Human Resource Management: A Critical Approach

Human Resource Management

Effective management of human resources is essential to the success of any organiza￾tion. In this authoritative, sophisticated and engaging new text on Human Resource

Management (HRM), an international team of leading analysts guides the advanced

student through this fundamental discipline of management in all its complexity.

The book explores all the central themes and concepts of HRM theory and

practice, and introduces the most important issues influencing contemporary

practice in a wide range of organizational contexts. It systematically examines the

main functional areas of HRM, and engages with a number of key contemporary

issues for both scholars and practitioners. Topics covered include:

● Strategic HRM

● Ethics in HRM

● Knowledge management

● HRM and performance

● Outsourcing and implications for HRM

● HRM in small and medium enterprises

● Key functional areas of HRM practice

● International HRM

Adopting a critical perspective throughout that challenges the student to examine

closely the fundamental purpose and practices of HRM, this book is essential

reading for all serious students of Human Resource Management and for any

HRM professional looking to deepen his understanding of the subject.

David G. Collings is Lecturer in International Management at the National

University of Ireland, Galway and editor of the Human Resource Management

Journal.

Geoffrey Wood is Professor of Human Resource Management at the University

of Sheffield Management School, UK. He has authored seven books and

published in a variety of journals.

Human Resource Management

A critical approach

Edited by

David G. Collings and Geoffrey Wood

First published 2009

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2009 David G. Collings and Geoffrey Wood

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced

or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,

now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,

or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in

writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Human resource management: a critical approach / edited by David G.

Collings and Geoffrey Wood.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Personnel management. I. Collings, David G. II. Wood, Geoffrey.

HF5549.H78414 2009

658.3—dc22

2008053050

ISBN10: 0-415-46246-0 (hbk)

ISBN10: 0-415-46247-9 (pbk)

ISBN10: 0-203-87633-4 (ebk)

ISBN13: 978-0-415-46246-4 (hbk)

ISBN13: 978-0-415-46247-1 (pbk)

ISBN13: 978-0-203-87633-6 (ebk)

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009.

To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s

collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.

ISBN 0-203-87633-4 Master e-book ISBN

Contents

List of figures vii

List of tables viii

About the editors ix

Contributors x

1 Human resource management: a critical approach 1

DAVID G. COLLINGS AND GEOFFREY WOOD

SECTION I

The context of HRM 17

2 HRM in changing organizational contexts 19

PHIL JOHNSON

3 Strategic HRM: a critical review 38

JAAP PAAUWE AND CORINE BOON

4 HRM and organizational performance 55

STEPHEN WOOD

5 HRM: an ethical perspective 75

MICK FRYER

6 Organizational outsourcing and the implications for HRM 92

RICHARD HAINES

7 The socio-cultural aspects of knowledge management

and the links to HRM: a critical perspective 113

DONALD HISLOP

8 HRM in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) 130

TONY DUNDON AND ADRIAN WILKINSON

SECTION II

The practice of HRM 149

9 Recruitment and selection 151

ROSALIND SEARLE

10 HR planning: institutions, strategy, tools and techniques 169

ZSUZSA KISPAL-VITAI AND GEOFFREY WOOD

11 Performance management 189

ANTHONY MCDONNELL AND PATRICK GUNNIGLE

12 Reward management 208

SUZANNE RICHBELL AND GEOFFREY WOOD

13 Human resource development 222

IRENA GRUGULIS

14 Industrial relations and human resource management 237

GILTON KLERCK

SECTION III

The international context of HRM 261

15 Human resource management in emerging markets 263

FRANK M. HORWITZ AND KAMEL MELLAHI

16 Comparative HRM: the debates and the evidence 278

CHRIS BREWSTER AND WOLFGANG MAYRHOFER

17 International human resource management 296

DAVID G. COLLINGS, HUGH SCULLION AND DEIRDRE CURRAN

Index 313

vi Contents

Figures

3.1 Generic perspectives on strategy 40

3.2 The Harvard approach 42

3.3 The Michigan approach – the human resource cycle 43

3.4 Contextually based human resource theory 51

7.1 Alvesson and Kärreman’s knowledge

management approaches 117

11.1 Stages of a typical performance management system 192

11.2 Unanticipated side effects to performance measures 195

11.3 The balanced scorecard 203

16.1 Units of analysis in comparative HRM and their

social complexity 284

Tables

1.1 Definitions of HRM 5

2.1 Bureaucracy and post-bureaucracy compared 30

3.1 Outside-in versus inside-out perspective 45

7.1 Key characteristics of two epistemologies in the

knowledge management literature 114

8.1 From small is beautiful to bleak house 133

8.2 People management strategies in large and SME firms (per cent) 135

8.3 Employee communication channels in SMEs (per cent) 138

8.4 Examples of new management techniques in SMEs (1998–2004) 141

10.1 Strategies for managing shortages of surpluses

in the workforce 185

11.1 Performance appraisal techniques 199

13.1 Approaches to workforce development 227

About the editors

David G. Collings is Lecturer in International Management at the National

University of Ireland, Galway. Previously he was on the faculty at the University

of Sheffield Management School. He was also a Visiting Research Fellow at

Strathclyde Business School. His research interests focus on management in multi￾national corporations with a particular emphasis on staffing and industrial rela￾tions issues. His work in these areas has been published in outlets such as the

Journal of World Business, International Journal of Human Resource Management

and the International Journal of Management Reviews. His recent books include

Global Staffing (with Hugh Scullion), published by Routledge, and International

HRM and International Assignments (with Mike Morley and Noreen Heraty),

published by Palgrave Macmillan. He is Editor of the Human Resource

Management Journal.

Geoffrey Wood is Professor of Human Resource Management at the University

of Sheffield Management School and visiting Professor at the Nelson Mandela

Metropolitan University in South Africa. He has authored/co-authored/edited

seven books, and over one hundred articles in peer-reviewed journals (including

journals such as Work and Occupations, Work, Employment and Society,

Organization Studies, International Journal of Human Resource Management,

British Journal of Industrial Relations, Human Resource Management (US),

etc.). Geoff’s current research interests centre on the systematic testing and devel￾opment of contemporary institutional theory in the light of large-scale survey

evidence. This has encompassed assessments of variations in industrial relations

in different institutional settings, the relative fortunes of organized labour in

emerging markets, and developments and extensions of regulationist theories.

The latter includes assessments as to internal diversity within specific varieties of

capitalism, and the relationship between finance and HR practice.

Contributors

Corine Boon is Post-Doctoral Researcher at Erasmus University Medical Center

and Tilburg University, The Netherlands.

Chris Brewster is Professor of International HRM, Henley Business School,

University of Reading, UK.

Deirdre Curran is Lecturer in HRM at J. E. Cairnes School of Business and

Economics, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.

Tony Dundon is Lecturer in HRM at J. E. Cairnes School of Business and

Economics, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.

Mick Fryer is a Doctoral Student at Loughborough University Business School, UK.

Irena Grugulis is Professor of Employment Studies at Bradford University

School of Management, UK, an AIM/ESRC Service Fellow and an Associate

Fellow of SKOPE.

Patrick Gunnigle is Professor of Business Studies at Department of Personnel

and Employment Relations, Kemmy Business School, University of

Limerick, Ireland.

Richard Haines is Professor and Head of the Development Studies Department

at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), South Africa.

Donald Hislop is Senior Lecturer in OB/HRM, Loughborough University

Business School, UK.

Frank M. Horwitz is Professor and Director of Cranfield School of

Management, University of Cranfield, UK.

Phil Johnson is Professor at the University of Sheffield Management School, UK.

Zsuzsa Kispal-Vitai is Associate Professor, University of Pécs, Hungary.

Gilton Klerck is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Sociology, Rhodes

University, South Africa.

Wolfgang Mayrhofer is Professor at Interdisciplinary Unit for Management and

Organizational Behaviour, WU Wirtschaftsuniversitaet Wien, Austria.

Anthony McDonnell is Research Fellow, Centre for Institutional and

Organisational Studies, Faculty of Business and Law, University of

Newcastle, Australia.

Kamel Mellahi is Professor of Strategic Management at Sheffield University

Management School, UK.

Jaap Paauwe is Full Professor of Human Resource Studies at Tilburg University,

and Professor of Organisation (part-time) at Erasmus School of Economics,

Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Suzanne Richbell is Senior Lecturer in HRM at Sheffield University

Management School, UK.

Hugh Scullion is Professor of International HRM at J. E. Cairnes School of

Business and Economics, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.

Rosalind Searle is Senior Lecturer in Occupational Psychology at The Open

University, UK.

Adrian Wilkinson is Professor and Director, Centre for Work, Organization and

Wellbeing and the Department of Employment Relations, Griffith Business

School, Griffith University, Australia.

Stephen Wood is Research Chair and Deputy Director, Institute of Work

Psychology, Professor of Employment Relations, University of Sheffield, UK.

Contributors xi

1 Human resource management

A critical approach

David G. Collings and Geoffrey Wood

Introduction

Despite almost two decades of debate in the mainstream literature around the nature

of human resource management (HRM), its intellectual boundaries and its applica￾tion in practice, the field continues to be dogged by a number of theoretical and prac￾tical limitations. This book is intended to provide students with a relatively advanced

and critical discussion of the key debates and themes around HRM as it is concep￾tualized and operationalized in the early part of the twenty-first century. Thus the

current contribution is intended to be in the tradition of Storey (2007) and Legge

(1995) and aims to provide students with a well grounded and critical overview of

the key issues surrounding HRM from a theoretical and practical perspective. In

doing so we draw on contributions from the leading scholars in the field who provide

detailed discussions on key debates in their respective offerings.

In this introduction we provide the context for the book though considering a

number of overarching themes within which key debates in the field of HRM are situated.

Specifically, we provide a summary discussion of the theoretical and intellectual

boundaries of HRM, consider its emergence in historical context and identify some of

the pervasive contradictions and limitations which prevail in the literature. Finally we

provide a short outline of the structure and content of this volume.

HRM defined

Our discussion begins by considering what HRM actually means. Given the

importance of definition in understanding the boundaries of a field, this issue is

clearly an important point of departure. However, this question is more difficult to

answer than one would expect, since from its emergence HRM has been dogged

by the still largely unresolved ambiguity surrounding its definition. As Blyton and

Turnbull (1992: 2) note ‘The ways in which the term is used by academics and

practitioners indicates both variations in meaning and significantly different

emphases on what constitutes its core components’.

One of the dominant definitions (in the UK at least) has been to define HRM as

a contested domain, with rival soft and hard approaches. The soft approach to HRM

is generally associated with the Harvard School and in particular the writings of

Michael Beer and colleagues (see Beer et al., 1984; Beer and Spector, 1985;

Walton and Lawrence, 1985). The soft school emphasizes the importance of align￾ing HR policies with organizational strategy, it emphasizes the role of employees

as a valuable asset and source of competitive advantage through their commitment

adaptability and quality (Legge, 1995; D’Art, 2002). It stresses gaining employee

commitment to the organization through the use of a congruent suite of HRM policies.

Soft HRM draws on behavioural sciences in particular, with strong resonance with

the human relations school, while the concept of human growth, which is central

to its theory, echoes ‘all-American’ theories of motivation, from McGregor’s

Theory Y to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (Legge, 1995). Hence it is sometimes

conceptualized as ‘developmental humanism’ (Storey, 1989; Legge, 1995). HRM

is operationalized in terms of strategic interventions designed to develop resource￾ful employees and to elicit their commitment to the organizational goal (Storey,

1992). However, sceptics have conceptualized soft HRM as the ‘iron fist in the

velvet glove’, arguing that the theory of soft HRM ‘reduced . . . the complex

debate about the role of people in work organizations to the simplistic dogma of

an economic model which even its “creator” Adam Smith would probably not have

wished applied in such an indiscriminate manner’ (Hart, 1993: 29–30). Another

uncharitable definition of soft HRM is that it constituted a desperate rearguard

action by liberal academics and practitioners, mostly writing in the United States,

to sell more humane forms of managing people to essentially conservative owner

interests that have in increasing numbers ruthlessly pressed for a maximization of

short term profits, regardless of the cost to both employees and the long term good

of the organization. In other words, soft HRM is about trying to encourage firms

to be ‘nicer’ to their people, on the basis that such ‘niceness’ is likely to translate

into greater commitment and productivity, and hence, even more profits.

Soft HRM stands in contrast with the hard variant. Hard HRM is generally asso￾ciated with the Michigan School (Forbrun et al., 1984). Its emphasis is on the use

of human resource (HR) systems to ‘drive’ the attainment of the strategic objectives

of the organizations (Forbrun et al., 1984). While soft HRM emphasizes the human

element of HRM, the emphasis of the hard approach is very much on the resource

as a means of maximizing shareholder value over the short term. The duty of

managers is quite simply to make money for owners, and a focus on other issues

such as employee rights is simply a distraction: rather, by focusing on returns, the

organization will perform most efficiently, which ultimately is in the interests of all.

It has been argued that, in the tradition of Taylorism and Fordism, employees are

viewed as a factor of production that should be rationally managed and deployed in

quantitative and calculative terms in line with business strategy (Tyson and Fell, 1986;

Storey, 1992). However, rather different to classic Taylorism or Fordism, job security

in the new hard HRM is seen as an unnecessary luxury, whilst pay rates are to be kept

to the lowest level the external labour market would permit: there is little mention in

the literature illustrating how hard HRM echoes Henry Ford’s famous commitment to

a 5 dollar/day wage. Human resource policies in the hard variant are designed to be

both internally consistent and externally aligned with the organizational strategy. These

interventions are designed to ensure full utilization of the labour resource (Storey,

1992). It is legitimized and finds its impetus from a market-responsive frame of reference

2 David G. Collings and Geoffrey Wood