INTRODUCTION TO
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
MOST IMPORTANT NOTES
,Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1 EVIDENCE BASED HRM ................................................................................................ 2
CHAPTER 2 INVESTING IN PEOPLE AND BUSINESS PERFORMANCE................................... 6
CHAPTER 3 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT .................................................................................. 10
CHAPTER 4 PERFORMANCE UNDER CONDITIONS OF CHANGE ......................................... 15
CHAPTER 5 WAR FOR TALENT ....................................................................................................... 21
CHAPTER 6 POWER OF WORKERS ................................................................................................ 25
CHAPTER 7 DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION .................................................................................... 30
CHAPTER 8 DECENT WORK ............................................................................................................. 35
1
,CHAPTER 1 EVIDENCE BASED HRM
Covered in LECTURE 1 and 2
HRM:
▪ The sum of all strategy, policy, procedures, and day-to-day acts
▪ that together aim to guide employer-employee relations in organizations.
▪ total words the goals of the organizations
▪ while ensuring alignment with various contextual conditions such as organization characteristics,
industry dynamics, competition, label markets, legal and institutional settings, and societal dynamics
HR practices:
▪ All the policies and procedures used for managing employment relations.
▪ Are experienced by people in workplaces.
▪ And used by managers, teams, project leaders, and employees themselves.
NOTE:
Equifinality:
▪ There are equally effective different solutions that lead to the same outcome, but in different ways.
▪ One solution does not fit all organizations.
▪ Different organizations, contexts and issues require different practices.
Look for research evidence before designing an HR practice.
Rational decision-making in HRM
▪ considering all information and weighing it according to some criteria before deciding
It is impossible to have all the information to make a good decision --> the choice for HR practices is
one of bounded rationality:
● Bounded rationality
o An effort to the best decision given an imperfect understanding of reality.
o However, there are strategies to add more rationality to decision-making.
In the rush of day-to-day business, decision-makers often solve problems in a quick way by quick fixes:
Quick fixes:
▪ immediate action on a problem, influenced by inaccurate knowledge and emotions.
▪ risky decisions that can do as much harm as doing nothing at all. Therefore, we should use Evidence-
based HRM.
Slower fixes: A more sustainable solution using EBHRM.
EB-HRM:
- a decision-making process to address important people-related issues in organizations by combining
the best available research evidence with measurable data and professional knowledge.
● A method for practitioners who consciously apply their expertise and judgment.
● Who use evidence from the local context to which the decision applies.
2
, ● Who critically evaluate of the best available external research evidence.
● Who take perspectives of people who are affected by the decision into account.
Evidence
● Local Evidence:
o data collected in organizations, in a particular organizational setting with the aim to inform
local decisions.
o helps to create a thorough overview of the problem at hand and the possible causes and
consequences.
o the applicability of external research data, helps to convince internal managers of a research-
based intervention by presenting numbers and clarifying the necessity of such an
intervention.
● External Evidence:
o evidence generated by systematic research of similar cases of cause-effect relationships.
o data from outside the organization, gathered from databases filled with research findings
created by scientists.
can be a:
▪ meta-analysis (statistical way of examining overall strength of research findings
regarding a specific topic)
▪ systematic review (patterns among several studies, core concepts and ideas repeatedly
mentioned
Evaluating the quality of evidence
1. Validity
▪ there is an actual relation between a cause and an effect, X (independent variable) and Y (dependent
variable)
▪ there are no alternative explanations for a causal relationship: rule out alternatives for X→ Z
relationship.
▪ three strategies to check validity:
a. High quality of measures
b. Quality of research measures (longitudinal > cross-sectional)
c. Good Theory: described mechanism should work in as many contexts as possible.
2. Reliability
- Reliability means that we can be largely certain that if we would repeat our research, we would find the
same results.
The evaluation of reliability involves two elements:
● Replicability of the evidence: Finding the same result over and over again. The more often a causal
relationship has been reproduced and found, the more robust is the evidence.
● Quality of the sample:
→ larger groups > smaller groups (sample size)
3
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
MOST IMPORTANT NOTES
,Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1 EVIDENCE BASED HRM ................................................................................................ 2
CHAPTER 2 INVESTING IN PEOPLE AND BUSINESS PERFORMANCE................................... 6
CHAPTER 3 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT .................................................................................. 10
CHAPTER 4 PERFORMANCE UNDER CONDITIONS OF CHANGE ......................................... 15
CHAPTER 5 WAR FOR TALENT ....................................................................................................... 21
CHAPTER 6 POWER OF WORKERS ................................................................................................ 25
CHAPTER 7 DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION .................................................................................... 30
CHAPTER 8 DECENT WORK ............................................................................................................. 35
1
,CHAPTER 1 EVIDENCE BASED HRM
Covered in LECTURE 1 and 2
HRM:
▪ The sum of all strategy, policy, procedures, and day-to-day acts
▪ that together aim to guide employer-employee relations in organizations.
▪ total words the goals of the organizations
▪ while ensuring alignment with various contextual conditions such as organization characteristics,
industry dynamics, competition, label markets, legal and institutional settings, and societal dynamics
HR practices:
▪ All the policies and procedures used for managing employment relations.
▪ Are experienced by people in workplaces.
▪ And used by managers, teams, project leaders, and employees themselves.
NOTE:
Equifinality:
▪ There are equally effective different solutions that lead to the same outcome, but in different ways.
▪ One solution does not fit all organizations.
▪ Different organizations, contexts and issues require different practices.
Look for research evidence before designing an HR practice.
Rational decision-making in HRM
▪ considering all information and weighing it according to some criteria before deciding
It is impossible to have all the information to make a good decision --> the choice for HR practices is
one of bounded rationality:
● Bounded rationality
o An effort to the best decision given an imperfect understanding of reality.
o However, there are strategies to add more rationality to decision-making.
In the rush of day-to-day business, decision-makers often solve problems in a quick way by quick fixes:
Quick fixes:
▪ immediate action on a problem, influenced by inaccurate knowledge and emotions.
▪ risky decisions that can do as much harm as doing nothing at all. Therefore, we should use Evidence-
based HRM.
Slower fixes: A more sustainable solution using EBHRM.
EB-HRM:
- a decision-making process to address important people-related issues in organizations by combining
the best available research evidence with measurable data and professional knowledge.
● A method for practitioners who consciously apply their expertise and judgment.
● Who use evidence from the local context to which the decision applies.
2
, ● Who critically evaluate of the best available external research evidence.
● Who take perspectives of people who are affected by the decision into account.
Evidence
● Local Evidence:
o data collected in organizations, in a particular organizational setting with the aim to inform
local decisions.
o helps to create a thorough overview of the problem at hand and the possible causes and
consequences.
o the applicability of external research data, helps to convince internal managers of a research-
based intervention by presenting numbers and clarifying the necessity of such an
intervention.
● External Evidence:
o evidence generated by systematic research of similar cases of cause-effect relationships.
o data from outside the organization, gathered from databases filled with research findings
created by scientists.
can be a:
▪ meta-analysis (statistical way of examining overall strength of research findings
regarding a specific topic)
▪ systematic review (patterns among several studies, core concepts and ideas repeatedly
mentioned
Evaluating the quality of evidence
1. Validity
▪ there is an actual relation between a cause and an effect, X (independent variable) and Y (dependent
variable)
▪ there are no alternative explanations for a causal relationship: rule out alternatives for X→ Z
relationship.
▪ three strategies to check validity:
a. High quality of measures
b. Quality of research measures (longitudinal > cross-sectional)
c. Good Theory: described mechanism should work in as many contexts as possible.
2. Reliability
- Reliability means that we can be largely certain that if we would repeat our research, we would find the
same results.
The evaluation of reliability involves two elements:
● Replicability of the evidence: Finding the same result over and over again. The more often a causal
relationship has been reproduced and found, the more robust is the evidence.
● Quality of the sample:
→ larger groups > smaller groups (sample size)
3
