Strategic Human Resource Management and Employment Relations

Springer Texts in Business and Economics

Strategic Human

Resource

Management

and Employment

Relations

An International Perspective

Ashish Malik Editor

Springer Texts in Business and Economics

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/10099

Ashish Malik

Editor

Strategic Human Resource

Management and

Employment Relations

An International Perspective

Editor

Ashish Malik

Faculty of Business and Law, Central Coast Business School

The University of Newcastle

Ourimbah, Central Coast, NSW, Australia

ISSN 2192-4333 ISSN 2192-4341 (electronic)

Springer Texts in Business and Economics

ISBN 978-981-13-0398-2 ISBN 978-981-13-0399-9 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0399-9

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018940781

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vii

Foreword

I am pleased to present this timely book by Dr. Ashish Malik for a variety of rea￾sons. First, the content covered and approach adopted by the book is important and

germane to managing people from a strategic perspective especially in present

uncertain and complex business environment. Second, the book is written by a

scholar who is well-informed and well-versed in the field. Dr. Malik’s continued

focus on strategic human resource management (SHRM) research in an interna￾tional context, covering high technology and knowledge intensive services indus￾tries such as IT, Telecom, Healthcare, and Business Process Outsourcing, has been

interwoven in the content and its application in this research-based book. Third, the

breadth of SHRM and employment relations (ER) issues covered in the book and

the in-depth cases carefully curated from select countries provide critical insights

useful for students, academics, and practitioners. It integrates the key learnings of

how change and strategic thinking and HRM strategies can have a major impact on

people, businesses, and the societies in which we operate.

The book presents a collection of key SHRM and ER topics and focuses exten￾sively on applying research and analysis using a case-study-based learning approach.

This blend of problem-based learning and participant-centered learning approaches

from a wide range of global SHRM and ER issues is examined using a diverse col￾lection of international case studies. The book has three parts. Part I consists of

seven chapters and lays out the key theoretical foundations and underpinnings of

SHRM and ER. This part offers a focused research review of the key theoretical

approaches in HRM and ER. Part II also comprises of seven chapters and focuses

on how from a strategic perspective, leaders and managers may exercise strategic

choices in their design and implementation of several HRM practices for achieving

the desired goals of their business enterprise. Part III highlights complex SHRM and

ER issues using real-life cases studies focusing on content covered in the first two

parts of the book. This part features a selection of contemporary research-based

case studies from several developed, transitioning, and emerging markets, wherein

each country’s contextual environment adds to the complexity in undertaking analy￾sis and problem-solving of the issues at hand. The book’s unique problem- and

case-based learning approach is ideal for engaging in higher-order learning suited

for final year or capstone courses in HRM programs. For the less prepared, the book

offers the learners advice on how they can use these approaches. Overall, this book

presents a well-positioned and exciting view of the businesses of managing people

viii

from a strategic perspective incorporating a breadth of examples from the author’s

own research as well as contributors from a number of countries. I commend this

effort and have no doubts that it will find a ready and receptive readership around

the world.

50th Anniversary Professor of International HRM Pawan  Budhwar, PhD

Associate Pro Vice Chancellor International (India)

Co-Editor-in-Chief, British Journal of Management

Aston Business School, Aston University, UK

Foreword

ix

Preface

The theoretical roots for the study of human resource management (HRM) in organ￾isations have existed in the Western contexts for over a century when seminal ideas

of influential management thinkers such as Taylor, Drucker and McGregor were in

prevalence. Earlier conceptualisations of work and employment adopted a different

(pluralist) emphases and focused on terms such as labour welfare, labour relations,

personnel management and industrial relations to name a few. One could argue, this

view reflected contemporary developments in the field of HRM, albeit with differ￾ent ideological and philosophical focus that have been in operation for several cen￾turies. For example, in India, work practices were influenced by the ancient ideas of

Chanakya (also referred to as Kautilya), whose pioneering work on Arthashastra

was regarded as a treatise in the field of economics, politics, military strategy and

governance. This seminal work had also developed ideas of organisation and admin￾istration in the fourth century BC. Indeed, one only needs to turn back and look at

the practices of one of the world’s oldest multinational corporation–the erstwhile

East India Company, which was founded in the early 1600 in India by the British to

pursue trade with the East Indies. Even though it ended up trading, in the main, in

the Indian subcontinent, its operations spanned across several borders.

Managing people in the colonial era was quite different from how we manage

people today. Some might even ask, has the nature of capitalism or business goals

changed in principle? If so, what might have caused the change? Were these changes

triggered by changes in people’s aspirations of seeking better and humane condi￾tions of work and employment? Or, due to changing political agendas, new legisla￾tion for protecting workers, change in ideologies and other influences such as

religion and industrial revolution? These questions bring to our mind the impor￾tance of changes in context and its distinctive and highly variable character.

While the immediate focus of HRM and employment relations (ER) is on man￾aging people and work within an agreed framework of the employer–employee rela￾tionship and setting the rules for engaging people and governing their conditions of

employment, HRM and ER is also influenced by multiple, direct and indirect fac￾tors. These include a range of factors such as different: stakeholders state, regula￾tion, customers and institutions. It is by learning the multiple and specific instances

from different contexts that we may be able to generate some generic guidelines for

understanding how we manage people and work.

x

My motivation to write a book that balances theoretical elegance with rich con￾textual insights of problems HR managers face is partly informed by a belief that is

captured in Kurt Lewin’s maxim ‘there is nothing so practical as good theory’ and

George Box’s aphorism in the study of statistics that ‘all models are wrong but some

are useful’. Acknowledging the above challenges, the choice of case-based learning

is rightly situated for developing skills necessary for the complex nature of what the

field of HRM and ER represents.

This book requires some introductory understanding or experience of the core

concepts in the study and practice of HRM and ER as well as applying the common

principles employed in the use of case-based teaching and learning. The book takes

the view that an important source of learning HRM and ER is using a practice-based

approach wherein cases from real world can simulate thinking and action on com￾plex HRM and ER problems. By using discussion and participant focused learning

approaches, which are essentially a higher order pedagogies, the book offers a dis￾tinctive learning opportunity for embedding learning from a range of cases on vari￾ous aspects of strategic HRM and ER, from local and global contexts, to develop

deeper understanding and refining of HR skills.

I hope the learners enjoy the cases from a number of cultural and industry

contexts

Ourimbah, Central Coast, NSW, Australia Ashish Malik

Preface

xi

Contents

Part I Theoretical Foundations of SHRM & ER

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Ashish Malik

HRM and ER: A Strategic Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Ashish Malik

Strategic HRM & ER: Best-Practice Versus Best Fit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Ashish Malik

SHRM & ER: The Resource-Based View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Ashish Malik

Institutional Theory and SHRM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Ashish Malik

Strategic Choice and SHRM & ER. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Ashish Malik

Professionalism and Ethics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Ashish Malik

Part II HR Profession and Design and Implementation

of Strategic HRM and ER Practices

Work Design and HR Planning: A Strategic Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Ashish Malik

Strategic Performance and Commitment Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Ashish Malik

Strategic Learning and Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Ashish Malik

Managing Employee Voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Ashish Malik

xii

Managing Change and HRM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Ashish Malik

Strategic Compensation and Benefits Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Ashish Malik

Special Topics in SHRM & ER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Ashish Malik

Part III Cases

Case 1: To Cyber-Vet or Not to Cyber-Vet: An Ethics Question

for HRM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Peter Holland and Debora Jeske

Case 2: Work-Life Balance in an MNE Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Anne Bardoel

Case 3: Crisis and IHRM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Konstantinos Tasoulis and Maria Progoulaki

Case 4: Japanese Cross Border M&A and German Target Employee

Alienation Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Ralf Bebenroth and Roman Bartnik

Case 5: Dorian LPG’s Rapid Fleet Growth: A Story of Maritime HR

Planning and People Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Maria Progoulaki and Konstantinos Tasoulis

Case 6: Appraisal at Systel Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Mathew J. Manimala, Malavika Desai, and Divisha Agrawal

Case 7: Patanjali: The Black Swan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Shashwat Shukla

Case 8: Recontextualizing Diversity: The German Case. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Jasmin Mahadevan and Iuliana Ancuţa Ilie

Case 9: Stressed and Demotivated Public Servants… Looking

for a (Motivational) Miracle at Paywell Agency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

S. De Simone, L. Giustiniano, and R. Pinna

Case 10: Managing Change and Employee Well-being in an Italian

School: Psychosocial Training Intervention as a Possible Solution . . . . . . 243

S. De Simone, R. Pinna, and L. Giustiniano

Case 11: Gender Inclusive Leadership for Innovation and Change:

An HR Head’s Reflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Payyazhi Jayashree, Therese Sevaldsen, and Valerie Lindsay

Contents

Part I

Theoretical Foundations of SHRM & ER

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018 3

A. Malik (ed.), Strategic Human Resource Management and Employment

Relations, Springer Texts in Business and Economics,

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0399-9_1

A. Malik (*)

Faculty of Business and Law, Central Coast Business School, The University of Newcastle,

Ourimbah, Central Coast, NSW, Australia

e-mail: [email protected]

Introduction

Ashish Malik

Human Resource Management in Context

There are several learnings one can assimilate by studying how changes and differ￾ences in an organisation’s macro-economic, legal, political, social, cultural and

technological context has an impact on managing people, or what we commonly

refer to as human resource management and employment relations (HRM & ER). A

major case in point from the twenty-first century is the catastrophic impacts of the

2008 global financial crisis (GFC) on managing people in the organisations directly

affected by it. Recent research on the topic suggests that in a post-GFC era, multiple

HRM approaches were adopted by firms even within one industry (Malik 2013) and

in different industry and national contexts (Malik 2017). Some have argued that

most of the responses in dealing with the pressures imposed by the GFC had led to

long-term negative impacts on employees, wherein these impacts can be largely

explained by neoliberal orientation of people who were responsible for causing this

crisis (Bolton and Houlihan 2007; Marchington and Kynighou 2012). The approach

taken by this book is to embed learning using theoretical insights balanced with

learning from case studies from different contexts. I believe a case-based approach

is critical in providing insights in applied disciplines such as HRM and ER to allow

the learner to engage in higher order learning skills. To this end, this chapter begins

with an overview of the case-based approach to learning, highlighting the condi￾tions where such an approach is most effective. The skills of a facilitator of learning

are also acknowledged as important in bringing the most out of the specific cases.

4

A Case-Based Approach to Learning Strategic HRM and ER

The use of case studies in teaching has historically been prevalent in Law schools,

however, a number of applied disciplines such as business studies, medicine and

education have since adopted the use of case studies in their teaching (Merseth

1991). The case-based teaching method though popularised by the Harvard Business

and Law school is now used as a common pedagogical (or rather an andragogical)

approach in most business programs. There are a number of prescriptions in the way

this approach has evolved and how this should be applied to different geographical

settings to accommodate the contextual demands of a given program or unit.

Implementing a pure “Harvard style” participant-centered learning (PCL) approach

using case studies is not always possible or practicable in all contexts because of the

contextual factors such as class size, cohort characteristics, resources and other

institutional and curriculum-based constraints that often come into play. A variation

to the theme is not only necessary but also a pragmatic choice to suit the contextual

factors.

Applications of Case Studies

Case studies are typically used to develop students’ higher order learning skills of

analysis, synthesis, problem-solving and decision-making. This is often done using

limited, messy, and sometimes even conflicting information in a case to arrive at a

conclusion. One of the key advantages of case-based teaching is that it is useful in

developing insights of broader principles for dealing with a given problem, using

specific scenarios and facts from ‘real life’ organisations. A case study without an

issue, problem, rule-based analysis or key decision to be resolved does not serve any

real purpose from an educational and learning standpoint (Ellet 2007). A well￾developed teaching case study is different from a short, end-of-chapter caselet or a

half-a-page textbook case, as these latter categories often have little or too simplistic

information and generally do not advance multiple skills for higher order learning.

This does not mean that short cases should not be used. They have a place and are

illustrative. Short cases are also good to embed in adopting this pedagogical

approach before learners are introduced to longer and more complex cases. They

can and do develop relevant skills as per above, though to a limited extent. A good

case study should have enough detail for the learner to make an informed decision

but at the same time it should not be too long or easy and straightforward that the

learner loses interest because of the limited challenge or excessive information that

it offers. A good case study must provide a hook to engage the learner to continue

to read and provides sufficient information to undertake problem-solving, analysis

and evaluation or, as the case may direct, but without making obvious, what the

conclusions are (Ellet 2007).

As noted above, there are many issues to keep in mind before choosing the use

of case-based teaching. Briefly these include:

A. Malik