmental processes are international and global
Various theoretical perspectives:
Best fit versus best practice
Universalistic, contingent, configurational, and contextual perspectives
Contextually based human resource theory
Best fit versus best practice debate
Best practice perspective:
Existence of a set of HRM practices that leads to superior organizational performance
Related to so-called High Performance Work Systems:
o Ideal combination of practices
Best fit perspective:
Importance of fit between HRM practices and internal and external context
Effect of HRM practices dependent on for example fit with organizational strategy
Perspectives on HRM
- Universalistic perspective
o Best practice model: deliver enhanced organizational performance
o Organization as ‘black box’: what ‘bundles’ of HRM practices can impact on
performance
o High Performance Work System (HPWS)
- Contingent perspective
o Add intervening variables between HRM practice/outcome, usually strategy,
organizational context, external environment, or organizational learning
capability
- Configurational perspective
o Internal dynamics of HRM system/how different elements combined
synergistically in different patterns/bundles, representing different orientations
- Contextual perspective
o Significance of context, not merely as contingent variable but as framework for
HRM decision-making
Factors affecting IHRM policies and practices
National-level factors:
Culture, institutions, and the national business system.
Home (parent) country factors:
Domestic cultural, legal, political, and economic factors and dynamic business
environment
MNCs deeply rooted in national business systems of country of origin: ‘country of
origin’ effects
Contingent factors:
Organizational age, size, structure, ownership, stage of internationalization, life cycle
stage, trade union presence and stakeholder interests
Organizational factors:
Corporate and HRM strategies
Firm-specific factors:
, Senior management’s attitudes towards internationalization/ international strategy,
structure, and corporate culture of the firm; policies relating to primary HR functions
and internal labor markets
Comparative HRM: CRANET (empirical application)
Regular international comparative survey of organizational policies and practices in
HRM across the world
Provides benchmarks for comparing Europe with developments elsewhere in the
world, allows a systematic comparative analysis of HRM trends within employing
organizations
Directional convergence
Findings for directional convergence
Convergence increases in:
Strategic potential of HR department
HR professionalization (HR talent for the future)
Individualization of employee relations
Increased information to employees
Contingent compensation systems
No convergence:
Staff ratio
Employee development
Final convergence
No final convergence of:
HR configuration
HRM practices
Conclusion:
There will be some aspects of HRM which may be applicable in any country and any
circumstances: every organization in every country has to conduct basic HRM practices such
as recruitment, payment, etc.
But at the national level HRM can be very different because of cultural and institutional
differences between countries.
Introduction
Human resource management refers to the policies, practices, and systems that influence
employees’ attitudes, behavior, performance.
Human resource management is a distinctive approach to employment management which
seeks to obtain competitive advantage through the strategic deployment of a highly
committed and skilled workforce, using an array of cultural, structural and personnel
techniques.
HRM practices are programs, processes and techniques that actually get operationalized
in the unit’
- ‘Things that happen’
- Concrete ways in which people are managed in the organization
- Certain level of facticity
Versus...
HRM practices are the actual, functioning, observable activities, as experienced by
employees’
- Actual practices and experiences
- Observable
Five core HRM practices:
1. Employee relations and collective communication
2. Recruitment and selection
3. Performance management
4. Rewards
5. Training and development
HRM practice 1: Employee relations and collective communication
Employee relations concerns matters of overarching employment or collective workforce
policy, such as bargaining (the traditional focus of industrial relations), and expression of the
collective voice of employees.
Current trends and challenges:
Changing nature of work: remote working
E-HRM
Importance of employee relations and collective communication for employee commitment
and retention e.g., exchange theory
HRM practice 2: Recruitment and selection
One of the purposes of recruitment is to determine present and future staffing needs in
conjunction with job analysis and human resource planning. Selection is a linked but
separate practice after recruitment, then involves the identification of the most suitable
person from a pool of applicants.
Current trends and challenges:
Personnel shortages
War for talent
,HRM practice 3: Performance management
The name of performance management is given to the formal conversations between line
manager and employee about priorities and their achievements. But also, that HR is
designed process designed to align the workforce with the strategy.
Current trends and challenges:
HRM analytics
Effects on outcomes:
Expectancy theory
HRM practice 4: Rewards
People are the largest single operating cost item of most businesses. Using rewards to
motivate employees and/or engender their active commitment or engagement.
Current trends and challenges:
Bonuses
Performance related pay
Pay differences
Effects on outcomes:
Motivation theory
Efficiency wage theory
Rewards are:
1. Direct financial rewards (pay and incentives)
2. Non-direct or delayed financial rewards (perquisites and benefits)
3. Non-financial rewards (learning and development)
4. Non-financial rewards (work environment)
HRM practice 5: Training and development
Training is the planned and systematic modification of behavior through learning events,
programs and instruction which enable individuals to achieve the levels of knowledge, skill,
and competence to carry out their work effectively. Development is the growth or realization
of a person’s ability and potential through the provision of learning and educational
experiences.
Current trends and challenges:
Talent management
Employability
Learning organization
Effects on outcomes:
Psychological contract theory
Lecture 2
HRM and context
Relevance of international HRM and comparative HRM
- Business and management has globalized
o A growing extensity, intensity and velocity of global interactions associated
with deepening impact, such that the effects of distant events can be highly
significant elsewhere
- Management should be international and outward-looking
, - Requirement to compare and learn from different nations and cultures
- MNCs need international management skills and knowledge transfer to subsidiaries
- Strategic and governmental processes are international and global
Various theoretical perspectives:
Best fit versus best practice
Universalistic, contingent, configurational, and contextual perspectives
Contextually based human resource theory
Best fit versus best practice debate
Best practice perspective:
Existence of a set of HRM practices that leads to superior organizational performance
Related to so-called High Performance Work Systems:
o Ideal combination of practices
Best fit perspective:
Importance of fit between HRM practices and internal and external context
Effect of HRM practices dependent on for example fit with organizational strategy
Perspectives on HRM
- Universalistic perspective
o Best practice model: deliver enhanced organizational performance
o Organization as ‘black box’: what ‘bundles’ of HRM practices can impact on
performance
o High Performance Work System (HPWS)
- Contingent perspective
o Add intervening variables between HRM practice/outcome, usually strategy,
organizational context, external environment, or organizational learning
capability
- Configurational perspective
o Internal dynamics of HRM system/how different elements combined
synergistically in different patterns/bundles, representing different orientations
- Contextual perspective
o Significance of context, not merely as contingent variable but as framework for
HRM decision-making
Factors affecting IHRM policies and practices
National-level factors:
Culture, institutions, and the national business system.
Home (parent) country factors:
Domestic cultural, legal, political, and economic factors and dynamic business
environment
MNCs deeply rooted in national business systems of country of origin: ‘country of
origin’ effects
Contingent factors:
Organizational age, size, structure, ownership, stage of internationalization, life cycle
stage, trade union presence and stakeholder interests
Organizational factors:
Corporate and HRM strategies
Firm-specific factors:
, Senior management’s attitudes towards internationalization/ international strategy,
structure, and corporate culture of the firm; policies relating to primary HR functions
and internal labor markets
Comparative HRM: CRANET (empirical application)
Regular international comparative survey of organizational policies and practices in
HRM across the world
Provides benchmarks for comparing Europe with developments elsewhere in the
world, allows a systematic comparative analysis of HRM trends within employing
organizations
Directional convergence
Findings for directional convergence
Convergence increases in:
Strategic potential of HR department
HR professionalization (HR talent for the future)
Individualization of employee relations
Increased information to employees
Contingent compensation systems
No convergence:
Staff ratio
Employee development
Final convergence
No final convergence of:
HR configuration
HRM practices
Conclusion:
There will be some aspects of HRM which may be applicable in any country and any
circumstances: every organization in every country has to conduct basic HRM practices such
as recruitment, payment, etc.
But at the national level HRM can be very different because of cultural and institutional
differences between countries.
