Human Resource Management (HRM)

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Human Resource Management (HRM)

• What?
• the functional area of an organization that is
  responsible for all aspects of hiring and
  supporting employees (e.g., providing and
  administering employee benefits).
• all the activities related to the recruitment,
  hiring, training, promotion, retention,
  separation, and support of employees.
• functions within a company that relate to people.
  
• Why?
• is the effective use of human resources in order
  to enhance organisational performance.
• the process of evaluating human resource needs,
  finding people to fill those needs, and getting
  the best work from each employee by providing the
  right incentives and job environment, all with
  the goal of meeting the needs of the firm.
• applying human resources within complex systems
  such that people succeed, performance improves,
  and human error decreases.

(Quelle web definitions for HRM)
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Effects of HRM

• HRM-practices (especially job design and
  selection/ appraisal/training) better predict
  company performance than RD, QM, strategy and
  technology (West, 2001)
• Empowerment better predicts company performance
  than technology-based management practices
  (Patterson et al., 2004)
• HRM-practices as cause and effect of company
  performance (Guest et al., 2003)

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HRM from a work and organizational psychology
perspective

• Scientific foundation for HRM tools
• HRM as a function penetrating the whole
  organization
• Focus on working conditions as influences on
  human competence and motivation
• Systematic linking of "fit human to task" and
  "fit task to human"

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Road map for HRM A
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Road map for HRM B
Task / Work process
Organization as socio-technical system
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Topics HRM B Leading teams
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Organization of course

• HRM B provides 3 ETCS points (approx. 75-90 work
  hours).
• Besides the lecture, the prerequisite for credits
  points and exam participation is the completion
  of a semester project in groups of 4 students.
• The exam is written (1.5 hours open book) and
  takes place the first week of the holidays.
  Overall grade 30 project 70 exam.
• Material for each lecture by the previous friday
  on www.oat.ethz.ch.

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Semester project

• Choose one of four topics
• 1 Leadership assessment
• 2 Best practice in HRM
• 3 Pay for performance
• 4 Promotion of employability
• Work in groups of four - final product is written
  report (to be handed in by June 18)
• Depending on topic chosen, project entails
  literature reviews, interviews/observations/docume
  nt analyses in companies, group exercises
• Selection of topics/assignment to groups fill
  out sign-up sheet

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1 Leadership assessment Marius Gerber Barbara
Künzle

• Assessment Center Evaluation of personal
  characteristics based on behavior in realistic
  situations
• Task develop and test an assessment method for
  leadership based on a chosen theory of leadership
• Methods determine relevant personal
  characteristics related to good leadership
  behavior, create an assessment scenario and carry
  out an assessment

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2 Best Practice in HRMSabine Raeder Johann
Weichbrodt

• Best practice finding businesses with an
  excellent HRM (Swiss HR-Award), focus on
  practice, not results
• Task evaluate a companys HRM and create a
  ranking list
• Methods create interview guidelines and conduct
  structured interviews with HR or general managers

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3 Pay for PerformanceHannes Günter

• Pay for performance systems potential for
  serious unintended negative results, but also for
  substantial performance improvements
• Task systematically evaluate an existing pay for
  performance system
• Methods interviews with system designers and
  employees benchmarking using ProMES

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4 Promotion of EmployabilityAnette Wittekind
Daniel Boos

• Employability an individuals chance of getting
  a job in the labor market advantageous for
  employees, but also for employers (social
  responsibility)
• Task identify employability enhancement
  activities in Swiss companies
• Methods send out a questionnaire to Swiss
  companies and analyze the results

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Sign-up sheet
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"Benchmarking" Characteristics of HRM in
successful companies (Pfeffer, 1998)

1. Employment security
2. Selective hiring
3. Self-managed teams and decentralization
4. High compensation contingent on organizational
   performance
5. Extensive training
6. Reduction of status differences
7. Sharing information

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"Benchmarking" Characteristics of HRM in
successful companies (Pfeffer, 1998)

• 1. Employment security
• 2. Selective hiring
• 3. Self-managed teams and decentralization
• 4. High compensation contingent on organizational
  performance
• 5. Extensive training
• 6. Reduction of status differences
• 7. Sharing information

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"Benchmarking" Characteristics of HRM in
successful companies (Pfeffer, 1998)

• 1. Employment security
• 2. Selective hiring
• 3. Self-managed teams and decentralization
• 4. High compensation contingent on organizational
  performance
• 5. Extensive training
• 6. Reduction of status differences
• 7. Sharing information

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Legal and psychological contracts
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Flexible working Change from a traditional to a
new contract? (Raeder Grote, 2001)
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Fit between expectations and offers Employee
perspective
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(Non-)Fit of employer offers and employee
expectations (Wittekind, Raeder Grote, 2005)
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(Non-)Fit of employee offers and employer
expectations (Wittekind, Raeder Grote, 2005)
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Career orientations in Switzerland (Swiss
HR-Barometer 2006, Grote Staffelbach)
Traditional career Independent career
Disengaged career
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Psychological contract as leadership instrument

• Psychological contracts ...
• complement and super-impose legal contracts.
• contain reciprocal, though not necessarily
  correspon-ding expectations and offers between
  employee and employer.
• are derived from verbal agreements as well as
  from behaviors of contract partners and other
  members of the organization.

• The more corresponding
• and
• the more explicit the agreement
• the sounder the psychological contract.

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Using the psychological contract to handle
employment uncertainties

• Communicate and match reciprocal expectations and
  offers
• Early, comprehensive information also on
  uncertain developments (individual and
  organizational)
• Support employability through training, job
  design, and systematic career management
• Distribute risks between organization and
  employee according to individual coping
  capabilities
• Further organizational commitment which allows
  for flexibility and "thinking in options"

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"Benchmarking" Characteristics of HRM in
successful companies (Pfeffer, 1998)

• 1. Employment security
• 2. Selective hiring
• 3. Self-managed teams and decentralization
• 4. High compensation contingent on organizational
  performance
• 5. Extensive training
• 6. Reduction of status differences
• 7. Sharing information

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Fundamentals of organizational design (Kieser
Kubicek, 1983)

• Specialization Distribution of labor, resulting
  in different kinds of work tasks
• Coordination management of dependencies among
  subtasks, resources, and people
• Configuration Structure of line of command
• Delegation of decision authority Distribution
  of decision authority regarding actions and
  decision rules
• Formalization Determination of rules and
  procedures, e.g. structures, flow of information,
  performance measurement/assessment

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Organization as socio-technical system
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Prerequsites for good team work

• Adequate common task
• Complexity higher than individual competencies
• Clear performance criteria
• Collective decision competence
• Shared goal orientation
• Positive goal coupling
• Goal transparency and feedback
• Adequate group composition
• Different perspectives on the task
• Shared language
• Development of group rules
• Adequate group size
• Support for team development (form, storm, norm,
  perform)
• Explicit handling of conflicts between individual
  and collective autonomy

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"Benchmarking" Characteristics of HRM in
successful companies (Pfeffer, 1998)

• 1. Employment security
• 2. Selective hiring
• 3. Self-managed teams and decentralization
• 4. High compensation contingent on organizational
  performance
• 5. Extensive training
• 6. Reduction of status differences
• 7. Sharing information

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Integration of "fit human to task" and "fit task
to human"

• Strive for dynamic relationship between people
  and work to keep people and organization moving
• Select people that want to and can develop
  learning ability and willingness as important
  selection criterion
• Personnel development via training and via work
  assignments that further learning
• Support for lateral und vertical careers in
  systematic processes of selection and development

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Fit task to human (focus in HRM A)

• Job design
• Job crafting
• supports dynamic relationship between person and
  work if tasks are created that include autonomy
  and learning requirements

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Job design as crucial measure for personnel
development

• Design of humane work tasks in order to further
• health
• competencies
• personality
• based on the psychosocial functions of work

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The product of work is people

• Relationship between work and leisure activities
• no relationship - empirical finding only for
  subjective assessment by people themselves,
  especially for "identity threating work" (Hoff,
  1986)
• work changes leisure - most frequent empirical
  finding (e.g. Meissner, 1971 Leitner, 1993)
• leisure compensates for work - empirical finding
  especially regarding compensation of strain (e.g.
  Bamberg, 1986)
• Reciprocal relationship between intellectual job
  demands and development of intelligence
  (Schallberger, 1987)
• selection effect (more intelligent people get
  more demanding jobs) and
• socialization effect (demanding jobs further
  intelligence) result in
• widening gap (for more intelligent people
  intelligence increases, for less intelligent
  people intelligence stays the same/decreases)

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Fit human to task (focus in HRM B)

• Personnel selection
• Training
• supports dynamic relationship if people are
  chosen/trained for motivation and capability to
  learn

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Topics HRM B Leading teams