Human Resource Management, Social Innovation and Technology 9781784411299, 9781784411305

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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, SOCIAL INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

ADVANCED SERIES IN MANAGEMENT

Previous Volumes: Relational Practices, Participative Organizing EDS. CHRIS STEYAERT AND BART VAN LOOY Autopoiesis in Organization Theory and Practice EDS. RODRIGO MAGALHAES AND RON SANCHEZ Organizations as Learning Systems “Living Composition” as an Enabling Infrastructure ED. MARJATTA MAULA Complex Systems and Evolutionary Perspectives on Organizations: The Application of Complexity Theory to Organizations ED. EVE MITLETON-KELLY Managing Imaginary Organizations: A New Perspective on Business EDS. BO HEDBERG, PHILIPPE BAUMARD AND A. YAKHLEF Systems Perspectives on Resources, Capabilities and Management Processes EDS. JOHN MORECROFT, RON SANCHEZ AND AIME´ HEENE Tracks and Frames: The Economy of Symbolic Forms in Organizations ED. K. SKOLDBERG Electronic HRM in Theory and Practice EDS. T. BONDAROUK, H. RUE¨L AND J.C. LOOISE Commercial Diplomacy and International Business: A Conceptual and Empirical Exploration ED. H. RUE¨L (Dis)honesty in Management: Manifestations and Consequences EDS. TIIA VISSAK AND MAAJA VADI Social Media in Strategic Management EDS. MIGUEL R. OLIVAS-LUJA´N AND TANYA BONDAROUK Social Media in Human Resources Management EDS. TANYA BONDAROUK AND MIGUEL R. OLIVAS-LUJA´N Shared Services as a New Organizational Form ED. TANYA BONDAROUK

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, SOCIAL INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

EDITED BY

TANYA BONDAROUK Faculty of Behavioral, Management and Social Sciences, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

MIGUEL R. OLIVAS-LUJA´N Clarion University of Pennsylvania, Clarion, PA, USA

United Kingdom India

North America Malaysia

China

Japan

Emerald Group Publishing Limited Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK First edition 2014 Copyright r 2014 Emerald Group Publishing Limited Reprints and permission service Contact: [email protected] No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters’ suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-78441-130-5 ISSN: 1877-6361 (Series)

ISOQAR certified Management System, awarded to Emerald for adherence to Environmental standard ISO 14001:2004. Certificate Number 1985 ISO 14001

This book is a tribute to our retiring PhD supervisor Professor Dr Jan Kees Looise. As his PhD graduates we are all part and parcel of his academic legacy. By each contributing a chapter to this book we wanted to additionally create a concrete artefact to show Jan Kees — and the wider academic community — that we are still taking his ideas forward. It goes without saying that none of us would have been where we are now without his support and guidance. His work on Labour Relations, HRM and Social Innovation has been an inspiration to us and many others. This was not about grand theoretical concepts, but rather about helping to make organisations better places for people to work in. About the quest for better jobs. It is good to be reminded of that purpose. Jan Kees recognised the importance of technology in relation to HRM early on, both as a possible threat to employee satisfaction, but especially its potential to support social change. The ongoing frantic pace of technological innovations and their impact on work and organisations means that his ideas are as poignant today as they have ever been. Jan Kees, we hope that you are proud of what you have achieved, both directly, and through us, and we fully intend to continue to grow your legacy. Thank you. Jan, Andre´ N., Victor, Diana, Huub, Tanya, Claudia, Anna, Jeroen, Andre´ V. On behalf of all authors

Contents

List of Contributors

ix

Unlocking Social Innovation with HRM and Technology Tanya Bondarouk and Miguel R. Olivas-Luja´n

xi

PART I: CONTRIBUTION OF HRM TO INNOVATION PERFORMANCE 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

The Mediating Role of Trust and Social Cohesion in the Effects of New Ways of Working: A Dutch Case Study Jan De Leede and Jorien Kraijenbrink

3

Social Innovation through Information Provision Diana Limburg

21

Principles to Guide Employees to Next Level Innovation Cycles: How Organisations Can Develop New Sustainable Business? Andre´ Nijhof and Victor Paashuis

37

Employability and Social Innovation: The Importance of and Interplay between Transformational Leadership and Personality Claudia M. Van der Heijde and Beatrice I. J. M. Van der Heijden

55

Firm-Level Creative Capital and the Role of External Labour Andre´ Veenendaal and Marina Kearney

73

PART II: INNOVATIVE HRM FUNCTION 6.

Innovating HRM Implementation: The Influence of Organisational Contingencies on the HRM Role of Line Managers Anna Bos-Nehles and Maarten Van Riemsdijk

101

viii 7.

Contents Practicing Social Innovation: Enactment of the Employee Organization Relationship by Employees Jeroen Meijerink

135

8.

Global Talent Management in MNCs in the Digital Age: Conceptualizing the GTM ICT Relationship Huub J. M. Rue¨l and Christina Lake 155

9.

HRM, Technology and Innovation: New HRM Competences for Old Business Challenges? Tanya Bondarouk, Eline Marsman and Marc Rekers

179

List of Contributors

Tanya Bondarouk

Faculty of Behavioral, Management and Social Sciences, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

Anna Bos-Nehles

Faculty of Behavioral, Management and Social Sciences, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

Jan De Leede

Faculty of Behavioral, Management and Social Sciences, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

Marina Kearney

Faculty of Behavioral, Management and Social Sciences, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

Jorien Kraijenbrink

Faculty of Behavioral, Management and Social Sciences, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

Christina Lake

Faculty of Behavioral, Management and Social Sciences, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

Diana Limburg

Faculty of Business, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK

Eline Marsman

Faculty of Behavioral, Management and Social Sciences, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

Jeroen Meijerink

Faculty of Behavioral, Management and Social Sciences, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

Andre´ Nijhof

Nyenrode Business Universiteit, Breukelen, The Netherlands

x

List of Contributors

Miguel R. Olivas-Luja´n

Clarion University of Pennsylvania, Clarion, PA, USA

Victor Paashuis

Thales Nederland, Hengelo, The Netherlands

Marc Rekers

Faculty of Behavioral, Management and Social Sciences, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

Huub J. M. Rue¨l

Business Media & Law, Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, Zwolle, The Netherlands

Claudia M. Van der Heijde

Faculty of Behavioral, Management and Social Sciences, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands; University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Beatrice I. J. M. Van der Heijden

Department Strategic HRM, Institute for Management Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Faculty of Management, Science & Technology Open Universiteit in the Netherlands, Heerlen, the Netherlands; Faculty of Behavioral, Management and Social Sciences, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

Maarten Van Riemsdijk

Department of Strategic Human Resource Management, Saxion University of Applied Sciences, Enschede, The Netherlands

Andre´ Veenendaal

Faculty of Behavioral, Management and Social Sciences, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

Unlocking Social Innovation with HRM and Technology

‘Everyone likes to say they are innovators’ claims the Thomson Reuters Global Innovators report (2013), noting that the term ‘innovation’ was used in 28,998 company press releases issues over the past year. It is difficult to disagree with the view that the word ‘innovation’ has become a sort of mystical spell that has magnetic power to attract investors, political leaders, grant top status to tech companies and even recognize academic research. While there are many ways to measure innovation and its success, it is important to realize that real innovation builds on the integration of its technical and human sides, and goes far beyond generating great ideas and/or designing a new product. We would advocate that it takes a global vision; orchestrating technological, human, financial and other resources, and enabling creativity. At the same time, observations support the idea that business model innovations are gaining momentum within the context of today’s low-growth, resource-constrained world. A strong understanding of customer needs and better access to, retention and support of both talent and technologies are critical if one is to successfully innovate and unlock growth. To contribute to the debate on innovation, this volume recognizes its roots in the scholarly tradition of Social Innovation, initiated almost two decades ago when the research field was defined as that which focuses on the intentional introduction and employment of novel ideas, activities, services and processes that aim to meet the needs of individuals, groups and organizations within society, and to advance social relationships and organization (Looise, 1996). Since then, within this scholarly tradition started by Jan Kees Looise at the Dutch University of Twente, various aspects of Social Innovation have been explored and tested. The relationships with innovations have been investigated with respect to the effects of decentralization, collectivism and individualism (De Leede & Looise, 2005; De Leede, Looise, & Van Riemsdijk, 2004; Looise & Van Riemsdijk, 2001), worker participation (Drucker, 2003; Drucker & Looise, 2004; Torka, Looise, & Zagelmeyer, 2011) and importantly works councils (Looise & Drucker, 2002, 2003; Wigboldus, 2011; Wigboldus, Looise, & Nijhof, 2008, 2009). Social innovation research has been dedicated to developing product uniqueness and superiority, for example by focusing on the role of effective coordination between companies’ functions and the overlap of development activities (Paashuis, 1997, 1998). The effectiveness of different forms of social

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Introduction

innovation has been studied in various research projects: strategic alliances (Douma, Bilderbeek, Idenburg, & Looise, 2000), semi-autonomous and virtual teams (De Leede, 1997; De Leede, Kraan, Den Hengst, & Van Hooff, 2008; Stoker, 1998; Stoker, Looise, Fisscher, & De Jong, 2001), teleworking (Limburg, 2002; Limburg & Jackson, 2007) and the implementation of information technologies (Bondarouk, 2004; Bondarouk & Looise, 2005; Rue¨l, 2001). Various aspects of innovation in the HRM function have been researched: electronic HRM (OlivasLujan, Ramirez, & Zapata-Cantu, 2007; Rue¨l, Bondarouk, & Looise, 2004; Rue¨l, Bondarouk, & Van der Velde, 2007), involvement of line managers (Bondarouk, Looise, & Lempsink, 2009; Bos-Nehles, 2010; Nehles, Van Riemsdijk, Kok, & Looise, 2006, 2013) and organizing HRM Shared Service Centres (Maatman, Bondarouk, & Looise, 2010, 2011; Meijerink, 2013; Meijerink, Bondarouk, & Looise, 2013b, 2013a). Seeing employees as active organizational actors has been the central focus in many studies, with research addressing their role in innovation processes (Nijhof, 1999; Nijhof, Krabbendam, & Looise, 2002; Nijhof, Looise, & De Leede, 2012; Land, 1999; Veenendaal, Van Velzen, & Looise, 2009, 2014), prerequisites for lifelong employability (Van der Heijde & Van der Heijden, 2006; Van der Heijde, Van der Heijden, & Looise, 2007) and antecedents and outcomes of workers’ commitment (Torka, 2003; Torka, Goedegebure, Van Ewijk, & Looise, 2012; Torka, Van Riemsdijk, & Looise, 2003). The field of Social Innovation, and likewise this volume, is fed by diverse theoretical perspectives through advancing classic and emerging theoretical concepts such as contingency theory, strategy implementation, (information) technology management, architectural and socio-psychological perspectives, structuration theory, the resource-based view of the firm (RBV), social entrepreneurship and social/ intellectual capital. This volume focuses on social innovation on the intra- and interorganizational levels and especially on the roles of Human Resource Management (HRM) and Technology. Hard evidence contributes to the growing consensus that HRM is strategically important for social innovation within organizations. As the pace of change accelerates, environmental uncertainty and complexity increase. Renewable and adaptive HRM policies that attract and retain an innovative workforce become among the most desirable. To meet globalization requirements and calls for diversity, to respond to the ‘war for talent’ and rapid technological developments and to deploy and preserve an innovative workforce, HRM is forced to deliver greater flexibility and innovation in their programmes, policies and practices. In other words, HRM should be seen as a mechanism that ensures social relationships that support an innovative workforce and increase the innovation capacity of organizations. To meet this goal, that is becoming a requirement for survival, HRM itself should be innovative by replacing inefficient and unsustainable HR practices and forms with flexible, sound and pioneering ones, crossing inter- and intra-organizational boundaries. Within the social innovation research tradition, innovation in HRM can be viewed from two ends of a continuum. At one end, the HR practices and policies should be designed to support innovative organizational members, the creation of new ideas, an innovative organizational climate and the enlargement of the

Introduction

xiii

innovation capacity of organizations. At the other end of this continuum, the HRM function itself evolves through applying new structures, new channels for delivering HR practices and involving new, non-HRM, agents in managing human resources. Chapters in this volume explore these two sides of the interdependency between HRM and social and technological innovation. Some largely focus on the contribution of HRM to innovative performance, while others focus more on the changes and restructuring of the HRM function within organizations. Reflecting this, we have divided the contributions into two parts although such a division is largely analytical, and we recognize that it is difficult to draw a strict separating line between HRM as an enabler of social innovation and enhanced organizational performance, and as an innovating company function. Further, we believe that these are mutually reinforcing. The chapters in the first part of the volume focus on the contribution of HRM to innovation performance. The research of Diana Limburg calls for organizational effort into understanding how they can use Information Technologies to provide decision-makers, and in particular employees, with better information. It demonstrates that there is a strong theoretical potential for enhancing employee participation through the provision of more and better information. It also suggests that organizations would benefit economically from this because there would be a broader knowledge base underpinning business decisions. However, in many organizations, this potential is either not recognized or, for organizational design and cultural reasons, it is considered undesirable to increase employee participation. The chapter by Andre´ Nijhof and Victor Paashuis illustrates how new sustainable businesses can be stimulated by combining principles that strengthen the purpose, autonomy and mastery of employees. In their view, managers have a large influence on the innovative potential of an organization and can obstruct or stimulate next practice innovation platforms. The study by Claudia M. Van der Heijde and Beatrice I. J. M. van der Heijden reveals that transformational leadership is positively related to employee and supervisor ratings of employability. Further, they have seen indications that transformational leadership enhances employability in some situations, demonstrating differences between categories of workers with and without managerial functions. The authors emphasize that, in terms of individual career development practices, their study outcomes should be translated into increased attention to aligning leadership styles to meet the requirements of all types of employees across their lifespan. Jan De Leede and Jorien Kraijenbrink have studied New Ways of Working (NWW) as a form of social innovation, and offer evidence that its implementation leads to better performance. At the same time, they show that the main effect is fully mediated by trust (between employees and managers and between colleagues) and by social cohesion. This finding implies that performance will increase if employees feel trusted by their supervisors and colleagues, ‘even’ if they work at home or in flexible offices. The implementation of NWW is likely to be beneficial if there are trusting relationships and attention is paid to social cohesion within a group. The chapter by Andre´ Veenendaal and Marina Kearney discusses creative capital identified on the organizational level as social innovation. The authors found

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Introduction

support for the claim that the use of labour market intermediaries in involving external labour differs between organizations with low and high levels of creative capital. Further, their research has indicated that more use is made of external labour in highly creative capital organizations when they are operating in dynamic environments. The second part of the volume includes chapters that focus on the innovative HRM function through the inclusion and embedding of HR technologies, through the devolution of HRM to line managers, through involving employees as HRM actors and through new HRM competences. Here, Tanya Bondarouk, Eline Marsman and Marc Rekers revisit a well-established Human Resource Competence study from the scholarly tradition of Dave Ulrich and his colleagues. They have confirmed the perceived relevance of the core clusters of competences (Business Focus, Strategic Focus, HR Technology, HR Delivery and Personal Credibility), but also found that nowadays firms value other HRM competences such as a Learning Focus. The study by Anna Bos-Nehles and Maarten Van Riemsdijk has demonstrated that HRM implementation effectiveness, as perceived by line managers, depends on their span of control, their education level and experience and their hierarchical position in the organization. Huub J. M. Rue¨l and Christina Lake introduce a new ‘Global Talent Management Information Technologies’ framework with four company profile types, of which the ‘innovative strategists’ profile is argued as superior to the others. Their chapter also discusses whether companies that match the innovative strategist profile perform better than others. In his chapter, Jeroen Meijerink applies a practice perspective to explain how employees affect their employee organization relationship and thus influence the outcomes of social innovation. He argues that the employee organization relationship is socially accomplished — that it emerges from what actors do — so offering an understanding of how employees can affect the outcomes of social innovation in organizations: by enacting their employment relationship, enacting employment practices, and/or enacting employment practices’ outcomes. Together, these chapters contribute to the literature on social and technological innovation, but they also signify a homage to a giant — intellectually as well as in height — who has laboured tirelessly to improve society through his scholarly innovations. As Professor Jan Kees Looise prepares to initiate the most intrinsically motivating stages of a professional career, the retirement phase, those of us who have been strongly and positively influenced by his work want to ensure that he — and the whole world — knows how much we owe his legacy. The act of reading — let alone using or quoting — chapters in this volume may be a way to thank Professor Looise for his years of service to the profession, to academia and to society at large. His innovations as a scholar — as well as his human qualities and collegial disposition — are warmly acknowledged and his influence will continue to be felt for many years to come. Table 1 summarizes the contributions, aims and scope for each of the chapters in this volume. In conclusion, this volume on Social Innovations continues the mission of the Advanced Series in Management by offering nine chapters that extend the knowledge frontiers while explicitly acknowledging the legacy of Professor Jan Kees

Table 1: Main foci and contributions of the chapters in this volume. Authors

Aim of the chapter

The chapter regards NWW as a social innovation with a special focus on the introduction of a novel way of organization and processes that meet the social needs of individuals and organizations.

Based on a cross-sectional survey (n = 549) at a Dutch insurance company, this study explains why trust and social cohesion are important in introducing NWW. It should be seen as a way to organize people based on trust and social cohesion: it is not just the introduction of NWW, it is also the introduction of trust and social cohesion that counts. Trust is found to be equally important in peer-to-peer relationships in NWW contexts. Building on key theories on the links between information and decision-making, the chapter shows that there is a strong theoretical potential for enhancing employee participation through the provision of more and better information. It also suggests that organizations would

Jan De Leede and Jorien Kraijenbrink

To understand the role of trust and social cohesion in the effects of New Ways of Working (NWW).

Diana Limburg

To explore how social innovation The chapter considers social can be achieved through innovation as enhancing providing employees with employee decision-making with information that enhances their information, and argues that participation in decisionInformation Systems should making. strive towards providing decision-makers with the IT tools to access, and make sense of, the entire pool of available data.

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Main contribution

Introduction

Scope of ‘HRM, social innovation and technology’

Aim of the chapter

Scope of ‘HRM, social innovation and technology’

Main contribution benefit economically from this because of a broader knowledge base underlying business decisions.

Andre´ Nijhof and Victor Paashuis

To explore how organizations can The chapter looks at innovation Based on both the theoretical leverage the capabilities of their as driven by employees. It overview and an illustrative case derives principles to guide employees to successfully create study, this chapter shows that employees in innovation and introduce products that combining principles that are processes by combining customers perceive as unique purpose-, autonomy- and and superior. innovation, customer value, and mastery-related can stimulate sustainability considerations. next level innovation cycles. More specifically, it shows that the main features that stimulate self-determination are also largely appropriate for stimulating next practice innovation cycles.

Claudia M. Van der Heijde and Beatrice I. J. M. van der Heijden

To draw attention to employability as an important social innovation that potentially thrives under transformational leadership, partly depending on certain personal characteristics of workers such as their

The chapter views the lifelong employability of workers as a very typical example of social innovation that can be stimulated by certain leadership competences. The authors advocate increasing awareness amongst leaders

Based on quantitative research among pairings of employees and their immediate supervisors (290) working at a large Dutch company, this study reveals that transformational leadership is positively related to employee and supervisor ratings of

Introduction

Authors

xvi

Table 1: (Continued).

managerial role and personality.

that they play a key role in increasing their workers’ employability.

The chapter considers the social innovation of devolving HRM responsibilities to line managers. The success of this social innovation is seen as

Based on qualitative and quantitative observations in four case studies, this research suggests that the effectiveness of HRM implementation as

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Anna Bos-Nehles To examine HRM and Maarten implementation by line Van Riemsdijk managers while taking organizational contingencies into consideration.

Introduction

To determine whether creative Andre´ Veenendaal and capital can be distinguished at Marina the firm level and to explore Kearney what role external labour plays in enhancing firm-level creative capital.

employability. Furthermore, transformational leadership enhances employability in some situations, with differences demonstrated between workers with and without a managerial function when including personality in the research model. The multiple case study research The study approaches social found that organizations low in innovation through a creative creative capital tend to use capital lens, seen as central in external labour, in the form of generating innovation and temporary employees, for nonachieving high levels of core functions. Whereas entrepreneurship. The use of organizations high in creative external labour is expected to capital use external employees lead to more diverse knowledge through contract and projectand skills within organizations, based formulas, and also as which stimulates innovation. consultants and specialists, for core activities in order to boost the diversity of their knowledge and skills and increase their creative capital.

Authors

Aim of the chapter

To conceptually explain the way in which employees influence social innovation in the employee organization relationship, such as job crafting, i-deals, New World of Work, talent management and high performance work practices.

Scope of ‘HRM, social innovation and technology’

Main contribution

depending on whether line managers have the desire to perform HRM responsibilities, the time capacity to fulfil these responsibilities, HR-related competences, receive support from HR professionals, and that there are clear policies and procedures covering their HRM responsibilities.

perceived by line managers depends on their span of control, education level and experience, and hierarchical position in the organization. Solutions are offered on how HR professionals could organize and design the HRM role of line managers to implement HR practices effectively. Building on a practice perspective, this chapter proposes three ways in which employees shape the EOR: through enacting the employment relationship, employment practices and their outcomes. Further, the practice perspective puts employees’ actions centre-stage and so goes beyond the managerial-centred approach that dominates the EOR literature.

The core of social innovation is viewed as the new possibilities for the active involvement of employees in shaping the employee organization relationship (EOR).

Introduction

Jeroen Meijerink

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Table 1: (Continued).

Huub J. M. Rue¨l To conceptualize the relationship The chapter focuses on The chapter offers a conceptual innovation, with the help of IT, and Christina between strategic Global Talent framework that identifies four Lake Management (GTM) and in the management of Human approaches to electronic Global Resources in a global context. It Talent Management by strategic Information addresses how the HRM Technologies (IT) in an aligned multinational corporations: effort. function should strategically GTM-skewed, e-GTM, e-GTMalign GTM and IT. novice and IT-skewed. To explore the requirements that Tanya modern companies expect in Bondarouk, Eline Marsman terms of HR professionals’ and Marc competences. Rekers

The chapter investigates whether Based on interviews with HR leaders from ten multinational HR professionals are equipped companies, the study offers a to support social innovation new set of 21 HRM and to enable its continuous competences and six HRM improvement. It also looks at the competences that are needed profiles: Business Focus, Learning Focus, Strategic for the continuous learning that Focus, HR Technology, HR would equip HR professionals Delivery and Personal to lead innovation projects in Credibility. Contingency factors organizations. are suggested that support these HRM competences: company culture, strategy, size, sector, scope and position of HR professionals. Introduction xix

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Introduction

Looise. We appreciate the continuous support and unconditional availability that the Emerald Group Publishing, through ‘our’ Managing Editor, Juliet Harrison, as well as her colleagues and associates provide. As editors for this scholarly series, we could not be prouder. Tanya Bondarouk Miguel R. Olivas-Luja´n Editors

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Rue¨l, H., Bondarouk, T., & Looise, J. C. (2004). E-HRM: Innovation or irritation. An explorative empirical study in five large companies on web-based HRM. Management Revue, 15(3), 364 380. Rue¨l, H., Bondarouk, T., & Van der Velde, M. (2007). The contribution of E-HRM to HRM effectiveness: Results from a quantitative study in a Dutch ministry. Employee Relations, 29, 280 291. Stoker, J. (1998, June 26). Leidinggeven aan zelfstandige taakgroepen. Enschede: University of Twente. Stoker, J., Looise, J. C., Fisscher, O. A. M., & De Jong, R. D. (2001). Leadership and innovation. Relations between leadership, individual characteristics and the functioning of R&D teams. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 12(7), 1141 1151. Thomson Reuters 2013 Top Global Innovators: Honoring the World Leaders in Innovation. (2013). Retrieved from http://thomsonreuters.com/press-releases/062013/2013-journalcitation-reports Torka, N. (2003, May 16). Flexibel maar toch betrokken. De samenhang tussen de contractrelatie en werknemersbetrokkenheid. Enschede: University of Twente. Torka, N., Goedegebure, Y., Van Ewijk, I., & Looise, J. C. (2012). On the motives and needs for work beyond age 65: Comparing voluntary workers versus agency workers. Zeitschrift fur Personalforschung, 26(2), 167 188. Torka, N., Looise, J. C., & Zagelmeyer, S. (2011). Atypical workers, nonunion participation within the firm, and innovation: A theoretical endeavor and theoretical outlook. Management Revue, 22(3), 221 239. Torka, N., Van Riemsdijk, M., & Looise, J. C. (2003, November 7 8). Flexible and committed? Paper presented at the 3rd International Conference of the Dutch HRM Network, Enschede, The Netherlands. Van der Heijde, C., & Van der Heijden, B. (2006). A competence-based and multidimensional operationalization and measurement of employability. Human Resource Management, 45, 449 476. Van der Heijde, C., Van der Heijden, B., & Looise, J. C. (2007, November 9 10). Age distribution and employability: Comparing self-ratings and supervisor ratings. Paper presented at the 5th International Conference of the Dutch HRM Network, Tilburg, The Netherlands. Veenendaal, A., Van Velzen, M., & Looise, J. C. (2009, October 7 8). Managing employee competences in the era of innovation. Exploring the relation between human resource management and innovation. Paper presented at the 5th workshop on Visualizing, Measuring and Managing Intangible and Intellectual Capital, Dresden, Germany. Veenendaal, A., Van Velzen, M., & Looise, J. C. (2014). Affecting innovation through HRM: The role of creative capital. European Journal of International Management. in press. Wigboldus, J. E. (2011, November 20). Bron van meerwaarde. De economische effecten van ondernemingsraden. Enschede: University of Twente. Wigboldus, J. E., Looise, J. C., & Nijhof, A. (2008). Understanding the effects of works councils on organizational performance: A theoretical model and results from initial case studies from the Netherlands. Management Revue, 19(4), 307 323. Wigboldus, J. E., Looise, J. C., & Nijhof, A. (2009, November 13 14). Works councils and organizational performance. Conditions for positive effects. Paper presented at the 6th International Conference of the Dutch HRM Network, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

PART I CONTRIBUTION OF HRM TO INNOVATION PERFORMANCE

Chapter 1

The Mediating Role of Trust and Social Cohesion in the Effects of New Ways of Working: A Dutch Case Study Jan De Leede and Jorien Kraijenbrink

Abstract Purpose — The aim of the chapter is to understand the role of trust and social cohesion in the effects of New Ways of Working. Design — The study consists of a cross-sectional survey (N = 549) at a Dutch insurance company with four locations. NWW was introduced in one of the locations 15 years ago, the other locations only recently. We present and test a model in which trust and social cohesion are mediators between NWW and performance. Findings — The implementation of NWW leads to better performance (Beta 0.16, p < 0.001). However, the main effect is explained completely by the mediating role of trust (between employees-managers and between colleagues) and social cohesion. The number of days working at home has no significant relationship to performance. Research implications — The theory and findings of this chapter call for further elaboration in research: more contextualization of these data is needed and more comprehensive theoretical models, such as the role of personality, task and function. Practical implications — If employees feel to be trusted by their supervisors and colleagues, the performance will increase, ‘even’ if they work at home or in flexible offices. The implementation of NWW will therefore only be beneficial if there are trustful relations and attention is paid to social cohesion of the group.

Human Resource Management, Social Innovation and Technology Advanced Series in Management, Volume 14, 3 20 Copyright r 2014 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved ISSN: 1877-6361/doi:10.1108/S1877-636120140000014006

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Originality — The study is among the first to prove the relationship between NWW and performance and more importantly, it is one of the first in explaining that relationship by pointing on the mediating role of trust and social cohesion. Keywords: New ways of working; performance; trust; social cohesion

Introduction Among the most important HR developments in organizations nowadays is the trend of virtualization. At least two meanings of virtualization become more and more apparent: the virtualization of HRM (also called electronic-HRM, see e.g. Bondarouk, Ruel, & Looise, 2011) and the virtualization of work (also called New Ways of Working, see e.g. more flexible ways of working). This chapter addresses the last meaning: the virtualization of work. A key element of this concept is that employees can choose when to work, where to work and how to work. The first element refers to autonomy in time issues (schedule flexibility), while the second element is about place autonomy (telework, telecommuting, working at home, remote work, mobile work). The third element is about media autonomy (communication by smart phones, e-mail, video conferencing, etc.). The developments in work design, labour relations, physical workspaces and ICT are brought together within the broad and ill-defined concept of ‘New Ways of Working’ (NWW), also known as ‘The New World of Work’. Despite of the lack of consensus about this concept, it is a broadly discussed subject in (Dutch) facility management, HRM and management professional journals (Blok, Groenesteijn, Schelvis, & Vink, 2012; Brummelhuis, Bakker, Hetland, & Keulemans, 2012; Hartmans & Kamperman, 2009). The concept of NWW is often split into three dimensions: the mental, physical and virtual dimension (Baane, Houtkamp, & Knotter, 2010; Veldhoen, 2005). The physical dimension is about the workspace in offices or at home and the virtual dimension is about facilitating employees with ICT for working at home or collaborate with colleagues in virtual teams. The mental dimension is about behaviour and leadership in this new context and is seen as a critical success factor for implementing the NWW in organizations. The evidence is increasing that NWW will benefit the organization, at least there is potential for decreasing some costs like offices, travel time and travel expenses (Sanchez, Pe´rez, De Luis Carnicer, & Vela Jime´nez, 2007). Although many advocates of NWW claim a substantial increase of productivity, the evidence is still only anecdotic and not well investigated (see e.g. Blok, Groenesteijn, Van den Berg, & Vink, 2011). However, it is not only the economic effects that make NWW an interesting development, it is also the attributed effects in behaviour, like more commitment and engagement, higher trust relations, better social cohesion and so on. The effects of NWW on employee attitudes might serve as a pillar of the economic and organizational benefits. We might view NWW as a social innovation, as defined by Looise (1996): Social Innovation focuses on the intentional introduction and employment of novel ideas,

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activities, services, and processes that aim to meet social needs of individuals, groups, and organizations within society; and to advance social relationships and social organization. NWW seen as an innovation is especially focused on the introduction of a novel way of organization and processes that meets the social needs of individuals as well as organizations. However, so far it is not clear how NWW influences employee attitudes. The impact of NWW is not straightforward, in the sense that it has only one linear result. The concept itself is multidimensional and therefore also its impact. Does NWW, by increasing the autonomy, have a positive impact on employee engagement? Or does it have a negative effect, through the absence of social cohesion and the pressure of 24/7 hours of work? Technology makes it possible to work anytime and anyplace, so no knowledge worker can any longer avoid work simply by going home. Combined with the productivity targets, this might be a stressful aspect of modern working life (Brummelhuis et al., 2012; Johns & Gratton, 2013). In this chapter we present a case study into the relationship of the mental dimension as a moderator of the success of NWW. We found that trust and social cohesion, as components of the mental dimension, positively affect the relationship between NWW and its benefits, even more, trust and social cohesion are mediating this relationship.

Theories on New Ways of Working This chapter wants to define New Ways of Working in a way that enables us to include the results of previous research on certain aspects of the virtualization of work. Apparently, the concept of NWW is stemming from practice and has been coined in the professional literature. The scientific literature on New Ways of Working is not well elaborated (see Blok et al., 2011; Brummelhuis et al., 2012). Therefore, we have to disentangle the concept of NWW into concepts that have been researched in order to conclude anything about the nature, the conditions and the outcomes of NWW. Only then it is possible to counter or to support the claims of NWW advocates. Pioneers of Virtual Work If we follow some non-academic authors who have been pioneering with the concept of NWW in The Netherlands we can conclude that they point on some important trends in today’s world of work. However, their analytical power in dealing with the different concepts is a bit lacking. What they normally propose is to cluster some practices and label these trends into one concept: New Ways of Working. Bijl (2007), Veldhoen (2005), van den Haterd (2010) do not define NWW in an exclusive and clear way. They all point to important developments. Especially Veldhoen (2005) can be viewed as one of the pioneering authors on NWW. Here, we want to elaborate on his work.

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Veldhoen describes trends like open offices, individualization and new information technologies that enable a lot of choices in where and when to work. In his view, all these new possibilities imply a new function of the office. The nature of the office is changing from a space to work into a space to meet. Work is done at home, on the road or at the customer. The office is the place to meet each other, or to have meetings and brainstorms. Veldhoen (2005) defines the concept of workstyle as the system that regulates how people deal with one another and resources. A workstyle is the configuration of three coherent environments or dimensions: (1) the virtual environment (information technology supporting the using and sharing information and knowledge); (2) the physical environment (the building and interior design of the office) and (3) the behavioural environment or mental dimension (attitudes and behaviour that come along with collaboration, both from managers and employees). An activity-based workstyle means putting the activity at the centre and choosing the right environment in which this activity can be performed at best. This might be one of the cornerstones of NWW: providing people the freedom to choose when and there they perform their tasks and activities and therefore optimizing the time, place and tools to perform the work. In activity-based workstyle offices approximately 35% of the workers change workspace during the course of the day, 45% change every other day, 18% change 2 3 times a week and 2% use the same workspace almost always (Hartmans & Kamperman, 2009). Of course, these new images of work only apply for information workers. People must have the possibility to choose the appropriate environment to work. It is simply not possible for industrial workers or for people in the health care, education or restaurant sector to do their work not at the plant or the office or the school or the restaurant. Even the times to work are to a certain extent a given for them. However, in many service industries these new images of work might apply. One of the driving forces is technology. It is IT that enables mobile work. IT research bureaus like Forrester and IDC expect that the number of mobile workers in the world will reach 1.3 billion by 2015 and that the number of mobile broadband users will exceed those of PC broadband users by 2016. The images of the new ways of work by Veldhoen and others stem from the late 1990s. Nowadays they are to a large extent real-life in ordinary offices. The books of Veldhoen (2005) are similar to the description of today’s knowledge workers in the HBR article of Johns and Gratton (2013). They describe three waves of virtual work. The first one is that of the virtual freelancers. With the nascent of the internet and e-mail communities came the freelancers. The new connectivity allowed people to work as self-employed individuals. All kinds of services grew along with the development of new technologies enabling virtual freelance work. The second wave is that of the virtual corporate colleagues. In line with the rise of globalizing business, companies were asking their employees to work on unusual hours and with international colleagues and customers. So, virtual teamwork increased as an answer to these challenges. Especially large internationally operating firms employ lots of people who work remotely. For example, IBM has 45% of its 400,000 contractors and employees work remote. They belong to the firm, but still work at a distance.

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The third wave of virtual work is that of the virtual co-workers. Although working for large corporations, the remote workers are operating in some isolation. Therefore, the rise of the third workplace can be explained. Third workspaces are open workspaces, grand cafe´’s, creative hubs, satellite offices and — that’s probably the most important thing — they offer co-workers. The point of the analysis of Johns and Gratton (2013) is that the function of physical workspace nowadays has changed. Previously, offices were designed to store expensive equipment and to support efficient processes. Every employee needed to be present at the office. The unintended side-benefits of co-location were cultural alignment, idea generation and fellowship. Now, the private offices are replaced by open, flexible and transparent workspaces. Open means also open for other people. The outcome is — or at least intend to be — a collaborative space, a creative hub where innovation spins off from happy accidents of different cultures. This is exactly the point of the pioneers of virtualization: the office is not the place to work but to meet. Definition of NWW However, despite all these inspiring stories of NWW, what is the theory behind? What do we know of the effects, both for companies and individuals? Is NWW effective for all kinds of knowledge workers, or only for the happy few, working for companies like Google, Apple and Microsoft? And, what are the conditions for getting the benefits of NWW? We cannot answer all questions in this chapter, however, in order to go any step further at least we have to define the concept of NWW. We agree with Blok et al. (2011) that so far, no defining framework for NWW is available. The concept of NWW is simply too broad: it covers the fields of IT that supports the knowledge workers, offices that accommodate meeting in a productive way including mobile workspaces and also the field of human resource practices. Following Baane et al. (2010), Veldhoen (2005), Blok et al. (2011) and Brummelhuis et al. (2012) we define NWW briefly as work designs providing employees control to work across time, space and organization, while being supported by electronic communication technologies. In a more elaborated way, we may describe NWW as ‘an innovative configuration of work, technology and people whereby the employee is able to work independent of time, place and organization. It is supported by a flexible work environment which is facilitated by the latest technology and ICT. In addition, it provides more responsibility and autonomy to employees, and management will change into managing by output and trust. This new way of working will result in a higher efficiency and effectiveness to the organization and the employees’. We agree with Veldhoen (2005) that NWW covers at least three environments: the physical, the virtual and the mental environment. By analysing the concept of NWW in this way, it is possible to disentangle the concepts in several sub-concepts. While the concept of NWW lacks a base in the academic literature, each of these sub-concepts can be discussed in the literature. One of central characteristics of NWW is flexibility. Employees are given flexibility in choosing the appropriate work environment: flexibility in time, place and

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organization. Academic literature on flexibility is abundant. A second characteristic is working at home, which can be traced back in the literature around telework, telecommuting and home-based work. The third characteristic of NWW is working together at a distance. In the literature on virtual teams we can learn a lot on working at a distance. NWW Characteristic 1: Flexibility Flexibility in when and where to work is one aspect of the broad literature on flexibility. Here we focus on the level of the employee. In NWW, the employee has the possibility to choose the right work environment. We know from previous studies how flexible work arrangements will enhance one’s control over time (Kelliher & Anderson, 2008; Nijp, Beckers, Geurts, Tucker, & Kompier, 2012). In turn, work time control is associated with positive outcomes like work non-work balance and job-related outcomes. For instance, Haddock, Zimmerman, Lyness, and Ziemba (2006) report that employees who may decide themselves when their working day started and ended were better able to keep pace at work and to finish additional work. The relation with health and well-being is also theoretically sound, however not empirically found so far (Nijp et al., 2012). Though much literature is focused on the control of employees over work schedules, we may assume that the same associations exist for our NWW characteristic. For in NWW the employees get autonomy over their working times, not especially control over a new work schedule, but similarly, control over when to perform their tasks, such as doing the work during mornings, afternoons or evenings, during weekdays or in the weekends. The only condition is that the work should be finished at the right time. NWW Characteristic 2: Working at Home Working at home is one of the characteristics of NWW. In fact, we mean a broader concept, because the issue is that work is not performed at the office, but at a third location. Since most of the literature on working at non-standard places is devoted to telework and telecommuting, here we also focus on some of the results of these studies. One of the most obvious outcomes of teleworking is that it is more productive because of saving commuting time and less interruption (Baruch, 2000). The saved travel time can be used for work, or for spending time with family. That is the second outcome in many teleworking studies: it will enhance the work non-work balance, because one can spend more time or better times for family duties. The basic argument is that if employees have the possibility to manage their own work, they can adapt work to their personal needs (Baltes, Briggs, Huff, Wright, & Neuman, 1999; Kurland & Bailey, 2002). However, not only positive outcomes are reported. Employees who work at home, may experience isolation, or at least the feeling that they are not in direct contact with managers, which might be harmful for their careers. In addition, working at home means also a blurring of work and home. Especially since working at home is supported by technology, the outcome is

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that work never stops. This ‘always-on’ characteristic of working at home is inherent with NWW. Even in the older literature around telework, many authors were warning for this aspect. For example, Baruch (2000) already showed that home-working employees need to have self-discipline with inner motivation both to work and to stop. Previous research also showed that the benefits of teleworking may have the form of an inverted U-shape. The association with positive outcomes is positive to a certain extent, then it will reach an optimum and finally becomes a bit negative when employees work more than 15.1 hours per week at home (Golden & Veiga, 2005).

NWW Characteristic 3: Working Together at a Distance The third characteristic of NWW is working together at a distance, also called virtual teamwork or distributed work (MacDuffie, 2007). In the academic literature on virtual teams much has been written on the nature of virtual teams, its antecedents and outcomes. Here we refer to studies reporting on the effects of using virtual teams on human cooperation, team processes and organizational issues. Some good reviews are available of the existing academic literature on virtual teams (Hertel, Geister, & Konradt, 2005; MacDuffie, 2007; Martins, Gilson, & Maynard, 2004). A widely used definition — similar to our conception of New Ways of Working — is from Lipnack and Stamps (1997, p. 7): ‘a virtual team works across space, time, and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by webs of communication technologies’. Two aspects are characteristic for the virtual setting: (a) distributed working, in other words cooperation between geographical dispersed locations, and (b) technologymediated communication, since face-to-face communication is not possible. However, the team aspect also is vital. Therefore, the classic elements of teamwork are also important in virtual teams, such as task interdependence and shared goals. Furthermore, it is striking that more recent definitions emphasize the degree of virtuality, because empirical studies show that it is very difficult to assess the boundary between the ‘real traditional team’ and the virtual team (Kirkman, Rosen, Tesluk, & Gibson, 2004). We may summarize these elements in the definition (cf. de Leede, Kraan, den Hengst, & van Hooff, 2008): ‘A virtual team is a group of people who cooperate to attain a common goal; the cooperation is supported by ICT to enable them to a certain degree to communicate and coordinate across time, place and/or organizational boundaries’. Many studies try to unravel the conditions for effectiveness of virtual teams. They may be categorized in technical conditions (like the IT supported tools that must be helpful in collaboration across time/space barriers), organizational conditions (like managing on output instead of managing on presence, and role unambiguity), teamwork conditions (like team awareness, social cohesion) and individual conditions (like self-discipline, technical and cultural competences). Our brief review on the literature on flexibility, working at home and virtual teamwork revealed several conditions for effectiveness. We may assume that these conditions also are applicable for NWW. Our study will focus on some of these conditions, namely those in the mental dimension: trust, social cohesion and result-oriented leadership.

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NWW Condition 1: Trust In many accounts of NWW, trust is viewed as a central precondition for success (Baane et al., 2010; Bijl, 2007). The typical reasoning is as follows. In NWW, management does not longer have the possibility for direct supervision, it must be replaced by output-oriented leadership (see NWW Condition 3). Managers do not see their employees every day, so they have to make engagements on the outputs and leave the workers with the control on how and when and where they will perform. Here the trust comes in. Managers have to trust their workers that they will perform these activities and meet the agreed schedules. They cannot control them by direct supervision anymore. With high levels of trust, agreements are negotiated more easily and quickly. However, not only trust between management and employees is important, but also trust between the co-workers. For these co-workers must also rely on their colleagues to perform the tasks and to be sure that no co-worker will do only the nice part of the job at home, leaving the bad part to their colleagues at the office. NWW Condition 2: Social Cohesion NWW can lead to professional isolation, which may lead to low levels of knowledge sharing and unproductivity. To avoid these situations of isolation, many authors point to the condition of social cohesion. One must stay aware to be part of the team. This team awareness (Andriessen, 2003) is important to avoid patterns of social loafing or free-rider behaviour. Social cohesion is a prerequisite for teamwork quality, as Hoegl and Gemuenden (2001) state: ‘if team members lack a sense of togetherness and belonging, if there is little desire to keep the team going, then intensive collaboration seems unlikely’. NWW Condition 3: Result-Oriented Leadership According to Baane et al. (2010) managing by output is one of the constituting elements of NWW. The change towards NWW is probably the biggest challenge for managers. They have to change from direct supervision to monitoring the output. That implies discussing targets with employees, negotiating these targets and measuring them. The main research question of our study is: ‘what effects do trust, social cohesion and result-oriented leadership have in the relationship between the New Ways of Working and the benefits?’

Method The empirical research is done by a case study of within one of the 11 divisions of one of the largest insurance companies in The Netherlands. This division consists of five locations with a total of 1129 employees. For this research we excluded one

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location, due to its size: this location only has 12 employees, which makes a good comparison with the other larger locations difficult. The other four locations of this division were included in the study. The company has been one of the forerunners in adapting their offices to the New Ways of Working. Especially one of the offices (location D) was in the 1990s a famous example of an innovative office concept. Over the years, the company introduced the concept of NWW into the other locations as well. In 2010 2012 an HR-programme was introduced to accompany the concept of NWW. NWW is not only a matter of investing in ICT and new modern offices, it is also a matter of investing in new labour relations, allowing people to work at home and to enlarge the trust among the co-workers and among the managers. Part of the programme was a survey to measure the existing levels of trust. The survey was set up by the authors. A questionnaire with a sample size of 1117 employees from four different locations was distributed. The overall response rate was 49.16%, with 549 usable questionnaires. The response rate per location is: location A is 60.51%, location B 32.60%, location C 43.98% and location D is 46.76%.

Measurements New Ways of Working. Originally, we intended to measure the construct of NWW by three variables: flexibility, working at home (‘how many days do you work at home’) and working together at a distance (‘in how many virtual teams do you participate’). However the reliability of the scale was not good enough (Cronbach’s alpha 0.54). Therefore we chose to use only the flexibility variable. Flexibility is measured in this study based on the operationalization of Hyland (2000). The three items (Cronbach’s alpha 0.82) are: ‘I have the freedom to vary my work schedule’, ‘I have the freedom to work wherever is best for me — either at home or at work’ and ‘In total, as an employee I experience much flexibility’. Social Cohesion. The variable is operationalized based on the work of Hoegl and Gemuenden (2001, p. 447). The scale consists of six items (Cronbach’s alpha 0.79), like: ‘There were many personal conflicts in our team’. ‘The members of our team felt proud to be part of the team’. ‘Every team member felt responsible for maintaining and protecting the team’. ‘Our team was sticking together’. ‘There was personal attraction between the members of our team’. ‘All members were fully integrated in our team’. Trust. The variable trust can be divided into two different ways: trust between employees and their manager and trust between colleagues. The questions are based on the work of Cook and Wall (1980). Their dataset is one of the first which measures interpersonal trust and is still one of the most used (Matzler & Renzl, 2006). It shows good psychometric properties and has been extensively tested, it measures both trust in colleagues and trust in supervisors and is therefore applicable for this research.

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Trust between Employee-Manager. Eight items (Cronbach’s alpha 0.79) are used to measure trust between employee-manager: ‘I trust my supervisor’, ‘my supervisor does trust me’, ‘Confidential matters are dealt sensitively by my supervisor’, ‘I give my supervisor feedback, if needed’, ‘my supervisor trusts me when I work at home’, ‘management is truly in defending the employees stakes’, ‘management can be trusted to make adequate decisions for the future of the company’, ‘management at work seems to do an efficient job’. Trust between Colleagues. This variable is measured by 10 items (Cronbach’s alpha 0.90): ‘my colleagues will help me if I encounter work-related problems’, ‘I can trust my colleagues in doing what they say’, ‘I can trust my colleagues to help me when I need it’, ‘I am confident about the skills of my colleagues’, ‘most of my colleagues are working, in absence of supervisors’, ‘I trust my colleagues in delivering good work’, ‘I have confidence in my colleagues’, ‘Confidential matters are dealt sensitively by my colleagues’, ‘I give my colleagues feedback, if needed’, ‘my colleagues trust me when I work at home’. Result-Oriented Leadership. This is operationalized with four items, like ‘my supervisor is managing me by the results of my work’, ‘my supervisor and I have daily discussions about the results of my work’, ‘I make regular appointments with my supervisor about my results’, ‘My supervisor is satisfied if my work is finished in time’ (Martins et al., 2004). Because of the low reliability of this scale (Cronbach’s alpha 0.369), we had to exclude it from the analysis. Performance. The dependent variable in this study is performance. This variable is measured by self-assessed productivity, based on Staples, Hulland, and Higgins (1999) and Ramı´ rez and Nembhard (2004). An important indicator of performance is productivity and the extent to which an employee sees their own performance is measured. Six items (Cronbach’s alpha 0.77) are used to measure performance, a few examples: ‘My working results generally meet all relevant requirements’. ‘Among my work group, I would rate my performance in the top quarter’ (Staples et al.,1999). Control Variables. Finally, some control variables are added in order to explain the variation in the statistical analysis. The used control variables in this study is the location (with four options), age, gender and function. Analysis The quantitative analysis consists of frequencies, correlations, regression tests and the ANOVA. Before these statistical tests were performed, the data were tested on the normal distribution. The independent, dependent and mediating variables are normal distributed, no deviations is detected. The data are analysed with SPSS version 21.

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Results Descriptives and Correlation Analysis Table 1 presents the results of the descriptives and the correlation analysis. We used a Pearson correlation analysis to determine the strength and the direction of the relationship between the variables. The correlation table only shows positive and significant values (except for the control variables). Table 2 presents the means of the central concepts per location. At the company, it is quite normal to work at home, as can be learned from the mean (3.23 on a Likert 5-point scale); especially in location D it is normal to work at least 1 2 days per week at home. The number of virtual teams in which respondents participate is also different over the four locations, being location B with the highest number. The other variables, such as social cohesion, trust and performance do only slightly differ between locations. Regression Analysis Figure 1 presents the results of the regression analysis for testing the mediating role of trust. The direct effect of flexibility on performance is significant (p < 0.001) and relevant (Beta 0.16). Therefore the first condition of Baron and Kenny’s (1986) required for mediation is met: the independent and dependent variables are significantly related. Furthermore, as Figure 1 shows, the direct effect is fully explained by the mediating variables trust in colleagues and trust in leaders. In the model with the mediating variables, no significant Beta was found between flexibility and performance. We also tested the direct effect of the number of days working at home with performance. We found no significant effect. In addition, we performed a curve fit estimation, comparing a linear and a quadratic equation between number of days working at home and performance. However, we found no significant results. Regression Analysis per Location One of the control variables in this study is location. This control variable is added due to the fact that the company has four different locations all over the country, with different levels of implementation of NWW. The analysis showed that the p-value of the variables social cohesion and trust between colleagues was not significant. The means of the population over the locations were more or less the same. However, the p-value of the variable trust between employee-manager is p < 0.05, which is significant. Further analysis is needed to explain the difference of the means. The Bonferroni test is conducted, and shows a significant difference in the level of trust between employees and their supervisors on locations D and C. The employees of location D do have significantly more trust in their supervisors and managers than the employees of location C (Table 3).

14

Mean 1. Gender 2. Age 3. Location 4. Flexibility 5. Social cohesion 6. Trust_colleagues 7. Trust_leaders 8. Performance a

c

1.42 2.71d 3.63e 3.85 3.59 4.05 3.75 3.91

s.d.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

0.50 0.89 0.97 0.75 0.58 0.48 0.43 0.38

−0.142** 0.044 −0.101* −0.041 −0.028 0.010 0.036

−0.128** 0.033 0.090* 0.100* 0.068 −0.042

0.081 0.049 0.035 0.080 0.052

(0.82) 0.229** 0.284** 0.352** 0.160**

(0.79) 0.651** 0.490** 0.209**

(0.79) 0.573** 0.301**

(0.90) 0.313**

(0.77)

Correlations based on Pearson correlation analysis. Numbers in parentheses (in bold) are the Cronbach’s alphas. c Min is 1 (male) and Max is 2 (female). d 1 = 50 years. e 1 = loc A; 2 = loc B; 3 = loc C; 4 = loc D; 5 = loc E (location A is excluded, because of N = 5). Note: *p21

Unit: Years. Unit: Number of subordinates.

b

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well educated, and those from O2 the highest educated. The line management experience of the sample naturally varied, but the majority of the line managers had been performing this function for more than ten years. The line managers in the sample were responsible for varying numbers of people: those in O4 had the highest span of control and line managers in O3 have the lowest.

Measures As no scales previously existed to measure the HRM implementation by line managers, we developed a research instrument to investigate the capacity, desire, competences, support and policies & procedures as perceived by line managers. In order to develop items that were likely to produce a good content validity, we based them on pre-tested scales found in the psychological and marketing literature that are regarded as reliable. These items were carefully converted into terms that seemed appropriate for the HRM domain of line managers, and the reliability and validity of these items were then re-tested for this specific research domain. For those constructs for which we could not find pre-tested ones, we developed items from scratch. A pilot study among 30 line managers in four different organisations was used to gain an initial understanding of the hindrances line managers perceive in their HRM role and to develop the required new items. The five factors were each measured on a five-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (‘disagree’) to 5 (‘agree’). Table 2 presents the five concepts, the scales used to measure them and Table 2: Concepts, scales, items and Cronbach’s alpha of the variables. Concept Capacity Desire

Scales

Role overload (Reilly, 1982) Situational motivation scale (Guay, Vallerand, & Blanchard, 2000) Value added (developed on basis of pilot case study) Competences Occupational self-efficacy (Schyns & Van Collani, 2002) Training (developed on basis of pilot case study) Support HRM support services (SERVQUAL, Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1988) HR support behaviour (SERVQUAL, Parasuraman et al., 1988) Policy & Role conflict (Rizzo, House, & Lirtzman, 1970) procedures Role ambiguity (Rizzo et al., 1970) User friendliness of HR forms (developed on basis of pilot case study)

Items Cronbach’s Alpha 5 9

0.88 0.79

4

0.77

5

0.80

2 3

0.80 0.76

4

0.80

5 4 3

0.80 0.65 0.88

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the resulting Cronbach’s alpha (the items of these scales can be found in the appendix). The reliability and validity of the newly developed items are good. The confirmatory factor analysis revealed a model with a good fit. A factor analysis was carried out for each of the five concepts separately. The goodness of fit and RMSEA measures respectively for each concept are as follows: 0.94 and 0.069 for desire; 0.99 and 0.042 for capacity; 0.98 and 0.056 for competences; 0.99 and 0.043 for support; and 0.94 and 0.073 for policy & procedures (the items of these scales can be found in the appendix). Analysis The quantitative results were analysed first. We looked for significant differences between the four case studies, using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) or an independent sample t-test. Afterwards, a post-hoc multivariate analysis was performed using the Bonferroni test to look at individual univariate ANOVA’s for each dependent variables. The quantitative data allowed us to determine significant differences between the constraints line managers with various educational levels, years of experience, spans of control and hierarchical positions perceive in the various organisations with their distinct organisational characteristics. These quantitative results are later supported by qualitative data, in particular quotes from line managers in the four case studies. The differences in the intensity of the perceived HRM constraints in the four organisations became apparent from the qualitative data; that is, the knowledge the researchers gained during the presentations and the quotes from the line managers regarding their HRM role. In this way, the qualitative data helped in formulating appropriate conclusions about how line managers implement HRM policies and practices. Each of the five factors was regarded individually.

Results Comparing the four case studies in terms of each of the five HRM implementation factors, Table 3 shows the multivariate analysis of variance of the five factors between organisations. HRM implementation by line managers differed significantly between the four organisations investigated. In particular, the means of the capacity and support factors varied significantly among the organisations. The significantly lower mean scores for capacity in O2 and O4 imply that line managers in these organisations perceive they have less time for their HRM responsibilities than line managers in O1 and O3. Line managers in O3 however perceive that they are significantly less well supported by HR professionals than the line managers in the other three organisations, as can be seen by the lower mean score for this factor in O3. The results

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Table 3: Multivariate analysis of variance for constraints between organisations. Constructs Sample

O1 (n = 66)

O2 (n = 108)

O3 (n = 108)

O4 (n = 88)

F-Value

3.53 3.90 3.45 3.65 3.46 3.93 3.29

3.77 2.81 3.88 3.17 3.58 3.98 3.61

3.79 3.20 3.54 2.95 3.35 3.72 3.16

3.42 2.54 3.91 3.57 3.41 3.37 3.59

8.81*** 28.46*** 9.36*** 17.61*** 2.46* 10.90*** 9.51***

Desire Capacity Competences Support Policy & procedures Role conflict (R) Role ambiguity (R) *p ≥ 0.05; **p ≥ 0.01; ***p ≥ 0.001.

Table 4: Independent sample t-test between line hierarchy levels. Constructs Sample Desire Capacity Competences Support Policy & procedures

Lower LM (n = 195)

Higher LM (n = 173)

t-Value

3.54 2.92 3.76 3.32 3.41

3.77 3.19 3.64 3.25 3.49

3.57** * 2.46** −1.54 −0.96 1.14

*p ≥ 0.05; **p ≥ 0.01; ***p ≥ 0.001.

of a post-hoc analysis for each of the constraints are presented in the appendix. They highlight that line managers in O1 and O4 are significantly differently hindered by these constraints than line managers in O2 and O3. Tables 4 7 present multivariate analyses of variance of the HRM implementation constraints between the management roles hierarchical category, education level, experience in a line management function and the organisational contingency span of control. From this, we conclude that one’s level in the organisational line management hierarchy affects line managers’ perceptions about their own desire and capacity. The means of the two groups (high and low hierarchical positions) differ significantly from each other, as shown by the t-value in Table 4. Higher level line managers seem to have more desire and more capacity to carry out their HRM responsibilities. The relatively high F-value for desire in Table 5 indicates that there are significant differences between the desires of line managers having secondary, vocational and tertiary education to carry out their HRM responsibilities. The highest educated line managers seemed to be the most motivated in the investigated organisations. The results of a post-hoc analysis for the difference between education levels is presented in the appendix. We can see from this that line managers with a

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Table 5: Multivariate analysis of variance between education levels. Constructs Sample Desire Capacity Competences Support Policy & procedures Role conflict (R) Role ambiguity (R)

Secondary (n = 51)

Vocational (n = 125)

Tertiary (n = 193)

F-Value

3.42 2.63 3.84 3.63 3.45 3.46 3.56

3.48 3.13 3.60 3.31 3.36 3.69 3.22

3.82 3.10 3.75 3.18 3.51 3.86 3.50

16.89* ** 4.79* ** 2.55* 6.78* ** 2.04 5.20* ** 6.43* **

*p ≥ 0.05; **p ≥ 0.01; ***p ≥ 0.001.

Table 6: Multivariate analysis of variance between experiences levels. Constructs Sample Desire Capacity Competences Support Policy & procedures Role ambiguity (R)

0 2 (n = 32)

2 10 (n = 149)

>10 (n = 188)

F-Value

3.76 2.65 3.44 3.34 3.29 3.12

3.60 2.90 3.62 3.31 3.36 3.34

3.66 3.23 3.83 3.26 3.55 3.53

1.09 6.98** * 5.83** 0.22 4.83** 5.74**

*p ≥ 0.05; **p ≥ 0.01; ***p ≥ 0.001.

secondary education are significantly less motivated and perceive significantly less time capacity than line managers with a vocational or tertiary education. Table 6 presents the HRM implementation factors of line managers with various levels of experience, showing that experience influences HRM implementation in terms of capacity, competences and policy & procedures. Line managers with more experience in their function seem to perceive a greater capacity plus more competences and supportive policies & procedures in their HR role. In the appendix the results of a post-hoc analysis showing the differences in experience levels is offered. The results of this analysis show that line managers with more than 10 years experience as a line manager have significantly more capacity, competences and significantly less role ambiguity than line managers with less experience. The span of control of a line manager (Table 7) significantly affects the effective implementation of HRM policies and procedures. The line managers’ capacity for their HRM responsibilities is most strongly affected by the span of control. The MANOVA shows that capacity is significantly lower for line managers supervising relatively large numbers of people than for those with few supervisees. A post-hoc analysis was accomplished to show whether the differences between spans of control

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Table 7: Multivariate analysis of variance between spans of control. Constructs Sample Desire Capacity Competences Support Policy & procedures Role conflict (R) Role ambiguity (R)

0 10 (n = 152)

11 20 (n = 77)

>21 (n = 136)

F-Value

3.69 3.35 3.51 3.17 3.41 3.84 3.22

3.75 2.94 3.76 3.20 3.51 3.84 3.52

3.54 2.77 3.90 3.47 3.46 3.57 3.59

3.57* * 12.06* ** 10.78* ** 5.80* ** 0.57 4.59* * 9.98* **

*p ≥ 0.05; **p ≥ 0.01; ***p ≥ 0.001.

are significant for the line management constraints (appendix). The results show that line managers with a span of control of more than 11 subordinates have significantly less capacity and role ambiguity and more HR-related competences than line managers with a span of control below 11 subordinates. Having provided a broad overview of the results of the quantitative analyses, we will now consider each factor in more detail, discussing the quantitative and qualitative results linked to each HRM implementation factor together with some qualitative information provided by the organisations. Desire Line managers generally seem to accept their HRM role and are willing to apply HRM practices. They do so largely because they realise that the HRM practices can bring added value to the performance and atmosphere in their team. They are not equally ‘enthusiastic’ over every aspect of their HRM responsibilities however. Conversations with employees are preferred over administrative tasks or chastising employees. Line managers especially enjoy people-oriented activities, like resolving conflicts, conducting performance appraisal interviews or simply just talking to their staff socially: See, if you like managing, then part of this is also coping with people … that you have a feeling for their needs. (O2, 2) I like it a lot. Let me carry out all the HRM responsibilities. This is why I became a line manager. (O4, 5)

Organisational influences on the perception of desire The line management function seems to be differently organised in O1 and O4 than in O2 and O3. We see differences in (1) the span of control, (2) the level of education, (3) the hierarchical level and (4) the responsibility for HRM tasks. Line managers in O1 and O4 were less motivated than those in O2 and O3. There are several reasons for this difference.

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Line managers with a medium span of control (responsible for 11 20 employees) have the greatest motivation to carry out their HRM responsibilities. This would seem to be the ideal number of people for line managers to be responsible for. More senior and highly educated line managers appear to have more desire to perform their HRM responsibilities than low level and less educated line managers. The majority of line managers in O2 are higher level line managers with a high level of education, whereas all the line managers in our survey from O4 were first-line supervisors with a much lower level of education. The tasks that line managers are supposed to perform must be perceived by them as relevant: Why (do I perform HRM tasks)? Because it is a part of my function. My function includes, among others things, running the department as efficiently and effectively as possible. I need to do this with the people. HRM instruments are a tool for working with people. If I did not have seventeen people but seventeen machines, then I would have other tools … Thus, this is just one of the instruments I need. (O2, 3) … I am convinced of the fact that, in the final analysis, people are the capital, and this is what you need. This makes or breaks the whole organisation. I mean, another software package you can just buy, and what does not work tomorrow you buy somewhere else the day after tomorrow. But your people, basically you build a long relationship with them. I think HRM is very important. You also recognise that when people feel positive, they will get along well with each other (O2, 4) I like to keep a good atmosphere in my team (O4, 3)

Lower level line managers (as in O4) seem to be more burdened with administrative tasks than higher level line managers (those in O2). Having a lot of responsibility for administrative tasks and being expected to complete standardised forms reduces the added value seen in HRM tasks: Performance appraisals are only done once per year. My employees do not work better because of this. Smaller, more personal, talks that are not documented are much more valuable in enhancing performance than the documented ones. (O4, 3) Concerning the administrative tasks, I actually think that HRM should play an important role in this … Instead of for example looking every week as to how often John has been ill and what he has had … of course I need to know what people have. But if I have to check how often John has been ill, I really need to question why, and that is more difficult to determine. I should be relieved from these tasks by witchcraft. (O2, 4)

Resolving a lack of desire Although the desire of line managers in O4 to carry out HRM tasks is comparably low, and some complain about the dubious added value of some of the administrative tasks they have to do, they still complete them because they feel they have no other choice. They perceive an external motivation or identify a regulation in performing their HRM role, and this seems to balance out the lack of relevance they perceive in some of their HRM tasks: After delivering the mail, registering the hours of my people has priority … administrative tasks I always try to do as well as possible, because otherwise the delivery staff complain about their salaries at the end of the week. (O4, 3)

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Alongside the effects of the four organisational characteristics assessed in Tables 4 7 on the desire of line managers, the qualitative data reveal two more organisational characteristics that seem to be of importance in determining line mangers’ desire: (1) the quantity and quality of their HRM tasks and responsibilities, and (2) the perceived relevance of these tasks.

Capacity Most line managers recognise a lack of capacity for performing HRM practices. They find it difficult to manage their time between the various responsibilities they have. They especially see their administrative tasks as costing a lot of time: Time is always an issue. For example, some administration tasks are always left over. (O4, 2) I would like to get rid of the hours administration. That takes a tremendous amount of time, but also other administrative tasks. (O4, 5)

Organisational influences on the perception of capacity As referred to above, the more experienced and the more highly educated line managers seem to need less time to perform their HRM responsibilities. Table 4 suggests that higher level line managers have greater capacity to perform HRM tasks. These managers are usually directly responsible for fewer people and so have more time per individual employee. In our survey, the line managers in O4 had the least capacity to perform HRM tasks (Table 3), and were all first-line (low level) managers. Line management hierarchy does not seem to directly influence the amount of time line managers have for their HRM responsibilities, but the span of control does seem to vary with level. A lack of capacity only seems to be an issue in O2 and O4. In both O1 and O3, the line managers had sufficient time to carry out their HRM tasks (Table 3). The managers in O4 have a significantly wider span of control than line managers in the other organisations (Table 1), and this greater span of control means that finding the time to coach individual employees can become difficult. In O2, the limited capacity issue is a result of a recent organisational change that has absorbed a lot of line managers’ time. This temporary problem was accompanied by dual responsibility for people in two countries. Travelling between both countries to supervise employees in both units increases the capacity issue line managers experience: I have thought too little, but this has especially been to do with last year, when we had quite an overload situation. This has now changed, and I hope that, in practice, it means that I can spend more time on certain things than I used to. (O2, 1)

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No … see, in the Netherlands I have sufficient time, but in France I just have too little time at the moment. Actually one should just spend more time in France, like I do here … two, three days a week. But, well, the travel of course interferes. I have enough time for the Dutch part, but not for the French part as well. (O2, 2)

Resolving a lack of capacity Line managers resolve problems linked to their wide span of control by delegating some HRM responsibilities to experienced employees in their team or to administrative staff. They especially favour delegating administrative tasks: I try to delegate as many things as possible to one of the delivery staff, especially those I believe an experienced worker could do well … such as holiday planning. (O4, 4) I try to lose tasks by delegating them to people in my team. Some experienced delivery workers are willing to take them on. For example I don’t do HRM planning myself. This gives me extra time, and I don’t need to control it because my employees do it well. (O4, 5)

By delegating some of their tasks to experienced employees, or by completing them outside office hours, they manage to get them all finished on time. However, the quality of the task application cannot always be guaranteed: I don’t like administrative tasks, such as Harmony. I do this on Monday morning. My colleagues start at 8:30, but I start at 5:30 in the morning. Then I am alone and feel at ease. When my colleagues start working, everyone in the Netherlands starts using this program and then it takes ages. Next, the whole system gets stuck and that wastes a lot of valuable time. (O4, 5) I always get everything done, but I sometimes doubt whether I do everything well … Sometimes I rush through things and this is why some HRM tasks are not well performed. (O4, 4) I type out the performance appraisal talks at home, because I don’t have enough time during my work time. (O4, 3)

As with the desire factor, the capacity for HRM tasks is also influenced by some additional organisational characteristics, such as (1) the quantity and quality of HRM tasks, and (2) HRM responsibility for more than one unit. For the time capacity issue, line managers in the investigated organisations have found two solutions: they delegate HRM responsibilities to experienced staff or perform HRM tasks outside office hours. Competences In general, line managers perceived their HR-related competences as sufficient to perform HRM practices well. Although line managers in all four organisations perceive themselves as competent, there were significant differences between the four cases. Organisational influences on the perception of competences Line managers in O2 and O4 perceived themselves as significantly more competent than those working in

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O1 and O3 did. Perceived competences for managing people do not seem to increase with increasing seniority or education level (Tables 4 and 5). However, experience and span of control do play a role: The longer you perform tasks, the easier it becomes and the better you grasp things and observe them. The more experience you have in carrying out conversations, the easier it becomes. (O4, 3)

The more experienced line managers perceive themselves to be more competent than their less experienced colleagues. The longer that line managers are in a line management function and the more people they supervise, the more competent they feel they become in what they do. Thus, line managers in O2 and O4 feel more competent because in O4 they have a wide span of control, and in O2 they have a lot of line management experience. In order to enhance the competences of line managers, organisations usually offer training courses on aspects of HRM, sometimes specifically linked to the goals of the line management function. The line managers in O2 and O4 evaluated the offered training courses as more valuable than line managers in O1 and O3. In both, O2 and O4, a lot of attention had been given to offering training courses specifically designed for line management. Line managers appreciate these courses. O2 has its own training centre that offers a wide range of training courses from which line managers can choose. O4 offers additional line management education that focuses on the people management tasks of line managers, referred to as logistics supervisors, in a mail service organisation. O1 and O3 offer general training courses, but no specific education for line managers. There are specific training courses that I follow regarding performance appraisals and those kinds of things. (O2, 3) … I have also followed a lot of training courses, also management courses and so on. And change management, thus I have actually done everything. You really learn a lot of things there. (O2, 2) Quite many (training courses), also about a wide range of things: about performance appraisals, education for team coaching, education for middle management, a training course on informatics and personal strength training. (O4, 4)

Resolving a lack of competence The line managers in the four case organisations feel competent in performing their HRM role because they delegate the more difficult or unpleasant issues to HR professionals or specialists and ask for support when required. Further, if they are afraid of making mistakes, they often hand over responsibility to specialists or call in advice and help: In the event of a conflict, for example a delivery person who is not doing certain things and therefore needs to be suspended, I hand all responsibility to the HR consultant. (O4, 4) Especially during difficult situations, I find it essential to have somebody by my side …. (O3, 8)

In addition to the organisational characteristics highlighted in Tables 4 7, the HRM competences of line managers are influenced by the sophistication of training

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courses and educational programmes offered by the company. If line managers feel they lack the competence to resolve a given situation, they are willing to ask HR professionals or specialists for support or hand the responsibility over to a specialist. Support Generally, line managers perceive themselves to be well supported by HR professionals as reflected in the following positive reactions from line managers about the support they receive: In my opinion the sounding function of HRM is good, they are open-minded and give feedback. (O1, 5) I ask, or I just drop in, or I make an appointment, and I always have the feeling that I am at the right place. (O2, 1)

However, some line managers do not need any support from HR professionals or do not see a need to be supported by HRM: I don’t think highly of HR consultants. They are not really useful. If I have a question I persevere. I myself don’t need HR consultants. They undoubtedly do a lot behind the show, but I don’t really see this. (O4, 3) I hardly ever go there. I don’t really need it. I know what to do regarding HRM aspects of my job. (O1, 7)

Organisational influences on the perception of support The more highly educated line managers were less satisfied with the support they receive from HR professionals (Table 5). In particular, they expected more services from the HR managers. Line managers who were responsible for a large number of staff were in general more satisfied about the support they received than those with few supervisees. It would seem that HR professionals focus their attention more on line managers with a large span of control and support them better. Here, we can further highlight three additional organisational characteristics: the service-orientation of the HR professional, the structure of the HRM function and the form of support demanded. Service-orientation of the HR professional The HRM support provided by HR professionals is organised in various ways. Some HR managers have a socalled open-door policy and are reactive in offering support to line managers. Others organise meetings where line managers from different departments can discuss issues with the HR staff or help each other. Again others are very proactive in offering line managers help and assistance in for example carrying out performance appraisals.

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In O1 and O3, the line managers often ask HR consultants for their opinion on issues they are having with employees. They ask them to join in employee discussions, sit in on job interviews, performance appraisals or grievance talks in order to have a second opinion or obtain specialist feedback: Although I carry out the first talks alone (job interviews),… I bring in HRM for the second interview in order to gain a second opinion, to look at the applicant from their point of view and to mutually evaluate whether it is a good applicant. (O3, 4) … to get some arbitrage, some independent person joining in … The HR consultant joins the conversation, not to lead the discussion, but in a supporting role. (O3, 8) For example they join me on visiting the construction site to communicate, as a form of service. (O1, 6)

Structure of the HRM function We can see differences regarding the structure of the HRM function and its organisation. In O1 and O3, there is a physical distance between HR professionals and line managers because the HR managers are responsible for more than one location and are therefore often not visible or reachable for the line managers. In O1, however, this lack of proximity is balanced by the strong service-orientation of the HR managers towards the line managers, showing interest in line management issues and advising line managers on how to solve issues. As a consequence of local distance between both parties, we can present differences in communication among the four cases. In O1 and O3, communication from the HRM department to line managers is weak: Communication regarding training opportunities could be better. (O1, 4) Yes (I get support in difficult situations), but you need to pull them in. You need to show them … as in I have such a high sickness level, I know what the reason is, I will do the conversations alone and if I really don’t see any way out then you will have to join me. This is how it goes. (O3, 1) Zero, there is no communication. Nothing more than good morning, good evening, have a nice weekend, nothing else. (O3, 2)

When comparing the supporting role of HR professionals in the four case studies (Table 3), it appears that line managers in O3 are significantly less satisfied about the supporting role played by HRM than those in the other three organisations. Given the physical separation in O3, there is very little contact between some HR managers and the line managers. Line managers miss a sparring partner from HRM: someone to give them feedback on how to coach or manage people, and also information about actions they can take on the basis of performance appraisal forms, with sick employees, someone with whom to discuss how to solve difficult situations and who could assist as an expert: As a line manager I feel like I am on an island regarding employee performance and appraisals. Just like … I do it in my own way, when this is right nobody says anything about it … but when this is wrong, nobody says anything about it either. (O3, 4)

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What I also miss is exchanging ideas about reviewing employees’ performance before appraisal interviews are due. (O3, 2) I would like to have more consultations, even if it was only informally. (O3, 6)

Line managers become dissatisfied about the service level delivered when HR managers are invisible, not reachable or do not respond quickly to their requests: I always get support when I call or mail. It works quite fast. (O4, 2) The HRM department is not always that quick. (O1, 4) The reaction to training requests is not always professional. It takes a long time or I don’t get any reaction at all. (O1, 7) … and we don’t have anything here, nothing at all (HR support). I cannot even call him, because then I get his voicemail and I need to wait until he calls back. If it happens once it is not too bad, but it happens all the time. I think that somebody like him needs to be subservient to the organisation. (O3, 2)

Form of support needed What line managers consult HR professionals about seems to depend on the services and consultations they can get elsewhere. If the organisation offers services through a Shared Service Centre or provides information on an intranet site, through an E-HRM application, or other specialist services, such as a works council or a legal department, line managers may opt to consult them instead of their HR managers. Line managers always demand support when it comes down to legal matters. However, there is some variation in the form of support line managers need in the four organisations. In terms of HRM support behaviour, line managers in O4 especially need more advice and personal coaching on applying HRM responsibilities. Line managers in O3 and O4 demand significantly more HRM support services than their colleagues in O1 and O2, especially faster services as well as more and better HRM policies. The kind of services that line managers in O3 expect from HR managers are: drawing up contracts, recruiting new personnel, assistance and guidance in performing job interviews and performance appraisals, and organising training courses: I expect HRM to formulate contracts and to provide a fast service. For example, if I have a job applicant and I notify that they need a contract, then I expect the contract to be ready the next day or the day after. (O3, 1) No, you shouldn’t have to apply for everything yourself. I would prefer it if the HRM department offered training courses, then you would actually get the training that HRM thinks a team leader needs. (O3, 7)

Resolving a lack of support When line managers are dissatisfied with the quantity and quality of support they receive from HRM, they will search for support elsewhere. They may get support from non-HRM individuals in their surroundings. Most of the support needed is from HR managers, but line superiors, colleagues

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and deputies are also asked for advice. Works councils and health and safety executives are also perceived as valuable sources of support. Line managers in O3 were least satisfied with the support they received from HR professionals. As a consequence, they contact the HRM department for support less often than line managers in the other organisations. However, it was line managers in O4 that particularly demanded support from non-HRM sources, such as their superiors, administrative staff, their deputy fellow line managers, works councils or the health and safety executive. It seems that HR professionals are asked about specific issues and rules/regulations but not about personnel management issues or day-to-day queries. For advice on people issues, line managers tend to ask non-HRM sources and only consider the HRM department when their direct environment cannot support them: (If I don’t have sufficient competences) in situations where something unusual is going on, a poorly performing employee for example,… then I will first talk to a fellow line manager or to a HR manager to get some feedback. (O2, 1) I don’t find it so bad (that I don’t get support from the HR manager). Of course, I also have my direct superior, whom I can ask specific questions. (O3, 6) … I tend to ask my superior or a fellow line manager to join me in a meeting when it might be difficult. (O4, 6)

Differences found between the cases are based on the organisational characteristics presented earlier and on three additional characteristics: (1) the serviceorientation of the HR professional, (2) the structure of the HRM department and (3) the form of support needed. As a solution to poor support from HR managers, line managers seek support elsewhere; for example, they ask other line managers or their superiors for advice. Policy & Procedures Whether line managers perceive the policies and procedures they have to work with as sufficient and valuable depends on (1) the clarity of line management’s HRM role, including their knowledge of their HRM responsibilities and authorities, and (2) on the clarity and comprehensibility of how they should perform their HRM role. Overall, policies and practices were seen as sufficient and valuable, with no major differences found between organisations. Organisational influences on the perception of policy & procedures Whereas HRM forms and instruments were clear and understandable in all four organisations, the clarity of a line manager’s HRM role, in parallel with their operational role, measured in terms of role conflict, differed significantly between organisations. Line managers in O4 perceived significantly greater role conflict than those in the other three organisations. Their low level in the management hierarchy, their relatively low education level and their wider span of control seemed to play a part in this. In

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general, lower level line managers seem to experience significantly greater role conflict (Table 4), probably because they have a larger range of influences from the various managers above them. As we have seen earlier, first-line managers usually have close contacts with their immediate superior, but are also influenced by HR professionals and senior managers. A low education level seems to lead to greater insecurity concerning the HRM role of a line manager. Further, when line managers are responsible for many employees, they may feel that they get conflicting advice from all sides on what they have to do. Another reason for this greater role conflict in O4 is that line managers there experience an obligation to perform what they see as unnecessary tasks, that is administrative routines and performance appraisals. They are given an increasing number of administrative tasks without understanding why. They perform them because they have to, but they do not understand why these tasks are not performed by administrative (HR) staff or secretaries. Some line managers wish to have greater authority in deciding if and when they perform HRM practices: Sometimes it is unpleasant that a lot of things become standardised and that they enforce a lot of tasks … actually we are talking about the fact that we have more and more administrative tasks. The number of extra tasks has increased a lot during the last few years. And they are constantly throwing new self-service management applications at us. (O4, 4) Performance appraisals are only done once per year. My employees do not work better because of these. Shorter, more personal, talks that are not documented are much more valuable in producing better performance than the documented ones. (O4, 3) Holding quarterly and weekly work meetings, these are tasks that belong to my function, but sometimes there is nothing to discuss. But you have to carry them out anyway. This is a kind of obligation. (O4, 6)

Role ambiguity is significantly greater among line managers in O3 than in the other case companies. They have the lowest span of control of all the line managers in our sample and slightly less experience in a line management function than the line managers in the other organisations (Table 1). A low span of control and limited experience seem to lead to role ambiguity. Having limited responsibility for people and limited experience in this area seems to lead to less clarity about planned targets and where to find the norms and guidelines to direct this work. In comparison, line managers with a wide span of control and a lot of experience know exactly what is expected of them, as in O4. Another reason for role ambiguity is a lack of standardisation. Line managers in O3 and O4 experience application differences between departments. They want greater standardisation between groups and departments and this require rules, norms and procedures: I think, if you take ten line managers, that you will get ten different approaches to an application. (O4, 10) They set rules but these are not complied with, and they don’t check at all whether the rules are complied with. (O4, 12)

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Conversely, O2 line managers experience too many rules and an overly strict interpretation of the rules. These well-educated line managers seem to desire greater freedom in how to interpret and use the procedures. They believe that they can best decide how to use instruments and forms, and they want to do this according to their own time schedule: … they are going to stop using People1st (an appraisal tool) … and then I will no longer be able to enter any data as a line manager. This is because I am so-called too late according to the agenda of HRM. (O2, 2) … I think I should still be able to enter data in e-People 1st, even after three months. I just don’t have time at the moment. That is sometimes not possible because someone decides that everything has to be finalised before a deadline and makes it no longer possible afterwards. I think this is a childish mentality. (O2, 2) They are interpreted very strictly (the rules), whereas I think some creativity should be possible to maybe work towards some solutions. (O2, 1)

Resolving a lack of policy & procedures When line managers perceive the policy & procedures to be insufficient to clarify their HRM responsibilities and methods of application, institutional organisational reinforcements can be a solution that enables line managers to perform their HRM tasks. Line managers in O4, for example, are appraised on the basis of their HRM responsibilities by their superiors, and O2 offers line managers an HRM agenda that details all their HRM tasks and responsibilities: There is an HR annual calendar, and from this you can find all the relevant information. (O2, 3) I get assessed on how I perform in the quarterly and weekly work meetings … You are also assessed on your supervision. (O4, 5) I know which HRM tasks I am responsible for because of the objectives I set with my superior. We agree on these objectives in advance. (O4, 8)

The perception of policy & procedures is influenced by a wider range of organisational characteristics than the ones we measured quantitatively. The perception of being responsible for unnecessary things and the extent of standardisation between departments and groups are additional characteristics that differentiate organisations from each other. As a solution to lacking policies and procedures, organisations bring in institutional reinforcements, such as supervisor appraisals of HRM performance and the issuing of HRM agendas.

Discussion The four cases highlight that organisations differ in the ways that they organise the devolution of HRM responsibilities to the line and the subsequent management

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role of the line manager. Organisational contingencies influence the way line managers perceive their HRM role and handle their HRM responsibilities. Therefore, the HRM implementation constraints perceived by line managers differ in the four organisations investigated. We could already show in Table 1 that the four organisations differed; indeed this was a factor in their selection. The work and management roles of line managers require differing levels of education and experience (Child & Partridge, 1982). When line managers are responsible for highly educated personnel, with fairly complex task content, then their own education and experience level should be comparable or higher in order to adequately fulfil the supervision and management role. We also saw that the level in the hierarchy and the span of control of the line managers in the various organisations differed. Line managers occupying a higher level or with a wider span of control seem to have additional responsibilities and therefore also face different HRM implementation constraints. We will now discuss the organisational contingencies that we could identify for the five HRM implementation factors based on the qualitative data.

Organisational Contingencies The desire of line managers to perform HRM tasks depends on the perceived relevance of their tasks and responsibilities, as well as the quantity and quality of these tasks. If they have the feeling that their HRM tasks and responsibilities are relevant, and can bring added value to the performance of their team, its motivation or employee well-being, then they are also more motivated to perform, and will put more effort into their people management role. In such a situation, line managers would not be reluctant to perform HRM responsibilities, a claim made by Hall and Torrington (1998) and Hope-Hailey et al. (2005), but are fully engaged in performing their HRM role. However, being responsible for many administrative, and largely routine, HRM tasks lowers the desire of line managers to engage with their HRM role and responsibilities. Nevertheless, external motivation and recognised regulations can motivate line managers to perform such HRM tasks anyway, even if they are not convinced of their value. This finding is in line with the results of McGovern (1999), who found that line management involvement in HRM requires both institutional reinforcements and personal motivation, and that personal motivation is especially important for their engagement. The capacity of line managers to handle their HRM tasks is also related to the quantity and quality of their HRM tasks and their span of control. The more HRM tasks, especially time-consuming or non-challenging ones such as basic HRM administration, and employees that line managers are responsible for, the less time they have left for the more personal individual HRM tasks and people management activities. The problems of line managers having too many HRM responsibilities and wide spans of control have also been mentioned in earlier work, such as by Harris et al. (2002), who describe additional responsibilities of the line, by McConville and Holden (1999), who report more complex and more

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demanding tasks, and by McGovern et al. (1997) and Renwick (2003), who describe wider spans of control for line managers. As a consequence of the resulting time pressures (McConville, 2006), line managers tend to delegate some of their responsibilities to experienced employees, secretaries or administrative staff. HRM responsibilities for more than one unit also affect line managers’ capacity to perform HRM practices. Line managers need to travel between various units (even internationally) because they are responsible for employees in more than one unit. The HRM competences of line managers are influenced by the sophistication of training courses and educational programmes offered by their organisations. Those line managers who reported well-developed training courses and educational programs for line managers perceived their own HRM competences to be higher than those managers who had not enjoyed such opportunities. Also the breadth of experience of a line manager in a management function plays a role in the development of HRM-related competences. When organisations select people for a line management position who already have experience in a similar role, or in a role with people management responsibilities, or give them the opportunity to gain experience through exchange programmes, job rotation programmes or job enlargement and enrichment programmes, they will find it easier to manage their own HRM responsibilities than less experienced colleagues. A lack of competences is handled by delegating HRM responsibilities back to HR professionals or specialists, or by asking HR specialists for feedback or help. Furthermore, the HRM performance of line managers is dependent on how the support function is organised. The physical distance between HR experts and line managers and the visibility of HR managers to the line, the service-orientation of HR managers and the form of support needed all play a role in how actively line managers seek advice or coaching from HR professionals and in the quality of the contact between the two parties. McConville and Holden (1999) and Bond and Wise (2003) also mention the need of proximity of the HR manager as a necessity for good support. The form of support requested depends on the line managers’ HRM tasks and responsibilities and on their education and experience in a line management function. When line managers miss proactive actions and feedback from the HRM department, they desire a sparring partner with whom they can discuss personnel problems. According to Whittaker and Marchington (2003), a partnership between HR and line managers is desirable because it will increase HRM performance. Additionally, a clear division of tasks between HR and line managers, and the communication between both parties, plays a role in how effectively line managers implement HRM. If they do not know what HR managers are responsible for, or how HRM tasks are divided between the two parties because this has not been communicated to them, they can form incorrect expectations about HRM services. If line managers do not see HR managers on a regular basis they will look for support elsewhere, such as from their own superior or fellow line managers, and could therefore make incorrect decisions. Similarly, if they have bad experiences with support from HR managers because they are not always accessible, they might look elsewhere.

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Within the policy & procedures category, the perception of being responsible for unnecessary things and differences in set standards between departments and groups were found to be additional influential organisational characteristics. Policies and procedures tend to become clearer if line managers are given rules, forms, guidelines and norms on how to perform HRM practices, because this can (1) help them understand how to perform HRM practices and (2) ensure the practices are performed consistently across departments. According to McGovern et al. (1997) and McGovern (1999), line managers will perform their HRM responsibilities better if they are supported by institutional reinforcements. Institutional reinforcements include documented descriptions of a line manager’s HRM responsibilities, such as in job descriptions, HRM responsibility lists published on the intranet or elsewhere, and being appraised on one’s HRM responsibilities by superiors. Although institutional reinforcements, as well as rules, forms, guidelines and norms, can lead to better responses in the event of lacking policies and procedures, in some organisations, as we saw in this chapter, line managers can perceive such a reduction in freedom as hindering their effective performance of their HRM tasks. We can see some interrelationships between the influence of the organisational contingencies on the HRM implementation constraints. The quantity and quality of HRM tasks and responsibilities influences not only the capacity of line managers to spend sufficient time on the HRM implementation but also influences their desire to get engaged in HRM tasks. Institutional reinforcements can result in line mangers implementing certain HRM responsibilities although they perceive a lack of clarity of their HRM responsibilities and are not motivated to carry them out. A physical distance is an organisational contingency that can result in capacity constraints when the distance is between line managers and their employees and in support constraints when the distance is between line managers and the HR managers.

Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research This research has presented comparisons of means of HRM implementation constraints between the four case organisations, and shown that these are related to different line management hierarchies, educational levels, experience levels and spans of control. In conducting the MANOVAs, we added the fixed variables one at a time in order to be able to compare the means of the groups. However, we did not investigate potential higher order effects of the fixed variables. That is, we did not consider possible influences of one organisational characteristic on another, and the effect of this on the HRM implementation factors. In order to overcome this limitation, we would suggest using a structural equation model (SEM) in future research, not only because our fixed variables appeared somewhat correlated but also because of the relatively high correlation between the dependent variables. A SEM can uncover the influence of each fixed variable on each dependent variable by taking possible moderation effects into account. Future research should preferably consider all the organisational characteristics found in this research (both quantitatively and qualitatively) in a single model.

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Conclusion Although many HRM scholars agree that line managers are weak HRM performers, and agree on the lack of success of the social innovation of devolving HRM responsibilities to the line, there has been a lack of knowledge on the reasons behind these implementation constraints and why their saliency varies so much between organisations. We found that a number of organisational characteristics can influence line managers’ HRM implementation. The qualitative data revealed additional organisational characteristics to those we measured in the four case study surveys. Therefore, future research should quantitatively investigate these newly identified organisational constraints in a wide range of organisations to investigate their generalisability. The HRM implementation constraints experienced will vary with which and how many HRM responsibilities are devolved, the quality of specific training courses for line managers, how service-oriented the HRM department is and how it is structured, the form of support line managers need, the perception of being responsible for unnecessary tasks, and standardisation between departments. Thus, in order to determine and put emphasis on those factors which are the reasons for the lack of success of the social innovation regarding the role of line managers in implementing HRM practices effectively, we need to know the organisational situation in which line managers operate and its effect on the line management role. .

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Guay, F., Vallerand, R. J., & Blanchard, C. (2000). On the assessment of situational intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: The situational motivation scale (SIMS). Motivation and Emotion, 24(3), 175 213. Hall, L., & Torrington, D. (1998). Letting go or holding on — The devolution of operational personnel activities. Human Resource Management Journal, 8(1), 41 55. Harris, L., Doughty, D., & Kirk, S. (2002). The devolution of HR responsibilities — Perspectives from the UK’s public sector. Journal of European Industrial Training, 26(5), 218 229. Hope-Hailey, V., Farndale, E., & Truss, C. (2005). The HR department’s role in organizational performance. Human Resource Management Journal, 15(3), 49 66. Khilji, S. E., & Wang, X. (2006). ‘Intended’ and ‘implemented’ HRM: The missing linchpin in strategic human resource management research. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 17(7), 1171 1189. Kulik, C. T., & Bainbridge, H. T. J. (2006). HR and the line: The distribution of the HR activities in Australian organizations. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 44(2), 240 256. Looise, J. C. (1996). Sociale innovatie moet, maar hoe? Inaugural speech, University of Twente, Enschede. Lowe, J. (1992). Locating the line: The front-line supervisor and human resource management. In P. Blyton & P. Turnbull (Eds.), Reassessing human resource management (pp. 148 168). London: Sage. McConville, T. (2006). Devolved HRM responsibilities, middle managers and role dissonance. Personnel Review, 35(6), 637 653. McConville, T., & Holden, L. (1999). The filling in the sandwich: HRM and middle managers in the health sector. Personnel Review, 28(5 6), 406 424. McGovern, P. (1999). HRM policies and management practices. In L. Gratton, V. HopeHailey, P. Stiles, & C. Truss (Eds.), Strategic human resource management (pp. 133 152). Oxford: Oxford University Press. McGovern, P., Gratton, L., Hope-Hailey, V., Stiles, P., & Truss, C. (1997). Human resource management on the line? Human Resource Management Journal, 7(4), 12 29. Mintzberg, H. (1980). The nature of managerial work. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L. (1988). Serqual: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. Journal of Retailing, 64(1), 12 40. Pavett, C. M., & Lau, A. W. (1983). Managerial work: The influence of hierarchical level and functional specialty. The Academy of Management Journal, 26(1), 170 177. Reilly, M. D. (1982). Working wives and convenience consumption. The Journal of Consumer Research, 8(4), 407 418. Renwick, D. (2000). HR — Line work relations: A review, pilot case and research agenda. Employee Relations, 22(2), 179 205. Renwick, D. (2003). Line manager involvement in HRM: An inside view. Employee Relations, 25(3), 262 280. Rizzo, J. R., House, R. J., & Lirtzman, S. I. (1970). Role conflict and ambiguity in complex organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 15(2), 150 163. Schyns, B., & Van Collani, G. (2002). A new occupational self-efficacy scale and its relation to personality constructs and organizational variables. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 11(2), 219 241. Truss, C., & Gratton, L. (1994). Strategic human resource management: A conceptual approach. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 94(5), 663 686.

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APPENDIX Items of HRM Implementation by Line Managers Factor: Desire

Intrinsic motivation 1. Because I think that this activity is interesting. 2. Because this activity is fun. 3. Because I feel good when doing this activity. Identified regulation 4. Because I am doing it for my own good. 5. Because I think that this activity is good for me. 6. Because I believe that this activity is important for me. Amotivation 7. I do this activity but I am not sure if it is worth it. 8. I don’t know; I don’t see what this activity brings me. 9. I do this activity. but I am not sure it is a good thing to pursue it. Value added 10. Because it helps the people in my team to grow, improve and develop themselves. 11. Because it helps me to supervise my team. 12. Because it helps me to reach my production goals. 13. Because it helps me to treat employees in a fair and consistent way.

Factor: Capacity Role overload 1. I can’t ever seem to get caught up with performing my HR responsibilities. 2. Sometimes I feel as if there are not enough hours in the day. 3. Many times I have to cancel my commitments to my HR responsibilities. 4. I find myself having to prepare priority lists to get done all the HR responsibilities I have to do. Otherwise, I forget because I have so much to do. 5. I feel I have to perform HR responsibilities hastily and maybe less carefully in order to get everything done.

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Factor: Competences Occupational self-efficacy 1. I can remain calm when facing difficulties in performing my HR responsibilities because I can rely on my abilities. 2. When I am confronted with a problem in performing my HR responsibilities, I can usually find several solutions. 3. Whatever comes my way in performing my HR responsibilities, I can usually handle it. 4. My past experiences in my job have prepared me well for performing my HR responsibilities. 5. I meet the goals I set for myself in performing my HR responsibilities. Training 6. The courses I followed were relevant for performing my HR responsibilities. 7. The course offerings were sufficient for performing my HR responsibilities.

Factor: Support HR support services 1. When the HR department promises to do something by a certain time, they should do so. 2. The HR department insists on administering data without mistakes. 3. The employees working in the HR department should tell me exactly when services will be performed. HR support behaviour 4. The HR managers should always be willing to help me. 5. The HR managers have the necessary knowledge to answer my questions. 6. The HR department gives me individual attention. 7. The HR department tries to reach the best for me.

Factor: Policy & procedures Role conflict 1. I work under incompatible HR policies and HR guidelines. 2. I receive an HR assignment without the manpower to complete it. 3. I have to buck a rule or policy in order to carry out my HR responsibilities. 4. I work with two or more groups who operate quite differently in performing HR responsibilities. 5. I perform HR tasks that are accepted by one person but not by others.

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Role ambiguity 6. I have concrete, planned goals for my HR responsibilities. 7. I lack HR policies and guidelines to help me. 8. I have to feel my way in performing my HR responsibilities. 9. Explanation is clear of what has to be done in performing my HR responsibilities. User friendliness of HR forms 10. The HR instruments I am provided with are clear and understandable. 11. The HR instruments I am provided with are concrete enough to use them. 12. I find HR instruments easy to use. Post-Hoc Multivariate Analysis Multivariate analysis of variance for constraints between organisations

O1

O2

O3

O4

Desire O1 O2 O3 O4

−0.18 0.18 0.23* −0.16

0.05 −0.34***

−0.23* −0.05

0.16 0.34*** 0.39***

−0.39***

Capacity O1 O2 O3 O4

1.06*** −1.06*** −0.65*** −1.34***

0.41* −0.28

0.65*** −0.41*

1.34*** 0.28 0.69***

−0.69***

Competences O1 O2 O3 O4

−044*** 0.44*** 0.12 0.47***

−0.32** 0.22

−0.12 0.32**

−0.47*** −0.02 −0.34**

0.34**

Support O1 O2 O3 O4

0.51*** −0.51*** −0.70*** −0.12

−0.19 −0.39***

0.70*** 0.19 0.58***

0.12 −0.39*** −0.58***

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(Continued). O1

O2

O3

O4

0.08 0.22

0.05 0.19 −0.03

Policy & procedures O1 O2 O3 O4

−0.14 0.14 −0.08 −0.05

−0.22 −0.19

0.03

Role conflict O1 O2 O3 O4

−0.03 0.03 −0.20 −0.58***

−0.23 −0.61**

0.20 0.23

0.58*** 0.61*** 0.38***

−0.38**

Role ambiguity O1 O2 O3 O4

−0.34* 0.34* −0.13 0.29

−0.48*** −0.06

0.13 0.48***

−0.29 0.06 −0.42***

0.42***

*p ≥ 0.05; **p ≥ 0.01; ***p ≥ 0.001. Multivariate analysis of variance between education levels Secondary

Vocational

Tertiary

−0.09

−0.40*** −0.30***

Desire Secondary Vocational Tertiary

0.09 0.40***

0.30*** Capacity

Secondary Vocational Tertiary

−0.55** 0.55** 0.56**

−0.56** 0.00

0.00 Competences

Secondary Vocational Tertiary

0.21 −0.21 −0.08

0.14

0.08 −0.14

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(Continued). Secondary

Vocational

Tertiary

Support Secondary Vocational Tertiary

0.27 −0.27 −0.42**

0.42** 0.14

−0.14

Policy & procedures Secondary Vocational Tertiary

0.03 −0.03 0.12

−0.12 0.15

−0.15 Role conflict

Secondary Vocational Tertiary

0.29 −0.29 −0.45**

0.45** −0.16

0.16 Role ambiguity

Secondary Vocational Tertiary

0.30* −0.30* −0.01

0.01 −0.29**

0.29**

*p ≥ 0.05; **p ≥ 0.01; ***p ≥ 0.001. Multivariate analysis of variance between experiences levels 0 2

2 10

>10

0.15

0.09 −0.07

Desire 0 2 2 10 >10

−0.15 −0.09

0.07 Capacity

0 2 2 10 >10

−0.26 0.26 0.57*

0.31*

−0.57* −0.31*

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(Continued). 0 2

2 10

>10

−0.20

−0.39* −0.19

Competences 0 2 2 10 >10

0.20 0.39*

0.19 Support

0 2 2 10 >10

0.00 0.00 −0.09

0.09 0.09

−0.09 Policy & procedures

0 2 2 10 >10

−0.07 0.07 0.25

−0.25 −0.18

0.18 Role conflict

0 2 2 10 >10

−0.01 0.01 0.21

−0.21 −0.20

0.20 Role ambiguity

0 2 2 10 >10

−0.22 0.22 0.42**

−0.42** −0.20*

0.20*

*p ≥ 0.05; **p ≥ 0.01; ***p ≥ 0.001. Multivariate analysis of variance between spans of control 0 10

11 20

>20

Desire 0 10 11 20 >20

−0.06 0.06 −0.17

−0.23*

0.17 0.23*

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(Continued). 0 10

11 20

>20

Capacity 0 10 11 20 >20

0.44** −0.44** −0.61***

0.61*** 0.16

−0.16 Competences

0 10 11 20 >20

−0.25* 0.25* 0.39***

−0.39*** −0.14

0.14 Support

0 10 11 20 >20

0.00 0.00 0.29**

−0.29** −0.29*

0.29* Policy & procedures

0 10 11 20 >20

−0.09 0.09 0.04

−0.04 0.05

−0.05 Role conflict

0 10 11 20 >20

0.00 0.00 −0.28*

0.28* 0.27

−0.27 Role ambiguity

0 10 11 20 >20

0.30* −0.30* −0.36***

*p ≥ 0.05; **p ≥ 0.01; ***p ≥ 0.001.

0.06

0.36*** −0.06

Chapter 7

Practicing Social Innovation: Enactment of the Employee Organization Relationship by Employees Jeroen Meijerink

Abstract Purpose — The purpose of this conceptual study is to explain the way in which employees influence social innovation in the employee organization relationship, such as job crafting, i-deals, New World of Work, talent management, or high performance work practices. Methodology/approach — This study applies a practice perspective in order to explain how employees affect their employee organization relationship and thus influence the outcomes of social innovation. Implications — The theoretical exploration suggest that employees can engage in the enactment of the employee organization relationship in three ways: enacting employment relationships, enacting employment practices, and enacting employment practices’ outcomes. In doing so, they can draw on interpretive schemes, resources, and norms for realizing the benefits of social innovation for themselves and/or their employer. Originality/value — Although organizations have started social innovation initiatives that allow employees to actively shape the employee organization relationship, existing studies still treat employees as inactive recipients in the relationship with their employer. As a result, it remains unclear how social innovation in employee organization relationships is implemented in practice and thus, how social innovation provides benefits to the employee and the organization. The originality of this study is its focus on how employees, as (pro-)active constituents,

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shape the employee organization relationship, for finding better explanations of the outcomes of social innovation initiatives. Keywords: Employee organization relationships; practice perspective; enactment; social innovation

Introduction Social innovation refers to the development and deployment of new practices associated with the contribution of people and the goal to create value for individuals, groups, organizations, or society (Looise, 1996). Within organizations, social innovation is mainly targeted at improving the employee organization relationship (EOR) which represents an overarching term to describe the relationship between the employee and organization (Shore & Coyle-Shapiro, 2003). Traditionally, the EOR is seen as the exchange of inducements by organizations with the aim to motivate employees to achieve organizational goals (Tsui & Wang, 2002). New organizational practices, such as a job crafting (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001), idiosyncratic deals (Rousseau, 2005), or high performance work practices (Appelbaum, Bailey, Berg, & Kalleberg, 2000) can be considered social innovations for managing the EOR, while they are innovative inducements that allow employees to select desirable work responsibilities, negotiate favorable employment conditions and improve their organizational contributions respectively. Therefore, existing studies have studied the degree to which these forms of social innovation provide benefits for both parties involved, in terms of fostering employee well-being (Hornung, Rousseau, Glaser, Angerer, & Weigl, 2010) or basic need satisfaction for the employee (Marescaux, De Winne, & Sels, 2013) and increased employee engagement (Petrou, Demerouti, Peeters, Schaufeli, & Hetland, 2012) or higher employee performance for the organization (Anand, Vidyarthi, Liden, & Rousseau, 2010; Bakker, Tims, & Derks, 2012; Den Hartog, Boon, Verburg, & Croon, 2012). Existing evidence, however, is less optimistic about the outcomes of social innovation. For example, several review studies show that high performance work practices only have a weak effect on organizational performance (Combs, Lui, Hall, & Ketchen, 2006) and reduce worker health (Van De Voorde, Paauwe, & Van Veldhoven, 2012). Research shows that employees experience increased role overload when crafting jobs (Berg, Grant, & Johnson, 2010) or when offered high performance work practices (Jensen, Patel, & Messersmith, 2012). Furthermore, employees who receive idiosyncratic deals often receive substandard performance evaluations (Perlow, 1997) and experience high levels of family-work conflict (Hornung, Rousseau, & Glaser, 2008). Rather than improving the EOR, social innovation either limitedly provides the promised benefits or only serves the organization while harming the interest of the employee. Although other studies have acknowledged these dark sides of social innovation, more work is needed to explain why they occur to allow both organizations and employees to benefit from the EOR.

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Thus far, for explaining the use and outcomes of social innovation in organizations, existing studies have mainly concentrated on the actions and attributes of managers, such as their usage of high performance work practices (Den Hartog et al., 2012; Liao, Toya, Lepak, & Hong, 2009), their cognitive frames (Bondarouk, Looise, & Lempsink, 2009), or the type of work they assign to employees (Hornung, Rousseau, & Glaser, 2009). According to Lepak and Boswell (2012, p. 464), this management-oriented approach is the result of the dominant assumption in the EOR literature “that organizations/managers determine the nature of the EOR and employees are simply reactive participants in their relationship with organizations.” This assumption is remarkable, because current social innovation initiatives allow employees to actively shape organizational inducements by making changes to their work tasks (job crafting) or negotiating special terms of employment (idiosyncratic deals). Furthermore, employees always jointly implement high performance work practices with their providers (Meijerink, 2013), which allows them to delay or hinder their employer from reaping the benefits of social innovation. Therefore, employees can actively shape their EOR and hence, affect the outcomes of social innovation. However, the active role of employees in employment relationships is neither extensively theorized nor empirically established (Janssens & Steyaert, 2009; Lepak & Boswell, 2012). As a result, more work is needed that conceptualizes the active role of employees in EORs in order to explain why social innovation in organizations may provide the anticipated benefits for employees and the organization. Therefore, this study intends to conceptualize and explain the way in which employees shape the EOR and thus affect the outcomes of social innovation in organizations. In doing so, it draws theoretical insights from structuration theory (Giddens, 1984) for advancing a practice perspective on employees’ involvement in the EOR. This perspective argues that employees have agency for shaping the relationship with their organization and so influence the outcomes of social innovation. Below, after having defined the EOR, I argue that the EOR is socially accomplished, such that it emerges from what employees and employers do, rather than representing an artifact that both parties have. This practice perspective allows me to reason how employees can affect the outcomes of social innovation in organizations: by enacting their employment relationship; enacting employment practices; and/or enacting employment practices’ outcomes. To explain these types of enactment, I suggest to attend to the interpretive schemes, resources, and norms drawn upon by employees when interacting with the organization.

Employee Organization Relationships: A Multilevel Conceptualization The EOR represents a concept that describes the relationship between employees and their organization, or management as its representative (Shore & CoyleShapiro, 2003; Tsui, Pearce, Porter, & Tripoli, 1997; Tsui & Wang, 2002). For describing this relationship, previous studies have relied on a variety of approaches

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and frameworks, including the economic and psychological contract approach, human resource management models, and social exchange theory (Tsui & Wang, 2002). Shore and Coyle-Shapiro (2003) identify several research themes in the EOR literature, including those that focus on psychological contracts as well as social exchange and justice perceptions. A latest literature review suggests that the EOR literature draws from perspectives such as the social exchange theory, employment relationships and psychological contract literature, the perceived organizational support perspective and human resource management research (Shore, CoyleShapiro, & Tetrick, 2012). Despite that all these approaches concern the exchange of organizational inducements for stimulating desired employee effort (Tsui & Wang, 2002), their number is too large in order to meaningfully explain how employees can be active players in EORs. To narrow the variety of approaches to the EOR, I build on the work of Lepak and Snell (1999), who group employees along their relationship with an employer. They argue that organizations rely on four employment modes that describe how they meet their need for human capital, for example, through internally developing employees, hiring fixed-term workers from the labor market or contracting temporary staff. Employees in each employment mode differ in expected contributions and inducements obtained from the employer, and therefore, have different EORs (Lepak & Snell, 1999; Tsui et al., 1997). In all, their work suggest three levels of abstraction at which the EOR is manifested and thus which employees may influence. The highest level of abstraction is the employment relationship which generally describes the EOR in terms of a contract that includes the “terms of an exchange agreement between individuals and employees” (Rousseau, 1995, p. 5). This exchange involves the employee contributing to the realization of organization goals (e.g., through exerting time and knowledge) for which the organization exchanges inducements (e.g., salary, benefits, job security, career advancement opportunities) as a compensation for and stimulation of desired employee contributions. As such, the employment relationship specifies all that each party promises to do and return in exchange (Tsui & Wang, 2002). Lepak and Snell (1999, p. 32) view “each employment mode as carrying with it an inherently different form of employment relationship.” For example, employees who fall in the internal development employment mode tend to have a relational employment relationship that encourages mutual investments by employees and the organization, whereas those in a contracting employment mode have a transactional or quasi-spot contract which is characterized by short-term, financial exchanges (Lepak & Snell, 1999; Tsui et al., 1997). As such, the first way in which employees may actively shape their EOR is by shaping their employment relationship through securing that they fall into a particular employment mode (Rousseau, Ho, & Greenberg, 2006). At the second abstraction level, the EOR concerns the employment practices because they help to “maintain the employment relationship” (Lepak & Snell, 1999, p. 32). Employment practices, or, human resource management (HRM) practices, help sustaining employment relationships as they represent the inducements provided by organizations in the form of job design, training, performance management or compensation and benefits which ultimately stimulate employee effort in

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terms of in-role job performance (Boxall, Ang, & Bartram, 2011) or organization citizenship behavior (Kehoe & Wright, 2013). As suggested by Rousseau et al. (2006), although not all employees can enter employment relationships as they please, they can still negotiate idiosyncratic employment practices that would not necessarily fit their employment mode. For example, an individual employee might have more flexible working hours, training opportunities or a different compensation scheme than co-workers who belong to a similar employment mode. This is consistent with empirical evidence which shows that particular sets of HRM practices that were expected to be associated with a single employment mode were found to occur in at least one additional mode (Lepak & Snell, 2002). Therefore, besides shaping the entire employment relationship and all its associate inducements, employees can also influence their EOR by obtaining idiosyncratic inducements in the form of particular employment practices. The final dimension of the EOR which I distinguish is employment practices’ outcomes which refer to the effects of inducements provided by the organization. According to social exchange theory, employee performance follows from organizational inducements because they fulfill employee needs — such as considering employees’ well-being, securing their career advancement or providing job security — which employees reciprocate by working on job assignments, helping co-workers or committing themselves to the organization (Nishii & Wright, 2008; Tsui et al., 1997). However, employees may “make varying contributions about the extent to which the practices satisfy their needs,” even when provided with the same employment practices (Nishii & Wright, 2008, p. 232). For example, empirical evidence points to high levels of variability in employees’ satisfaction with similar compensation practices (Van Veldhoven, 2005), performance management practices (Conway & Monks, 2008; Decramer, Smolders, & Vanderstraeten, 2013) and training opportunities (Stahl, Chua, Caligiuri, Cerdin, & Taniguchi, 2009). These differences may occur because some employees are better able to tailor HRM practices to their needs and so experience a more positive EOR than others. For example, Meijerink (2013) found that employees with higher levels of HRM competences evaluated inducements in the form of HRM services more positively than those with less developed competences. Therefore, employees can affect their EOR through appropriating the outcomes of employment practices, in terms of the degree to which inducements provided by the organization eventually satisfy their needs and interests. Thus far, I have only discussed which dimensions of the EOR might be influenced by employees, yet remained silent on the way in which employees may do so. To explain these mechanisms, I conceptualize the active role of employees in EORs in the following section by outlining a practice perspective.

A Practice Perspective on Employee Organization Relationships At the heart of a practice perspective lies the notion that organizations do not have organizational structures and internal contingencies such as strategy or

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technology, but that they should be seen as practice: organizational structures and contingencies are something that people do (Kroon & Paauwe, 2014; Orlikowski, 2000; Pentland, 1992; Whittington, 2006). Although a practice perspective has already been extensively applied in the fields of strategy (Jarzabkowski, Balogun, & Seidl, 2007; Whittington, 2006) and technology (Bondarouk & Ruel, 2009; Jones & Karsten, 2008; Orlikowski, 2000), its use in the EOR literature remains scarce (see Bondarouk et al., 2009; Kroon & Paauwe, 2014 for an exception). Nevertheless, a practice perspective is useful for studying the EOR. First, a practice perspective examines how the actions of individuals produce and reproduce organizational practices (Kroon & Paauwe, 2014; Whittington, 2006) and therefore, allows to go beyond the assumption that employees are inactive recipients and instead study how they actively shape their EOR. Second, a practice perspective views the actions of individuals to be interconnected with those of others (Jarzabkowski et al., 2007) and thus helps to study how EORs are formed through the mutual reciprocations between the employees and managers.

Duality of Social Structures The core of the practice perspective holds that social structures do not exist outside the actions (or memory) of individuals; rather they are produced and reproduced through praxis: the actions of interconnected actors (Giddens, 1984; Jarzabkowski et al., 2007). Social structures refer to the rules and resources on which individuals draw during their day-to-day activities (Giddens, 1984), and may include norms that legitimate the use of employment practices (Paauwe & Boselie, 2003), collectively shared schemas on what is expected from employers and reciprocated by employees (Bondarouk et al., 2009; Rousseau, 2001), or HRM competences to produce and consume employment practices (Meijerink, 2013). A practice perspective rejects the notion that such social structures determine the actions of individuals. Instead, it views actors as being knowledgeable and having agency, which holds “that the individual could, at any phase in a given sequence of conduct, have acted differently” (Giddens, 1984, p. 9). According to Giddens (1984), humans are conscious of social structures and therefore have the capability to act differently. In other words, individuals may avoid, challenge or change norms and conventions or act based on other schemas and resources than as done by peers. As a result of agency, social structures have no pre-given meaning and cannot be seen as objectified artifacts, because they are characterized by duality: social structures only exist and structure the actions of actors as long as these individuals act in accordance to the social structure (Giddens, 1984). Through their actions, actors may intentionally or intentionally reproduce existing social structures or drive change by producing new ones. As such, a practice perspective views social structures to be conflated with action.

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Emergence of the Employee Organization Relationship EORs can be considered social structures and as a result, are produced and reproduced through the actions of employees and managers, because they have no pregiven meaning. Although policy makers may decide to develop distinct exchange relationships for different employment modes (Lepak & Snell, 2002), empirical evidence shows that supervisors may nevertheless decide to establish idiosyncratic employment relationships or offer HRM practices that were not intended by policy makers (Khilji & Wang, 2006; Woodrow & Guest, 2014). Furthermore, as recipients of employment practices, employees help implementing and co-producing them through attending training programs, engaging in performance talks or participate in decision-making. In doing so, employees may ignore employment practices, work around them or invent new ones that managers had not envisioned. For example, although temporary workers who operate in a contracting employment mode may have no choice but to follow rules and regulations that enforce their compliance (Kroon & Paauwe, 2014), they may nevertheless go beyond their narrowly defined task description and engage in organization citizenship behavior (Mossholder, Richardson, & Settoon, 2011). In fact, research shows that collective helping behaviors among co-workers and supervisors produce and reinforce the use of particular compensation and benefits schemes (Perlow, Gittell, & Katz, 2004) or job designs (Pentland, 1992). As such, EORs are neither something which employees and organizations have, nor external entities (e.g., policies or guidelines), but are emergent, that is, socially accomplished through the recurrent actions of employees and managers. This is not to say that employees and supervisors simply appropriate, that is, select available (or intended) employment practices as implied by those who study the implementation of HRM practices (Khilji & Wang, 2006; Liao et al., 2009; Nishii & Wright, 2008). Existing frameworks of HRM implementation suggest that the number of intended HRM practices have a positive influence on the number of HRM practices that are actually implemented, and so implicitly assumes that managers (or employees) select a portion of available inducements (Khilji & Wang, 2006). In other words, although some available employment practices will not get selected, supervisors will implement more employment practices when there are more at their disposal. From a practice perspective, this “more is better” assumption does not hold, because it assumes that employment practices are pre-given artifacts that “wait” to be implemented by employees and their supervisors. Several studies empirically challenged this assumption by showing a disconnect between manager and employee reports of employment practices (Khilji & Wang, 2006; Liao et al., 2009). As such, we cannot simply count the number of employment practices reported to be used by employees or examine how organizational actors select pre-given features of the EOR, to draw inferences on how EORs are social accomplished. Instead, if we accept that the EOR is emergent, the analysis can better attend to human action first and then examine how it produces and reproduces the EOR through recurrent social actions. Therefore, for explaining how

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employees influence their EOR, I conceptualize what Orlikowski (2000) calls “enactment” which in this case refers to the actions of employees from which social structures — in the form of EORs — emerge.

Enactment of the Employee Organization Relationship Given that social structures and actions are conflated, the two cannot be empirically separated in order to study the enactment of the EOR. Therefore, Giddens (1984) suggests to examine modalities while they describe how social actors use and reproduce social structures during action. In all, three modalities can be distinguished: interpretive schemes, resources, and norms. Interpretive schemes refer to standardized stocks of knowledge that actors draw upon to make sense of themselves and the world (Bondarouk et al., 2009; Orlikowski, 2000). As such, interpretive schemes can be thought of employees’ assumptions or expectations on which they draw when practicing employment practices. Although interpretive schemes are context-dependent and flexible (Bondarouk et al., 2009), an example could be employees’ attributions of the underlying reasons behind employment practices. Research shows that employees view HRM practices as being means to exploit their well-being or enforce compliance (Nishii, Lepak, & Schneider, 2008). While enacting the EOR, these interpretive schemes may cause resistance among employees, because they inform employees that supporting HRM implementation likely harms their interest. As such, interpretive schemes are a form of communication of meaning (Willmott, 1987), such that they support sensemaking of employees and thus inform how they enact their EOR. In this way, through sensemaking and communication, employees not only shape their own interpretive schemes, but may also have the opportunity to shape the interpretive schemes that supervisors draw upon when implementing employment practices, and so enact the EOR. Resources refer to the “transformative capacity generating commands” over objects and people (Giddens, 1984, p. 25). According to Willmott (1987) resources allow individuals to exert power by transforming the world around them. However, the power that stems from resources is not seen as a type of act (such as making people do something against their will) or as a stock of capital (such as land or money), but as a capability manifested in action (Jones & Karsten, 2008). This implies that resources only structure behavior when they are actually used in action and thus represent power when people have the ability to allocate facilities such as knowledge, materials, or financial resources (Ehrenhard, Muntslag, & Wilderom, 2012). An important resource exchanged by employees in EORs, is their human capital, which refers to the knowledge, skills and abilities of employees (Lepak & Snell, 1999). Employees who effectively deploy their human capital may negotiate an idiosyncratic employment relationship or employment practices (Rousseau, 2005). Furthermore, the human capital of employees positively affects the realization of employment practices outcomes and employee need satisfaction (Meijerink,

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2013). Therefore, the resources held by employees may provide them the power to enact the EOR, yet under the condition that these resources are used. Norms refer to rules that govern behavior that is considered legitimate (Giddens, 1984). According to Orlikowski (2000), such norms may include protocols, etiquettes, conventions or agreed-upon procedures. As with resources, these rules are only socially relevant to the extent that they legitimize actions, such that norms do not influence actions as long as they are not produced and reproduced through action. This reproduction of norms relates to the act of sanctioning unappropriated behavior. Employees who are knowledgeable of labor regulations or normative pressures developed by professional networks (Paauwe & Boselie, 2003), may enact the EOR by motivating their employers to offer particular inducements if they wish not to be sanctioned by supervisory bodies or the labor market. As elaborated earlier, employees can influence three dimensions of the EOR: the employment relationship, employment practices and employment practices’ outcomes. Below, I discuss how a focus on interpretive schemes, resources, and norms may help explaining how employees enact these three particular dimensions. Enacting the Employment Relationship As found by Lepak and Snell (2002), employment modes and hence, employment relationships depend on the value of human capital (i.e., extent to which employee knowledge and skills contribute to meeting consumer needs or reducing costs) and uniqueness (i.e., availability or scarcity) of human capital. For example, employees with valuable and unique skills tend to have a relational employment relationship that involves mutual investments by employees and the organization, whereas those with less valuable and standard skills have a transactional employment relationship which is characterized by short-term, financial exchanges (Lepak & Snell, 1999; Tsui et al., 1997). Given that value and uniqueness of human capital shape the employment relationship, these concepts provide a good starting point for studying how employment relationships are enacted. Perhaps the most obvious way in which human capital value and uniqueness are associated with employment relationship enactment is through the allocation of resources that provide employees the power to negotiate idiosyncratic employment relationships (Rousseau et al., 2006). Following resource dependence theory (Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978), employees with valuable and unique human capital may utilize this as a resource by leveraging the dependency their employer has on their knowledge and skills. Employers are likely to be dependent on such employees while their skills are scarce and at the same time detrimental to the competitive success of the firm. Given that such employees are hard to replace, they may leverage their unique and valuable proposition to their employers by negotiating a favorable employment relationship. As such, the value and uniqueness of human capital, when put to use by employees, represents a resource that provides them power to enact a desired employment relationship.

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This is not to say, however, that employment relationship enactment may not occur in other employment modes in which employees have more common knowledge and skills, because value and uniqueness do not have a pre-given meaning. For example, researchers from the marketing domain (Gro¨nroos, 2008; Vargo & Lusch, 2004) and strategy research (Priem, 2007) have argued that value only exists in the eye of the beholder, such that different actors may have different value perceptions of a similar object, action, product or service. In this case of human capital, employers and employees may have different interpretations about the extent to which human capital is valuable, not in the first place, because it can render a range of services for the employer, such as productivity, creativity, citizenship behavior, or customer satisfaction. Also, due to bounded rationality, managers may differ in perceptions of uniqueness when they lack sufficient resources to make optimal decisions on which knowledge and skills are scarce. Empirical evidence shows that employees with differences in value and uniqueness of human capital, nevertheless had similar employment relationships (Lepak & Snell, 2002), which may occur because decision makers (correctly or wrongly) assume that a larger portion of the employees have rare and strategically important skills (Osterman, 1987). The key idea is that value and uniqueness are always interpreted differently, such that employees and employers may have different interpretive schemes regarding the value and uniqueness of human capital. Accepting the idea that managers base employment systems on the interpretations of these human capital characteristics, employees may enact their employment relationship by shaping the interpretive schemes of their managers. For example, besides making sense of their employment relationship (De Vos, Buyens, & Schalk, 2003), a practice suggests that employees may influence manager perceptions through sense giving of the extent to which their knowledge and skills are unique and valuable to the firm. Therefore, we may attend to the interpretive schemes drawn upon by employees and study the acts of communication among employees and employers to understand how employment relationships emerge. Lastly, how employment relationships emerge, however, is also dependent on the norms drawn upon by employees and employers (Rousseau et al., 2006; Rousseau & Schalk, 2000). For example, Rousseau and Schalk (2000) find that cultural norms in Asia make employees reluctant to negotiate idiosyncratic employment relationships, because otherwise they get sanctioned for being too assertive. Furthermore, Rousseau et al. (2006) argue that repeated employment relationship negotiation by employees differs across industries as a result of differences in prevailing ideologies. They argue that more idiosyncratic employment relationships occur in industries where a market ideology prevails in comparison to those where paternalistic or communal ideologies are more dominant. As such, whether employees with valuable and unique human capital can repeatedly change their employment relationship by leveraging this resource depends on the enactment of norms of morality. Therefore, if we wish to understand the way in which employment relationships emerge, one can best study interpretive schemes, resources, and norms in an integrate fashion.

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Enacting Employment Practices Besides affecting the emergence of employment relationships, the interpretive schemes, resources, and norms of both managers and employees also likely influence the enactment of particular employment practices. Previous studies already showed that line managers differ in assumptions and understanding of the purpose of HRM roles and practices, which ranged from seeing HRM as a tool for realizing strategic goals to securing employee welfare or developing employee skills (Bondarouk & Ruel, 2009; Keegan & Francis, 2010). Given that interpretive schemes inform human action, these different understandings cause heterogeneity in the way in which line managers practice HRM (Bondarouk et al., 2009). Equally, employees may form different interpretations of employment practices. Different studies find that employees interpret HRM practices either as tools which secure employee well-being and service quality to customers or as managerial means for cutting costs and exploiting workers by getting the most out of them (Nishii et al., 2008; Way, Lepak, Fay, & Thacker, 2010). Employees co-implement HRM practices through engaging in performance talks, attending trainings or participating in participation programs, but do so differently as a result of the differences in interpretive schemes. For example, employees who perceive performance appraisal as a controlling tool, might try to emphasize how well they met performance expectations and so co-produce a different performance management practice than those who view it as an employee development technique and instead emphasize omissions or points-for-improvement. Employees thus may enact employment practices in different ways as a result of differences in interpretive schemes. Furthermore, managers and employees may not share similar understandings, such that we have to attend to the interpretive schemes of both HRM constituents in order to explain how employment practices emerge, with incongruences in such schemes that potentially lead to ineffective HRM (Bondarouk et al., 2009). Furthermore, employees may draw on a range of resources to enact particular employment practices. Whereas human capital can be leveraged to structure the employment relationship, employees with valuable and unique skills can also leverage these to obtain particular desired employment practices (Rousseau et al., 2006). Furthermore, relationships in the form of social capital (e.g., tie strength, trust) and leader member exchanges (e.g., reciprocity) can be deployed as resources that enable employees to structure employment practices (Liao et al., 2009; Zanoni & Janssens, 2007). For example, Zanoni and Janssens (2007) report on a rank-and-file worker who leveraged his outstanding performance to build a favorable leader member exchange relationship, such that he could switch day and nights shifts without consulting his supervisor. Furthermore, extra-role performance of employees, such as co-worker helping may result in strong exchange relationships with their supervisor which employees can leverage to participate in additional trainings, extend job responsibilities or engage in decision-making. Therefore, for understanding how employment practices emerge from employee acts, we may attend to the human and social capital leveraged by employees as these resources

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likely provide power to employees for influencing whether and how employment practices are implemented. Lastly, norms likely influence the enactment of employment practices. The most obvious way in which norms play a role is through coercive and normative institutional pressures (Paauwe & Boselie, 2003). Although rules and regulations prohibit the use of employment practices (e.g., in the Netherlands, the use of particular incentive schemes for bankers is restricted by law) they might also provide employees the ability to negotiate employment practices, while laws impose minimum wage requirements or specify the degree to which employees can engage in participation. As long as employees are aware of these rules and leverage them as a resource, they might help explaining how employment practices emerge. Furthermore, employment practices are dependent on the behavior of employees that reproduces organizational and societal norms. Perlow et al. (2004) for example report that the use of particular reward systems follows from the helping behavior of employees. They find that rewards based on working according to a 9-to-5 schedule reproduce a norm that employees should turn to their supervisor for help, whereas rewards based on output reproduces a norm stating that co-workers should search for help amongst each other. As such, when employees change behavior and reproduce different norms associated with helping (e.g., changing from obtaining help from the supervisor to co-workers), over time this likely results in the use of different rewards systems (Perlow et al., 2004). Therefore, when attending to the norms drawn upon by employees and managers, we can uncover why employment practices are practiced in particular ways, and thus be affected by employees. Enacting Employment Practices’ Outcomes The resources deployed by employees influences the outcomes of employment practices, in terms of the value they provide by satisfying employee needs for competence, autonomy, safety or well-being. As said before, value has no pre-given meaning such that employees can draw different conclusions on the extent to which similar employment practices satisfy their needs. For example, depending on how employees engage during a training, they might satisfy their need for selfactualization and improve their human capital, but also build relationships with other participants (Youndt & Snell, 2004) or satisfy their need for autonomy and relatedness (Marescaux et al., 2013). The reason why employees may perceive different outcomes of similar HRM practices, can be explained by the value-in-use concept (Vargo & Lusch, 2004). Marketing researchers argue that value is created “in use” by consumers, such that the consumer satisfies his personal needs through consuming and utilizing a product or service (Gro¨nroos, 2011; Vargo & Lusch, 2004). Given that consumers have the freedom to use products and services differently, they can develop different perceptions on whether and how products and services meet their needs. As such, to explain how employees enact the outcome of employment practices, we have to attend to how employees — as consumers of HRM services — utilize employment practices for meeting their needs.

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According to Priem (2007), the human capital of consumers allows them to efficiently and effectively tailor the usage of services to meet their needs. Building on this logic, Meijerink (2013) finds that the human capital of employees is positively related to their perceptions of HRM service value, which shows that the knowledge, skills, and abilities of employees constitutes a powerful resource for enacting the outcomes of employment practices. If employees lack relevant knowledge and skills, they can nevertheless turn to co-workers to ask for help in consuming HRM practices, meaning that the outcomes of employment practices can be co-created. As such, the social capital among employees can be applied as a substitute for human capital and as a resource for enacting employment practices’ outcomes. However, the power capacity vested in resources only materializes when resources are being used, which is likely to be contingent on the interpretive schemes and norms drawn upon by employees. For example, employees may not be aware of the potential of the knowledge and skills for consuming HRM services, such that their interpretive schemes prevent them from leveraging human capital for affecting HRM outcomes. Furthermore, employees may enact norms that sanction co-worker helping (Perlow et al., 2004), and so miss out opportunities to leverage their social capital that allow them to enact employment practices’ outcomes. Therefore, we have to holistically examine the interpretive schemes, resources, and norms drawn upon by employees in order to understand how they can influence the outcomes of employment practices.

Discussion and Conclusion Given the need to explain why social innovation for managing the EOR yields desirable outcomes for employers and employees, this study intended to conceptualize how employees influence the EOR. Building on a practice perspective, which argues that the EOR and thus its outcomes are emergent from action, it proposes three ways in which employees shape the EOR: through enacting the employment relationship, employment practices and employment practices’ outcomes. The first two types of act relate to the fact that employees can shape either the employment relationship with their employer or particular employment practices that help to maintain employment relationships. Given that the behavior of both managers and employees is informed by interpretive schemes, resources, and norms, it is likely that these modalities affect the interaction between employees and their supervisors, and thus the EOR. For example, employees may engage in sense giving to shape the interpretive schemes of supervisors on which they draw to provide employment practices that might suit the employees. Furthermore, while employees are involved in co-implementing such practices, they also draw on their own interpretations of HRM and so intentionally or unintentionally enact employment practices in idiosyncratic ways that might not fit either their needs or those of the employer. Employees might also draw on their human and social capital as resources that allow them to implement desirable employment practices themselves or motivate

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their supervisors to do so. From these actions, employment relationships and employment practices emerge, which may, or may not provide desirable inducements for employees. Lastly, the inducements that follow from employment practices are themselves emergent as well, because the potential benefits for employees are not embedded in employment practices, but only manifested “in use.” Employees may differ in the way in which they consume employment practices and so experience different benefits, as a result of differences in interpretations, human capital or norms. Therefore, whether employees may perceive desirable inducements and so provide benefits to the organization by reciprocating employment practices they helped creating, is dependent on the way in which employees (and supervisors) draw upon interpretive schemes, resources, and norms. As such, the predictive power for explaining the benefits of social innovation initiatives such as job crafting or talent management, likely increases when adopting a process perspective for studying how employees practice social innovation, besides testing variance-based hypotheses on the degree to which job crafting, high performance work practices or talent management practices influence outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction, commitment, and job performance) which are desirable for employees and employers. Besides that a practice perspective puts employee actions at center-stage and so helps to go beyond the managerial-centered approach that dominates the EOR literature (Lepak & Boswell, 2012), it might also help explaining phenomena studied in related (sub-)fields. The literature on idiosyncratic deals has called for more research into co-worker reactions to the idiosyncratic deals of a colleague (Hornung et al., 2008). Giddens (1984) argues that conflict among human actors follows from contradictions in social structures, that is, incongruences in rules and resources that different actors draw upon. A practice perspective would therefore argue that co-workers react more negatively in terms of deviant or counterproductive behavior, if the i-dealer (i.e., a colleague who negotiated an idiosyncratic deal) did so by drawing on interpretive schemes, resources, and norms that contradict those drawn upon his/her colleagues. Furthermore, in strategic HRM literature, some have called for research that improves our understanding of the multilevel relationships between macro-level concepts, such as HRM policies and firm performance, and micro-level concepts like employee attitudes and behavior (Guest, 2011; Paauwe, 2009). Although several studies examined top-down effects of HRM policies on employee attitudes and behavior (Liao et al., 2009; Takeuchi, Chen, & Lepak, 2009), studies which examine bottom-up process which describe how employee behavior influences macro-level HRM or firm performance remain scarce. To fill this gap, a practice perspective might be very useful. If we accept the notion that employment practices represent social structures which influence employee behavior as long as that behavior reproduces the social structures, then employee behavior influences employment practices as much as those practices influence employee behavior. Therefore, although traditional conceptualizations suggest a top-down approach which views organizational HRM policies as influencing firm performance through their multilevel influence on micro-level variables such as employee behavior, a practice perspective would argue that organizational HRM policies are emergent phenomena, and so helps to explain

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how HRM policies and thus their effects on firm performance, follow from the bottom-up influences of employee behavior. To better understand these processes, future research can examine whether and how the interpretive schemes, resources and norms of employees and managers influence the enactment of micro HRM practices and how these practices begin to be shared, reproduced and eventually become institutionalized at the organizational level. Although this conceptual study mainly attended to how employees (and their supervisors) might influence the EOR by drawing on modalities related to the EOR, other actors and modalities should not be excluded. In other words, employees do not have all the freedom to enact the EOR as they please. For example, the power of employees to shape desirable employment practices, might also be dependent on their position in the organization structure or social capital with the superior of their supervisor. Further, although it seems logical to study HRM professionals, middle managers and top management, of equal importance, but less studied, are external consultants or business gurus who also influence the enactment of the EOR while they communicate particular interpretive schemes, provide resources and/or suggest norms associated with employment relations and practices. Lastly, although this study mainly focused on desired consequences which employees might actively intend to achieve, it should be stressed that the EOR enactment by employees might also have unintended and less desirable outcomes for employees. Interpretive schemes are to some extent tacit, implying that employees are not always aware of the assumptions on which they act. As such, they might not foresee undesirable outcomes of employment practices, such as increased work overload or stress. Therefore, a practice perspective on the EOR can be applied to study both the intended and unintended outcomes of social innovation, and has to include other actors in order to understand whether and how employees might enact the EOR. To conclude, although this study aimed to conceptualize the overlooked role of employee agency in EORs as a complement to the more traditional managementoriented approach in the EOR literature, previous studies can integrate both perspectives to explore how various actors, both internal and external to the firm, draw on a variety of interpretive schemes, resources and norms to enact the EOR and so explain the benefits of social innovation for both employees and their employers.

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Chapter 8

Global Talent Management in MNCs in the Digital Age: Conceptualizing the GTM ICT Relationship Huub J. M. Rue¨l and Christina Lake

Abstract Purpose — Talent is a critical factor for organizational success. Multinational corporations (MNCs) face the challenge of fierce competition for talent worldwide by increasing their efforts in global talent management (GTM). To improve the strategic alignment of GTM, organizations increasingly incorporate information and communication technology (ICT) applications to support their GTM system. However, not every organization is successful at applying these new opportunities (e-GTM) and aligning them successfully with their organizational strategy. This chapter aims at conceptualizing the relationship between strategic GTM and strategic ICT in an aligned effort. It presents a conceptual framework that identifies four types of MNC approaches to e-GTM. Design/methodology/approach — By means of a review of, both the GTM literature as well as the ICT literature, we connect the two concepts, GTM and ICT into e-GTM, into a framework along two axes: the extent to which MNCs apply GTM (ad hoc vs. strategic) and the scope of ICT in MNCs (operational vs. strategic). Findings — Although the framework identifies four approaches to e-GTM in MNCs, the framework is less black and white than as presented. Companies can display e-GTM characteristics which place them in the gray areas in between each of the profiles. Additionally, we assume that achieving the alignment of strategic GTM and strategic ICT is an iterative process.

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Research limitations/implications — Since strategic alignment is not static but continuously changing, it requires companies to reevaluate their current GTM practices and ICT applications constantly while scanning the external market for new developments in the field of GTM and ICT to ensure the innovative state of their system. Furthermore, we assume that MNCs from high-tech sectors are more successful in supporting their strategic GTM applications with suitable ICT applications than MNCs from low-tech sectors. The study presents a first step toward researching the relationship between strategic GTM and strategic ICT in MNCs. The proposed framework might be used as a foundation for further research studies. Practical implications — The framework presented in this chapter can help MNCs to address the issue of connecting GTM and ICT. Originality/value — The relationship between GTM and ICT have not been conceptualized before. Furthermore, the typology presented in this chapter, with four approaches to ICT-enabled GTM, is a new way of looking at the GTM ICT relationship. Keywords: Global Talent Management; ICT; MNCs; e-HRM; HRIS; Talent

Introduction Today’s international business environment is fast moving, extremely uncertain, and highly competitive. Multinational corporations (MNCs) in particular operate in highly competitive international markets and have to adjust to new technologies and place a greater emphasis on innovation. In this current situation, even though the persistent economic crisis has forced many organizations to downsize their operations, resulting in a surplus of available human capital, it still remains a challenge for organizations to attract, develop, and retain an essential supply of critical talent at the right time and the right location (Tarique & Schuler, 2010). Critical talent is scarce, and scholars indicate that the competition for talent worldwide will grow even fiercer (Mellahi & Collings, 2010). MNCs have to find suitable managerial talent that possesses a demanding skill set necessary to manage their complex international operations (McDonnell, Lamare, Gunnigle, & Lavelle, 2010). Facing these global challenges, scholars and organizations show a strong interest in the field of global talent management (GTM). Global talent management refers to “the systematic utilization of HRM activities on a global scale to identify, attract, develop, and retain high-potential strategic employees who are consistent with the strategic directions of the multinational enterprise in a dynamic, highly competitive, and global environment” (McDonnell et al., 2010, p. 151; Tarique & Schuler, 2010). Along with the challenge of successfully managing their critical talent, organizations have had to face large-scale, tech-driven changes since the 1990s and early

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2000s (Pohle, Korsten, & Ramamurthy, 2005). There is a worldwide adoption of standard communication technologies (e-mail, web, or instant messaging) as well as the more common use of enterprise software packages which lead many companies to have access to the same communication and exchange channels (Pohle et al., 2005). Additionally, transaction costs have been drastically reduced due to open data standards (XML) which facilitate automatic transactions and increase flexibility (Pohle et al., 2005). What the world is experiencing is a strong drive toward a global connectivity platform (Pohle et al., 2005). Considering the importance of GTM for the future success of organizations’ talent management, it seems inevitable that organizations will recognize the potential of information and communication technology (ICT) solutions. Organizations that prove to be more talented in linking strategic GTM and strategic ICT might create a more efficient GTM system and therefore reap larger advantages than their competitors. However, not every organization seems to be able or willing to identify and apply these new opportunities and align them successfully with their organizational strategy. So the question remains, how can organizations successfully combine GTM and ICT to create a competitive advantage in the war for talent? Organizations that operate on a global scale are forced to adjust to a variety of new changes and challenges that affect the global economy. The first challenge is that in today’s knowledge-based world, the quality of a company’s talent is critical to a company’s success (Tarique & Schuler, 2010). However, the current demographic development, more specifically the shrinking and aging population in developed economies and the growing number of young people in developing economies (Beechler & Woodward, 2009; Schuler, Jackson, & Tarique, 2011; Tarique & Schuler, 2010), will eventually result in a drastic labor shortage and require organizations to seek innovative and efficient approaches to attracting, recruiting, and developing two generations of employees (Tarique & Schuler, 2010). Since more and more organizations are relocating parts of their operations to emerging economies (BRIC states), they have to face the challenge of recruiting competent and motivated employees in these new markets (Beechler & Woodward, 2009; Farndale, Scullion, & Sparrow, 2010; Stahl et al., 2007; Tarique & Schuler, 2010). There is a growing recognition that globally competent managerial talent represents a significant impact on an organization’s global business success (Farndale et al., 2010; McDonnell et al., 2010; Scullion, Sparrow, & Farndale, 2011; Stahl et al., 2007). The successful implementation of global strategies is highly dependent on having the right international management talent (Farndale et al., 2010; Scullion et al., 2011). Scullion et al. (2011) state that internationally operating organizations need to implement strategies to manage talent on a global basis in order to remain competitive as well as to tap undetected talent resources that might be located within different parts of their organization (Scullion et al., 2011). While professionals all over the world benefit from the reduction of entry barriers to labor markets (Beechler & Woodward, 2009; Farndale et al., 2010; Stahl et al., 2007), organizations might experience a higher diversity among their workforce and companies have to reconsider their standardized approaches toward

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career paths, development programs, and incentive systems to meet the needs of their changing and more diversified workforce (Beechler & Woodward, 2009). Lastly, MNCs operate within highly diverse markets and have to cope with fierce global competition. This requires them to seek improvement through new technology and strive for a higher level of innovation on a continuous basis, increasing their need for employees with a more demanding skill set (McDonnell et al., 2010). But since talent is becoming scarce, organizations need to extend their internal search to wider labor pools (Farndale et al., 2010), which results in shifting competition for talent between employers from national to regional and global levels (McDonnell et al., 2010; Scullion et al., 2011). The ICT Challenge The second challenge is that most organizations already realize that ICT is an essential element for streamlining organizational processes and achieving organizational success, and therefore many companies invest a large portion of their capital expenditures in their IT department. Especially for global operating companies that aim at realizing a GTM strategy across all subsidiaries, the usage of ICT is crucial to achieving one company-wide GTM approach. The goal is to overcome geographical distances, language barriers, and cultural differences. However, companies still fail at achieving the desired contribution to the overall business goal (Byrd, Lewis, & Bryan, 2006; Yayla & Hu, 2011). There can be different reasons for failure: organizations might have a lack of commitment (cultural and or financial) to the ICT implementation, or they may underestimate how crucial it is to align ICT with the overall business strategy, or they may simply fail to achieve such an alignment (Yayla & Hu, 2011). The literature indicates that the alignment of ICT and business strategy positively influences IT performance (Ciborra, 1997; Galliers, 1991; Porter, 1987 as cited in Avison, Jones, Powell, & Wilson, 2004) and additionally has a direct positive effect on the overall firm performance (Byrd et al., 2006), market growth, innovation, etc. (Yayla & Hu, 2011). It therefore seems necessary for companies to tackle all these issues and find a way to create a harmonizing cooperation between ICT, GTM processes, and business goals. The Aim of this Chapter Organizations around the world are facing the challenge of attracting, developing, and retaining a necessary pool of critical talent (Tarique & Schuler, 2010). Therefore, more and more organizations have decided to develop a GTM system that enables them to effectively manage their talent on a global scale. Developing a GTM system without the inclusion of ICT is unthinkable, however. Due to the continuous advancements in the field of ICT, organizations can select from a large number of new ICT tools that have the potential to improve their business processes. Nevertheless, some organizations still struggle to actively integrate the concept of GTM or invest in ICT, while others successfully embrace these new

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opportunities which are generated by ICT and effectively combine them with their GTM practices. The aim of this chapter is to conceptualize the relationship between strategic GTM and strategic ICT in MNCs. This conceptualization will allow a clearer insight into the alignment of strategic GTM and strategic ICT and will help us to understand how to view these two concepts. The chapter is arranged as follows: first, we shall present a review of the GTM literature and of the literature on ICT in HRM. The concept of ICT has been discussed extensively over the past few decades, but the literature on ICT in HRM issues, the field from which GTM originates, is of a much more recent date. The result will be a conceptualization of the relationship between GTM (in MNCs) and ICT. After that a reflection, conclusions, and a research agenda will follow.

Global Talent Management: A Review of the Literature The topic of GTM is the focus of growing interest among practitioners (Scullion et al., 2011). More and more organizations recognize its value for organizational success. However, a study by Ready and Conger (2007) found that practically all of the participating global companies lacked an adequate talent pipeline to fill strategic positions within the organization, which significantly limited their ability to grow their business (Ready & Conger, 2007 as cited in Collings & Mellahi, 2009). To increase the practical applicability, academic authors need to invest more time in research to increase the academic foundation of GTM. So far, a certain clarity regarding the definition of scope and overall goals of talent management is lacking (Lewis & Heckman, 2006; Mellahi & Collings, 2010; Scullion et al., 2011). According to Scullion et al. (2010), a first step to achieve clarity might be to differentiate between GTM and International Human Resource Management (IHRM). Tarique and Schuler (2010) state that there are significant differences between the two subjects. IHRM reacts to a variety of stakeholder concerns (stakeholders can be “customers, investors, suppliers, employees, society and the organization itself”) (Tarique & Schuler, 2010). It therefore has broader concerns than solely attracting, developing, and retaining employees, and includes a wider set of HR policies and practices. The bottom line is that, “GTM is a much more focused topic, or issue, similar to diversity management or knowledge management” and therefore should be examined in the context of IHRM (Tarique & Schuler, 2010). Iles, Chuai, and Preece (2010) found that (Global) Talent Management applies a rather direct focus upon a specific group of employees, and stimulates segmentation of the workforce (“TM emphasizes a differentiated distribution of resources”), and (Global) Talent Management mainly engages in attracting and retaining talents in contrast to IHRM. This distinction might become clearer after screening more specific definitions of GTM. Reviewing the GTM literature produces a vast number of GTM definitions. As mentioned above, scholars mainly agree that a consistent definition of GTM is lacking (Lewis & Heckman, 2006; Mellahi & Collings, 2010; Scullion et al., 2011).

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Quite often, the meaning seems to depend on the context the term is applied in (Tarique & Schuler, 2011). Lewis and Heckman (2006) reviewed the GTM literature and identified three key streams of thought: The first one refers to authors who regard talent management as a new synonym for HRM. In their understanding, GTM consists of a compilation of standard HR department practices, functions, or activities (e.g., recruitment, selection, development, and career and succession management) (Lewis & Heckman, 2006). The second stream consists of authors who mainly focus on the talent pool approach. According to them, TM is about creating a process that aims to ensure a consistent and sufficient flow of employees into positions across the organization. Lewis and Heckman (2006) indicate that this perception of TM is quite close to what is generally known as succession planning or HR planning but includes standard HRM practices as well (Lewis & Heckman, 2006). The third stream is mainly concerned with a differentiated approach to managing talented people. Lewis and Heckman (2006) identified two perspectives of the generic talent stream. Articles that belong to the first perspective promote the management of talent, based on performance levels. This can be achieved via two approaches, either all positions within the organization should be filled with “A-performers” from the start, or the company should strictly terminate “C-players” and thus improve the overall quality of its talent (Lewis & Heckman, 2006). The second perspective views all talent as essential to a company’s success and considers it the task of the HR department to stimulate everyone in the organization to a higher performance (Lewis & Heckman, 2006). In addition to the three streams identified by Lewis and Heckman (2006), Collings and Mellahi (2009) identified a fourth stream in the GTM literature which promotes the identification of so-called “key positions” within the firm. According to Boudreau and Ramstad (2005) and Huselid, Beatty, and Becker (2005) (both cited in Collings & Mellahi, 2009), “key positions” can have a significant impact on a company’s competitive advantage. These authors emphasize that organizations should differentiate between strategic and non-strategic roles within the company and increasingly focus on the strategic jobs (Collings & Mellahi, 2009). Even though these four streams create a notion of the meaning of GTM, a distinctive definition is still missing. Several authors attempted to correct the drawback. Scullion, Collings, and Caligiuri stated, “Global talent management includes all organizational activities for the purpose of attracting, selecting, developing, and retaining the best employees in the most strategic roles (those roles necessary to achieve organizational strategic priorities) on a global scale. Global talent management takes into account the differences in both organizations’ global strategic priorities as well as the differences across national contexts for how talent should be managed in the countries where they operate” (Scullion et al., 2011). The key aspect in this definition is that it is narrowed down to a core group of employees; it emphasizes the international focus in which GTM should be applied, it states clearly the functions which GTM should fulfill, and it especially emphasizes that GTM needs to adjust to different national contexts (Scullion et al., 2011).

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Collings and Mellahi (2009) attempted to establish their own GTM definition. To them, GTM is “activities and processes that involve the systematic identification of key positions which differentially contribute to the organization’s sustainable competitive advantage, the development of a talent pool of high potential and high performing incumbents to fill these roles, and the development of a differentiated human resource architecture to facilitate filling these positions with competent incumbents and to ensure their continued commitment to the organization” (Collings & Mellahi, 2009). The definitions of Scullion et al. (2011) and Collings and Mellahi (2009) place a strong emphasis on identifying key positions or in other words the most strategic roles which are highly essential to an organization’s success and starting from developing a talent pool that is suitable to fill these positions. Collings and Mellahi (2009) fail to implement the global orientation and the adjustment to different cultures within their definition which is a crucial part of GTM. We therefore consider the definition of Scullion et al. (2011) as more suitable for this chapter.

Global Talent Management System Agreeing on a GTM definition is essential to determine the boundaries of the term. Nevertheless, GTM is a concept that is practically applied. It is therefore necessary to outline the ways in which organizations implement practices and processes to meet the challenges of the current labor market and succeed in establishing a strategic GTM system. However, McDonnell et al. (2010) indicated that the talent management literature so “far failed to achieve consensus on what an organization might do to effectively manage its talent.” McDonnell et al. (2010) refer in their article to McCauley and Wakefield (2006), who briefly note that talent management involves workforce planning, talent gap analysis, recruiting, staffing, education and development, retention, talent reviews, succession planning, and evaluation (McDonnell et al., 2010). This list, however, lacks further explanations about how these practices should be implemented and what effect they might have and therefore fails to contribute to a better understanding of how to successfully realize GTM. Tarique and Schuler (2010), who view GTM in the context of IHRM, found in their GTM literature review that MNCs use three main sets of IHRM activities (Figure 1) in order to cope with the various talent challenges: (I) Attracting Talent, (II) Developing Talent, and (III) Retaining Talent (Tarique & Schuler, 2010). The authors explain that attracting talent combines three main IHRM activities. The first one is developing HR reputation. Research in this field focuses on the concept of organizational attractiveness and factors that might influence an individual’s attraction to organizations which are essential to effective branding. A second activity is attracting individuals with an interest in international work. Third, most organizations use a talent pool strategy in order to recruit vis-a`-vis positions (Tarique & Schuler, 2010). The second step is developing talent, which is related to developing executives for global leadership responsibility. According to Tarique and Schuler’s literature

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Figure 1:

Talent management stages (Stahl et al., 2007).

review, this refers to essential competencies necessary to work successfully in a global environment and models how to develop them. However, the question of whether everyone benefits equally from development efforts has not yet been answered. Therefore, it might be important to understand who will benefit the most from certain kinds of development instruments (Tarique & Schuler, 2010). The final element, retaining talent, focuses on how to manage the return of expatriates more successfully in order to prevent their turnover as well as increase employee engagement (Tarique & Schuler, 2010). Stahl et al. (2007) conducted a study about talent management processes and practices in a sample of 37 MNCs. They agree with the findings of Tarique and Schuler (2010) that GTM means to (I) Attract, (II) Develop, and (III) Retain talent. Based on their research findings, they created a summary of best practices for each of these three areas (see Table 1). Additionally, the study shows that companies that excel at talent management succeed not only in utilizing best practices but are able to ensure internal consistency and affirm their practices to “attract, select, develop, evaluate and retain talent, as well as closely align those practices with the corporate culture, business strategy and long-term organizational goals” (Stahl et al., 2007). In a paper from 2012, Stahl, Bjo¨rkman, Farndale et al. confirm that competitive advantage in talent management is not simply created by identifying key activities (e.g., the above-mentioned attracting, developing, and retaining talent) and then improving them by introducing “best practices.” Their research indicates that successful companies have in common that they place strong emphasis on upholding six key principles: i. ii. iii. iv.

Alignment with strategy Internal consistency Cultural embeddedness Management involvement

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Table 1: Summary of GTM best practices (Stahl et al., 2007). Recruitment and Staffing • Talent pool strategy rather than hiring for specific positions • Close relationships with leading schools and universities • Highly selective hiring • Compelling “employee value position” and strong emphasis on global branding • Focus on values and cultural fit, not just job-related skills and experience • Continued assessment of both performance and potential, using multiple inputs • Grading against competency profile of successful leaders • Use of talent inventories for selection and succession purposes • Different talent pools (executive, specialist, etc.) with different career paths Training and Development • Leadership development is top priority and deeply ingrained in culture • Promotion-from-within policy • Continuous assessment of training needs and feedback (360-degree reviews) • Individual development plans linked to succession planning process • Job rotation and international transfers as career development tools • Line manager involvement (coaching, mentoring, job shadowing, etc.) • Use of open job positioning system and internal talent marketplaces Retention Management • Continuous monitoring of attrition rates by performance level • Highly competitive compensation, particularly long-term wealth accumulation • Personalized career plans and broadening assignments • Senior management attention • Flexible working arrangements and other work-life balance practices • Diversity programs designed to develop, retain, and promote diverse talent v. A balance of global and local needs vi. Employer branding through differentiation (Stahl et al., 2012). Another group (Hartmann, Feisel, & Schober, 2010), used a talent management research framework by Groves (2007). The framework indicates that the first step in implementing a talent management strategy is the identification of talent. According to the article by Lewis and Heckman (2006), this approach can be categorized as belonging to the third stream, since it mainly focuses on the management of talented people. The second step is the implementation of developmental activities. Figure 2 shows that the visibility of talent is considered an important outcome of the first two steps and ensures the continuous identification of new talent. This is in line with the point of view that “availability of talent per se is of little strategic value if it is not identified, nurtured and used effectively” (Mellahi & Collings, 2010). The third step, according to Groves, is to plan employee succession, followed

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Figure 2:

Talent management framework by Groves (2007).

by establish mentoring relationships, and all these activities should aim at building an organizational culture of leadership development (Hartmann et al., 2010). The authors justified their choice of the framework by stating that it doesn’t apply an isolated focus on the identification and development of talent or the enhancement of motivation and commitment but considers the establishment of a differentiated HR architecture as important as well (Hartmann et al., 2010). The article by Collings and Mellahi (2009) follows a strategic approach to talent management. Their framework is distinguishable from the other three frameworks based on the initial point. Collings and Mellahi (2009) emphasize that especially the identification of pivotal positions is crucial since they have a significant impact on the sustainable competitive advantage of the company. The following step is the development of a talent pool of high-performing employees with high potential which is used to fill key positions, and finally the implementation of a differentiated HR architecture to facilitate the filling of key positions with suitable and competent talents and to secure their commitment to the company (Collings & Mellahi, 2009). It is clear that their approach focuses mainly on attracting or identifying highperforming employees but does not explain how to develop or retain talent once they are part of the organization. While reviewing the possible means of applying GTM systems, it becomes apparent that organizations display similar as well as different approaches toward GTM. McDonnell et al. (2010) reviewed possible contextual factors that might influence the application of GTM practices, which resulted in a list of possible factors influencing the use or non-use of GTM practices: (I) Country of origin as possible explanation for divergent HR practices: The national institutional contexts (e.g., governance systems, training and development systems) play a major role in determining the strategies and structures of organizations (Almond & Ferner, 2006; Morgan, Kristensen, & Whitley, 2001 as cited in McDonnell et al., 2010). Therefore, differences in management approaches may be the product of a MNC’s national background (McDonnell et al., 2010). (II) Sector: Studies indicated that training and development practices may be sector-specific (Tregaskis, Heraty, & Morley, 2001 as cited in McDonnell et al.,

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2010). A given example is that especially the high-tech industries experience a fierce war for talent. McDonnell et al. (2010) therefore assumed that high-tech sectors are more likely to apply formalized GTM practices, but their research showed that “traditional manufacturing MNEs have the highest levels of global succession planning (68 per cent), followed by MNEs operating in retail, hotels and distribution (67 per cent). Just over half (51 per cent) of all MNEs in hightech manufacturing have a global system” (McDonnell et al., 2010, p. 154). (III) Number of employees: Research indicates that the application of formal HR and training and development systems is positively associated with employment growth (Speth & Doeringer, 2006; Tregaskis et al., 2001 as cited in McDonnell et al., 2010). Therefore, McDonnell et al. (2010) assumes that GTM will be more likely to take place in larger MNCs. (IV) Product or service standardization: In MNCs where global product/service standardization exists, it seems more likely that management functions, such as HR, logistics, and purchasing, and logically talent management may be standardized globally (Edwards, Colling, & Ferner, 2007 as cited in McDonnell et al., 2010). (V) Presence of a global HR policy formation body: Previous research found that MNCs with a global HR policy formation body are more committed to the development of internationally competent managers. Therefore, the existence of such a body in MNCs is likely to be associated with a stronger focus on formal GTM (Marginson, Armstrong, Edwards, & Purcell, 1995 as cited in McDonnell et al., 2010). Mellahi and Collings (2010) argue in their article that there are two major barriers which talent management in organizations has to overcome. The authors assume, based on bounded rationality, that in order to fully comprehend the talent situation in an organization, decision-makers have to go through a complicated and appalling process (of reviewing and judging information) which surpasses the skills of most if not all managers. Therefore, managers make decisions based on insufficient amounts of information (Mellahi & Collings, 2010). The second barrier is based on the agency theory. The authors propose that subsidiary managers primarily care about protecting their interests. Therefore, it seems most likely that they will try to keep their most talented employees because recommending them to the headquarters will produce no gain for the subsidiary (Mellahi & Collings, 2010).

ICT for HRM and GTM In an article by Zuppo, the author states that “the primary definition of information and communication technologies revolves around the devices and infrastructures that facilitate the transfer of information through digital means” (Zuppo, 2012). IT investments are becoming increasingly crucial to organizational success, and ill-fitting decisions in the IT department can have a severe effect on an

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organization’s ability to react to changes in the market (Schlosser, Wagner, & Coltman, 2012). Research in the field of business and IT stresses that even though many companies invest a large portion of their capital expenditures in their IT department, they still fail at achieving the desired contribution to the overall business goal (Byrd et al., 2006; Yayla & Hu, 2011). Researching this issue of IT inefficiency has led to an extensive body of literature that states that without strategic alignment between IT and business strategy, companies cannot be successful (Avison et al., 2004; Schlosser et al., 2012). The bottom line in the literature is that strategic alignment positively influences IT performance (Ciborra, 1997; Galliers, 1991; Porter, 1987 as cited in Avison et al., 2004) and additionally has a direct positive effect on the overall firm performance (Byrd et al., 2006). However, in many organizations, the senior management regards IT more as an additional expense than an actual enabler of business value (Avison et al., 2004). As a result, strategic alignment remains one of the key challenges IT executives have to face (Schlosser et al., 2012; Yayla & Hu, 2011). ICT and HRM A further stream of literature examines the direct effect of ICT on HRM. The role of HR professionals has evolved from being mainly administrative focused, to becoming more relational and finally transforming into a more distinctly strategic role (Bondarouk & Furtmueller, 2012). In order to improve the strategic orientation of HRM, reduce costs, improve efficiency, and the client service management, organizations increasingly incorporate ICT into HRM (Rue¨l, Bondarouk, & Looise, 2004). The outcome is an increased “electronization” of HRM (Strohmeier, 2007). The term which is used in this context is e-HRM. In his review Strohmeier (2007) explains that in the past decade there has been growing academic interest in the subject of e-HRM, which resulted in a number of academic articles and books. However, a consistent definition of e-HRM is lacking. Bondarouk and Rue¨l (2009) introduced one which has been accepted by e-HRM researchers participating at two different conferences. They state that e-HRM should be considered an “umbrella term which covers all possible integration mechanism and contents between HRM and Information Technologies aiming at creating value within and across organizations for targeted employees and management” (Bondarouk & Rue¨l, 2009). However, it is important to differentiate between HRIS and e-HRM. The term e-HRM was established later than HRIS and distinguished itself from the academic field of HRIS. While HRIS is particularly aimed at reducing the administrative burden of HR departments, e-HRM may enable strategic service improvements and lead to a change of roles for HR professionals (Bondarouk & Furtmueller, 2012). Expected outcomes of e-HRM There are contradictory results regarding the expected outcomes of e-HRM. Additionally, with the shift from HRIS to e-HRM,

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the focus of the application switched to internal customers (Bondarouk & Furtmueller, 2012). HR professionals are more actively engaged in organizational change and as a result are perceived as business partners whose competences are increasingly focused on business issues (Bondarouk & Furtmueller, 2012). In this context it seems crucial that e-HRM provides the opportunity to store, align, and manage employee data in a more sophisticated way and can play an instrumental role in employee planning. It seems that bigger companies (more than 500 employees) store and analyze larger amounts of data, and have high expectations that the analysis of employee data will help to achieve strategic goals (Bondarouk & Furtmueller, 2012). In their book, Rue¨l et al. (2004) explain that expectations about the implementation of web-enabled, self-service HR systems include: decreased HR costs, time savings by the HR department and employees in general, improved information distribution, increased space for employees to manage their own personal data, and an improved strategy function for the HR department (Alexander, 2001 as cited in Rue¨l et al., 2004). The authors state that all these outcomes are confirmed in a scientific paper by Lepak and Snell (1998) but that these “four pressures” can be reduced to only three: I. Improving the strategic orientation of HRM II. Cost reduction/efficiency gains III. Client service improvement/facilitating management and employees Bell, Lee, and Yeung (2006) came to a similar conclusion, mentioning cost reduction, enhanced efficiency of HR function, enhanced effectiveness of HR function, and shifting the focus from administrative to strategic activities as the main outcomes of e-HRM (Bell et al., 2006). Strohmeier (2007) found in his literature review that e-HRM can have a significant impact on increasing the productivity of the HR department, which allows an organization to reduce its HR staff. e-HRM enables faster processing and increased information responsiveness to its customers and more information autonomy for HR. Further, e-HRM leads to cost reduction, reduces administrative burdens as a result of automation, and shifts responsibilities from HR to line managers and employees (Strohmeier, 2007). Regarding the increased globalization of organizations, e-HRM can be an aid to connect separated actors, standardize HR and tackle hurdles of different cultures and language (Strohmeier, 2007). Some studies found evidence that e-HRM resulted in increased knowledge creation, capture, transfer, and use, created a more open culture, and enabled employees to notice people with the same competencies (Bondarouk & Furtmueller, 2012). Another outcome seems to be that the implementation of e-HRM positively influences a company’s image, making the company seem more modern and progressive (Bondarouk & Furtmueller, 2012). Additionally, Rue¨l et al. (2004) argued that the use of e-HRM increases the visibility of possible career paths in an organization, which stimulates a more transparent and flexible internal labor market and facilitates the identification of the company’s own talent (Bondarouk & Furtmueller, 2012). Other outcomes of e-HRM implementation are better communication, cooperation

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and higher employee satisfaction (Bondarouk & Furtmueller, 2012). One study showed that if applied locally, e-HRM even positively affects employee retention (Bondarouk & Furtmueller, 2012). However, Strohmeier (2007) stressed that the expected outcomes of e-HRM should be viewed with a certain caution. He argues that efficiency is rather difficult to measure, and that proven efficiency gains might not be completely correct due to the fact that certain HR tasks are simply shifted somewhere else (Strohmeier, 2007). Implementation factors of e-HRM The crucial elements of successful e-HRM implementation are not the technological factors, as would be expected; rather, the people management factors were identified as essential for the success of any e-HRM implementation (Bondarouk & Furtmueller, 2012). Furthermore, it was found that even though large firms are more likely to implement e-HRM, small firms are more often successful in implementing it (Bondarouk & Furtmueller, 2012). Additionally, organizations that generally rely on high telecommuting adopt e-HRM more often (Bondarouk & Furtmueller, 2012). Close collaboration between different departments, in the form of for example cross-functional project teams consisting of HR and IT, critically influences the successful implementation of e-HRM (Bondarouk & Furtmueller, 2012). It appears that cultures which are more IT-friendly have greater success with e-HRM than others (Bondarouk & Furtmueller, 2012). Leaders must have the right mindset toward the e-HRM implementation and support and encourage it to stimulate a higher acceptance among employees (Bondarouk & Furtmueller, 2012). Bondarouk & Furtmueller (2012) mentioned that psychological factors like level of trust, group morale, workplace distress, and security and privacy fears should be targeted when implementing e-HRM. The mindset of employees toward e-HRM should be regarded as a major influential factor (Bondarouk & Furtmueller, 2012). The findings of Bondarouk’s review conclude that internal marketing as well as open communication with different stakeholders can strongly impact the implementation of e-HRM.

Concluding the Literature Review Taking together all the views discussed above, it becomes apparent that different scholars still support different ideas about GTM and partly disagree about which HR practices should be included in the term GTM. This is mainly due to the fact that GTM remains a rather new concept that still requires a solid foundation of theory building and research. However, for the purpose of this paper, the literature review has shown that the definition of Scullion et al. (2011) is the most appropriate one. Global talent management includes all organizational activities for the purpose of attracting, selecting, developing, and retaining the best employees in the most strategic roles (those roles necessary to achieve organizational strategic priorities) on a global scale. Global talent management takes into account the differences in both organizations’ global strategic priorities as well as the differences across national contexts for how talent should be managed in the countries where they operate (Scullion et al., 2011).

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Scullion et al. (2011) succeeded in creating a definition that includes the importance of identifying the key positions most crucial to an organization’s success: they clearly state that GTM is everything connected to attracting, selecting, developing, and retaining the most qualified employees; they emphasize the international focus in which GTM should be applied; and they indicate the need to find a fit between a company’s global strategic priorities and the different cultural environments in which subsidiaries operate. We defined the term ICT as “The application of science to the processing of data according to programmed instructions in order to derive results. In the widest sense, ICT includes all communications, information and related technology. The term Information Technology (IT) is used in a narrower sense, typically excluding telecommunications (voice) technology while including data networks (although almost all networks today are digital), as a reference to the systems that support information processing” (Zuppo, 2012). The literature review showed that ICT can have a strong impact on organizational performance and innovation (Rue¨l et al., 2004). Additionally, ICT has the potential to change the HRM department to become more strategy-oriented, costefficient, and effective, and it can improve the client service management (Rue¨l et al., 2004). In that context we define IT/Business alignment and introduce the idea of strategic ICT adoption. Strategic alignment refers to the fit between the IT strategy and business strategy in organizations which enables organizations to use their IT resources more effectively in order to support their overall company strategy (Henderson & Venkatraman, 1993). Strategic ICT adoption means the combination of strategic ICT planning and an appropriate ICT adoption strategy to ensure that an organization implements ICT applications that can create a competitive advantage (Peansupap & Walker, 2004). e-HRM should be regarded as an “umbrella term which covers all possible integration mechanisms and content between HRM and Information Technologies aiming at creating value within and across organizations for targeted employees and management” (Bondarouk & Rue¨l, 2009).

E-GTM: Global Talent Management in the Digital Age The final step is to conceptualize the relationship between strategic GTM and strategic ICT in MNCs in a conceptual framework. The framework is an attempt to visualize companies’ different approaches regarding the implementation and strategic alignment of ICT and GTM. The main assumption is that the strategic orientation of a GTM system and an ICT system is essential to reap greater benefits. In this context ICT is not only regarded as an enabler of GTM but might be able to form a cooperation that gives companies the opportunity to create a sustainable competitive advantage if they succeed in aligning both concepts with each other and with their company strategy. Therefore, the better a company is at strategically aligning those two concepts with each other, the more successful they are in realizing their overall organizational strategy.

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The matrix, which is based on the findings of the literature review, shows four quadrants that differ on two axes: ICT and GTM. ICT Dimension The first axis reflects the characteristics of the implemented ICT system. It varies from operational use of ICT to strategic use of ICT. Companies that score low on the strategic ICT dimension integrate basic ICT systems that increase the efficiency and reduce the costs of the operational functions of the organization. Common goals are to reduce the administrative workload, invest in digital data storing, etc. However, companies that score high on the ICT dimension aim at using ICT to analyze their employee data, detect high potentials faster, predict future shortcomings in their talent supply, and facilitate communication across entities. They might use ICT to facilitate knowledge exchange between employees and stimulate further skill development. Organizations that use ICT strategically have processes in place to continuously monitor the outcome of the ICT implementation to ensure it is in line with the company strategy, and they are always scanning the external market for ways to improve their ICT system. GTM Dimension The second axis illustrates two different approaches companies can pursue in order to tackle the challenge of GTM. The dimension varies between strategic GTM on one end and ad hoc use of GTM on the other. Companies that score low on the GTM dimension acknowledge the need to manage their talent in a more strategic manner and attempt to adjust their HRM processes; however, the actions taken do not reflect the actual long-term needs of the organization due to a lack of understanding of how to translate the company strategy into strategic GTM practices. These companies implement a GTM system that reacts to current local shortcomings but misses the strategic long-term orientation. On the other hand, companies that score high on the GTM dimension understood which talent and what kind of skills are needed to realize the overall company strategy, and they succeeded in translating these needs into a consistent GTM strategy across subsidiaries which is aligned with the overall company strategy (Figure 3). Quadrant A: E-GTM’er In the top right-hand corner of the matrix, we find companies that apply a strategic GTM system combined with advanced and more strategically planned ICT applications. We can argue that companies aiming at a strategic GTM system start by identifying pivotal talent positions within their organization (Collings & Mellahi, 2009), as well as skills the organization might need in the future to achieve its strategic goals. Once these positions and skills are identified, it is most crucial to develop

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Strategic GTM (high)

GTM skewed

E-GTM’er

E-GTM Novice

ICT skewed

Ad hoc use of GTM (low) Operational use of ICT

Figure 3:

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GTM ICT matrix.

a talent pool that is able to fill them (Collings & Mellahi, 2009). This means e-GTM’er do not rely on vacancy-led recruitment but recruit ahead of the curve (Collings & Mellahi, 2009). They do this by recruiting the best and then finding a suitable position for them in the company (Stahl et al., 2007). Generally, these companies follow an active approach in recruiting, if they cannot rely solely on their exceptional image as a good employer, which means that they actively work on their company image as an employer and engage increasingly in close relationships with leading universities to attract the attention of students early (Stahl et al., 2007). This does not mean that these organizations rely solely on external recruitment. It remains essential for the e-GTM’er to keep track of the internal talent pool and give their employees access to development programs and enable them to grow within the company. Finally, there is no universal HR architecture that ensures a company’s success in creating a strategic GTM approach. E-GTM’ers understand how to deploy HR practices that comply with the individual context of each organization. To increase the attractiveness of the workplace, the organization might offer work-life balance practices that grant employees more flexibility regarding working arrangements, which is an important factor especially for women. The ICT application of the e-GTM’er is determined by an ICT-friendly culture (ICT-supportive senior management, ICT Department with training capabilities, acceptance of new ICT systems by the workforce) and high commitment to invest in new ICT solutions in order to streamline the working process of the HR department. The main focus is to keep track of talent and back up the strategic goal of the organization. It ensures that the HRM department has access to up-to-date potential- and performance-related data of their employees, which can be accessed and supplemented by individual employees and managers. This includes information about employee competence profiles (performance and feedback), training possibilities, an internal job board that facilitates employees switching jobs within the organization, etc. The advantage of keeping track of talent is that it enables the HR department to identify upcoming shortages of specific talent, facilitates the filling of open positions within the firm with the most appropriate talent, and helps managers to notice which talents might be most suitable for an open position or specific competence

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development offers. By deploying e-recruitment, not only is the administrative workload of the HR department reduced, but the HR department is able to view all available applicants easily at one glance and facilitate the identification and the matching of the best employees. The improved ICT application results in streamlining the HRM/GTM process and facilitates the sharing of data, considering that many organizations operate worldwide. Quadrant B: GTM Skewed In the top left-hand corner of the matrix, we find companies that employ strategic GTM which they support with operational ICT that lacks strategic alignment with the GTM system or the organizational strategy. The GTM skewed value the identification of pivotal talent positions and skill sets within their company (just like the e-GTM’er), which they will require to achieve future organizational goals. They reflect these needs in an appropriate talent pool strategy, which allows them to attract and recruit the desired workforce. They additionally adjust their GTM practices and provide their employees with internal development programs and internal recruiting opportunities. They understand that it is crucial to bind their pivotal employees to their organization and apply a commitment-oriented HR system that is based on motivation, commitment, and development, and it requires developing a longer-term relational psychological contract between organization and employee (Collings & Mellahi, 2009). Unlike the e-GTM’er, the GTM skewed is less committed to its ICT system. The reason might be financial considerations or a company culture that remains skeptical of certain ICT solutions (Yayla & Hu, 2011). The result is that ICT functions are implemented with the main purpose of keeping track of information and processes. This means ICT is used to store and share information as well as knowledge about procedures, with less emphasis on increasing the visibility of the actual talent and their competences within the company. One problem is that only a limited group of people has access to the different databases of the company. This leaves the HR department responsible for filling in all the necessary employee data, which increases its administrative workload and complicates and prolongs the analysis of all available data of employees and applicants. Additional problems might arise when multiple subsidiaries have to access the same data due to different technological standards or language used, etc. All these elements hinder the efficiency of the HR department and complicate the talentreviewing process which is so essential to finding the right people for the right positions. Quadrant C: E-GTM Novice Located in the bottom left-hand corner of the matrix are companies that follow a less strategic approach regarding GTM as well as ICT. Companies have various reasons for following the e-GTM Novice approach: e.g., lack of expertise or motivation to strategically align GTM and ICT, lack of need, or lack of financial

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commitment. Lack of need refers to companies that operate on a global scale but whose local business units mainly execute basic tasks. Strategic organizational operations are executed at the headquarters level. These organizations do not consider it as necessary to develop highly skilled and trained talent for the local business units but concentrate their talent management solely on their headquarters. They display some degree of strategic talent management, but it is not executed on a global scale. Lack of expertise and motivation refers to companies that operate on a global scale but do not recognize the potential of implementing strategic GTM system support with strategic ICT applications. It is possible that senior executives are not supportive of extensive investment in ICT or the company culture does not stimulate the extensive use of ICT tools. The characteristics of companies that follow an e-GTM Novice approach do not reflect their long-term organizational strategy, nor do their recruiting efforts. Their GTM system is not based on identifying pivotal talent positions required to achieve the organizational goals. They do not deploy a talent pool strategy, recruitment is mainly vacancy-led; once a position opens up, these organizations recruit talent to fill it. As soon as employees enter the organization, training and development opportunities might be offered but are less individually oriented regarding competences or the strategic importance of different employee groups. The assessment of training needs and feedback may occur less frequently since it is not backed up by a user-friendly ICT system that can be accessed by various employees, which aggravates the feedback process and increases the administrative workload of the HR department and the responsible managers. Similar to the GTM skewed, the e-GTM Novice has less financial and cultural commitment toward ICT solutions. The HR department uses different ICT tools to manage the employee data; however, the usage is clearly limited to operational tasks of the HRM department. This is reflected in different elements, as analyzing the current talent situation is a difficult administrative process and quite laborintensive, and tools like internal job posting, training and development offers are less sophisticated. Sharing information across subsidiaries either does not occur or is aggravated by different ICT systems, language barriers, or filing systems.

Quadrant D: ICT Skewed In the bottom right-hand corner of the matrix, we find companies that show a clear commitment to invest in new ICT solutions in order to streamline the working process within the organization and more specifically the HRM department. The GTM approach of these companies is more ad hoc; it is regarded as a necessary function but not treated as a crucial strategic element that needs to be aligned with the overall organizational strategy and applied globally. Therefore, there is no long-term planning which results in the identification of pivotal talent positions. They do not deploy a talent pool strategy, recruitment is mainly vacancy-led; once a position opens up, these organizations recruit talent to fill it. However, ICT skewed companies are characterized by an ICT-friendly culture, which means the presence of an ICT-supportive senior management, an ICT department that has the capability to

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train employees in using different ICT tools, and the general capability of the workforce to accept new ICT systems. In addition, ICT skewed companies most likely implement an employee database that enables access to up-to-date potential- and performance-related data. They might have a tool-enabling e-recruitment and offer their employees multiple opportunities to seek job training-related information on the company platform.

Limitations to the Study There are a number of limitations to this chapter. The literature review is restricted to studies published in international peer-reviewed journals. In addition, language restrictions limited the search to articles published in English and German. Consequently, additional research which is published in books, unpublished papers, or other languages may be available and therefore could be included. The matrix, which was developed to visualize the research objective of this paper, lacks a sound theoretical foundation. This is due to the fact that at the present moment, a theory for connecting strategic GTM and strategic ICT is lacking. The matrix was developed on basis of the findings of the literature review. However, screening the literature shows that there are still various shortcomings which have to be considered while evaluating the results. Lewis and Heckman (2006) indicated that the contribution of the GTM literature might lack significance since many of these papers lack a systematic link to peer-reviewed, research-based findings and are mainly rooted in exhortation and anecdote (Lewis & Heckman, 2006). Even though authors agree about the goal of GTM, there is still a lack of understanding of which components have to be implemented to realize a GTM system and the means necessary to achieve it (McDonnell et al., 2010). This makes it difficult for practitioners and organizations to successfully implement it. A similar problem is present within the field of the ICT literature. Only two papers attempted to provide a definition of ICT (Zuppo, 2012). Additionally, research still needs to clearly identify the value contribution of ICT in order to justify future investments in technology as well as understanding how these information systems can be successfully implemented (Scott & Watson, 2012). So far, researchers assume that ICT has a positive impact on organizational performance, increases efficiency and reduces costs (Barba-sa´nchez, Martı´ nez-ruiz, & Jime´nezzarco, 2007; Byrd et al., 2006). The question remains of whether this is true. The introduced matrix is based on the concept of alignment (aligning strategic GTM and strategic ICT with the organizational strategy), and even though various authors were able to identify enablers and inhibitors of alignment, there is still a lack of information in the academic literature on how to achieve strategic alignment within organizations (Chan & Reich, 2007). Some authors offered examples of where to start and how to continue the process of strategic alignment, but the proposed theories and methods have not been practically tested in realistic circumstances and therefore need to be viewed with caution (Avison et al., 2004).

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Future Research This chapter’s proposed framework and conceptualization give a preliminary insight into the relationship between strategic GTM and strategic ICT in MNCs. In this section, a future research agenda is outlined. Tarique and Schuler (2010) indicate that GTM is a rather new multi-disciplinary field of enquiry. A large part of the existing GTM research lacks a solid theoretical foundation and is mainly based on anecdotal or limited information. In order to support the field of GTM with the necessary theoretical foundation, more theoretical perspectives or conceptual frameworks should be used (Tarique & Schuler, 2010). Even though there is already an extensive body of literature and studies covering various topics linked to GTM, there is still no consensus on what an organization might do to effectively manage its talent (McDonnell et al., 2010) as well as a lack of literature that explores the usage of ICT in the context of GTM. Especially for practitioners, it is very important to gain more insight into how to form and implement an effective GTM system. Even though most scholars agree on the three key elements of attraction, development, and retention (Stahl et al., 2007; Tarique & Schuler, 2010), it would be interesting to analyze how organizations implement GTM practices in order to overcome the new talent challenges MNCs have to face. Regarding strategic ICT in the context of GTM, there is no definition that clarifies what strategic ICT in the context of GTM is and how it can be achieved. Therefore, more information is needed regarding different configurations of strategic GTM activities and strategic ICT application as they can be found in organizations and their alignment to the organizational strategy. This may produce insights into which ICT application is best used for which GTM activity or which configuration of GTM activities and different ICT applications might best be used to realize different organizational objectives. Further research might help to identify the impact of the strategic application of ICT on GTM. So far, the academic literature on strategic ICT is painfully limited, which is surprising considering the increased importance of ICT for the field of HRM, which is experiencing a continuous electronic transformation. A next step would be to analyze certain external factors that might influence the implementation of GTM and ICT applications. Scholars should review whether factors such as industry sector or company size influence a company’s success in implementing a GTM system and combining it with appropriate ICT tools. The GTM ICT framework introduces four company profiles, of which the innovative strategist is clearly regarded as superior to the other three based on its strategic orientation of GTM applications as well as ICT applications. The question remains of whether this assumption is true. Will companies that match the innovative strategist profile always perform better than the other three company profiles, or might certain external or internal factors (sectors, organizational structure, organizational culture, and organizational strategy) require companies to apply a GTM or ICT focus in their GTM ICT system in order to be more successful? Further research is necessary to adequately answer this question.

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The ICT field is subject to constant change and innovation. Therefore, it seems certain that companies will always be faced with new technological developments. New ICT applications might provide companies with new opportunities to manage their global talent or innovate their current GTM approach. Therefore, the GTM ICT framework needs continuous reflection from scholars and has to be adapted to future progress in the ICT and GTM sector to remain valid. We assume that there are a large number of companies that fit the profile description of the non-GTM’er. Which companies are they, are they similar regarding size and sector they operate in? Are they failing to strategically align their GTM and ICT applications, or do they actively decide not to follow the approach of the innovative strategist? How do they find and recruit their talent? Do they rely mainly on networking, or do they have such a strong brand name that this alone attracts sufficient talent? In this chapter we present a framework to characterize companies in terms of the e-GTM. However, globally and internationally operating companies have several subsidiaries that operate in diverse locations that differ not only geographically but culturally as well. Therefore, more research is necessary to identify whether organizations are actually able to apply one global strategy across all subsidiaries or if they have to adjust the GTM and ICT applications of their subsidiaries to local and cultural specifics. This might result in one company fitting in multiple profiles within the GTM ICT framework. For example, while they might be an innovative strategist on the corporate level, they could be more GTM skewed in Mexico, and more ICT skewed in the USA.

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Chapter 9

HRM, Technology and Innovation: New HRM Competences for Old Business Challenges? Tanya Bondarouk, Eline Marsman and Marc Rekers

Abstract Purpose — The goal of this chapter is to explore the requirements modern companies expect of HR professionals’ competences. Design/methodology/approach — Departing from the widely acknowledged HR competence studies of Ulrich and associates, we extended them with the continuous learning competence profile and HR professionals’ individual job performance. The empirical study is built on open interviews with HR leaders of ten large Dutch companies. Findings — The study offers a new set of HRM competences. This set includes six HRM profiles: Business Focus, Learning Focus, Strategic Focus, HR Technology, HR Delivery, and Personal Credibility. Several contingency factors are thought to play a role in supporting these HRM competences: company culture, strategy, size, sector, scope, and position of HR professionals. Practical implications — Based on these contributions, we recommended conducting a quantitative study to gain understanding of the relevance of the individual HRM job performance and to find associations between the HRM competences and the individual HRM job performance. Originality/value — The focus of this chapter is a combination of HRM competences and the individual job performance of HR professionals. Keywords: HRM competences; HR roles; HR technology; job performance; continuous learning

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Introduction Current developments such as globalization, e-HRM and HR shared services centers (HR SSC) are expected to lead to a better quality of HR service, an increasing strategic role for HR, and cost reductions (Bae & Rowley, 2001; Beechler & Woodward, 2009; Bell, Lee, & Yeung, 2006; Brewster, 2004; Farndale, Paauwe, & Hoeksema, 2009; Haines & Lafleur, 2008; Maatman, Bondarouk, & Looise, 2010; Marler, 2009; Meijerink & Bondarouk, 2013; Ruel, Bondarouk, & Looise, 2004). The question is, in what direction will the HR function develop? To sustain the transformation of the HR function, HR professionals must develop and demonstrate a new set of competences to fulfill their changing roles and responsibilities and to perform better (Ulrich, Brockbank, Johnson, & Younger, 2007; Yeung, Woolcock, & Sullivan, 1996). Borrowing the classic definition of social innovation from Looise (1996) as “a research field focusing on the intentional introduction and employment of novel ideas, activities, services, and processes that aim to meet social needs of individuals, groups, and organizations within society; and to advance social relationships and social organization,” the question is: are HR professionals equipped to support social innovation, to enable its continuous improvement in an organizational context? Motivated by the question above and inspired by the research of Hayton, Cohen, Hume, Kaufman, and Taylor (2005) into what the market demands from HRM graduates (Hayton et al., 2005), this study examined the competences of HR professionals. Hayton et al. (2005) focused on the fit between the market and HR teaching, and showed the mismatch between what business expected and what HR professionals were able to do. Based on conversations the two experts had with HR practitioners and HR leaders of several large companies, they argued that employers perceived HR graduates as having conceptual shortcomings (Hayton et al., 2005). First, employers assumed HR graduates do not understand what HRM means; they seemed not to understand the body and language of professional knowledge. The experts argued that graduates did not appear to have the necessary skill set to think and analyze problems. Employers thought HR graduates lacked experience, which could have been gained from internships. Overall, the conversations that the two experts had with other HR practitioners showed that employers saw HR graduates as lacking HRM knowledge, skills, and abilities, which form the HRM competences. What makes the study by Hayton et al. (2005) valuable for this research is that it revealed the difference between the requirements of business and the competences possessed by young HR professionals, future HRM (Cushner & Mahon, 2002; Douglas Johnson & King, 2002). Moving ahead almost a decade, will we observe a better fit between HRM competences and business requirements? The goal of this chapter is to explore modern companies’ expectations of the competences needed by HR professionals. To meet the research goal, four steps were taken: the framework of this chapter functions as a review of how the HR role

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is transforming and consequently of how skill requirements for HR professionals evolve. Then the method section describes the research design. Subsequently, the results section presents a revised framework for HRM competences.

HRM Competences: A Historical Overview and Research Framework We use the definition of Swanson and Holton (2009, p. 268) and view competency as “displayed behavior within a specialized domain in the form of consistently demonstrated actions of an individual which are both minimally efficient in their execution and effective in their results.” Earlier, Dubois (1993, p. 9) stated that competency is about “the employee’s capacity to meet job requirements by producing job outputs at an expected level of quality within the constraints of the organization’s internal and external environments.” Dubois (1993) rightly noted that there should be a match between what the employee can do and what business requires. In the discussion about competences, the influential works of Richard Boyatzis cannot be ignored; he defined a competence as “an underlying characteristic of a person which results in effective and/or superior performance in a job” (Boyatzis, 1982, p. 21). He further elaborated on his definition by referring to competences as “a characteristic of a person that may be a motive, traits, skills, aspect of one’s selfimage or social role, or a body of knowledge which the person uses” (Boyatzis, 1982, p. 21). The seminal work of Boyatzis (1982) has brought the concept of “competence” closer to the HR practitioner’s domain, instead of being exclusively academic (Sun & Shi, 2008). Speaking of HRM competences specifically, the writings of Dave Ulrich and his colleagues are usually considered the most influential ones. Ulrich et al. (2007) refer to HR competences as being “the values, knowledge, and abilities of HR professionals.” After the studies by the Ontario Society of Training and Development (1976) and the American Society of Training and Development in 1967, 1983, 1987, Ulrich and Brockbank initiated the Human Resource Competence Study (HRCS) in 1988 (HRCS project team, 2011; Storey, Wright, & Ulrich, 2009). So far, six rounds (1988, 1992, 1997, 2002, 2007, and 2012) have been conducted. A quick historical scan of HRM competences reveals that the required competences of HRM professionals have evolved from being able to motivate through monetary incentives toward strategic partnership (Vosburgh, 2007). While in the early 20th century just analyzing the performance of employees and motivating them towards superior performance were important, in the beginning of the 21st century HR professionals are also involved in advising line management and even being part of the top management (Table 1). The HRCS began in 1988 with a survey with more elaborate questions and a 360-degree logic which delivered three dimensions: “Knowledge of business,” “HR delivery,” and “Change management,” With 360-degree logic, problems with regard to self-evaluation are avoided. The survey was administered to 10,000 respondents,

Trend

±1880

Scientific Management — Frederick W. Taylor

±1905

Industrial Psychology — Hugo Munsterberg/ emergence of the personnel function Human Relations School (Welfare management) — Elton Mayo

±1930

±1950

±1985

Rise of trade unions — Abraham Maslow, Frederick Herzberg, David McClelland Personnel management — Abraham Maslow, Frederick Herzberg, David McClelland HRM — many authors

±2000

HRM — many authors

±1950

Competences Scientific skills, analytical abilities, motivation through monetary incentives Knowledge about the human factor, knowing how to satisfactorily adjust human behavior

Source Bratton and Gold (1994); Bruce and Nyland (2011); Kreis (1992); Taylor (2008); Wren (1994). Wren (1994).

Ability to address needs, knowledge Bruce and Nyland (2011); Sarachek about social relationships, motivation (1968); Storey (1992); Torrington, through emotions and cognition. Hall, and Taylor (2008); Wren Staffing, training, and organization (1994). design Negotiating skills were added Groot and Berg (1994); Torrington et al. (2008).

Recruiting and training skills, knowledge about reward systems

Bratton and Gold (1994); Storey (1992).

Employee development and maintenance, employee relations Coaching, advising, analytic and conceptual skills. Becoming more strategic

Bratton and Gold (1994). Biemans (2007).

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Time period

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Table 1: Evolution of HRM competences (Rekers, 2013).

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of whom 9000 were HR associates and 1000 were colleagues of those HR associates (Storey et al., 2009). The 1992 round consisted of the same questions. It verified the dimensions found in 1988 (Storey et al., 2009) and added “Personal credibility” (Ulrich, Brockbank, Johnson, Sandholtz, & Younger, 2008). In the “Personal credibility” dimension, aspects of the competency model of Boyatzis (1982) became prominent. They included positive regard, use of socialized power and accurate self-assessment. After the 1992 HRCS, Yeung et al. (1996) identified three competences, including “Knowledge of business” and “Management of change.” What was different, however, is that they found that “Influencing skills” were included by senior HR executives in the top three important competences for HR professionals, which suggested a slight incomprehension of Ulrich’s research. The importance of “Knowledge of business” has increased since the 1980s, according to Ulrich, Brockbank, Yeung, and Lake (1995). “Knowledge of business,” “HR delivery,” and “Management of change” were also found in the first two rounds of the HRCS (Boselie & Paauwe, 2005). Ulrich et al. (1995) consider “Management of change” as the most important component of the HR competences. Expectations of critical HR competences differed in three years (“Knowledge of business” 16.9 25.4%, “Delivery of HR practices” 22.5 27.8%, “Management of change” 41 45%). In 1997 the next round of HRCS took place and again an extension was made; “Culture management” was added (Ulrich et al., 2008). The HRCS in 2002 was the first global study of HR competences, instead of surveying US or UK respondents only (Boselie & Paauwe, 2005; Caldwell, 2003; Storey, 1992; Ulrich et al., 1995). The research of HR competences in 2002 was designed along five dimensions (Boselie & Paauwe, 2005): “Strategic contribution,” “Personal credibility,” “HR delivery,” “Business knowledge,” and “HR technology.” The strategic aspect of the HR profession was explicitly formulated in the “Strategic contribution” dimension, meaning that the contribution of HR professionals reached the strategic table. The second dimension, “Personal credibility,” implied that it was essential for an HR professional that he or she could work together with people in the organization. Not only an effective relationship with the line manager was important but also a sound relationship with the other HR people. “HR delivery” meant that HR professionals were involved in four main HR activities (development, structure, and HR measurement, staffing, performance management). For the development part, HR professionals deliver career-planning services and provide training. Development has been seen from an individual but also organizational perspective. In order to be important for the whole organization, HR professionals were considered able to understand the integrated value chain and the value proposition of the organization. Labor legislation is the third element belonging to the dimension “Business knowledge.” Information Technology was becoming increasingly more vital to every organization, and the HR profession also acknowledged that it must deal with it. Using IT for HR practices was covered by the competence “HR technology.” In 2007, the fifth round of HRCS took place. More emphasis was placed on HR professionals delivering value for organizations. In order to do so, understanding the

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business context and especially the changing nature of the organizational context were challenging issues to be mastered (Ulrich, 2008). HR professionals were considered as managing both business and people. The 2007 HRCS competence model had six dimensions instead of the former five. Not only “needs to know” but also “needs to act on what you know” was a new pillar of this round. The new model consisted of the “Talent manager” (3.73, score of HR participants, ranging from 1 to 5), “Culture and change steward” (3.80), “Strategy architect” (3.49), “Operational executor” (3.47), “Business ally” (3.39), and “Credible activist” (4.16). These dimensions were situated in a triangle of “people, business and HR professionalism,” categorized into organizational capabilities, systems and processes, and relationships. The dimensions belonging to organizational capabilities consisted of knowledge and abilities that HR professionals must possess in order to make a difference in business. The “Credible activist” has two characteristics, being both credible and active. Credible here means “admired and listened to,” and active as actively providing points of view and challenging assumptions. Ulrich et al. (2008) found four factors associated with the “Credible activist” dimension: “Delivering results with integrity” (4.27), “Sharing information” (4.19), “Building relationships of trust” (4.00) and “Doing HR with an attitude” (3.97, scoring for perceived capability by HR participants on these items, ranging from 1 to 5). However, the sequence was not the same everywhere. In Europe, for example, “Sharing information” (4.30) was more important than the integrity factor (4.19). The “Culture and change steward” respected culture and actively shaped it by standardization of HR policies and practices and providing advice to managers (Cabrera & Bonache, 1999). Factors identified by Ulrich et al. (2008) were “Crafting culture” (3.89), “Facilitating change” (3.85), “Personalizing culture” (3.69) and “Enacting culture” (3.47, again scoring for perceived capability by HR participants on these items, ranging from 1 to 5). The “Talent manager/organization designer” was concerned with flow management: inflow, internal flow and outflow of individuals within the organization. At the same time, talent managers were familiar with organizational design and focused on integrating the organizational capabilities that are embedded within systems, structure and processes with HR practices (Ulrich, 2008). Talents working in an organization with the wrong organization design would be frustrated and limited in their contributions. This dimension got the highest scores within the set of HR competences developed for HRCS 2007. Five statistical categories were distinguished: “Ensuring today’s and tomorrow’s talent” (3.92), “Developing talent” (3.70), “Shaping organization” (3.68), “Fostering communication” (3.87), and “Designing reward systems” (3.20). The “Strategy architect” actively played a part in the establishment of the overall strategy. The linkage between the internal organization and external customer expectations makes the strategy real to employees of the firm. Not only a strategic perspective for HR work is needed, but also for the organization overall. The found factors of Ulrich et al. (2008) are “Sustaining strategic agility” (3.54) and “Engaging customers” (3.33). The “Operational executor” dimension resembles Ulrich’s (1998) “Administrative expert” role, since operational aspects like administrative tasks (and conducting them

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in an efficient way) were included. The operational executor idea, however, was broader than just administrative work, it also incorporated the design of HR practices and policies. Two factors were found: “Implementing workplace policies” (3.47) and “Advancing HR technology” (3.49). To actively contribute to the success of the business, HR professionals should know the social context and the way the business makes money (value chain). Business knowledge is still critical, as it is included as one of the competences in the first round of HRCS (Ulrich, 2008). Ulrich et al. call this dimension “Business ally.” The factors are “Interpreting social context” (3.57), “Serving the value chain” (3.42), “Articulating the value proposition” (3.30), and “Leveraging business technology” (3.28). Key findings from the 2007 round of HRCS were differences in the perception of HR and non-HR respondents with regard to customer views and designing reward systems, and the type of market was a moderator for the required competences (Ulrich, 2008). The “Talent manager” and “Organizational designer” were originally separated, but the factor analysis showed that these two cannot be viewed apart from each other. Just attracting talent was not enough anymore, as talented people increasingly move to other organizations. It is vital for organizations to retain talents, and this idea was reinforced by the impact the HR department and HR professional had on business performance (25% and 20%, respectively). While “Culture steward” was separated from the “Strategic contribution” dimension of previous HRCS rounds, being a unique dimension in the HRCS 2007 has led to the second highest rating in predicting the performance of HR in effectiveness (3.80, pertaining to 4.16 for the “Credible Activist” dimension) (see Table 2). The latest round of the HRCS took place in 2012. Again the researchers identified six categories of competences, but only the “Credible activist” corresponded with the categories found in 2007. The other new dimensions are the “Strategic positioned,” “Capability builder,” “Change champion,” “HR innovator and integrator,” “Technology proponent.” The mean scores on these dimensions were 4.23, 3.89, 3.97, 3.93, 3.90, and 3.74. Elements of the “Credible activist” dimension are: “Earning trust through results,” “Influencing and relating to others,” “Improving through selfawareness,” and “Shaping the HR profession” (The RBL Group, 2012). The “Strategic positioner” dimension meant that HR professionals should possess knowledge about the business, the environment and the competitive dynamics in the industry. Customer-oriented business strategies were then developed by applying that knowledge. The factors belonging to this dimension were “Interpreting the global context,” “Decoding customer expectations,” and “Co-crafting a strategic agenda” (The RBL Group, 2012). “Capability builder” meant taking care of the internal organization, developing and building organizational capabilities. These capabilities were referred to as culture, and thus this dimension was (partly) the successor of the “Culture and change steward.” The sub-factors for this dimension were “Capitalizing organizational capability,” “Aligning strategy, culture, practices and behavior,” “Creating a meaningful work environment.” The other aspect of Culture and change steward was now categorized as “Change champion,” consisting of two factors: “Initiating change,” and “Sustaining change.” The authors thus decided to split up the elements again.

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Table 2: List of HR competence, research projects 1988 2012 (Rekers, 2013). Study

Relative importance of dimensions

HRCS 1988 − Knowledge of business − HR delivery − Change management HRCS 1992 − Change management − Personal credibility − Knowledge of business − HR delivery HRCS 1997 − Change management − Personal credibility − Knowledge of business − HR delivery − Culture management

Main findings − HR professionals had a unique set of competences that could be tracked around the world.

− Personal credibility was added. − Businesses that experienced low rates of change and that invested in HR saw that HR had a significant impact on business performance. − The ability to manage culture was an important factor in the overall view of HR. − Business knowledge and HR delivery had a lower impact on HR professionals’ individual competency, they were not differentiators. HRCS 2002 − Strategic − It was essential to create responsive and contribution market-driven organizations. − Personal credibility − Impact of culture on business − HR delivery performance. − Business knowledge − Pace of change had increased. − HR technology − In high-performing firms, HR professionals were essential. − Staffing and organizational design were important competences. − Business knowledge was not distinctive anymore for high- or low-performing HR professionals. − Business Ally and Operational Executor HRCS 2007 − Credible Activist roles were supportive for the other roles. − Culture & Change − Differences in perception for HR and nonSteward HR. − Talent Manager/ − Differences in traditional vs. emerging Organizational Designer markets. − Strategy Architect − Organization design has become equally − Operational Executor important as talent management. − Business Ally − Culture management as unique dimension. − Business impact 20%. − Alignment of HR organization with HR strategy leads to better business results.

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Table 2: (Continued). Study

Relative importance of dimensions

HRCS 2012 − Credible activist − Strategic positioner − HR integrator/ innovator − Capability builder − Change champion − Technology proponent

Main findings − There were opportunities for HR to make a difference. − Change has become so critical that it has to become a separate element in the model. − These dimensions not only showed what an effective HR professional should do, but also how an HR professional should be effective to business. − Strategic positioner and capability builder were important for business.

To make the whole more effective than the sum of the HR parts, a major competency of HR professionals is to integrate HR activities around critical business issues. HR professionals have to know the historical research of HRM and its HR practices in order to innovate with respect to HR practices and find unified solutions to solve future business problems (The RBL Group, 2012). The latest key insights in research are essential, and HR professionals should be able to integrate these insights. Brockbank, Ulrich, Younger, and Ulrich (2012) therefore configured the dimension of the “HR innovator and integrator,” consisting of the factors: “Optimizing human capital through workforce planning and analytics,” “Developing talent,” “Shaping organization and communication practices,” “Driving performance,” and “Building leadership brand.” Technology has become a separate dimension again as Brockbank et al. (2012) saw two major trends in this field. Firstly, social networking is applied to increase and manage communication inside and outside the organization. Secondly, HR professionals in high-performing firms are more concerned about managing information in terms of bundling usable information and identifying information that should receive attention (Brockbank et al., 2012). The corresponding factors were “Improving utility of HR operations,” “Connecting people through technology,” and “Leveraging social media tools.” The conclusions of HRCS 2012 were that HR professionals are best in the “Credible activist” dimension, which has the lowest impact on performance, however (14%, The RBL Group, 2012). This set of competences can be a prerequisite for becoming involved in activities that have a greater impact. There were differences in the perception of individual performance and real impact on business success. While the “Strategic positioner” had more influence on individual performance (17%) than impact on business success (15%), the reverse was true for “Capabilities builder” (16% versus 18%). In the “HR technology” dimension, HR

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professionals scored the lowest (3.74). So it is remarkable that the associates’ perceptions of overall competence were least influenced by this dimension (12%), but when the work was performed well, the impact on business success was substantial, with a score of 18% (Brockbank et al., 2012). HR practices must be integrated to create organizational capabilities. This causes significant effects on business performance. The results of effectiveness of HR in “Capability builder” and “HR innovator/ integrator” enforce this logic. The impact of these two dimensions together was equal to the impact of the technology proponent on its own (Brockbank et al., 2012). We cannot neglect the studies of Boselie and Paauwe (2005) in this context. Like the research of Ulrich and colleagues, focusing mostly on US-based respondents, Boselie and Paauwe (2005) asked non-HR and HR managers in Europe to rank how HR professionals perform in the five HRM competence domains compared to other known HR professionals. Their findings showed that non-HR managers rank personal credibility the highest, followed by HR delivery, strategic contribution, business knowledge and HR technology. HR managers also rank personal credibility the highest, followed by strategic contribution, HR delivery, business knowledge, and HR technology. Furthermore, HR managers rank themselves higher on strategic contribution, personal credibility, and HR technology. When looking at the findings of the research of Ulrich and colleagues and of Boselie and Paauwe (2005), we could say that the findings are quite similar. Though both studies show an order of relevance of the competences, we feel that both studies have some shortcomings. For example, an explorative interpretive insight was missing. In addition to the HRM competence domains developed by Ulrich and colleagues, we considered another competence domain derived from the research of Maurer and Weiss (2010). They investigated the association between aspects of managerial work and the need for competence in continuous learning, and found that the ability to learn continuously was important for each aspect of work. They state that “the ability to learn and develop one’s skills is quickly becoming a core career competency,” meaning that HR professionals should keep up an adequate level through constant training. In Table 3 below, we present the HRM competence domains with the requirements for HR professionals (based on Maurer & Weiss, 2010; Storey et al., 2009; Ulrich et al., 2007).

Individual Job Performance of HR Professionals Individual HRM job performance means that “an HR professional is able to function in his position at the required level or even above it” (McEvoy et al., 2005). Research on job design suggests the following individual job performance categories: attitudinal performance, behavioral performance, cognitive performance, and well-being performance (Morgeson & Humphrey, 2008). Along with these performance categories, we add another one: social performance. We think that it is

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Table 3: Preliminary research framework — HRM competences. HRM competence domains Business knowledge

HR delivery

Strategic contribution

Personal credibility

HR technology Continuous learning

Competences − Knowledge of the value chain − Knowledge of the firm’s value proposition − Knowledge of the social context − Staffing − Development − Structure − HR measurement − Legal compliance − Performance management − Culture management − Fast change − Strategic decision-making − Market-driven connectivity − Achieving results − Effective relationships − Communication skills − Working with e-HRM − Developmental or learning orientation − Inner work standards − Scholastic aptitude − Self-objectivity

necessary for an HR professional to perform socially, as the relational aspect is becoming crucial in jobs (Grant & Parker, 2009). In their review of the work design literature, Grant and Parker (2009) take a relational perspective and suggest that jobs, roles, and tasks are more socially embedded because of an increase in the interdependence and interactions between workers. We will now consider several dimensions of HRM job performance. Attitudinal performance, understood as feelings about the job and the organization (Morgeson & Humphrey, 2008), means that HR professionals can perform well because they have positive feelings about the job and the organization. When HR professionals do not experience positive feelings, they might not like to do their job and might not be willing to put the necessary effort into the job. The willingness to put effort into one’s job shows HR professionals’ potential to perform, as they need to take on the behavior of actually performing tasks and duties. The metaanalysis done by Petty, McGee, and Cavender (1984) on the relationship between individual job satisfaction and individual performance shows that the strength of this relationship depends on the job level: the higher the job level, the stronger the relationship (Petty et al., 1984). As HR professionals possess a high job level, because they operate on a managerial level, their satisfaction with their job becomes

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increasingly important. Second, attitudinal performance means that HR professionals feel committed to the organization. Organizational commitment has been shown to be important for job performance, but Suliman and Iles (2000) found the strongest positive relationship to exist between affective organizational commitment and job performance. This suggests that when HR professionals identifies with and feels committed to the organization, they perform the best because they are more prepared to work hard. Third, attitudinal performance means that HR professionals experience feelings of involvement. Job involvement means for HR professionals that “one is cognitively preoccupied with, engaged in, and concerned” (Paullay et al., 1994, p. 224, as cited by Diefendorff, Brown, Kamin, & Lord, 2002) with the job. In their study regarding job involvement, Diefendorff et al. (2002) showed a positive relationship between job involvement and in-role (job) performance, when job involvement involves that “one feels engaged in the specific tasks that make up one’s job” (Paullay et al., 1994, p. 225, as cited by Diefendorff et al., 2002) and that “one finds carrying out the task of one’s job in the present job environment to be engaging” (Paullay et al., 1994, p. 225, as cited by Diefendorff et al., 2002). Fourth, attitudinal performance involves intrinsic motivation. When HR professionals feel intrinsically motivated, they have “the tendency to seek out novelty and challenges, to extend and exercise one’s capabilities, to explore, and to learn” (Ryan & Deci, 2000, p. 70). As Vallerand et al. (1993) argue, three types of intrinsic motivation can be defined. First, there is the intrinsic motivation to know, in which you do something for the pleasure and satisfaction experienced while learning. Second, there is the intrinsic motivation to accomplish things, in which you do something for the pleasure and satisfaction experienced while trying to accomplish things. Last, there is the intrinsic motivation to experience stimulation, in which you do something in order to experience stimulating sensations (Vallerand et al., 1993, p. 160). The literature review of Vallerand et al. (1993) suggests that different types of motivation — extrinsic, intrinsic, and amotivation — have different consequences, and that the most positive correlations can be obtained with the types of intrinsic motivation, and especially with the intrinsic motivation to know. When HR professionals feel intrinsically motivated, they are able to perform as they experience pleasure and satisfaction and may put more effort into doing a job activity. Together, the positive feelings of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job involvement, and intrinsic motivation make up the attitude of HR professionals towards their job and the organization, and express the willingness of HR professionals to work hard. Behavioral performance includes the specific actions of HR professionals to get the job done (Morgeson & Humphrey, 2008). It means that HR professionals take actions that are optimal at the quantitative level, and perform their work in the most efficient way, using an adequate amount of resources (Morgeson & Humphrey, 2008). Second, behavioral performance shows HR professionals taking actions that are optimal at the qualitative level. It means that HR professionals do their job accurately, but also come up with innovative ideas that may improve the overall quality (Morgeson & Humphrey, 2008). Third, behavioral performance implies denying absenteeism behavior. The meta-analysis on the link between job

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satisfaction and absenteeism done by Scott and Taylor (1985) shows that absenteeism can be operationalized in two ways: as absence duration, which is the total amount of absence expressed in hours, days, or a specific time period; or as absence frequency, which is the number of times someone has been absent (Scott & Taylor, 1985). With both absence measures, there is a negative relationship between absenteeism and job satisfaction (Scott & Taylor, 1985). Here, absenteeism as a behavioral outcome is connected to the attitudinal outcome of job satisfaction. For HR professionals, this means that when they perform to experience job satisfaction, they work hard because they like to do their job, as absence duration and frequency are minimal. Fourth, behavioral performance means that HR professionals show low turnover. Cotton and Tuttle (1986) studied the link between turnover and job satisfaction. Their study confirms that a negative relationship exists (Cotton & Tuttle, 1986), that is, high turnover means low job satisfaction. So an HR professional performs when his turnover is low, meaning he will stick with his job. The link with job satisfaction shows that when an HR professional feels satisfied with the job, he performs well. In summary, HR professionals take the right actions when they perform optimally on a quantitative and qualitative level, and show low absenteeism and turnover, as these express the real effort HR professionals make in doing their job. Cognitive performance covers thoughts about work or the developmental outcomes of the work (Morgeson & Humphrey, 2008). For HRM, it means that HR professionals exhibit proactive behavior, anticipating change and creating changes in the work (Grant & Parker, 2009). HR professionals need to take on a proactive role in thinking about their work, as they need to know what the organization and the environment expect from them, and what actions are needed to satisfy these expectations. In addition to this so-called proactive work behavior (Grant & Parker, 2009), HR professionals need to take on a proactive strategic behavior, in which they think about how they can help the organization change, for example by helping to formulate and implement a strategy (Grant & Parker, 2009). Cognitive performance means that HR professionals are proactive in preventing role ambiguity (Ilgen & Hollenbeck, cited in Tubre & Collins, 2000, p. 155), in which they lack knowledge of the most effective job behavior. Tubre and Collins (2000) found role ambiguity to be negatively related to job performance. When HR professionals experience role ambiguity, they do not perform, as they are not able to do what is expected of him because of a lack of information about the expectations (Tubre & Collins, 2000). HR professionals need to make efforts to reduce role ambiguity, as it can have an impact on their job performance (Tubre & Collins, 2000). Second, cognitive performance means that HR professionals exhibit role breadth self-efficacy, feeling confident that they are able to carry out a broader and more proactive role than is technically required (Parker, 1998). In a study done on the link between self-efficacy and work performance, Judge, Jackson, Shaw, Scott, and Rich (2007) found a correlation between them. Third, cognitive performance includes a flexible role orientation, embodied in a broader and more proactive approach to their role in which they feel responsible for work beyond their immediate operational tasks and recognize the importance of acquiring and using a wide

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range of skills and knowledge to enable them to contribute at the broader level (Parker, Wall, & Jackson, 1997, pp. 900 901). Here, it becomes evident that role orientation has two aspects: productive ownership, in which HR professionals own work problems and goals or feel responsible for them; and the importance of production knowledge (Parker et al., 1997), in which HR professionals take steps to learn and develop. Last, cognitive performance means that HR professionals have minimal turnover intentions. With the behavioral outcome performance, turnover was defined as a HR professional voluntarily leaving his job. Here, we look at the cognitive process of the intention to leave a job. Performance means that HR professionals have as few reasons as possible to leave their job, as otherwise the job performance is in danger. Thus, HR professionals perform when they prevent role ambiguity, take on a more proactive behavior than may be required, feel responsibility and ownership for their work, learn and develop themselves, and have the fewest turnover intentions, as these aspects express the proactivity HR professionals take. Well-being performance represents the physiological and psychological reasons for doing a job (Morgeson & Humphrey, 2008). For HRM, it means that HR professionals need to have healthy reactions to their job. These reactions are important as they may influence the other performance outcomes. Overall, HR professionals need to be healthy to fulfill their job obligations. Well-being performance means that HR professionals experience an acceptable amount of stress. In their literature review, Sullivan and Bhagat (1992) argue that people need some level of stress to be triggered to do their jobs well and put their energy not in coping with stress but in enhancing performance (Sullivan & Bhagat, 1992). So an acceptable amount of stress means here that HR professionals feel triggered enough to do their job, while not being overwhelmed by it. Stress also plays an important role in other performance outcomes. Plus too much stress negatively influences the attitudinal performance outcome of job satisfaction, meaning that HR professionals do not perform as they feel too much stress and do not like their job (Sullivan & Bhagat, 1992). Second, well-being performance means that HR professionals do not experience burn-out. In a study done on the effects of burn-out on performance and absenteeism with a sample of nurses from a hospital, Parker and Kulik (1995) found burnout to be negatively related to performance. This effect occurs especially with emotional exhaustion as a facet of burn-out, which “involves the depletion of one’s emotional resources and feelings of being overextended” (Parker & Kulik, 1995, p. 582). Thus, HR professionals can perform when they do not experience a burnout nor feel emotionally exhausted. Furthermore, burn-out has been shown to positively influence the behavioral performance outcome of absenteeism, as people may have to be absent for personal health reasons (Parker & Kulik, 1995). Burn-out because of emotional exhaustion does cause people to be absent more for mental than physical health reasons (Parker & Kulik, 1995). Third, well-being performance means that HR professionals score high on a work-life balance, feeling that they have enough time to spend with their family, and not always having to work. Fourth, well-being performance means that HR professionals experience an acceptable amount of workload. When HR professionals have to perform too many

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tasks, there is the chance that not enough effort is being put into each task, which endangers the quality of the work. With an acceptable workload, HR professionals perform as they can put all their efforts into doing their tasks, which means that better quality can be achieved. Fifth, well-being performance means that HR professionals feel healthy. As a consequence, their work is of better quality. Furthermore, health can be linked to other outcomes, such as absenteeism, stress, and burn-out. For example, not feeling healthy will lead HR professionals to be absent. Stress or burn-out can lead to poor health and so endanger the job performance of HR professionals. Together, HR professionals perform when they experience an acceptable amount of stress, no burn-out, a work-life balance, an acceptable workload, and feel healthy, as these express the overall healthiness of HR professionals. Compared to the other individual job performance categories mentioned above, social performance has not received much attention in the job design literature. However, the social world is gaining in importance. Globalization implies that HR professionals are required to operate and manage on a global level, in which the delivery of national HRM systems may not be good enough, as countries have a varied workforce with different cultures and institutions that may ask for the delivery of another HRM (Bae & Rowley, 2001). Thus, international relations are becoming more and more important as HR professionals need to understand the mindset of international coworkers (Grant & Parker, 2009). As HR professionals fulfill a function that concerns many interactions and relationships with other people, the social performance category is of great importance and will therefore be taken into account in the individual job performance. Social performance means that HR professionals are able to cope with social responsibilities, as social interactions and interpersonal relationships give HR professionals responsibilities. For HR professionals, it is important to take on these social responsibilities as other people depend on them, and they depend on others. Social performance is also important as it may relate to other performances. The ability of HR professionals to cope with their social responsibilities has an effect on attitudinal and behavioral performances, as it may determine their willingness to work hard and whether they will actually try to do well. When HR professionals perceive themselves as unable to cope with the social responsibilities, they will not feel satisfied or committed to the organization and may not be willing to put effort into the job with such an attitude. Social performance means that HR professionals provide their relations with feedback. When providing feedback, there is an interaction between a HR professional and a coworker that can further strengthen the relationship between them. Feedback works in two directions: HR professionals provide feedback, and they receive feedback from a coworker. The coworker can be someone who is working under the HR professional, or someone from a higher management level. Second, social performance implies integrity, building trust in an organization. HR professionals perform when they provide feedback and exhibit integrity, as these aspects express the ability of HR professionals to cope with their social responsibilities. The outcomes of the performance categories are displayed in Table 4.

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Table 4: Individual job performance of HR professionals (Marsman, 2011). Attitudinal performance outcomes

Behavioral performance outcomes

• Job satisfaction • Quantitative • Organizational performance commitment behavior • Qualitative • Job involvement performance • Intrinsic behavior • Absenteeism motivation • Turnover

Cognitive performance outcomes • Role ambiguity • Role breadth self-efficacy • Flexible role orientation • Learn and develop • Turnover intentions

Well-being performance outcomes • Stress • Burn-out • Work-life balance • Workload • Health

Social performance outcomes • Feedback • Integrity

Research Methods The main purpose of this research was to gain insight into which HRM competences and which individual HRM job performance were important for HR professionals. To answer both research questions, we engaged in a mixed-method research design, consisting of two sequential studies: − Qualitative study (interview-based) aimed at exploring HRM competences and individual job performance − Quantitative study (survey-based) aimed at examining contingencies influencing HRM competences. Qualitative Study Interviews were conducted with HR leaders from ten organizations. The interviewees were selected based on the criteria that they were located in a company with an extended HR department in the Netherlands and had extensive experience leading HR practitioners. We did not include the criteria of company size and sector. Though these aspects may matter for the desired profile sketched for the future HR professional, we did not want to restrict ourselves by looking only at companies with a certain number of employees or operating in a certain sector. However, when collecting and analyzing the data, we kept in mind that different requirements may be present between companies that differ in size and/or sector. The HR leaders were randomly selected from the network of the university, and invited by e-mail or phone to participate in this study (Table 5). Based on the recordings and notes, the interviews were transcribed literally. The transcripts were verified by all respondents before being analyzed by coding. We

Table 5: Data about interviewees, sampled for the qualitative study. Respondent

Function in HR

Work experience in HR

Health insurance Chemical industry

Company scope National

Number of employees 22,000

Publishing

International 60,000 worldwide, of which 5000 in the Netherlands International 60,000 worldwide, of which 32,000 in the Netherlands International 100

Education

National

650

Health insurance Installation sector

National

2600

Consultancy

International 18,000 worldwide

Banking

International 2000

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Respondent HR manager of the health Worked in several HR 1 [R1] division for two years functions for seven years Worked in several HR-related Respondent Former director of 2 [R2] personnel and positions since 1980 communication Respondent Human Resources Manager More than ten years of 3 [R3] in charge of a team of experience in HR: HR consultant, HR advisor, HR HR advisors for 1.5 years manager Respondent Global HR director for 1.5 HRM was always in task 4 [R4] years package for the last nine years Respondent Head of the P&O Head of the P&O department 5 [R5] department for half a at a different organization year for ten years Respondent Manager of the P&O Always employed in doing 6 [R6] advisors for one year personnel matters Respondent HR manager and Concerned with HR functions 7 [R7] responsible for the HRM for 14 years in the organization for six years Respondent HR manager of the Been HR manager at two 8 [R8] Benelux organization for other companies four years

Company sector

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Table 5: (Continued). Function in HR

Work experience in HR

Company sector

Company scope

Number of employees

Respondent Concern director of HR for Been HR manager of a Education National 3300 9 [R9] half a year different organization for 24 years Warehousing/ International 1000 Respondent HR manager for two years Been HR manager of two 10 [R10] other organizations for 16 logistics years service

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Respondent

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followed the three-step technique of Miles and Huberman (1984) in data analysis: (1) we started with a list of codes derived from the conceptual framework; (2) we continued with inductive coding by reviewing lines or paragraphs and to create codes; and (3) we finalized the analysis by using a general accounting scheme in which there was not a content-specific theme, but general domains in which codes can be developed inductively. Although we used the competences and performance elements defined in our theoretical study as a basis, we only selected them when they applied to quotations from the respondents. In order to check the reliability of the transcripts coded, it was decided to check-code. Two researchers independently coded 5 10 pages of the first set of transcripts. The comparison between the codes gave insight into which codes were acceptable. Of the three transcripts, both researchers coded 118 quotations in total. Of these 118 unique quotations, 20 were found to be irrelevant, as they did not refer to the topic of HRM competences and individual HRM job performance and were too descriptive. In total, 98 quotations were coded by one or both parties and were useful for the research. Of these 98 quotations, 93 referred to the topic of HRM competences and 5 to the topic of individual HRM job performance. Of the 58 quotations coded by both parties, 46 were characterized by an agreement and 12 were characterized by a disagreement. That led to an acceptable level of inter-coder reliability of 79.3% (Miles & Huberman, 1984).

Findings HRM Competences Overview Departing from the preliminary research framework (Table 3), our empirical study recognized 34 HRM competences within six HRM competence domains. When comparing the competence domains with the theoretical framework, two competence domains were re-defined, and one domain was changed into a competence. Of the original 21 competences, 9 were mentioned by respondents, 6 were re-defined, and 6 were not found. Furthermore, 18 new competences were recognized by respondents as important. An overview of all these competences is displayed in Table 6, which indicates whether HRM competences are new, re-defined, or not confirmed — in comparison to the preliminary research framework (based on the interviews data). Respondents mentioned how important it is for HR professionals to have business knowledge, knowledge about the value chain, the value proposition, and the social context of the business to understand the business and act on that understanding to be able to influence business decisions (Ulrich et al., 2008). For example, one of the respondents stated that: for HR professionals to be able to act in the role of HR business partner, which is expected from HR professionals, he should understand the primary processes that make up the value chain. (R-9)

Table 6: HRM competences required for HR professionals (Marsman, 2011).

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Business focus: Focused on knowing how the business works and can be compromised and understanding how decisions influence organization components. (formerly known as business knowledge) 1. Re-defined: Business knowledge (bundle of knowledge Knowledge about the value chain, the value proposition, and of the social context, value chain, and value social context of the business to understand the business and proposition) act on that understanding to be able to influence business decisions (Ulrich et al., 2008). 2. New: Organization sensitivity To understand the impact and implications of decisions of one department on the community and other departments/ components of the organization and relevant to societal and governmental factors.

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Learning focus: Focused on gaining new knowledge or skills 1. Re-defined: Continuous learning (formerly defined as a competence domain) 2. New: Learning by doing 3. Re-defined: Self-knowledge (formerly known as selfobjectivity) 4. New: Self-reflection

5. Not confirmed: Developmental/learning orientation 6. Not confirmed: Inner work standards 7. Not confirmed: Scholastic aptitude

The ability to continuously gain new skills and develop professionally (Maurer & Weiss, 2010, p. 1). The capability to improve productivity by regularly repeating the same type of actions. To understand oneself in terms of self-assessment, meaning that you understand your own nature, abilities, and limitations. To develop an attitude by observing your behavior and concluding which attitude has caused this behavior in which there is the willingness to learn more about your fundamental nature, purpose, and essence. The persuasion of developmental activities and endeavors that are important to HR professionals (Maurer & Weiss, 2010). To strive to better oneself, even when a lower level of performance would be acceptable (Maurer & Weiss, 2010). To be able to learn new things readily (Maurer & Weiss, 2010).

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HR delivery: Executing the operational aspects of managing people and organizations that are traditionally associated with the HR function (Storey et al., 2009; Ulrich et al., 2008) 1. Existing: HR measurement To measure how much the HR activities add value to the HR value proposition (Storey et al., 2009). 2. New: HR organization capability To have an overview of the people and resources that are needed to accomplish a goal and to effectively mobilize the people and resources at the right place in a short amount of time. To monitor progress and take action when needed. 3. Existing: Legal compliance To know about the legal issues that influence and safeguard people at work (Storey et al., 2009). 4. New: Operational knowledge To have knowledge about the operational level. 5. Existing: Staffing To create a comprehensive process of staffing practices — hiring, promoting, transferring, firing — that supports the HR strategy (Storey et al., 2009). To continually define and create the individual competences and organizational capabilities that are needed (Storey et al., 2009). 6. Not confirmed: Development To offer training programs to employees and to prepare change interventions at the organization and team level (Storey et al., 2009). To create capable employees, by looking at the competency requirements of individuals and how they enter and move up, across, or out of the organization (Ulrich et al., 2007). 7. Not confirmed: Structure To assist in the design of the organization by restructuring activities to make the organization more effective — that is, bringing people together, creating coordination mechanisms, creating control mechanisms, creating organization design teams (Storey et al., 2009). To make sure employees are matched to the well-designed organization and roles (Ulrich et al., 2007).

To design and deliver performance management systems that consist of measuring performance and giving rewards (Storey et al., 2009).

HR technology: Using HR applications to help accomplish HR tasks (Storey et al., 2009) 1. Re-defined: Facilitating skills (adapted from working To be concerned with facilitating HR technology. with e-HRM) 2. Re-defined: Knowledge of HR technology (adapted To have knowledge about the HR technology possibilities. from working with e-HRM) Personal credibility: Being credible in personal and interpersonal relationships with all parties HR professionals serve (adapted from Boselie & Paauwe, 2005) 1. Existing: Achieving results To be committed and to do what you say you will do and to achieve results that are error-free and meet the highest standards of integrity (Storey et al., 2009). 2. Existing: Communication skills To have effective written and verbal communication skills to clearly communicate critical messages for organizational success (Storey et al., 2009). 3. New: Conversation partner To facilitate and play an active role in conversation practice. 4. Existing: Cooperation To work with others in harmony and to actively contribute to formulating and achieving joint goals. 5. Existing: Effective relationships To maintain effective interpersonal skills to work well with colleagues because of an atmosphere of trust (Storey et al., 2009). 6. New: Empathy To identify with and understand another’s situation, feelings, and motives by imagining being in their shoes. 7. New: Independence To take actions based on your own convictions which are guided by your own opinion and dare to disagree with decisions. To make independent decisions in which you take responsibility for your actions.

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8. Not confirmed: Performance management

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Table 6: (Continued).

8. New: Open-minded 9. New: Style flexibility 10. New: Wide orientation

To be receptive to new and different ideas and the opinions of others. To be able to associate with people on different levels and to balance needs. To look further than your own department.

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Strategic focus: Focus on occupying the strategic level (formerly known as strategic contribution) 1. New: Analytical thinking To separate and distinguish elements of a concept (idea, problem, etc.) in order to understand its essential nature and inner relationships. 2. Re-defined: Change management (formerly known as To shift individuals, teams, and organizations from a current fast change) state to a desired future state. An organizational process aimed at empowering employees to accept and embrace changes in their current business environment. 3. Existing: Culture management To appreciate, articulate, and help shape a company’s culture that is consistent with the requirements of the external customers, the business strategy, and the employees (Storey et al., 2009; Ulrich et al., 2007). To design and deliver HR practices that translate and enforce the culture into the right employee attitudes and behaviors (Storey et al., 2009). 4. New: Entrepreneurship and innovation To be able to introduce new ideas, methods, etc. To be someone who undertakes innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods. 5. New: Feasibility analysis To objectively and rationally uncover the strengths and weaknesses of the existing business, opportunities and threats as presented by the environment. 6. New: Leadership To let people know the direction in which the organization wants to go and let them know its goals. To create commitment to goals, and let people be aware of the goals when they make decisions.

8. New: Organizational commitment

9. New: Proactivity 10. New: Result orientation

11. Re-defined: Strategic involvement (formerly known as strategic decision-making)

To take on signals from the external environment and translate them in the organization to respond to market demands (Storey et al., 2009). To set high standards for your own work, with the work focused on the demands, priorities and goals of the organization and working in the interests of the organization rather than your own interests. To tend to initiate change rather than react to events. To be actively oriented to realizing goals and results in which you make good agreements about your tasks and responsibilities. To help establish business strategy, to have a vision of the future, and to provide insights on business issues (Ulrich et al., 2008).

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7. Existing: Market-driven connectivity

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Table 6: (Continued).

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The importance of having knowledge of the social context was recognized, too: In an international company it is also important that you know the legislation, the culture, and the language that is present in other countries. (R-2)

Along with business knowledge, respondents also indicated that it is important for HR professionals to have some organization sensitivity, to be able to understand the impact and implications of decisions of one department on the community and other departments/components of the organization and relevant societal and governmental factors. As R-7 indicated, “you need to be aware that your HR choices influence other parts of the organization.” Respondents indicated it is important for HR professionals to learn continuously (Maurer & Weiss, 2010, p. 1). They recognized that this applies to HR professionals just like to other professionals: you can never stop learning, because otherwise you will not make progress and stand still. (R-8)

Respondents indicated it is important for the future HR professionals to be concerned with HR measurement, as they need to measure how much the HR activities add value to the HR value proposition (Storey et al., 2009). As indicated by the respondents, it is important to quantify the potentials and risks. The real added value of HR is more difficult but can be measured through customer satisfaction. Hence, you need to be able to work with hard data such as absenteeism data, labor market data, and turnover data. (R-3)

Respondents also recognized it is important for the future HR professional to possess operational knowledge. It was noticed that “it is good to have knowledge about what happens on the operational level, so you know what is happening in the department” (R-5); and that “activities are performed on the strategic level, but the knowledge that HR professionals should possess is also about the operational level” (R-8). Overall, it means that “you need to control your field of study, meaning that you need to know the basic processes” and that “it is a must to know the ins and outs of the profession,” as was mentioned by R-3 and R-9. Respondents indicated it is important for HR professionals to possess facilitating skills, meaning that they need to be concerned with facilitating the HR technology. This is somewhat similar to the idea of the organization of the operational processes. HR professionals does not necessarily have to program the HR technology, but it is necessary to provide the organization with HR technology when the organization is ready for this and asks for it, for example: You do not have to be able to work with everything, but you need to embrace it and think about it, as you are the one who needs to organize it. (R-7)

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HR professionals are also required to have knowledge of HR technology and be familiar with its possibilities. This fits the idea of facilitating the HR technology, as before you can facilitate it, you need to know what the possibilities are. Respondents indicated that it is important for HR professionals to achieve results that are error-free and meet the highest standards of integrity (Storey et al., 2009). You need to take decisive actions, no false promises. (R-4)

It was also found to be important for the future HR professional to have effective written and verbal communication skills to clearly communicate critical messages for organizational success (Storey et al., 2009): You need to possess skills that enable you to communicate on a rational level, not on a normative or emotional level. (R-2)

Furthermore, respondents indicated that the future HR professional must be a conversation partner, meaning that he needs to facilitate and play an active role in conversation practice: “you need to give people energy so that they want to talk about their work field” (R-3). According to the respondents, the future HR professional should also have effective relationships, and maintain effective interpersonal skills to work well with colleagues in an atmosphere of trust (Storey et al., 2009). The necessity of this competence relates to the competences of cooperation, conversation partner and communication skills. Before HR professionals can play the role of conversation partner, cooperate with the management team and communicate with different parties, effective relationships have to be built. Furthermore, respondents indicated that it is important for the future HR professional to show empathy, to identify with and understand another’s situation, feelings, and motives: “you should always place yourself in the receiving group when you want to communicate with that group” (R-9). Respondents acknowledged the importance of style flexibility and wide orientation for HR professionals, that is, they need to be able to associate with people on different levels and to balance varying needs. Style flexibility means that HR professionals have to be able to associate with different people and need to make themselves understandable on all kinds of levels. As already mentioned, “an HR professional should be able to switch quickly between strategic, tactical, and operational levels” (R-10). It is also important for HR professionals to manage change, as they need to shift individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state. Change management is an organizational process aimed at empowering employees to accept and embrace changes in their current business environment. As mentioned by R-4, “as a strategic partner, you need to have an understanding of (…) change processes.” Entrepreneurship and innovation were mentioned as important for the future HR professional as he needs to be able to introduce new ideas and methods, for example, and to be someone who undertakes innovations, finance and business acumen

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in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods. HR professionals should also be able to analyze feasibility, as they need to uncover objectively and rationally the strengths and weaknesses of the existing business, and opportunities and threats as presented by the environment. As R-2 indicated, HR professionals should be able to make a so-called risk analysis of HR in which they look at what HR can deliver given the current threats and opportunities present in the environment and make an action plan based on that analysis. According to the respondents, market-driven connectivity was also found to be of importance as HR professionals need to understand signals from the external environment and translate them into the organization to respond to market demands (Storey et al., 2009). The respondents indicated that the signals are mostly a matter of changes to the labor market which need to be taken into account in the organization. As mentioned by R-10, HR professionals should continuously monitor development, like the new generation, labor market developments, the social system, dismissal laws, retirement development, and ageing: People see their work as a job that needs to be done and then continue to do another job. (R-10)

It was also acknowledged by respondents that the future HR professionals must be proactive, as they need to change rather than react to events. This means that HR professionals should not just follow the rules, but take the initiative. To create value, together with the organization, HR professionals should look at how the organization can be developed further. As mentioned by respondents, proactivity also means that HR professionals have to participate in active conversations with managers and employees and should help to detect problems and how to solve them. Here, proactivity can be related to the competences of the conversation partner and analytical thinking, as they need to be proactive in creating conversations and in thinking about how the organization can be brought to a higher level by detecting problems and solving them.

Individual HRM Job Performance As stated in our theoretical background, individual HRM job performance means that HR professionals are able to function in their position at the required level or even above it. Little empirical evidence was found to support this topic of individual HRM job performance. When respondents were asked what performance meant for HR professionals, they perceived it to be a consequence of the required competences. Furthermore, as mentioned by respondents 2, 4, 5, and 9, performance is measured by key performance indicators, as they indicate the added value of HR. This means that the performance of HR professionals is assessed based on indicators such as their sick leave, absenteeism, and turnover. Performance also means that HR professionals should set and attain goals. It is considered a matter of the right behavior, as also highlighted by respondents.

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Organizational Contingencies for HRM Competences Success During interviews about HRM competences and individual HRM job performance, respondents voiced the importance of certain organizational characteristics that may play a role in determining accents in HRM competences: strategy, size, type, and sector of an organization. First, respondents expressed that HR professionals are expected to satisfy different requirements depending on a company’s size. All interviewees agreed that the work scope of HR professionals, and thus expected competences, differs per company size, as larger companies give HR professionals the possibility to specialize in certain topics, while in small companies HR professionals have to perform all diverse activities. The educational background was mentioned as an important factor: a specialized HR professional may experience lack-of-fit in the role of an all-rounder in small companies. In a large company, more people are involved in the HRM function, allowing for various HRM layers in the organization, and HR professionals can focus on one of these layers. In smaller organizations HR professionals should be able to think about issues at all levels and topics. The type of company seems to require something from HR professionals. In companies characterized by a culture-enforcing workfloor presence, more may be required from an HR professional compared to a company with a corporate culture that insists on a HR professional maintaining a more distanced position. Business challenges are different between types of companies, for example in knowledgeintensive firms HR professionals deal with different types of employees compared to production companies.

Discussion Our theoretical framework on HRM competences revealed 21 HRM competences within 6 HRM domains. Of these competences, 17 were derived from the existing knowledge on HRM competences developed by Ulrich and colleagues (2007, 2008). As Maurer and Weiss (2010) acknowledged that there is an increasing need to be able to learn continuously in managerial work, the 4 competences that characterize this continuous learning were added. When looking at the domains defined in the theoretical framework, the empirical study showed the same six domains. However, as newly defined HRM competences were found to be of importance, some of these existing domains were adjusted to the business language. With respect to the business focus domain, respondents indicated that it is important for the future HR professional to have knowledge of the social context, the value chain and the value proposition. However, while Ulrich and colleagues (2007, 2008) grouped these types of business knowledge into one domain, we decided to group the competences into business knowledge, as respondents perceived it to be important for HR professionals to have business knowledge, meaning that HR professionals should know

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about all business topics. Therefore, the competences that characterize the business knowledge domain were grouped and re-defined as the business knowledge competence. The organizational sensitivity competence was added. The respondents were of the opinion that HR professionals should possess organizational sensitivity, as they need to understand how HRM decisions will influence other parts of the organization. However, to be able to understand this, they need to know about how the business works and can be compromised. Here, the importance of the competences inside this business focus domain becomes visible as Ulrich recognized that HR professionals have become business partners, have new opportunities for personal growth and must actively build their firm’s competitive advantage. The HRM competences that refer to the business focus domain do contribute to the understanding that HR professionals have of the organization, which they need to be able to contribute to business success. As Ulrich et al. (1995) recognized, knowing the capabilities of an organization is a necessary condition of entry into any strategic discussion. In the continuous learning domain, Maurer and Weiss (2010) indicated that the competence of continuous learning consists of four aspects. The necessity of continuous learning was recognized in our empirical study, which confirms Maurer and Weiss’s (2010) idea. However, as indicated by the respondents, the competence to be able to learn continuously should be possessed by other employees and not only HR professionals. So while it is not marked by respondents as a unique competence for HR professionals because of their managerial position, it is something they need to have. With our empirical study we found no distinction with respect to the elements of continuous learning and therefore decided to redefine it from a competence domain to a competence inside the learning focus domain. Of the original four competences inside the continuous learning domain, we only found some correspondence with self-objectivity, as you need to be able to recognize your own strengths and weaknesses. However, our respondents indicated the importance of this in a broader field, that is, not only know your strengths and weaknesses but have complete knowledge about who you are. So, the idea of self-objectivity did appear in the empirical study, but was much broader than recognized at first. The new HRM competences we recognized to be important in the empirical study enforce the idea that HR delivery has strategic relevance. Some respondents indicated that before HR professionals could have some strategic input, they should be able to organize the processes and provide others with the necessary instruments. For HR professionals to be able to organize the operational level of HR, they need to have operational knowledge. Of the competences developed by Ulrich and colleagues, there were also ones that we did not recognize in our empirical study. We felt that HR professionals are less occupied with the operational level and should be more occupied with the strategic level. However, the proportion of HR professionals occupied with operational and strategic activities depends on the size of the organization, as more

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stratification and specialization are possible in larger organizations, while HR professionals have to function as an all-rounder in smaller organizations. The original HR technology domain consisted of one competence, ability to work with e-HRM. With this competence, Ulrich and colleagues (2008) recognized that HR professionals should invent new e-HR applications and use them. However, with our empirical study we found two separate issues with respect to e-HRM. Some respondents indicated that HR professionals should only be capable of working with e-HRM. For HR professionals the topic of e-HRM means mostly being the ones who need to see the potentials of the e-HRM applications and to facilitate it. It means that HR professionals do not necessarily have to work with e-HRM, but need to have knowledge about the technology, what e-HRM is and what possibilities it offers. Therefore, it was decided to refine the original competence of Ulrich and colleagues into the two competences of facilitating skills and knowledge of HR technology. In our empirical study we recognized all competences within the personal credibility domain. However, we felt the original definition had some shortcomings, as only the relationship with HR counterparts and line managers is underlined. Based on what the respondents mentioned, the relationship between HR professionals and other people in the organization should also be included, as HR professionals also have to keep in touch with employees on the workfloor and support effective relationships with other departments inside the organization. The empirical study showed new competences in personal credibility. For example, the competences of conversation partner and cooperation fit the competences of communication skills and effective relationships. If you want to be a good conversation partner, you should be able to communicate and maintain good relationships with the persons you want to have the conversation with. The same could be the case for the cooperation competence: HR professionals can only cooperate with people when they have a good relationship with them and can communicate with them. What makes these new competences different from the ones defined by Ulrich and colleagues (2008) is that our new competences go further into the topic of relationships, as HR professionals should be able to be credible in relationships with all kinds of parties inside the organization. This corresponds with the role of employee advocacy recognized by Ulrich et al. (2007), and mentioned by Francis and Keegan (2006). Though HR professionals are expected to act more in the role of a business partner, the role of employee advocacy should not be forgotten, as HR professionals are the ones who need to “form a bridge between management and employees, so that mutual understanding makes the best of whatever the company faces” (Ulrich et al., 2007, p. 201, as cited by Francis & Keegan, 2006). With respect to the original strategic contribution domain, we decided to rename this domain the strategic focus as the new competences referred to preoccupation with the strategic level and went beyond the meaning of the original domain. Of the four competences developed by Ulrich and colleagues (2008) inside the original domain of strategic contribution, all were found to be important for the future HR

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professional. However, the extent to which the elements were of importance was not highlighted enough by the original concepts of Ulrich and colleagues. As they described fast change to be the ability to make change happen successfully and thoroughly when planning and implementing it (Storey et al., 2009), we felt this to have some shortcomings; respondents perceived the future HR professional as preoccupied with change management, which is an organizational process in which HR professionals need to create awareness for the necessity for change and facilitate the complete change process. The competence of market-driven connectivity was defined by Ulrich and colleagues as the ability to take up signals from the external environment and translate them into the organization to respond to market demands (Storey et al., 2009). This competence corresponded with our empirical study in the sense that respondents perceived that it was necessary for the future HR professional to monitor generational developments and take them into account when hiring new people, for example. The competence of strategic decision-making also corresponded with our empirical study. However, we felt the need to broaden the competence, as it was perceived to be a larger topic. Respondents referred not only to the need for the future HR professional to set the direction of change for the future, but also to be concerned with helping establish the business strategy, translating this business strategy into the HR strategy and holding a vision of the future. Therefore, it was decided to rename this competence as strategic involvement, because HR professionals are to be occupied with more strategic activities than only setting directions for change. Along with the existing and re-defined competences, additional competences with a strategic focus were added. To make strategic decisions, HR professionals should possess analytical thinking, ability to come up with new ideas that can gain an advantage for the organization, shaping entrepreneurship and innovation competence. HR professionals should also be able to create a feasibility analysis, as they should know the strengths and weaknesses of the business, and the opportunities and threats in the environment, in order to be able to make the right decisions. The leadership competence also has strategic relevance, as HR professionals need to convince others that the business goals must be attained in the interests of the organization and the employees. Overall, our empirical study showed more competences in the strategic focus domain than Ulrich and colleagues (2008) did in their original strategic contribution domain. The reason that the strategic focus domain consists more of competences may be explained by the fact that HR professionals are taking on the role of strategic partner more. In this role, “HR professionals partner with line managers to help them reach their goals through effective strategy formulation and strategy execution” (Ulrich & Brockbank, 2005b, p. 27, as was cited by Francis & Keegan, 2006). With the business focus domain, we recognized that HR professionals are expected to act more as a business partner. For HR professionals to be able to be a business partner, they should not only know and understand the business, they should be strategically involved, meaning that the strategic partner role can be seen as an aspect of the business partner role (Francis & Keegan, 2006).

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Organizational Contingencies for HRM Competences: Future Research Possibilities According to Boyatzis (1982), there are several contingencies in measuring competences. The type of sector and type of level as a manager play a role. The type of sector as a business context factor can be explained by the role behavior employees need to express in order to be successful in the particular sector. HR professionals are there to stimulate workers, and then their HR competences become essential. Therefore, in any type of sector, different HR competences are needed, which makes the best-fit approach necessary. Type of level is a business context factor because HR professionals of a higher level should demonstrate a higher degree of being competent than lower level HR professionals (Mansfield, 1996). Furthermore, general competences and type of manager were business context factors. However, we must remark that these relationships were not strong. General competences could be of complementary value to HR competences, and this could influence the degree of competency for an HR professional. Ulrich et al. (1995) distinguished between non-US and US HRM competences, and found some differences. Knowledge of business showed a large difference with regard to geography. For example, change management was more important for US HR professionals than non-US. The relationship of geography to competences could be explained by culture. Aycan, Kanungo, and Sinha (1999) drew on a sample of Indian and Canadian managers and employees. From the sample they extracted the result that national cultures influence organizational cultures, which in turn influence HR practices (Aycan et al., 1999). Different organizational cultures imply different HR practices. Globalization is one of the phenomena that characterize the rapidly changing economic environment. DeSimone, Werner, and Harris (2002) described how the consequences of globalization led to companies introducing new technologies. In turn, this led to other requirements in the labor force; more highly skilled and trained personnel is needed. In addition, globalization leads companies to new markets (Ulrich, 2008). These markets lead to new opportunities, but also challenges. The culture in these new environments is different. The competency of 1997’s HRCS “culture management” is becoming more important. Jackson and Schuler (1995) proposed the existence of national culture as a contingency factor in HRM, and they also take the perspective of globalization in relation to the necessity of possessing knowledge about cultures. Ulrich et al. (1995) found that HR professionals in businesses with more than 20,000 employees required less knowledge and fewer skills and abilities. According to Ulrich et al. (1995) large businesses require less skilled HR professionals because market dominance is key to achieving business success rather than competency. Bayo-Moriones and Merino-Dı´ az de Cerio (2001) give several reasons why company size should be contingent upon HRM. They found that larger firms have a separate HR department available for HR issues, whereas the product-line manager takes on the HR responsibilities in smaller firms. Consequently, in larger firms, HR professionals possess more expertise than those in smaller firms. This expertise can

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be translated to competences, meaning that company size affects HR competences. The rationale for a contingency effect of company size upon HR competences is interesting, although no substantial empirical evidence has been found. Valverde, Ryan, and Soler (2006) did not find any evidence for the influence of this contextual variable on the HR system. They focused on organizations with 200 employees or more. It is known that the HR function is organized in a different way in smaller organizations (Deshpande & Golhar, 1994; Marsman, 2011; Mayson & Barrett, 2006). Jackson and Schuler (1995) also indicated the existence of a business context factor, “firm size.” They based their assumptions on institutional theory, which dictates that larger organizations use more advanced and socially responsive HRM activities, because they are more visible and therefore feel more pressure to gain social legitimacy (also explained by Bayo-Moriones & Merino-Dı´ az de Cerio, 2001). In HRM research, many studies have investigated the relationship between HR and business strategy. Therefore, it is interesting to include strategy also as a business context factor in future research.

Conclusions This empirical study explored what companies require from future HR professionals. A qualitative study was conducted as this gave us the opportunity to go beyond initial preconceptions and gain a full understanding of the topics. Through interviews with 10 HR leaders from large companies in the Netherlands holding strategic HR positions, the new set of HRM competences was composed. This set included 6 HRM competences profiles: Business Focus, Learning Focus, Strategic Focus, HR Technology, HR Delivery and Personal Credibility. Several contingency factors play a role in the set of HRM competences: company culture, strategy, size, sector, scope and position of HR professionals. Based on these contributions, we recommended that future research conduct a quantitative study to gain a better understanding of the relevance of the individual HRM job performance and to find associations between the HRM competences and individual HRM job performance.

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