Lecture 1
Introduction to HRM practices: What is HRM?
Human resource management refers to the policies, practices and systems that influence employees’ attitudes,
behavior, performance.
Human resource management is a distinctive approach to employment management which seeks to obtain
competitive advantage through the strategic deployment of a highly committed and skilled workforce, using an array
of cultural, structural and personnel techniques (Storey, 1995)
à more focused on strategy, implement HRM to contribute to a strategic goal/organizational performance
What are HRM practices?
“Programs, processes and techniques that actually get operationalized in the unit” (Wright & Boswell, 2002, pp. 263-
264)
• Things that happen
• Concrete ways in which people are managed in the organization
• Certain level of facticity
“the actual, functioning, observable activities, as experienced by employees” (Boselie et al., 2005, pp. 74)
• Actual practices and experiences
• Observable
Focus on five core HRM practices:
• Employee relations and collective communication
• Recruitment and selection
• Performance management
• Rewards
• Training and development
Introducing the practices: linking practices to
• Theme 2: comparative HRM
• Theme 3: current trends and challenges
• Theme 4: understanding effects based on OB theories
HRM Practice 1: Employee Relations and Collective Communication
Employee relations concerns matters of overarching employment or collective workforce policy, such as bargaining
(the traditional focus of industrial relations), and expression of the collective voice of employees.
à representation of workers as a group (e.g. in unions)
Current trends and challenges:
• Changing nature of work: tele-working
• e(lectronic)-HRM à portal to ask for vacation days, virtual recruitment and selection
Important of employee relations and collective communication for employee commitment and retention (e.g.
exchange theory)
à Because organizations invest in their workers, workers want to do something in return (gives productive workers)
,HRM Practice 2: Recruitment and Selection
One of the purposes of recruitment is to determine present and future staffing needs in conjunction with job
analysis and human resource planning.
à Finding/attracting workers that are interested in the organization.
Selection: a linked but separate practice after recruitment, then involves the identification of the most suitable
person from a pool of applicants.
à Identifying the most suitable persons from that group.
Current trends and challenges:
• War for talent
• Unemployment versus tight labor markets
Comparative HRM: Recruitment Practices
Internal recruitment: find employees within own organization
Recruitment agencies: do the recruitment work for you
Comparative HRM: Selection Practices
Interview panel: multiple interviewers with one interviewee
à unstructured interviews are unreliable but used very
frequently (because they say it works for them and managers
get to know the interviewees)
Assessment centers: multiple selection tests (intelligence test,
interview, …)
Graphology: study of handwriting à no evidence that it works
properly/is reliable, organizations do use it because they think it
works for them
HRM Practice 3: Performance Management
The name given to the formal conversations between line manager and employee about priorities and their
achievements. But also, a HR designed process designed to align the workforce with the organizational strategy.
Current trends and challenges:
• HRM analytics à collect data on workers performance and use this to manage workers more effectively
Effects on outcomes:
• Expectancy theory
HRM Practice 4: Rewards
People are the largest single operating cost item of most businesses
Using rewards to motivate employees and/or engender their active commitment or engagement.
à How much you pay your workers, not only paid in money
à You’re paid related to your performance
,Current trends and challenges:
• Bonuses
• Performance related pay
• Pay differences
Effects on outcomes: motivation theory, efficiency wage
theory (paying more pays off/will result in higher
performance/productivity à extrinsic motivation)
Comparative HRM: Performance Related Pay
HRM Practice 5: Training and Development
Training: the planned and systematic modification of behavior through learning events, programs and instruction
which enable individuals to achieve the levels of knowledge, skills and competence to carry out their work
effectively.
Development: the growth or realization of a person’s ability and potential through the provision of learning and
educational experiences.
Current trends and challenges:
• Talent management à to motivate workers
• Employability
• Learning organization
Effect on outcomes: psychological contract theory
Employability management paradox
Lecture 2
HRM in context
Three main approaches
• Cross-cultural management: HRM across cultures
• International HRM: issues related to the management of Human Resources in MNC’s
• Comparative HRM: differences in HRM across countries
HRM and (National) Context: What Comes To Mind
• Firing someone
o Difficult in NL, very easy in USA
• Minimum wage
, Current Developments
COVID-19
What are the implications for HRM in businesses?
• Differs per company; some companies have to fire people, other
companies need more people
• Switch to online: motivate but also hire online
• Mental well being
Relevance of International HRM and Comparative HRM
• Business and management have globalized à business are not limited to one country
o A growing extensity, intensity and velocity of global interactions associated with deepening impact,
such that the effects of distant events can be highly significant elsewhere
• Management should be international and outward-looking
• Requirement to compare and learn from different nations and cultures
• MNCs need international management skills and knowledge transfer to subsidiaries
• Strategic and governmental processes are international and global
Various Theoretical Perspectives
Ø Best fit versus best practice
Best practice perspective:
• Existence of a set of HRM practices that leads to superior organizational
performance
• Related to so-called High Performance Work Systems (will give you superior
performance)
o Ideal combination of practices
à context doesn’t matter, it will work no matter where you are
Best fit perspective:
• Importance of fit between HRM practices and internal and external context
• Effective of HRM practices dependent on for example fit with organizational strategy
à depends on fit with the context
Ø Universalistic, contingent, configurational and contextual perspectives
Perspectives on HRM (Martin-Alcazar et al., 2008)
• Universalistic, or best practice, models: deliver enhanced organizational performance (Huselid, 1995)
o Organization as “black box” (Purcell et al., 2003): what “bundles” of HRM practices can impact on
performance
à one set of practices that will be used for organizational
performance
^ Huettermann & Bruch (2019) ^
o Pfeffer (1998): High Performance Work Systems (HPWS)
§ Employment security/stability § Reduced status distinctions
§ Selective hiring of new § Extensive sharing of
personnel information, selection,
§ Self-managed incentive, compensation, job
teams/decentralization design, grievance procedures,
§ High compensation information-sharing, attitude
contingent on assessment, labor-
organizational management participation,
performance intensive recruiting, intensive
§ Extensive training training/promotion criteria
Introduction to HRM practices: What is HRM?
Human resource management refers to the policies, practices and systems that influence employees’ attitudes,
behavior, performance.
Human resource management is a distinctive approach to employment management which seeks to obtain
competitive advantage through the strategic deployment of a highly committed and skilled workforce, using an array
of cultural, structural and personnel techniques (Storey, 1995)
à more focused on strategy, implement HRM to contribute to a strategic goal/organizational performance
What are HRM practices?
“Programs, processes and techniques that actually get operationalized in the unit” (Wright & Boswell, 2002, pp. 263-
264)
• Things that happen
• Concrete ways in which people are managed in the organization
• Certain level of facticity
“the actual, functioning, observable activities, as experienced by employees” (Boselie et al., 2005, pp. 74)
• Actual practices and experiences
• Observable
Focus on five core HRM practices:
• Employee relations and collective communication
• Recruitment and selection
• Performance management
• Rewards
• Training and development
Introducing the practices: linking practices to
• Theme 2: comparative HRM
• Theme 3: current trends and challenges
• Theme 4: understanding effects based on OB theories
HRM Practice 1: Employee Relations and Collective Communication
Employee relations concerns matters of overarching employment or collective workforce policy, such as bargaining
(the traditional focus of industrial relations), and expression of the collective voice of employees.
à representation of workers as a group (e.g. in unions)
Current trends and challenges:
• Changing nature of work: tele-working
• e(lectronic)-HRM à portal to ask for vacation days, virtual recruitment and selection
Important of employee relations and collective communication for employee commitment and retention (e.g.
exchange theory)
à Because organizations invest in their workers, workers want to do something in return (gives productive workers)
,HRM Practice 2: Recruitment and Selection
One of the purposes of recruitment is to determine present and future staffing needs in conjunction with job
analysis and human resource planning.
à Finding/attracting workers that are interested in the organization.
Selection: a linked but separate practice after recruitment, then involves the identification of the most suitable
person from a pool of applicants.
à Identifying the most suitable persons from that group.
Current trends and challenges:
• War for talent
• Unemployment versus tight labor markets
Comparative HRM: Recruitment Practices
Internal recruitment: find employees within own organization
Recruitment agencies: do the recruitment work for you
Comparative HRM: Selection Practices
Interview panel: multiple interviewers with one interviewee
à unstructured interviews are unreliable but used very
frequently (because they say it works for them and managers
get to know the interviewees)
Assessment centers: multiple selection tests (intelligence test,
interview, …)
Graphology: study of handwriting à no evidence that it works
properly/is reliable, organizations do use it because they think it
works for them
HRM Practice 3: Performance Management
The name given to the formal conversations between line manager and employee about priorities and their
achievements. But also, a HR designed process designed to align the workforce with the organizational strategy.
Current trends and challenges:
• HRM analytics à collect data on workers performance and use this to manage workers more effectively
Effects on outcomes:
• Expectancy theory
HRM Practice 4: Rewards
People are the largest single operating cost item of most businesses
Using rewards to motivate employees and/or engender their active commitment or engagement.
à How much you pay your workers, not only paid in money
à You’re paid related to your performance
,Current trends and challenges:
• Bonuses
• Performance related pay
• Pay differences
Effects on outcomes: motivation theory, efficiency wage
theory (paying more pays off/will result in higher
performance/productivity à extrinsic motivation)
Comparative HRM: Performance Related Pay
HRM Practice 5: Training and Development
Training: the planned and systematic modification of behavior through learning events, programs and instruction
which enable individuals to achieve the levels of knowledge, skills and competence to carry out their work
effectively.
Development: the growth or realization of a person’s ability and potential through the provision of learning and
educational experiences.
Current trends and challenges:
• Talent management à to motivate workers
• Employability
• Learning organization
Effect on outcomes: psychological contract theory
Employability management paradox
Lecture 2
HRM in context
Three main approaches
• Cross-cultural management: HRM across cultures
• International HRM: issues related to the management of Human Resources in MNC’s
• Comparative HRM: differences in HRM across countries
HRM and (National) Context: What Comes To Mind
• Firing someone
o Difficult in NL, very easy in USA
• Minimum wage
, Current Developments
COVID-19
What are the implications for HRM in businesses?
• Differs per company; some companies have to fire people, other
companies need more people
• Switch to online: motivate but also hire online
• Mental well being
Relevance of International HRM and Comparative HRM
• Business and management have globalized à business are not limited to one country
o A growing extensity, intensity and velocity of global interactions associated with deepening impact,
such that the effects of distant events can be highly significant elsewhere
• Management should be international and outward-looking
• Requirement to compare and learn from different nations and cultures
• MNCs need international management skills and knowledge transfer to subsidiaries
• Strategic and governmental processes are international and global
Various Theoretical Perspectives
Ø Best fit versus best practice
Best practice perspective:
• Existence of a set of HRM practices that leads to superior organizational
performance
• Related to so-called High Performance Work Systems (will give you superior
performance)
o Ideal combination of practices
à context doesn’t matter, it will work no matter where you are
Best fit perspective:
• Importance of fit between HRM practices and internal and external context
• Effective of HRM practices dependent on for example fit with organizational strategy
à depends on fit with the context
Ø Universalistic, contingent, configurational and contextual perspectives
Perspectives on HRM (Martin-Alcazar et al., 2008)
• Universalistic, or best practice, models: deliver enhanced organizational performance (Huselid, 1995)
o Organization as “black box” (Purcell et al., 2003): what “bundles” of HRM practices can impact on
performance
à one set of practices that will be used for organizational
performance
^ Huettermann & Bruch (2019) ^
o Pfeffer (1998): High Performance Work Systems (HPWS)
§ Employment security/stability § Reduced status distinctions
§ Selective hiring of new § Extensive sharing of
personnel information, selection,
§ Self-managed incentive, compensation, job
teams/decentralization design, grievance procedures,
§ High compensation information-sharing, attitude
contingent on assessment, labor-
organizational management participation,
performance intensive recruiting, intensive
§ Extensive training training/promotion criteria
