Research Methods in HRM and Organizational Behavior
Introduction to research HRM & OB evidence-based
Application HR & OB research
Difference between HR and OB:
- Difference in type of research
- HR
• About the functions of HRM
• Ex. recruitment, selection, performance management, payroll, career management
- OB
• What the people, groups … think and feel
• Focus on understanding the individuals
Application HR and OB research:
- Large scientific knowledge on the effectiveness of many HR & OB practices (supported by
multiple studies or meta-analyses)
- But is this known and applied in the field?
- Large survey on knowledge HR & OB practices
US: N = 959 HR managers (Rynes et al., 2002, HRM)
NL: N = 626 HR professionals (Sanders et al., 2008, IJHRM)
• Results HR & OB research are not enough know and applied in the work field
• Better research knowledge would allow HR professionals to make better and more
successful decisions
• Better research knowledge was predicted by
▪ Job/educational level
▪ Professional certification
▪ Positive attitude to usefulness academic research
▪ Academic reading
→ need for evidence-based management
Bij 2e: intelligence
Bij 3e: goals improve their performance
1
,Evidence-based management (EBM)
- “The systematic, evidence-informed practice of management, incorporating scientific
knowledge in the content and process of making decisions”
- “Knowing how to obtain and use scientific evidence and reliable business knowledge helps
practitioners respond effectively to the uncertainty they face everyday in organizations”
History evidence-based practice
- “there is a large research-user gap between scientists & practitioners
- “practitioners do not read academic journals”
- “the findings of research into what is an effective intervention are not being translated into
actual practice”
- “academics not practitioners are driving the research agenda”
- “practice is being driven more by fads and fashions than research”
- Timeline:
• 1991: medicine
• 1998: education
• 2000: nursing
• 2005-2006: management
Threats/opportunities EBM?
Threats
• Information overload: a lot of info and not luch time
• Overestimate individual experience (N=1): also look at other evidence then just your personal
experience….
• Inaccurate information/beliefs
• Preference for quick solutions
• Hypes and trends in management
• Bias and errors in decision-making
• Attribution bias: when things go wrong you look around to find the problem but
when things go right you only look at yourself. when I fail, I will blame it on the
context but I if you fail I will blaim it on you bc your incompetent
• Confirmation bias: you look at the evidence that will support your decisions
Opportunities
+ Call for more accountability, collecting more information
+ Evolution to knowledge management (eg., CIO)
+ Higher accessibility of information (eg., Internet, MIS)
+ Need for more rational and objective decision-making
Notes: Intelligence is not evidence based.
2
,Evidence-based practice
= about making decisions through the conscientious, explicit and thoughtful use of the best available
evidence from multiple sources by:
- Asking: translating a practical issue or problem into an answerable question?
Become awareof the decisions you make
- Acquiring: systematically searching for and retrieving the evidence, trying to locate the
evidence
- Appraising: critically judging the trustworthiness and relevance of the evidence
- Aggregating: weighing and pulling together the evidence
- Applying: incorporating the evidence into the decision-making process, making your decision
- Assessing: evaluating the outcome of the decision taken, Use it for imput for later decisions
to increase the likelihood of a favorable outcome.
See slide (dia 27 – 30)
Evidence-based decision-making
Gaat bijna alleen maar about scientific research, maar er zijn eigenlijk 4 types
More and more info is available in the organization. Not intuition, but based on
experience, try to rationalize how can I help the stakeholder and how the will be
effected.
Not only scientific research but also other information
Need to look at the effects of your decision on the stakeholders and how they will be affected
Scientific evidence
Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger III (Danville (Californië), 23 januari 1951) is een Amerikaans
piloot in de burgerluchtvaart, veiligheidsexpert en ongevallenanalist. Hij werd vooral bekend als
de gezagvoerder die de noodlanding van US Airways-vlucht 1549 opde rivier de Hudson in New York
uitvoerde op 15 januari 2009.
- Chesley Sullenberger, USAIR pilot, has been a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley’s Collaborative for
Catastrophic Risk Management since 2007
- Does research on how to make decisions to maintain safety despite technological complexity and
crisisconditions
Organizational evidence
- Has written and analyzed aviation accident reports for over 20 years
3
, Experiential evidence
- Formal Education to Prime His Skills: Sully is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and holds
masters degrees from both Purdue University in Industrial Psychology and the University of
Northern Colorado in Public Administration
- Used Decision Aids to Support Good Decision: As Sully considered what decision to make that
day, hehad his copilot review and follow all checklists on board relevant to crash landings
Stakeholder evidence
- The last person to leave the plane, Chesley Sullenberger twice walked the plane’s aisle to check
allpassengers were off
- Sully’s last act onboard was to grab the passenger list. Used on-shore to verify rescue of all
passengers and crew
In his own words …
“One way of looking at this might be that for 42 years, I've been making small, regular deposits in
thisbank of experience, education and training.
And on January 15, 2009 the balance was sufficient so that I could make a very large withdrawal.”
Organizational evidence
- Organizational data, facts and figures: or research within organization
- HR metrics and workforce analytics
- Aim: to provide managers with the info they need to make better decisions regarding the
acquisition and deployment of an organization’s human capital
- “Doing metrics” is not an end in itself, it must result in better HR and people decisions and
higher organizational effectiveness!
- Cf. courses “Strategic HR” and “Performance management”
Experiential evidence
- The professional experience and judgement of HR professionals and managers
- Professional experience is accumulated over time through reflection on the outcomes of
similar actions taken in similar situations
- Professional experience differs from intuition, belief or personal opinion because it reflects
the specialized knowledge acquired by repeated experience and practice of specialized
activities
- (Tools and checklists for) rational and objective decision-making
! Don’t only rely on experience but it can be an important type of evidence but not the only one!!
Stakeholder evidence
- Stakeholders are any individuals or groups who may be affected by an organization’s
decisions and their consequences
• Internal: board members, departments, managers, employees
• External: applicants, customers, neighborhood, society
- Stakeholder values and concerns reflect what stakeholders believe to be important, which in
turn affects how they are likely to react to the possible consequences of the organization’s
decisions
Stakeholders HR: WN’s, andere bedrijven, klanten (if you train your employees to behave differently, the
clients will be impacted by this), the government, suppliers, investors, shareholders
4
Introduction to research HRM & OB evidence-based
Application HR & OB research
Difference between HR and OB:
- Difference in type of research
- HR
• About the functions of HRM
• Ex. recruitment, selection, performance management, payroll, career management
- OB
• What the people, groups … think and feel
• Focus on understanding the individuals
Application HR and OB research:
- Large scientific knowledge on the effectiveness of many HR & OB practices (supported by
multiple studies or meta-analyses)
- But is this known and applied in the field?
- Large survey on knowledge HR & OB practices
US: N = 959 HR managers (Rynes et al., 2002, HRM)
NL: N = 626 HR professionals (Sanders et al., 2008, IJHRM)
• Results HR & OB research are not enough know and applied in the work field
• Better research knowledge would allow HR professionals to make better and more
successful decisions
• Better research knowledge was predicted by
▪ Job/educational level
▪ Professional certification
▪ Positive attitude to usefulness academic research
▪ Academic reading
→ need for evidence-based management
Bij 2e: intelligence
Bij 3e: goals improve their performance
1
,Evidence-based management (EBM)
- “The systematic, evidence-informed practice of management, incorporating scientific
knowledge in the content and process of making decisions”
- “Knowing how to obtain and use scientific evidence and reliable business knowledge helps
practitioners respond effectively to the uncertainty they face everyday in organizations”
History evidence-based practice
- “there is a large research-user gap between scientists & practitioners
- “practitioners do not read academic journals”
- “the findings of research into what is an effective intervention are not being translated into
actual practice”
- “academics not practitioners are driving the research agenda”
- “practice is being driven more by fads and fashions than research”
- Timeline:
• 1991: medicine
• 1998: education
• 2000: nursing
• 2005-2006: management
Threats/opportunities EBM?
Threats
• Information overload: a lot of info and not luch time
• Overestimate individual experience (N=1): also look at other evidence then just your personal
experience….
• Inaccurate information/beliefs
• Preference for quick solutions
• Hypes and trends in management
• Bias and errors in decision-making
• Attribution bias: when things go wrong you look around to find the problem but
when things go right you only look at yourself. when I fail, I will blame it on the
context but I if you fail I will blaim it on you bc your incompetent
• Confirmation bias: you look at the evidence that will support your decisions
Opportunities
+ Call for more accountability, collecting more information
+ Evolution to knowledge management (eg., CIO)
+ Higher accessibility of information (eg., Internet, MIS)
+ Need for more rational and objective decision-making
Notes: Intelligence is not evidence based.
2
,Evidence-based practice
= about making decisions through the conscientious, explicit and thoughtful use of the best available
evidence from multiple sources by:
- Asking: translating a practical issue or problem into an answerable question?
Become awareof the decisions you make
- Acquiring: systematically searching for and retrieving the evidence, trying to locate the
evidence
- Appraising: critically judging the trustworthiness and relevance of the evidence
- Aggregating: weighing and pulling together the evidence
- Applying: incorporating the evidence into the decision-making process, making your decision
- Assessing: evaluating the outcome of the decision taken, Use it for imput for later decisions
to increase the likelihood of a favorable outcome.
See slide (dia 27 – 30)
Evidence-based decision-making
Gaat bijna alleen maar about scientific research, maar er zijn eigenlijk 4 types
More and more info is available in the organization. Not intuition, but based on
experience, try to rationalize how can I help the stakeholder and how the will be
effected.
Not only scientific research but also other information
Need to look at the effects of your decision on the stakeholders and how they will be affected
Scientific evidence
Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger III (Danville (Californië), 23 januari 1951) is een Amerikaans
piloot in de burgerluchtvaart, veiligheidsexpert en ongevallenanalist. Hij werd vooral bekend als
de gezagvoerder die de noodlanding van US Airways-vlucht 1549 opde rivier de Hudson in New York
uitvoerde op 15 januari 2009.
- Chesley Sullenberger, USAIR pilot, has been a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley’s Collaborative for
Catastrophic Risk Management since 2007
- Does research on how to make decisions to maintain safety despite technological complexity and
crisisconditions
Organizational evidence
- Has written and analyzed aviation accident reports for over 20 years
3
, Experiential evidence
- Formal Education to Prime His Skills: Sully is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and holds
masters degrees from both Purdue University in Industrial Psychology and the University of
Northern Colorado in Public Administration
- Used Decision Aids to Support Good Decision: As Sully considered what decision to make that
day, hehad his copilot review and follow all checklists on board relevant to crash landings
Stakeholder evidence
- The last person to leave the plane, Chesley Sullenberger twice walked the plane’s aisle to check
allpassengers were off
- Sully’s last act onboard was to grab the passenger list. Used on-shore to verify rescue of all
passengers and crew
In his own words …
“One way of looking at this might be that for 42 years, I've been making small, regular deposits in
thisbank of experience, education and training.
And on January 15, 2009 the balance was sufficient so that I could make a very large withdrawal.”
Organizational evidence
- Organizational data, facts and figures: or research within organization
- HR metrics and workforce analytics
- Aim: to provide managers with the info they need to make better decisions regarding the
acquisition and deployment of an organization’s human capital
- “Doing metrics” is not an end in itself, it must result in better HR and people decisions and
higher organizational effectiveness!
- Cf. courses “Strategic HR” and “Performance management”
Experiential evidence
- The professional experience and judgement of HR professionals and managers
- Professional experience is accumulated over time through reflection on the outcomes of
similar actions taken in similar situations
- Professional experience differs from intuition, belief or personal opinion because it reflects
the specialized knowledge acquired by repeated experience and practice of specialized
activities
- (Tools and checklists for) rational and objective decision-making
! Don’t only rely on experience but it can be an important type of evidence but not the only one!!
Stakeholder evidence
- Stakeholders are any individuals or groups who may be affected by an organization’s
decisions and their consequences
• Internal: board members, departments, managers, employees
• External: applicants, customers, neighborhood, society
- Stakeholder values and concerns reflect what stakeholders believe to be important, which in
turn affects how they are likely to react to the possible consequences of the organization’s
decisions
Stakeholders HR: WN’s, andere bedrijven, klanten (if you train your employees to behave differently, the
clients will be impacted by this), the government, suppliers, investors, shareholders
4
