TECHNOLOGY IN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

The Growing Use of Technology in Human Resource Management

Executive Summary

Human resources management (HRM) has responded to several major evolutionary changes in organizational life during the past few decades. These changes include challenges of managing a more diverse work force, re-engineering and total quality management, globalized competition, and the expanded role of information systems and telecommunications technology. At times HRM has responded to organizational change in a reactive way, following rather than leading. Likewise, academic researchers occasionally label new fields of inquiry as "atheoretical," needlessly reinventing the wheel with studies that replicate earlier work, a phenomenon that may occur with HRM and information technology. Both of the above responses to the challenge of change are costly in terms of time wasted. Opportunities slip by for the HR field to be proactive in helping organizations achieve their strategic goals, as well as for researchers to do studies that move new fields forward. We explore the special challenges of the HRM/technology interface to suggest a research framework that builds on prior theory development and also acknowledges the strategic role HRM should play in organizations.

Importantly, we recognize the potential for impaired commitment or morale that may arise when an organization confronts difficult new challenges, and specifically when it reconfigures to accommodate technology. Therefore, a key premise of our model is the importance of acknowledging some constant, immutable, and enduring themes in organizational life. While we suggest research propositions that are theory based and promote a strategic view of HRM, we also recognize the importance of these fundamental beliefs about managing people. Specifically, people and organizations need stability and core values, even in a changing environment. They both benefit from fulfilling the terms of a psychological contract. And finally, we endorse a "human relations" view, such that regardless of the technological skills that individuals master, interpersonal skills will still be essential in work organizations.

We focus on information-technology workers, but the research propositions are applicable to a wide array of work situations. Characteristics of information-technology-intensive jobs should nonetheless heighten the impact of the proposed human resource practices. For example, actions meant to socialize employees and increase their identification with the organization may be beneficial for all types of workers. However, the effect of these actions may have the greatest potential for information-technology workers since they are often physically remote from the organization (as in telecommuting or "skunk works" settings) and may perceive themselves to be at the organization's margin. Efforts to increase ties with the firm potentially have a much more salient effect for information-technology workers whose job characteristics create more distance from organizations. Likewise, our research propositions are not necessarily unique only to the information-technology domain, but the predicted effects should be particularly strong for workers in information-technology-intensive positions.

The Growing Use of Technology in Human Resource Management

Introduction

The unpopularity of the creation of distance worker positions with labor unions (Hamilton, 1987) is instructive for human resources management. A key concern of unions regarding distance work is that the workers are difficult ...