Human Resource Management
Chapter 1
HRM in IBA in 6 questions:
1. How can investing in people contribute to business performance?
2. How can knowledge be most effectively nurtured and developed?
3. How does the power of workers shape HRM?
4. How does the (international) institutional and regulatory context influence HRM?
5. How can international/diverse teams cooperate effectively?
6. How can organizations contribute to better quality of life for all workers?
HRM knowledge domains:
- Economy
- Sociology
- Ethics/law
- Psychology
HRM isn’t just one person or department, but diverse activities are an integral part of various positions
in the organization:
- Executives/top of the organization: HR strategy
- Line management: direct, motivate, appraise
- Employees/teams: voice, teamwork
- Consulting parties: HR expertise, administration
- HR professionals: strategy, expert knowledge
Line managers and HRM:
- HR tasks: Direct, evaluate, interviews, motivate, care, development, sick-leave administration,
work feedback, etc.
o 90% recognizes HR responsibilities
- Challenges: Experience own function to be a “+”, not enough time, experience, or support to
do HR tasks properly
,What is effective HRM? The next example is about diversity and inclusion at TiU.
For companies to increase the amount of female-employees, HRM policy is needed to intervene.
However, often companies use the easiest way to ‘fix’ the problem: quick fix solution, which is:
- Not based on assessment
- Influenced by fad and fashion
- About addressing a political problem
- Driven by the need to be seen to be doing something
- Promoted by self-interested individual
- Focused on style not content
- Not evaluated
- Not as quick as had been hoped
- Followed by another quick fix
- Becoming subject to organizational amnesia
What is the reason to do a quick fix?
- Quick
- Politically expedient (aanbevolen)
- Potentially good for promotion prospects
- Pragmatic and doable
- Supported or encouraged by consultants and quick fix product vendors
- Client may not want anything else
- Lucrative (winstgevend)
What is the reason to do a ‘slower fix’?
- More likely to work
- More cost-effective – fits with the idea of value
- Potentially more sustainable
- More opportunity for learning
- More honest and ethical – fits with corporate social responsibility
- Draws on and develops available evidence-base
Why do we need EB-HRM?
- Managers tend to rely on quick fixes rather than longer-term sustainable solutions.
- Quick fixes take place in organizations attracted to fads, fashions and management gurus.
- Quick fixes are likely to lead to ineffective and even destructive management.
Evidence-based HRM: a conscientious (secuur), explicit (treffend), and judicious (verstandig) decision
making process. It addresses important people-related issues in organizations by combining:
- External evidence: the best available research evidence.
, o Research; the best available research evidence about the issues the organization is
dealing with. The quickest route to research evidence:
▪ Systematic review
➔ Systematic reviews answer a research question based on relevant
research that has already been conducted, and for the systematic
review been analysed and collected.
▪ Meta-analysis
➔ Meta-analyses have put together relevant information from various
systematic reviews, related to our topic
▪ ‘Light’ review
- Local evidence: measurable data and professional knowledge available in organizations.
o In the organization; what the practitioner already knows from previous training,
experience and current understanding of the particular context/problem.
▪ Interviews
▪ Data from the organization
▪ Reliability: the degree to which an assessment tool produces stable and
consistent results; consistency; what does it measure?
▪ Validity: the credibility or believability of the research; does it measure what
it is supposed to measure?; how does it measure?
▪ Generalizability: results are transferable, applicable to other cases.
EB-HRM implications:
- No one best solution
- Different organizations, contexts and issues demand for different interventions
- Equifinality:
o There are multiple ways to reach the same strategic objective
o There are so many different HR practices
o Every organization can make their own selection and adjustment of practices
, Chapter 2
How can investing in people contribute to business performance?
Contemporary issues in (international) business (1):
- Competition
- Financialization
- Speed of change
- Employee performance
In an effort to cut costs and boost profitability, many companies cut a great amount of jobs →
downsizing and restructuring.
- Reorganizations are expensive as well (redundancy pay, lawyers, non-productive time).
- Layoffs frequently don’t increase stock price, productivity, profitability, innovation, quality, or
other measures of company performance (Cascio, 2002).
o Impact ranges from product quality to job attitudes (Cascio, 2002)
o Layoffs disrupt social relations in the workplace.
o Employees experience physical and mental health problems
- Employees at almost all levels feel less secure (Osterman, 2006)
o Higher levels of voluntary turnover under ‘survivors’
Downsizing is very common, since the salience of salary costs and the hidden value of the capital in
people can help account for the persistence of downsizing. Does it payoff to invest in people?
Resource-based theories: organizational resources lead to a competitive advantage (CA).
- Resource-based view (Barney): the source for competitive advantage lies in valuable tangible
or intangible resources that firms have at their disposal. Three resources for CA:
o Physical capital: money, offices/factories, machines, computers, etc.
o Organizational capital: system of routines that determine how the work is done.
▪ Structural organizational capital: the organization’s strategy, HR systems,
planning and control, etc.
▪ Social/Relational organizational capital: internal and external relations.
o Human capital: the knowledge and skills of the employees in the organization.
Why do some resources result in a unique capability?
- Relational organizational capital and human capital are ‘stored’ in the behavior and minds of
individuals. If they leave, they will take their skills, knowledge and networks with them.
o Transfer of skills, knowledge and relations is difficult
Human capital contains all the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA’s) in an organization that are
embodied in people.
- Why does human capital contribute to performance?
Chapter 1
HRM in IBA in 6 questions:
1. How can investing in people contribute to business performance?
2. How can knowledge be most effectively nurtured and developed?
3. How does the power of workers shape HRM?
4. How does the (international) institutional and regulatory context influence HRM?
5. How can international/diverse teams cooperate effectively?
6. How can organizations contribute to better quality of life for all workers?
HRM knowledge domains:
- Economy
- Sociology
- Ethics/law
- Psychology
HRM isn’t just one person or department, but diverse activities are an integral part of various positions
in the organization:
- Executives/top of the organization: HR strategy
- Line management: direct, motivate, appraise
- Employees/teams: voice, teamwork
- Consulting parties: HR expertise, administration
- HR professionals: strategy, expert knowledge
Line managers and HRM:
- HR tasks: Direct, evaluate, interviews, motivate, care, development, sick-leave administration,
work feedback, etc.
o 90% recognizes HR responsibilities
- Challenges: Experience own function to be a “+”, not enough time, experience, or support to
do HR tasks properly
,What is effective HRM? The next example is about diversity and inclusion at TiU.
For companies to increase the amount of female-employees, HRM policy is needed to intervene.
However, often companies use the easiest way to ‘fix’ the problem: quick fix solution, which is:
- Not based on assessment
- Influenced by fad and fashion
- About addressing a political problem
- Driven by the need to be seen to be doing something
- Promoted by self-interested individual
- Focused on style not content
- Not evaluated
- Not as quick as had been hoped
- Followed by another quick fix
- Becoming subject to organizational amnesia
What is the reason to do a quick fix?
- Quick
- Politically expedient (aanbevolen)
- Potentially good for promotion prospects
- Pragmatic and doable
- Supported or encouraged by consultants and quick fix product vendors
- Client may not want anything else
- Lucrative (winstgevend)
What is the reason to do a ‘slower fix’?
- More likely to work
- More cost-effective – fits with the idea of value
- Potentially more sustainable
- More opportunity for learning
- More honest and ethical – fits with corporate social responsibility
- Draws on and develops available evidence-base
Why do we need EB-HRM?
- Managers tend to rely on quick fixes rather than longer-term sustainable solutions.
- Quick fixes take place in organizations attracted to fads, fashions and management gurus.
- Quick fixes are likely to lead to ineffective and even destructive management.
Evidence-based HRM: a conscientious (secuur), explicit (treffend), and judicious (verstandig) decision
making process. It addresses important people-related issues in organizations by combining:
- External evidence: the best available research evidence.
, o Research; the best available research evidence about the issues the organization is
dealing with. The quickest route to research evidence:
▪ Systematic review
➔ Systematic reviews answer a research question based on relevant
research that has already been conducted, and for the systematic
review been analysed and collected.
▪ Meta-analysis
➔ Meta-analyses have put together relevant information from various
systematic reviews, related to our topic
▪ ‘Light’ review
- Local evidence: measurable data and professional knowledge available in organizations.
o In the organization; what the practitioner already knows from previous training,
experience and current understanding of the particular context/problem.
▪ Interviews
▪ Data from the organization
▪ Reliability: the degree to which an assessment tool produces stable and
consistent results; consistency; what does it measure?
▪ Validity: the credibility or believability of the research; does it measure what
it is supposed to measure?; how does it measure?
▪ Generalizability: results are transferable, applicable to other cases.
EB-HRM implications:
- No one best solution
- Different organizations, contexts and issues demand for different interventions
- Equifinality:
o There are multiple ways to reach the same strategic objective
o There are so many different HR practices
o Every organization can make their own selection and adjustment of practices
, Chapter 2
How can investing in people contribute to business performance?
Contemporary issues in (international) business (1):
- Competition
- Financialization
- Speed of change
- Employee performance
In an effort to cut costs and boost profitability, many companies cut a great amount of jobs →
downsizing and restructuring.
- Reorganizations are expensive as well (redundancy pay, lawyers, non-productive time).
- Layoffs frequently don’t increase stock price, productivity, profitability, innovation, quality, or
other measures of company performance (Cascio, 2002).
o Impact ranges from product quality to job attitudes (Cascio, 2002)
o Layoffs disrupt social relations in the workplace.
o Employees experience physical and mental health problems
- Employees at almost all levels feel less secure (Osterman, 2006)
o Higher levels of voluntary turnover under ‘survivors’
Downsizing is very common, since the salience of salary costs and the hidden value of the capital in
people can help account for the persistence of downsizing. Does it payoff to invest in people?
Resource-based theories: organizational resources lead to a competitive advantage (CA).
- Resource-based view (Barney): the source for competitive advantage lies in valuable tangible
or intangible resources that firms have at their disposal. Three resources for CA:
o Physical capital: money, offices/factories, machines, computers, etc.
o Organizational capital: system of routines that determine how the work is done.
▪ Structural organizational capital: the organization’s strategy, HR systems,
planning and control, etc.
▪ Social/Relational organizational capital: internal and external relations.
o Human capital: the knowledge and skills of the employees in the organization.
Why do some resources result in a unique capability?
- Relational organizational capital and human capital are ‘stored’ in the behavior and minds of
individuals. If they leave, they will take their skills, knowledge and networks with them.
o Transfer of skills, knowledge and relations is difficult
Human capital contains all the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA’s) in an organization that are
embodied in people.
- Why does human capital contribute to performance?
