CHAPTER 1
Evidence based HRM is…:
- A decision making process
- Combines local with external evidence
- Evaluates the quality of evidence critically
- Used by practitioners
- Advising the best HR practices in the context of the organization
Benefits of Evidence Based HRM:
- Better understanding of problems in the organization
- Culture of learning and curiosity
- Cumulative availability of data (evidence) to use (HR analytics)
- Reduction of organizational politics
à EB-HRM is a procedure to overcome bounded rationality and improve decisions about
people in the workplace
When is EB-HRM not useful?
- In common day-to-day management
- In crisis situations
However, cumulative EB-HRM knowledge will improve day-to-day decision making and
during crises
Culture of evidence and evaluating à improves organizational learning
Methods to evaluate evidence:
Validity:
• Causality
• Asking the right questions, research methods, research design, right theory use
Reliability
• Reproduce à same results
• How large is n
Generalizability
• Applicable to more than just one specific case
• Check if there were other factors that might have influenced the results
CHAPTER 2
Resources in 3 categories:
- Physical capital = money, buildings
- Organizational capital = system of routines that determine how the work is done
o Structural = strategies, policies, culture
o Social = internal and external relationships
- Human capital
1
,Human capital theories
Human capital = alle kennis, vaardigheden, ideeën, capaciteiten en gezondheid die
beschikbaar zijn bij de mensen die in een organisatie werken
Economic perspective (Becker):
Human capital is a resource that can lead to a comparative advantage when it is nurtured
a. Individuals: invest in education
b. Organizations: training and development
General human capital = all knowledge and skills obtained in general education or by
working in an industry
Firm-specific human capital = develops while working in and being trained by an
organization. Leads to human capital which is harder to use in other firms
Research points out that firm specific human capital leads to larger returns than general
human capital
Psychological perspective (Spearman) à Individual differences:
- People differ from each other, some are smarter, wiser, and more productive than
others by nature rather than by training. Mostly visible in employee selection
practice
- Underlying ‘g’ = explains differences in performance between people over a variety
of tasks.
o Although different categories in intelligence, all those categories are
positively related to each other
§ High speed of retrieving information à high in logical reasoning
o Scores are stable over time
o Scores correlate very highly with performance
- Intelligence, conscientiousness, and emotional stability correlates mostly with
performance, but rest of big five:
o Agreeableness
o Extraversion à managerial performance
o Openness à tasks for leaning and change
à the theories underline the importance of selecting those with outstanding capabilities
and to keep investing in training and development after hiring
Social capital theory
Social capital = the potential that is generated by the network of social relations in an
organization and that can be used to enable actions
3 dimensions of social capital:
1) Structural = ‘bridging’: number and pattern of connections that someone has.
Determines who you can connect with to reach a goal. Opportunities to meet
2) Relational = ‘bonding’: the quality of the relations within a network. Trust,
friendship, goodwill
a. Good relationship with supervisor à easier to get access to resources
2
, 3) Cognitive = the overall climate in an organization regarding the goodwill to share
information and trust each other
a. Team rewards à higher willingness to share knowledge à higher group
performance
Social exchange theory
It explains why people put effort at work
Homans:
- Relationships as exchange mechanisms
o Economic vs social:
o Employees want the most pleasure for the least effort.
o They work to get money to have more fun in their free time with that money
o People are more willing to put effort in social exchange relationship than in
economic exchange relationship.
o Economic: contract, social: open contract
o Does the relationship make me happy? à yes, then I stay
Gouldner
- The norm of reciprocity: input must equal the output. Otherwise, there is the need
to restore the balance
- Implicit expectation of fair repays
- If reward is very high, extra effort
Blau
- Organization-employee instead of between employees
- Organizations have human-like characteristics
- Norm of reciprocity applies as well
CHAPTER 3
Information = numerical data
Knowledge = putting information to action
Kennis:
1) Is een gerechtvaardigde overtuiging (justified belief)
2) Stelt mensen in staat om een probleem of taak te begrijpen, voorbereiden, vormen
en op te lossen
3) Explicit – Tacit
Explicit knowledge = well-explained, codified knowledge
- Know-what: words, laws
- Know-why: grammar, math, social exchange theory
Tacit knowledge = not well-explained, uncodified knowledge
- Know-who: networks
- Know-how: how to write a good text, information searching skills
3