Post on 10-Jan-2023
E-HRM IN THE NEW ERA—A COMPARISON STUDY BETWEEN CONVENTIONAL HRM AND E-HRM
0608563
Acknowledgement
Firstly I would like to thank my supervisor, Kevin Lu.
With his patient guide all the time, I could complete
this dissertation and learn a lot. Additionally, I would
like to take this opportunity to thank my parents and my
friends who have been fully supportive throughout this
study, and all the teachers who have taught and inspired
me over the last year at Brunel University. Thank you.
I
With the development of information technology e-HRM
becomes available and will be expected replace the old
ways of HRM gradually to meet the requirements of IT era.
This dissertation attempts to examine the historical and
mainly current e-HRM application through comparing with
conventional HRM in four main HRM functional areas. The
aim of this dissertation is helping people to understand
e-HRM, providing new information for corporations which
intend to transform conventional HRM to e-HRM to catch on
the pace of the new era, as well as the companies
III
providing e-HRM solutions. Finally this dissertation
gives some advices for further research and the
development of e-HRM. In order to achieve the aim, the
primary research, ten semi-structured interviews were
undertaken at Yitai group and Erdos Electric Power
Corporation in China and another observation of e-HRM
software exhibition was conducted. The findings shows the
features and advantages of e-HRM and demonstrated that
implementation of e-HRM indeed contributes to HRM
effectiveness and corporate performance.
IV
Contents
Acknowledgement......................................I
Abstract............................................II
Contents.............................................1
Chapter 1: Introduction..............................4
1.1..............................Background and motivation
4
1.2..............Aims, objectives and research questions
6
1.3................................................Structure
8
2.1 Introduction....................................11
2.2 Understanding of HRM............................11
1
2.2.1 Emergence and definition of HRM...............11
2.2.2. The HRM functions............................15
2.2.3......The linkage between HRM and firm performance
19
2.3The Introduction of E-HRM........................20
2.3.1 Definition and aims of e-HRM..................20
2.3.2 The Evolution of E-HRM........................22
2.3.3 Features of e-HRM.............................25
2.3.4 The relationship between conventional HRM and e-
HRM 29
2.4 E-HRM in Practice and its effectiveness.........30
2.4.1 Cases of e-HRM in practice....................30
2.4.2 Controversies in practice.....................34
2.5 Research Question Revisited.....................35
2
Chapter 3: Methodology..............................36
3.1 Introduction....................................36
3.2 Research strategy and research design...........36
3.3 Secondary data collection.......................38
3.4 Primary data collection.........................42
3.4.1 Primary data from the exhibition..............43
3.4.2 Interviews....................................45
3.5 Limitation......................................47
Chapter 4: Findings.................................48
4.1 Introduction....................................48
4.2 Findings of the exhibition......................48
4.2.1 What do we currently know about e-HRM? --- The
status of e-HRM in current business world...........48
4.2.2 What is the main difference between conventional
3
HRM and e-HRM? --- E-HRM software is the corn of the
e-HRM...............................................51
4.3 Interview findings..............................53
4.3.1 Managers’ and employees’ insight of conventional
HRM and e-HRM in general and the contribution of e-HRM
to HRM effectiveness................................54
4.3.2 The relationship between HRM and corporate
performance.........................................59
4.3.3 The differences between conventional HRM and e-
HRM in daily practice from both managers’ and
employees’ perspectives.............................60
4.3.4 The future of HRM.............................61
4
4.3.5 The practice of e-HRM.........................62
Chapter 5: Discussion and suggestions...............65
5.1 Introduction....................................65
5.2 Comparing conventional HRM and e-HRM to understand
e-HRM...............................................65
5.2.1 Differences between conventional HRM and e-HRM 65
5.2.2 Features and advantages of e-HRM..............67
5.2.3 Understand of e-HRM...........................68
5.3 Contribution of e-HRM to HRM effectiveness and
corporate performance...............................69
5.3.1 The contribution of e-HRM to HRM effectiveness 69
5.3.2 The contribution of e-HRM to corporate
performance.........................................70
5
5.4 The controversy and future of e-HRM practice....72
5.4.1 The problems and controversy of e-HRM practice 72
5.4.2 The future and development of e-HRM...........73
5.5 Suggestions.....................................74
Chapter 6: Conclusion and limitations...............77
6.1 Conclusion of the study.........................77
6.2 Contribution and beneficiaries of this
dissertation........................................79
6.3 Limitations.....................................80
Bibliography........................................82
Appendix A..........................................89
Appendix B..........................................90
Appendix C ………………………………………………………………………..92
Chapter 1: Introduction
6
This dissertation will discuss e-HRM advantages and
implementation in the new IT era through comparison
between conventional HRM and e-HRM. The findings of this
dissertation will contribute to corporate managers, e-HR
system producers and anyone who is doing research on e-
HRM. The motivation and background of this dissertation
will be introduced. Moreover in this part, the main aims,
objectives and research questions of this dissertation
will be listed, and the structure of this dissertation
will be given.
7
1.1 Background and motivation
Nowadays Human Resource Management plays a more and more
important role in business administration. (Elias and
Scarbrough, 2004) Upon the development of information
technology, e-HRM becomes available and will be expected
to replace the conventional HRM gradually. This
dissertation will explore what the features and
advantages of implementing e-HRM by comparing with the
conventional way and why it is preferable. Furthermore,
whether e-HRM could facilitate the corporation makes
8
superior performance will be found out though interviews
and observation. Due to the advantages of e-HRM and the
usage of e-HRM software, some suggestions on
implementation of e-HRM will be offered.
The conventional HRM encompasses several activities designed to
arrange and coordinate human resources within an organization in order
to create even much profit. (Byars & Rue, 2004; Storey, 2001) It has
several main functions such as recruitment, selection, training and
development. Sometimes it is saying personnel management instead.
However, HRM is a more integrated way of implementing the different
9
functions, covering a wider business strategy inside the corporation.
(Storey, 1992) The process of this kind of HRM needs a large number of
HR managers and assistants. Accordingly, it costs highly but works
inefficiently in current society which requires more efficiency and
effectiveness.
E-HRM is the new style of HRM with the overlap between information
technology and human resource management. (Ruel, Bondarouk and
Velde, 2007) It is short for electronic human resource management. Or it
can be said that using information technology (IT) in HRM is called e-
HRM. (Zhang & Wang, 2006) It is a new HRM concept based on the
10
advanced software and hardware to accomplish the targets of cost
reduction, efficiency, improvement of the employment relationship,
automatic information management, and self-support system for
employees and information sharing. (Panayotopoulou, Vakola, and
Galanaki, 2007) Operating e-HRM with the existing network of the
corporations could help administrators to ensure their HRM is well-
developed.
Comparing with the old style or the conventional HRM, e-HRM introduces
much more information technology such as HRIS (human resource
management information system), into the management process,
11
helping to integrate the human resource and other resources both
inside and outside of the organization and set up strategic HRM system
for considering much of the corporation in microscope. Finally it could
help corporation to create the competitive advantages. (Ruel,
Bondarouk, and Velde, 2007)
The previous research introduced e-HRM practice mainly
according to case study in different countries, but
neither compared it with the old way of HRM, nor
generalized the general features, advantages and problems
in e-HRM practice. (Panayotopoulou et al., 2007; Ruel,
12
Bondarouk, and Velde, 2007; Zhang and Wang, 2006) This
dissertation will adopt the comparison study to find out
the essential differences between e-HRM and conventional
HRM which reflects the features, advantages and problems
of e-HRM. E-HRM is not only simply uses of IT in HRM, but
also focus on B2B and B2C of HRM through software usage,
so that e-HRM achieves the connection of HRM and the
resource outside and viewing employees as inside
customers. This might be the most remarkable difference
between conventional HRM and e-HRM and what e-HRM really
means.
13
1.2 Aims, objectives and research questions
The purpose of this study, by exploring historical and
current e-HRM application, is to help people to
understand e-HRM and provide new information for
corporations which intend to transform conventional HRM
to e-HRM to catch on the pace of the new era, so are the
companies producing e-HRM solutions. Meanwhile it makes
contribution to e-HRM research and the development of e-
HRM.
14
This dissertation has several objectives as followed through comparing
e-HRM and the traditional HRM.
1. To provide a comprehensive explain of e-HRM based on finding out
the features and advantages of e-HRM.
2. To investigate the contribution of e-HRM to HRM effectiveness and
corporate performance.
3. To explore the usage of up to date HR software and suggest on
development of e-HRM.
The primary research questions of this dissertation are
listed as followed.
1. What are the advantages of implementing e-HRM compared
15
with the conventional HRM, and why is it preferable?
This dissertation will seek the answer by comparing them
from different perspectives of implementary process,
function and effectiveness. At the same time, the reasons
why it is preferable will be investigated.
2. Whether e-HRM contribute to the HRM effectiveness and
facilitate the corporate performance and how?
Through the interviews and secondary data collection,
this study intends to find out the qualitative answers to
this question. In spite of the absence of the
quantitative data to test the reality of the findings, it
could explain the facts of e-HRM practice to some extent.
16
Taking the classic HRM theories and research method
theories as the foundation of this study, data collection
combined secondary data from books, journals and websites
and primary data from observation of exhibition and
interviews with two corporations conducting conventional
HRM and e-HRM respectively. According to this
information, the differences between e-HRM and
conventional HRM, the features and advantages of e-HRM
will be found out. In addition, the contribution of e-HRM
to HRM effective and corporate performance, and the
17
problems and controversies of e-HRM practice will be
investigated and evidences will be given through
conducting interview. Thus those managers who want to
transform their HRM might get some benefit from this
study and those who produce e-HRM software could
reference the information. In a word, it intends to
convince people that e-HRM brings transformation and
becomes the mainstream of HRM in the IT era. Moreover
this study will be helpful to anyone who works in HRM.
1.3 Structure
18
This study will follow the structure as below:
Chapter 1: introduction part will introduce motivation
and background, research questions, as well as aims and
objectives of this study.
Chapter 2: literature review will show the theory of HRM
and the existed research on e-HRM, to help understanding
of conventional HRM and e-HRM and to be the foundation of
this research. In addition, previous research findings
will be discussed.
19
Chapter 3: methodology used in this study will be
discussed. Based on the research method theories,
interview and exhibition observation has been chosen to
collect the primary data. Combined with all kinds of ways
to collect secondary data, the data collection of this
research is accomplished.
Chapter 4: findings of the exhibition and interviews are
listed and prepared for the discussion following.
Chapter 5: discussion part will focus on the
understanding of e-HRM upon comparison. The contribution
20
of e-HRM to HRM effectiveness and corporate performance,
and the controversies and future of e-HRM in terms of the
literatures and primary findings will be discussed, so
that the research questions could be answered and
objectives could be achieved further. Finally some
suggestions will be given for implementing e-HRM.
Chapter 6: conclusion and limitation will summarize this
study and list the limitations in doing the research.
21
Chapter 2: Literature review
2.1 Introduction
The previous chapter has set out the aims and objectives
of this study. Based on it, this chapter will review the
relevant literature for the study and discuss some key
issues from the secondary data. Firstly, the concept,
theories and practices of HRM will be reviewed to
understand conventional HRM and the background on which
23
e-HRM depend to develop and become more advanced. Then
the concept, evolution and practices of e-HRM will be
presented. Finally it will revisit the research
questions.
2.2 Understanding of HRM
2.2.1 Emergence and definition of HRM
In the last two decades, as the business competition changed to the
competition of talents, the value of people in an organization is upgrade
and became significant. Since people are considered as the most
24
valuable assets in the organization, human resource management
frequently becomes evident and at the heart of the business
management to respond to new types and levels of competition.
At the beginning, management of people emerged with the
development of industry and then turned into mature with
the theory of human resource was built. There are three
phases in general, personnel management, human resource
management (HRM) and strategic human resource management
(SHRM) which is more preferable recently.
At personnel management stage which is before 1980s, it
25
was only a marginal task which was separate and
subsidiary in corporate plan (Storey, 1993). It was
limited in some insignificant tasks including
recruitment, selection, assignment, payment and file
management. All these activities were short-term oriented
and implemented within the personnel management
department that never related to corporate strategies or
higher management. Managing people is just makes them
work in order and always comply with the manager or
organization. In early 1980s, strategists recognized that
employees are not only the factor of production as land
26
and capital, but more as the valuable assets (Odiorne,
1985 cited in Storey, 1993, p.29), so the term “human
resource management” flourished and personnel management
increasingly given way to human resource management.
Moreover managers paid more attention on the integration
of the separate functions. Afterward, in the mid 1980s,
in order to achieve competitive advantage, mere
integration within the HR department is not sufficient.
Employees should be better regarded and involved into the
corporate strategy to seek commitment, retain them and
make them contribute to the corporate performance more
27
directly (Boxall & Purcell, 2000). Therefore, the term
strategic human resource management which is a linkage of
HR functions with strategic goal and organizational
culture that fosters innovation and flexibility (Mabey,
1998) replaces HRM. Since then, SHRM became the key task
which at the central to the corporate plan and was
integrated with other parts of the organization in
forming the corporate strategies (Storey, 1993). It
facilitates the corporate to achieve more and better.
Scholars defined HRM from different points of view. US
28
scholars gave the explanation that the new HRM model “is
composed of policies that promote mutuality – mutual
goals, mutual influence, mutual respect, mutual rewards,
and mutual responsibility. The theory is that policies of
mutuality will elicit commitment which in turn will yield
both better economic performance and grater human
development.” (Walton, 1985 cited in Legge, 2005, p.102)
Foulkes (1986) suggested that “Effective human resources
management does not exist in a vacuum but must be related
to the overall strategy of organization.” Most personnel
managers are tending to operate HRM in their own little
29
worlds, but forgetting that their primary value is
supporting top managers to achieve the goals of the
organization.
Storey (2001) defined that “HRM is a distinctive approach
to employment management which seeks to achieve
competitive advantage through the strategic deployment of
a highly committed and capable workforce using an array
of culture, structural and personnel techniques.” He also
summarized the meaning of HRM compared with personnel
management. Firstly in the broadest scopes, it was used
30
as a synonym of personnel management. Furthermore, it
integrated the separate functions of personnel management
such as selection, appraisal and reward into a unitary
system and it is more business-oriented and takes people
as resources of the organization which alongside of other
factors of production. Finally it is more focused and
specific in managing people in the organization, but not
simply links the personnel management with the
organizational strategy (Storey, 1993). According to
these four positions of HRM, Storey (1993) indicated that
HRM has its “hard” and “soft” versions. The hard version
31
focuses on the “resource” while the soft version puts the
stress on the term ‘human’. This ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ theory
of HRM has an extensive impact on the HRM research and
practice that how to treat employees has been the crucial
issue.
These scholars argued that HRM is a specific and minority
form of approach to employment management and it has some
particularity.
While two other American scholars Byars and Rue (2004)
simply defined HRM is “those activities designed to
32
provide for and coordinate the human resources of an
organization”. They stressed that HRM encompasses a
several functions as personnel management and explained
HRM by the model of Human Resource Wheel which contains a
consecutive activities of HRM such as HR planning,
recruitment, selection, development, compensation and
benefit, labour relation, and safety and health. They
consider HRM as a generic term that simply denoting any
approach to employment management.
Although there were some controversies about the meaning
of HRM, all the definitions above believed that HRM is
33
not as narrow as personnel management. The Storey’s
definition is more popular and most of the scholars and
managers accepted the most significant feature of HRM in
the last two decades and at present is that it is
involved in the corporate strategic management and is
considered as a key part which is the source of profit
and any success. Hence the value of HRM in the
organizations and management system has been upgraded
greatly.
2.2.2. The HRM functions
34
HRM functions are the tasks and duties human resource
managers perform and they constitute the distinctive
approach of HRM. The four major functions which are
acknowledged by most of the literatures are HR planning,
recruitment and selection, training and development,
performance and rewards. On the one hand, they reflect
the way it evolutes from personnel management which has
the similar components, on the other hand, they are
integrated to make a full use of human capital to
contribute to the better performance.
35
HR planning is the process of “getting the right number
of qualified people in the right jobs at the right time”
(Byars and Rue, 2004). Put another way, it is a system of
matching people with what the organization expect to
carry out the organization’s goal. First of all, it
requires translating the corporate mission and objectives
into a schedule of people requirement. This is not only
in the number and position but more important the quality
and how could make them work effectively that contribute
to themselves and the organization (Dowling, 1999).
Obviously it links to the HRM strategy or even corporate
36
strategy tightly. In the detail, it should define the
skills and expertise required to meet the demand and
determine additional requirements in light of current HR
situation. Finally develop the action plan to implement
other HR functions. The key point here is that HR
planning and organization planning and strategy are
closely connected-- they interact circularly.
Recruitment and selection is the essentials of HR
strategy and practice after planning. Recruitment is the
process of seeking, attracting and generating a pool of
37
capable people to apply for employment to an organization
(Hussain, Wallace and Cornelius, 2006). Selection is the
process by which managers and others choose from among
available applicants the individuals who are most likely
to successfully perform a job (Hussain, Wallace and
Cornelius, 2006). The typical recruitment steps are
advertising of a position vacancy, preliminary contact
with potential job candidates and screening to obtain a
pool of candidates. There are two main recruitment
sources: internal and external. The organization may fill
a job vacancy with someone already employed by the
38
organization, this is the internal recruitment. Or else
seek someone outside of the organization which is
external source. Next is to select using some reliable
and validity tools including interview, in-tray exercise,
psychometric testing, aptitude testing and presentation.
To be successful in recruitment and selection step, it is
important to have a good design of the process. Nieto
(2006) suggested an integrated approach that firstly it
should involve HR staff and any advisers in the strategic
planning and under the recognition of the organizational
culture. Moreover the use of external providers and
39
consultancies may help. Another crucial prerequisite is
the job analysis and evaluation which decide what kind of
candidates should be hired and the efficiency after
employment.
Training and development is one of the value adding
processes due to its content of knowledge management.
Training is a process which improves employee performance
through skills, concepts, rules and attitude learning
(Byars and Rue, 2004). Development is a continuous
process by which employees enhance their knowledge and
40
skills to meet the potential opportunities and new
challenges (Nieto, 2006). After this stage, the capable
employees will be trained to adapt to the corporate
environment and fit for the particular job much better.
The basic types of training consist of on-the-job
training and off-the –job training. Some commonly used
training methods are classroom training and job rotation
which trains individuals to learn several different jobs
within a department. Nowadays web-based training
increasingly turn to hot. It provides self-service
training courses and long-distance courses which cater to
41
the advanced requirement of the social development. The
personal development program is always designed according
to individual aspirations and interests as well as the
corporate needs (Nieto, 2006). There should be some
options for different employees. Although this might
increase the difficulty, complexity and cost of HRM,
organizations need this investment to ensure that these
valuable human resources are well trained and effectively
developed to contribute to the organization. This is
because the organization is the sum of the knowledge and
skills that its people have.
42
Performance and reward are another point that combines
HRM with organizational strategy and performance.
Traditionally, HR performance focused on individual
performance which was evaluated through employee
appraisal and then determined the reward. However this
long established area within HRM system is now changing
because of the changes of management and control
practice. It focuses on the overall performance and the
achievement of the organization which consists of
individual and team performance (Hussain, Wallace and
43
Cornelius, 2006). At this stage, the major work of HRM is
appraisal. The performance will be appraised in many ways
and then the relevant reward will be given. Some of the
classic appraisal methods are listed: management by
objectives (MBO), 360-dgree feedback, upward appraisal,
custom appraisal, team-based appraisal and competency-
based appraisal and so on (Hussain, Wallace and
Cornelius, 2006 and Byars and Rue, 2004). An excellent
performance and reward system depends on an appropriate
appraisal technique, while a successful HRM and great
corporate performance depends on the excellent
44
performance and reward system to motivate and retain
valuable employees.
These main HRM functions are interacted and all link to
organizational strategy that make HRM turn into strategic
and integrated approach that never be separated and will
be effective in business management.
The linkage between HRM and firm performance
As the status of HRM in organizational management has
been enhanced, most of the emphasis has been given to the
question whether HRM really relates to corporate
45
performance and if it is how it affects the performance.
Guest (1997) introduced a ‘box model’ which shows the
linkage between HRM and performance. Leede and Looise
(2005) translated this as shows in Figure 1. It is a
sequence system that organization strategy is reflected
through HRM practices, while HRM behavior and performance
outcomes influence the organization’s financial outcomes.
Figure 1
Organization strategy
DifferentiationFocusCost
HRMpractice
HRplanning
Recruitment&select
ionTraining&
HRMoutcomes
MotivationCommitmentCooperationInvolvementFlexibility
Organization outcomes
ProductivityQualityProfitReturn on
investment
Customer
46
Source: Leede and Looise, 2005
Hoque (1999) researched on the relationship between HRM
and performance in the UK hotel industry and show the
result that it is dependent upon the strategy. When HRM
practices and functions are took as an integrated and
coherent package that relates to the organization’s
strategy, it contributes to competitive success more
evidently. Though this research tested the relationship
between HRM and firm performance only in one industry, it
demonstrated a common phenomenon in the whole economy to
a large extent.
47
Some other literatures show the similar outcomes that
this relationship indeed exists, but always depends on
some variables. For example, Chang and Huang (2005)
reported that product market strategy will moderate the
relationship between SHRM and firm performance. In this
innovation oriented market environment firms which
implement SHRM may perform better because in this
situation SHRM promotes team work, incentive reward, and
flexible workforce and so on. All of these promote
innovation in organizations. Thus any innovation
48
including product and market innovation will lead to
better performance.
The linkage between HRM and firm performance has been
acknowledged according to many research based on test and
analysis as well as evidence from practices. Nieto (2006)
drew a conclusion from HR professionals’ report that 70%
of them showed that CEOs consider HRM as the key to
achieve corporate goals and performance.
2.3The Introduction of E-HRM
2.3.1 Definition and aims of e-HRM
49
As the popular term of e-commerce and e-business, e-HRM
is short for electric human resource management. Just as
its name implies using electronic techniques in HRM is
called e-HRM (Zhang & Wang, 2006). Or it refers to
conducting HRM transactions using the internet and
intranet along with other technologies (Lengnick-Hall and
Moritz, 2003; Roberts, 2006). Some other exact
definitions are available. Singapore researchers defines
e-HRM as ‘the use of electronic media and active
participation of employees to provide technology that
50
helps to lower administration costs, improve employee
communication, provide quicker access to information and
reduce processing time’. (Osman and Hashim, 2003) Hooi
(2006) indicated that ‘e-HRM is basically connecting
staff and managers with the HR department electronically
through the HR portal’. (Hooi, 2006) All of them
described the key features of e-HRM in the definitions.
The aim of e-HRM is making information of each HRM
functions available to everybody from top executive to
line managers and employees at any time and any where
51
(Panayotopoulou, Vakola and Galanaki, 2007). At the same
time, it could provide connections with external resource
such as the recruitment information to applicants. By
extensive using of computers, IT and network, it achieves
self-service management that allows employees to control
their own personal data, communicate both upward and
downward instantly, analyze their situation and make
decisions, without bothering the HR department
(Panayotopoulou, Vakola and Galanaki, 2007).
Simultaneously it helps people work without any paper. To
accomplish these great achievements, an important medium
52
is the e-HRM software or e-HRM system which evolutes with
the HRM demands increasing.
2.3.2 The Evolution of E-HRM
The term e-HRM was first used in 1990s (Panayotopoulou,
Vakola and Galanaki, 2007). This is an era marked by the
increased globalization and intensification of
competition which facilitated by the speeding up of
worldwide communication and the emergence of
multinational companies on account of the extensive using
of IT. (Eplee et al., 2002; Farndale and Brewster, 2005)
53
As a result, the international division of labour asked
for better HRM solution (Legge, 2005; Frauenheim, 2006)
and HRM faced a challenge that it was required new
competencies to adapt to the new information age (Ulrich,
1997; Spanos et al, 2002).
Using of computer in business management was the first
step that management evolutes from conventional style to
the e-style. Firstly, the role of management should be
understood, according to classical management scientists
such as Taylor and Mintzberg, managers have to fulfill
54
interpersonal roles as a leader, informational roles as
monitor and disseminator, and decisional roles as
entrepreneur and resource allocator (Barnatt, 1994). To
help managers in accomplishing these roles, primary
computer-based information system emerged with the
naissance of computers. Then with the popularity of
internet, the web-based information system appeared.
These advantaged information systems may make managers
easier to achieve their goals in management. (Gupta and
Kohli, 2006) When the strategic HRM has expanded,
researchers and practitioners began to interest in
55
operating information system to enhance the efficiency of
strategic management (Powell and Dent, 1997; Manley,
1996). Thus information systems have been broadly
employed in management.
Here Barnatt (1994) defined information system as a set
of interdependent, interacting elements which are united
to perform some functions by using the data that has been
processed into a useful form. He classified information
system as well into five types: data processing systems,
management information system, decision support systems,
56
executive information systems, and office automation
systems. A data processing system (DP) is the lowest
level which could used to keep records. Its usage in
management was the personnel record system. A management
information system (MIS) is ground on a data processing
system, in addition it allows managers to extract and
summarize information. It has been applied in many fields
when the computers are widely used and was used as a
control and decision assistant. A decision support system
(DSS) based on MIS with an additional function of
analysis and modeling to assist in making decisions. It
57
is commonly used in strategic planning, and upgrade and
flexible than MIS in supporting the decision process. An
executive information system (EIS) is considered as a
specialized form of DSS. It provides access to both
internal and external information to support the needs of
senior executives. An office automation system (OAS)
refers to a computer based applications package which
makes the office activities easier for both managers and
employees. It could be downsized into simple DP, MIS or
DSS.
58
Watson (2004) listed the eras of computing according to
Harvard lecture series on IT as in figure 2. It displays
the IT focus, the generic systems primary IT and their
different purposes in different decades.
Figure 2
Era IT focus Genericsystems
Purpose Primary IT
1960s-1970s Organization MIS Efficiency Mainframes1970s-1980s Individual DSS Effectivenes
sMinicomputers
1980s-1990s Intra-industry
EIS CRS(Customerreservati
onsystem)
Strategic/competitivesystems
Proprietarynetwork
connections
1990s-present
Inter-industryUltimateConsumers
BrowsersWWWPage
application
Marketpenetration,
newmarketingchannels,integrated
andstrategicmanagement
InternetserversClientsoftware
Source: Watson (2004)
59
As management gradually becoming specialized, different
information systems appeared to meet particular needs. In
1990s, specific human resource management information
system (HRIS) was introduced to companies (Linden &
Parker, 1998). It contains all the functions of MIS, DSS
and OAS, and takes HRM software as its central feature
(Bocij, al., 2003). The use of HRIS make HRM changed a
lot that HR professional became a strategic player and
much more functional (Hussain, Wallace & Cornelius,
2006). Nevertheless, some HRIS have not connected all the
HR functions together and most of the companies just buy
60
the off-the-shelf package of HRIS (Bocij, al., 2003). As
a result, it could not fully achieve the strategic
purpose and might not fit for the actual situation and
demand.
To accomplish the integrated strategic goal of
corporations and provide flexible solution, the trend of
HRIS was to do a lot all at once (HR focus, 2005). The
driver of technology and sourcing choices could promote
HRIS to be successful in improving processes,
communication and cost, and meeting the majority of
61
corporation goals. Under this circumstance, advanced HRIS
and the term e-HRM emerges as the times require based on
popularization of internet that optimizes HRIS greatly.
It is more specialized while furthermore is more
integrated with the strategy of the corporation. It makes
HR available to put in additional strategic value to the
organization (HR focus, 2007).
Now it can be said that all kinds of information systems
used for HRM is e-HRM. The upgrade cycle of e-HRM
evolution, on the on hand, is due to the continuously
62
enhanced demands for HR role in management, on the other
hand, is as a result of rapidly renewed IT and widely
used internet.
2.3.3 Features of e-HRM
Literatures of research and practices demonstrated the
features of e-HRM. Depending on the research of Lengnick-
Hall and Moriz (2003) and Walker (2001), Panayotopoulou,
Vakola and Galanaki, (2007) identified three levels of e-
HRM and the features. The primary level is publishing of
information which helps managers to communicate with
63
employees by delivering information through intranet. The
second level is automation of transactions with integration of
workflow. This combines the intranet and extranet to
accomplish integration of different parts of HRM as well
as the whole management of the organization. Meanwhile
electronic input substitutes for paperwork. The highest
level is transformation of the HR function. E-HRM promotes the
functions of HRM from operational to strategic level that
makes the role of HRM turn to a partner, creator and
administration supporter. They also defined that e-HRM
aims to make information of each HRM functions available
64
to everybody from top executive to line managers and
employees at any time and any where. Employees could
manage their personal information, training plan, holiday
and some other daily affair, and managers and employees
could communicate with each other directly and instantly.
These release the burden of HR department and increase
management efficiency.
Moreover, Runy (2006) has the same opinion that e-HRM
helps to eliminate much administrative burden and makes
managers and employees focus on more important tasks.
65
This not only reduces the cost but also enhance the
employee satisfaction and financial performance.
Li and Wu (2002) pointed out that e-HRM system could
build an objective norm for appraisal and performance in
order to reduce the subjective and unfair factors in
evaluating. Hence the complexity of HRM in today’s
society has been simplified and turns to more
standardization, more efficiency, high transparence and
more participation.
Another important characteristic of e-HRM as Lengnick-
66
Hall and Moritz (2003) noted is that e-HRM will involve
more strategic and managerial purposes. At the meantime,
to adopt it requires large investment both in money and
intangible rebuild of management concept within the
organization. This is a great challenge because e-HRM is
based on the popularity of computer and internet, and
intent to make the work system become whole. Therefore to
implement e-HRM needs more courage to change the whole
system in the organization (Barnatt, 1994; Safran, 2006).
Besides Ruel et al. (2007) indicated that e-HRM could help
67
to moderate employment relationship. The changing of
labour market such as supply shortage, individualization
and higher educational level, causes the shift of power
from employer to employee. E-HRM offers the better
service for employees who are the internal customers by
which increase the satisfaction of employees and their
commitment.
Integrating all these features, implementation of e-HRM
contributes a lot to gain corporate competitive
advantages. Researchers suggested that organizations
68
could acquire or increasing competitive advantage via IT
implementation. For instance Porter (1985) and
Hoppszallern (2005) recommended that corporations should
have a comprehensive understanding of all technologies
which could be used in value adding process, so that
information technology could be applied to improve
performance and enforce competitive advantages. In
today’s knowledge economy environment, to gain
competitive advantages from IT systems is in the
mainstream. This is also depends on the attitude changes
across the organization which is really a big challenge
69
for any corporations. However this is the trend that
sooner or later it will be accepted by all kinds of
corporations (Barnatt, 1994).
To sum up these notions, the typical features of e-HRM
are as below:
Based on internet and intranet
Strategic involved
Self-serviced
Electronic input replaced paperwork
Expedite and speedy communication channel
Objective appraisal system
Enhancing the employee satisfaction through higher
70
level of internal service
Improving employment relationship
Cost reduction
Changing the centre of HRM from operational management
to strategic management.
Reducing unfairness and dissatisfaction in performance
appraisal
Meeting the requirement of IT era
Achieving more competitive advantages
2.3.4 The relationship between conventional HRM and e-HRM
The nature of HRM decided the status of HRM in an
71
organization became more important and the emergence of
SHRM indicated that HRM is one of the strategic partners
of the organizational management. At the same time with
the development of the internet and IT industry, the
usage of network and information system in management is
popular and the introduction of e-HRM is just meet the
requirement in the new era. (Legge, 2005)
The shift from conventional HRM which focuses on the
operation of HRM functions with paper-based manual
processes, to e-HRM which emphasizes more on strategic,
72
integrated, and automatic approaches based on IT to
increase the efficiency and effectiveness of HRM, could
be seen as a sequential phenomenon of two general phases
of HRM or two types of HRM. Conventional HRM refers to
those ways of HR management without IT or just a little
using of simple DP, while e-HRM bases on IT, depends on
internet and intranet and relates more to strategic
management. Nevertheless their foundation is the same,
which are the functions of HRM. Both of them achieve
their goals and value through operating these functions.
73
2.4 E-HRM in Practice and its effectiveness
The evidences from several organizations of different
countries show the operation of e-HRM in practice and how
effective it is. However there is still controversy about
whether the e-style of HRM relates to corporate size.
2.4.1 Cases of e-HRM in practice
2.4.1.1 Evidence from Northeast Health in UK
Runy (2006) did a case study about using of e-HRM systems
in three hospitals. Northeast Health, a three-hospital
74
system with 4,000 employees is one of the successful
cases. It used HRIS in the late 1990s. At first, it
operated three distinct systems to manage scheduling,
benefits, payroll and other HR functions. But this was
not that efficient. In 2000, Medi Solution provided it
software that could integrate all HR functions and added
online recruiting, salary modeling and training. (Runy,
2006)
Prior to implementation of this system, when a manager
wants to know some information, he has to call human
75
resource department to request the data. Then HR
department would print the data and manually deliver it
to the manager or send it through interoffice mail. By
the time these data reached to the manager, it would be
late and sometimes even weeks late. The manager said that
they reached the glass ceiling and were not meeting HR
need in an efficient way, but after implementation of the
HR software in 2000, both employees and managers felt it
easier to do their jobs. They enter self-service site
which allows them to update personal information and sign
up for training programs and so on. For managers, the
76
software provides up-to-date details about employees,
tracks work history and display new requirement of
employees, and evaluates their performance. It can
analyze the data as well that aid to decision making. As
what the vice president of corporate HR said, e-HRM helps
them to assemble a large, multidisciplinary team to
achieve more.
2.4.1.2 Evidence from a Dutch Ministry
A qualitative research on e-HRM operation based on the
data from a Dutch Ministry by Ruel, Bondarouk and Velde
77
(2007) tested whether e-HRM contributes to HRM
effectiveness. They found that “only the quality of the
e-HRM application was positively related to technical and
strategic HRM effectiveness” (Ruel, Bondarouk and Velde,
2007, p.288). Therefore they listed the factors influence
the assessment of e-HRM quality, including the support by
employees and managers and their judgments of the
information provided.
The conclusion is that the assessment of e-HRM
applications has positive relationship with technical and
78
strategic HRM effectiveness. When managers and employees
perceive higher quality of an e-HRM application, there
will be an increasing of HRM effectiveness. But they do
not relate their ease of use and the linkage between e-
HRM and their job to HRM effectiveness. For these
reasons, to make e-HRM more effective, organizations
should obtain good support from colleagues and managers,
and better information provision. This research is
helpful to HR practitioners to implement e-HRM and once
more illustrates that to operate e-HRM is a big challenge
for organizations that they need build new concept or
79
even new culture within the organization.
2.4.1.3 Evidence from a Chinese corporation
Another case from Chinese state-owned factory (Zhang and
Wang, 2006) revealed several common problems in
implementing e-HRM. Plant A is one of the top 500
industrial enterprises in China and has over 10000
employees. In the early 2002 a managerial revolution is
needed due to its rapid development, so it started from
innovation in HRM. A consulting team helped it to figure
out the problems to be solved in Plant A and what should
80
be done to implement successfully in e-HRM. The biggest
problem was the failure of Plant A to consider HRM at a
strategic level, because its HRM model is outdated. There
was a lack of job analysis and standardized
specifications and no standards and plan in recruiting
and training. Consequently employees do not satisfy with
the management especially the wage standards and the
performance assessment. In addition the channel of
communication is not expedited. As a result the turnover
rate is high, the old HRM system of Plant A unable to
meet the demands of development.
81
According to this investigation, the consulting team
provided the solution for Plant A and began to implement
the e-HRM system. They summarized four general criteria
to implement the e-HRM system: first is to build up the
concept and principle of HRM in the modern time to help
managers to understand the essence of HRM. Secondly, set
up a clear goal and manage well to reach the goal step by
step. Thirdly the procedures should be manageable and be
optimized to achieve transformation smoothly. Fourth,
there should be clear regulations to make sure HRM
82
normalized and applicable. Lastly is to develop the
software modules which are the core of e-HRM.
Based on these problems and criteria they listed the
tasks to be done and corresponding software systems. It
includes HR planning system, intelligent job management
system, recruitment system, talent quality system,
training and development management system, performance
management system, wage and welfare management system,
policy management system and staff information management
system. All of these systems compose the e-HRM system. To
83
implement the system, Plant A operated four steps. First
step is HRM which rebuilds HRM systems to fulfill the
functions of HRM. Next is organizational transformation
and structural regrouping which make sure that the
organization is ready to accept the new system. Third is
enterprise training which ensure the correct use of the
new system. Last step is providing user instructions and
collecting feedback for future maintenance.
Implementation of the e-HRM system brought great value
for Plant A. It helps strengthen the cooperation in Plant
84
A, brings down costs and raises productivity, and it
grounds for a better development of Plant A.
2.4.2 Controversies in practice
From these cases, it can be seen that the use of e-HRM
system has numbers of advantages for organizations.
Nevertheless some researchers pointed out that the
advantages and effectiveness of e-HRM depends on the size
of organizations. As Ball (2001) indicated that use of
HRIS in HRM process like recruitment, training and HR
planning or even appraisal seems “sophisticated” but it
85
depends on the size of the company and the human
resources strategy.
However Hussain, Wallace and Cornelius (2006) pointed out
that there is no difference in using HRIS between small
companies and large companies. Their research shows that
in more than 40% cases HRIS is used in the areas of HRM,
such as HR planning, salary advice, and training for non-
strategic purpose. Whilst approximately 44.5% of all
companies make the strategic HR tasks were supported by
HRIS. The rest of them were still performing some HR
86
tasks manually. There were no obvious differences depend
on the size of the organizations. They concluded that
strategic use of HRIS is the future trend, and it has
conduced to the value-add for corporations by HRM.
Indeed, HRM practices are changing with the size of the
firm increases (Kotey and Sheridan, 2004). From the cases
above, using HRIS in HRM and implementing e-HRM which is
totally digitization could facilitate effectiveness and
efficiency of HRM in macro organizations, but there is
limited literature on small sized organizations using e-
87
HRM. Nowadays, e-HRM is till at its infant stage that
organizational size determines whether an organization
operates e-HRM (Ball, 2001). However the trend of
digitization in management might decrease the differences
in using e-HRM between small and large companies.
2.5 Research Question Revisited
Based on these literatures about HRM, the use of HRIS and
e-HRM, this study will explore the features and
advantages of e-HRM compare with conventional HRM to help
people to understand e-HRM better and show why it is
88
preferable in the future. In addition, this study will
investigate whether e-HRM could make HRM more effective
and facilitate the corporation makes superior performance
than conventional HRM did. The application of the up to
date e-HRM software will be examined as the core of e-HRM
operation. The findings will demonstrate e-HRM from every
aspect to make it more legible for managers who are
seeking a better solution of HRM.
Chapter 3: Methodology
3.1 Introduction
89
This chapter will describe the methodology’s strategy
used in this study and how the study was designed. In
order to answer the research questions, the most
appropriate methods are used to collect data, through
both secondary research and primary research. The reasons
for the methods selected and how the research was
conducted will be explained. Inevitably there will be
some limitations in this research, and it will be
mentioned in the end of this chapter.
3.2 Research strategy and research design
90
To conduct a research, there are some typical strategies
and types of different designs as the references.
Research is a methodical study on a particular subject
using facts investigation and information collection
(Anon, 1989). There are two main strategies of research,
quantitative and qualitative. This study conducted
qualitative strategy, because qualitative study is
concerned with words rather than numbers, which is the
most obvious difference from quantitative research
(Bryman & Bell, 2003). As multiple research methods are
91
suggested to be used in empirical qualitative research,
(Silverman, 2005) this study will combine observation and
interviewing together to get the general conclusion
through induction.
“The process of induction involves drawing generalizable
inferences out of observations” (Bryman & Bell, 2003,
p.12). In other words, inductive theory indicates that
theory is the outcome of research. This is different from
deductive theory which believes research is testing of
theory. Qualitative research is based on the principal of
92
inductive theory which claims the relationship between
theory and research is that research is generation of
theory (Bryman & Bell, 2003).
There are five prominent research designs, experimental
design, cross-sectional design, longitudinal design, case
study design and comparative design (Bryman & Bell,
2003). This study adopted the comparative design, based
on the plenty of secondary data, using more or less
identical standards in comparing two contrasting
situations, conventional HRM and e-HRM.
93
Finally, bringing together the research strategy and
research design, according to Bryman and Bell (2003),
there is a typical form associated with the combination
of qualitative strategy and comparative design. It always
adopts qualitative interview on two cases. In this study,
observation and qualitative interviews are implemented on
the situations of both conventional HRM and e-HRM
practices which conducted by two different corporations.
3.3 Secondary data collection
Secondary data is gathered through secondary research
94
which is an important qualitative technique. Secondary
research is obtaining information from some material or
documents which has been written or printed by somebody
else (William, 2003). Therefore secondary data is the
information from others’ research and exists in
literature material or documents such as academic
research papers, corporate annual reports, transcripts of
chief executives speeches, advertisements, and statements
and so on. It could be accessed though reading books,
journals, and surf on the internet.
95
For this study, author used books, journals available at
Brunel University library and also some other relevant
books privately owned. In addition, internet is another
helpful source of information. Some corporate website and
special or professional website on HRM and e-HRM provide
a plenty of information.
Books are the main source of knowledge and one of the
main sources of information. The text books provide basic
theories and definitions. Although different authors have
various different points of view on the particular issue,
96
there is always a main stream of theory on the issues and
after evaluating and critical analyzing this theory
became the classic one which is acknowledged by most of
scholars. There are also many other books which provide
all kinds of support of those theories, such as cases and
experience evidences.
The author used two text books on HRM wrote by Storey,
“Developments of managing human resources” and “Human
resource management: a critical text”. Storey is the one
of the most famous precursor of HRM and these books
presented the fundamental theory and definitions of HRM.
97
Some other scholars’ books about HRM theories and
practices are also used to demonstrate the system of
conventional HRM. As to e-HRM, it is a new concept in
resent years, so that it is hardly find a canonical book
on it. However, it is developed from HRIS, hence there
are a plenty of books on the development of using
computer in business management, management information
system and HRIS. This kind of information is very useful
as the theory base to investigate the evolution of e-HRM
and to find out its features and differences from
conventional HRM.
98
The major concern of using books is that some information
might be outdated. Absolutely, the classic theories could
be retained for a long time and useful even though they
are old. Nevertheless some brand new concepts or theories
could not be published as soon as they emerge. It needs
some time to test, argue, evaluate, and make it perfect,
then finally be systematically written into a book. So
books could only provide the essential theories for the
study but not up to date information.
However journals are comparatively contains more new
99
concepts and ideas, and up to date information. As for
researchers, the academic journals are the most important
source to get new opinions and to explain their own new
research findings. Brunel University library provides not
only Journals but also Athens account to access to e-
journals which is the most easiest and efficient way to
find the useful articles from hundreds of academic
journals among which Expert system, International journal
of human resource management, Information and management
and so on are the normal used journals on HRM. There are
critical evaluating on classical theories, the
100
development of the theories and new concepts and
practices in HRM. Additionally some information about
using the information technology in management and its
development could be found in the journals, and the most
of e-HRM research theory of this study are from the
articles of these journals.
Although this concept was appeared in the early 90s, most
of the studies on e-HRM are published after 2000
(Panayotopoulou, Vakola and Galanaki, 2007). Thus it can
be seen that the e-HRM concept and theories became mature
101
and rapid developed in the 21st century. From these
journals, the up to date data about adopting e-HRM were
found. These secondary data help the author to collect
some information in using e-HRM. The practices,
experienced report and some other research on e-HRM
operation establish the foundation of this study.
Whatever the nature, feature or the problems of e-HRM
form these priors research, provide this study a
precondition and a reason to continue a even
comprehensive research on it.
102
Website is another important tool to collect secondary
data and it is the best source of up-to-the-minute
information. The websites of professional HRM provides
articles, and reports of HRM trend, a plenty of cases and
practices research of e-HRM operation. Some websites of
professional software corporations have many solution of
e-HRM which is the useful information for this study to
investigate how e-HRM could be efficiently operated. All
the data from these websites are the most up-to-date
information and this is the most notable advantage of
referencing websites.
103
Firstly, the author access to the e-journal via the
internet and the website of the library of Brunel
University. Besides, the China human resource management
development network and the website www.hroot.com have
the professional site for e-HRM which provide the new
ideas, practices, cases and forecast as well. Some
another useful website are the websites of e-HRM software
corporations such as ASR and KCS, and www.softworld.co.uk
offered a great many dependable information of e-HRM
practices and how to extend the use of e-HRM.
104
The only problem of using websites is that the reliable
and validity of the information. Most of the articles on
the websites aim to deliver the most newest information
to readers, so it lacks of research and validate that
might not reliable to some extent.
Based on the secondary research there is a clear frame
work and elementary information for the study. However
reliable and validity are the common concern of all these
secondary data collection. To make sure the outcome of
the research is valuable, the study needs more primary
105
research to collect data to support and complement these
secondary data.
3.4 Primary data collection
Primary data and information are collected first hand by
the author (William, 2003). Therefore it is original and
should be the first time to use in the study.
The primary research is the same crucial in qualitative
as in quantitative research. There are a range of methods
of primary research, for instance observation,
106
questionnaires and interviews. This study adopted
observation from the exhibition, semi-structured
interview. The author attended the HR software exhibition
held by Softworld to collect a plenty information on the
actuality of e-HRM and the e-HRM software practices which
are quite valuable data. The interviewees including some
from UK companies the author met in the exhibition and
primarily from Yitai Group (company A) and Erdos Electric
Power Corporation (company B). In order to collect more
extensive information and to find the support of the
findings, the interviewees include managers, designers,
107
scholars, HR director and employees.
Nevertheless there are two concerns in conducting primary
research. One is the cost, including money and time. The
other is the value of the information. It is not that
easy to get access to the corporation which would like to
accept the interview or questionnaire. Many corporations
don not like to disclose their own particular methods or
experience. Even if they would like to support the
research, the respondent might not that serious, honest
or not just what the investigator want.
Though there is a little inconvenience in the procedure
108
of primary research, the data collected finally is far
more reliable than secondary data due to the nature of
the primary data. It is the first hand, actual and is
checked by practice.
3.4.1 Primary data from the exhibition
The author attended the HR software exhibition held by
Softword on 21st February at Hamersmith in London. As an
important source of the primary research for this study
comparing the conventional HRM and e-HRM, this exhibition
provided a great chance to know the state of e-HRM, the
109
situation those corporations adopting e-HRM and how e-HRM
is operated through different kinds of e-HRM software.
Hence observation and unstructured interviews are applied
to gather the primary data from this exhibition to
support the semi-structured interview later on.
There were almost 100 software companies exhibiting their
products on e-HRM and BASDA (Business application
software developers association) as well. Some of the
suppliers are very famous in software, such as the ASR,
Topaz, ICS, Safe computing and so on, and also AVCO which
110
is based in Brunel University. Each of these companies
has their own specialty. For example, some are good at
payroll, while some others are particular in training or
appraisal. Of course there are several of them provided
the whole system of e-HRM including the section of
personnel management, recruitment and selection, training
and development, performance and rewards, and HR
planning. It combines all the functions of HRM and adds
the self-service module which is the most distinct
feature of e-HRM. To illustrate the effectiveness of
their products these companies show many cases such as
111
National express, Rotherham. The experiences from the
cases
BASDA is a UK-based, not-for-profit association which
represents almost 200 of the world’s leading business
software suppliers. It offers a bridge for buyers and
supplier. Buyers could get help form BASDA to know how to
choose fit software, and suppliers could display their
products to more buyers and compete reasonably.
The exhibition invited some researchers on e-HRM as well
to give some lectures. For instance, Martin and
112
Reddington from University of Glasgow show their research
on linking e-HRM and strategic HRM which is a framework
based on a case of a mobile phone company. The author
communicated with the scholar to know the more in-depth
information and findings from the survey and the
reflection of managers and employees in mobile companies
to e-HRM adoption.
In a word, from this exhibition the author know the e-HRM
in practice and know how e-HRM is conducted after the
explanation and demonstration by the sellers. Through
113
interview some buyers, suppliers and researchers, more
primary data are collected to compare the conventional
HRM and the e-HRM. In addition, from some handout of the
research and magazines published by the companies, some
more secondary data are collected at the same time.
3.4.2 Interviews
According to Saunders et al (2003, p.245), “an interview
is a purposeful discussion between two or more people.
The use of interviews can help you to gather valid and
reliable data that are relevant to your research
114
questions and objectives.”
The interview is used probably the most widely research
method in qualitative research, and is used sometimes in
quantitative research as well. (Bryman & Bell, 2003)
However the qualitative interview is different from
interviews in quantitative research in several ways. The
qualitative interview is less structured than that in
quantitative research. Moreover, it stresses the
interviewee’s point of view, not only reflects the
interviewer’s concerns. “Rambling” is encouraged in
115
qualitative interview that in order to show what
interviewees see as important and relevant. While in
quantitative research, the interview is always structured
to maximize the validity and reliability with the clearly
specified questions, and just to answer the questions not
emphasis on the interviewee’s own perspective. (Bryman &
Bell, 2003) As a result, taking the aim of collecting
rich and detailed answers, the qualitative interview is
flexible and is responding to the trend in which the
interviewees take. It contains several kinds of
interviews, unstructured and semi-structured interviewing
116
are the two major types. The unstructured interview is
almost a free conversation that the interviewer just asks
a simple question to which the interviewee answers
freely, and being carried on through interviewer
responding to the points that worthy for the research
(Bryman & Bell, 2003). In the semi-structured interview,
the interviewer gives a list of questions about the
topics that will be covered. With this guide the
interviewee replies freely with any relevant issues and
there might be some unexpected questions, but basically
it carries as the interviewer wants (Bryman & Bell,
117
2003).
This study adopted the semi-structured interview, because
it has a guide or a direction and could be deployed
comparatively free with the interviewee’s interests. In
order to obtain reliable data, the interviewees are
mainly chosen from the HR managers and employees of Yitai
Group and Erdos Electric Power Corporation. Most of the
interviews are set up over the telephone. Additionally,
the author interviewed two HR managers from UK companies
and several designers, sellers and researchers on the
118
software exhibition which are mentioned above.
There are several points need to be noticed in conducting
the interviews. First, it needs to eliminate the inimical
or unfriendly attitude of the interviewee to ensure the
interview is conducted in a better atmosphere and
sufficient data could be collected. Second, the questions
should be designed reasonably that lead the interviewee
talk more about the related issue. Finally, the
confidentiality could be ensured.
There must be some difficulties to do interviews in those
119
corporations. For instance, some of the managers disliked
to supply the in-depth information. Even though from the
semi-structured qualitative interview, more actual data
are gathered, it is not sufficient to show the influence
of the e-HRM. Hence the secondary data are used to
support and complement the findings.
3.5 Limitation
To sum up the secondary and primary research methods
listed above, on the one hand they are the most
appropriate ways to collect data, and on the other hand
120
some limitations still exist. Firstly, secondary data
lacks reliability and validity that could only be used to
support the primary findings to some extent. Secondly, in
the primary research, the interviewees were not chosen
from a very broad area that might not represent all the
situations.
121
Chapter 4: Findings
4.1 Introduction
This chapter will show the findings of the primary
research and some will be supported by the secondary
data. It will begin with the findings of the exhibition,
which generally introduces the status of e-HRM currently
in the business world and provide some opinions from two
managers, several suppliers of the e-HRM software and
several scholars. They are summarized into quantitative
data. In addition, a Report of Customer Investigation in
Using E-HRM Software provided by a professional HR
122
website in China supported the findings greatly. The
second part will be the findings of interviews with the
corporate HR managers and employees in two corporations.
It will be grouped into qualitative data in accordance to
the relevant research questions.
4.2 Findings of the exhibition
4.2.1 What do we currently know about e-HRM? --- The
status of e-HRM in current business world
The HR Software Exhibition is held twice a year in
123
London. It is a great opportunity for companies to seek
better HR solutions and provides suppliers a good
environment to introduce their products. Additionally the
lectures given by the scholars from famous universities
could make more people know the development of the IT in
HRM. At the beginning, there was just some software for
individual part of HRM, such as payroll solution and
taxation solution. Gradually, with the development of IT
and the higher requirement of management, the e-HRM
system appeared, which contains e-organizer, e-staff, e-
payroll, e-recruiting, e-learning, e-analyzer, e-feedback
124
360 and e-ESSA(employee satisfaction survey and analysis
system). From this exhibition the status of e-HRM in
current business world is reflected through the opinions
of the managers from different corporations, the
suppliers from software companies and the scholars who
are researching the e-HRM.
A director of a big corporation said the e-HRM could help
them to achieve the aim of speed and he gave a
formulation of speed: Speed = data + software + HR +
finance. The e-HRM could make the human resource of the
125
corporation use the software to deal with the data that
get efficiency and cost reduced. It could be seen that e-
HRM is the trend of the HRM in today’s society.
A designer from ICS computing represented the suppliers
to provide their opinion of what e-HRM is: “internet and
intranet based HR software for manager and employee
access; may be part of core HR system or layer on top –
either way access to specific HR functionality or
information; provides access to HR specific information
e.g. policies; mechanism for collection of data from the
126
coal face and devolving transactional HR – particularity
important in decentralized or distributed organizations.”
It shows the broad applicability of e-HRM. Although it
has been adopted mostly by the big companies or multi-
national corporations at present, it could be accepted by
most of the companies in the near future due to its
benefit.
Dr John Myerscough from The University of Manchester
narrated the implementation of an e-HRM system in Higher
Education. There are 10000 staffs in the university. The
127
requirement gathering drove it tend to employ the e-HRM
system. One is the conflicts between business
requirements and local usability. The local practicality
could not cater to the senior management vision any more.
The other is that the priorities between HR, payroll,
finance and technical lead to conflict, so that the
overall cost is much higher. These reasons reflect the
general reasons to employ e-HRM that the HR system which
only applies a single system within the overall HR system
might cause the unbalance and conflicts, and high cost as
well. It could not meet the requirement of the business
128
development.
He listed several points that need to be noticed after
using the new system. It needs long time to change the
business processes and corporate culture. The managers
should know that the new system is used to seek business
benefit but not only IT solutions for the problems, and
the benefits require investment in resources.
It is obvious that status of e-HRM in current business
world becomes increasingly outstanding and tends to take
the place of the conventional HRM one day. It could bring
129
huge benefit for big corporations and has great potential
to benefit all of the companies. With the growing of e-
HRM in business world, a plenty of e-HRM software
appeared to meet the demands.
4.2.2 What is the main difference between conventional
HRM and e-HRM? --- E-HRM software is the corn of the e-
HRM
When asking about the main difference between
conventional HRM and e-HRM, managers, designers and
researchers are all referred to the new solution for HR
130
issues which reflected by e-HRM software. Through the
software, all of the HR functions could be integrated
into a whole system which provides both managers and
employees an instant access to the information and self-
management. It makes e-HRM different from conventional
HRM essentially. Although the designers said that the
software is just a small part of what the company gets.
With the development of IT and advanced demands of
management appears the software of HR became integrated.
Nowadays most of the large corporations especially the
131
multi-national and multi-business corporations applying
the wholly e-HRM software, while other medium
corporations and some of the small sized companies just
adopting several single software to deal with the
particular HR affair.
Taking one typical e-HRM software system of ASR as
example to introduced the features of the e-HRM software
which largely identical but with minor differences
between the different software of different producers. It
is a leading supplier of innovative HR software solutions
132
for major issues HR department face, and helps them add
real value to the business by making information more
accessible and manageable. Its customer contains a wide
range of industries and all sizes of companies.
Its products mainly include personnel software, training
software, recruitment software, self service module and
payroll software. If the corporation adopts these
separate modules, they combine to form an entire e-HRM
system and could fulfill all the HR functions, this is
called HR professional. Personnel software helps HR
133
department to handle the trivial day-to-day functions,
such as holiday and sickness entitlements, training
history and career progression. Training software
provides course scheduling, automated correspondence and
reporting. With the self-service system it also channels
training requests and evaluating. Recruitment software
handles every step of recruitment, from creating the
vacancy through to issuing the contracts, and also allows
staff to know the vacancy information and to apply. Self
service module aims for the staff accessing to HR
information. It makes HR software become much more
134
perfect in reducing cost, raising efficiency and
integrating. Payroll software is the most widely used
one, which includes calculating payroll for employees
with different agreements, printing pay slips, forms and
report, making automatic payments and handling of year
end procedures.
In addition, according to the managers and the designers
the e-HRM development so far is : The system now
provides: absence reporting on-line, staff personal files
on-line, first-rate management information, on-line
135
recruitment, live web structure chart and contact
directory and employee self-service.
Development focus from now on should be on the area as
below:
National e-HRM standards
Management information – especially for new equalities
duties
Learning and development
Supporting home and remote workers
Improving the recruitment system
4.3 Interview findings
136
The author conducted other ten semi-structured interviews
with one HR manager, two HR department staff and two
employees in each of the two corporations, so that the
data collected could be much more reliable and widely
represented. The interviewees are contacted individually
under the permission of the HR directors. The
interviewees’ identities will not be disclosed and
confidentiality is assured.
From these semi-structured interviews, the findings and
critical review are presented as following. A copy of the
137
blank semi-structured interview questions are attached in
the appendix A.
Interviewees are asked 6 to 7 questions due to their
different backgrounds. The interviewees from the
corporation which is still operating conventional HRM are
required to answer the questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
within which question 5 is only for the manager, while
the interviewees of the company which already applied e-
HRM are asked the questions 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9 and 10.
According to different subjects and objectives, the
138
answers of the questions directly or indirectly and some
related information were grouped in five general areas:
managers’ and employees’ insight of conventional HRM and
e-HRM in genera, the relationship between HRM and
corporate performance, the differences between
conventional HRM and e-HRM in daily practice from both
managers’ and employees’ perspectives, the future of HRM,
the practice of e-HRM.
4.3.1 Managers’ and employees’ insight of conventional
HRM and e-HRM in general and the contribution of e-HRM to
139
HRM effectiveness
At the beginning of the interview, the question 1, 2 and
3 intended to obtain some general information about the
background of the corporate HRM and interviewees’
understanding and opinions on the current HRM system.
Question 1: What kind of HRM is your company conducting
currently, Conventional HRM or e-HRM? How many employees
does this company have and how many staffs are there in
HR department?
This question as the opening question tends to know the
140
background of interviewees’ company and their HRM. In
addition, it could help to confirm a direction and
extension of the interviews. 50% of interviewees are from
the company B which is conducting conventional HRM and
others comes from the company A which is implementing e-
HRM. Although company B is applying MIS, its HRM is still
in the conventional way.
There are 3000 employees in company A and only 14 staffs
in HR department. In company B, there are about 1500
employees while 11 in HR department.
141
Question 2: To company A: What were the reasons for
updating your HR system?
To both company A and B: What do you think about its
contribution to HRM effectiveness or the main advantages
and disadvantages of conducting this kind of HRM?
The first question for company A enquired the reasons for
adopting e-HRM and it was followed by the main question
which is a general question about practices of the two
ways of HRM, mainly about the advantages and
disadvantages.
142
As to the first question, interviewees from company A
gave several reasons which are summarized as below:
Restructure – amalgamation of payroll and personnel
services
Growing need for management information
Improved access to information needs an integrated
system and self-service portals
Growth in business requires to achieve greater
flexibility, commercial advantage, and improve office
efficiency and reduce costs
Raising manager expectations
To the second question, the interviewees from company A
143
mainly talked about the advantages of e-HRM, and two form
company B also show their understanding of e-HRM and
expressed their opinions on the advantage of e-HRM.
They listed three aspects that e-HRM contributes to HRM
effectiveness: manage people, enforce policy and control
processes. According to the interviewees from company A,
the flexible system features rich functionality,
watertight security, and in-built reporting and its
scalability means you can run any number of users, from a
few key people in HR to hundreds of worldwide users. It
144
enables managers to pay more attention to the higher
level strategic planning instead of other specific works.
In a word, the key features are saving time and money
while enhancing the flexibility, effectiveness and
efficiency. It offers HR department the tool to achieve
the effective and efficient management of their most
valuable resource – people, and helps HR department to
function as a more strategic, value-enhancing part of the
business.
To summarize their opinions the advantages of e-HRM are:
Building efficient HRM processes
145
Enhancing the employee satisfaction through higher
level of internal service
Strategic contribution
Improving employment relationship
Cost reduction
Saving money
Changing the centre of HRM from operational management
to strategic management.
Reducing unfairness and dissatisfaction in performance
appraisal
Meeting the requirement of higher management in the IT
era
Achieving more competitive advantages
146
The interviewees of company B listed both advantages and
disadvantages of conventional HRM. The only advantage for
company B is that it adapts to the current corporate
culture and do not need any restructure or change. The HR
manager said that it might better fit for the small sized
company with less than 50 employees. Thus it dose not
need to invest much more in the software which is as
efficient as conventional way. Hence it is a plan to
improve the HRM one day.
While the disadvantages of conventional HRM compared to
147
e-HRM are:
It needs more people and cost highly in a long run
It needs more time to deal with the data and
communicate
It could not support corporate MIS to work even more
effective
Question 3: To company B: Do you think this system needs
to be improved and how?
Question 3 enquired the desires of changing in company B.
In the answer of question 2, three interviewees show
their dissatisfaction of the HRM system, so that this
148
question just in the sequence to explore their opinions
on changing. As to the other two interviewees, although
they did not dissatisfy with the present system, they
said they would like to improve it to be more efficient.
80% (four) of the interviewees said the improvement
should concern the employee more firstly. The HRM should
be not only manage the human resources but also make all
the human resources involve in the management to
accomplish a better effectiveness. To study from other
corporations is a good way to improve. The rest 20% (one)
149
interviewees answered that the management today should
achieve that using the lowest cost to make the highest
income. Therefore the efficient is the goal of
improvement.
4.3.2 The relationship between HRM and corporate
performance
Question 4 and 8 aimed to seek the relationship between
HRM and corporate performance, because the performance is
always used as the scale in management.
150
Question 4: To company B: Does this system could still
meet the requirements of development and facilitate the
corporation make even better performance?
60% (three) of the interviewees considered that HR
department directly contributes little to the performance
of the corporation. It could just provide some talents
who are valuable for the corporation through effective
recruitment and training to contribute to the performance
indirectly. Whilst other 40% (two) interviewees agreed
that HRM is crucial for the corporation and if the HRM
151
turned more efficient and effective, it should be
directly contribute to the performance by reducing the
cost.
Question 8: To company A: Does it facilitate the
corporation makes superior performance than before and
how?
To this question, all (100%) interviewees answered “yes”.
They believe that the utilization of new technology
brought plenty of benefits for the corporation, such as
using fewer people to do more work and accelerating the
152
speed of communication and information transfer. It means
saving time and reducing costs. The manager said it
provides possibilities for supporting workplace leaning
and offering flexible training. In another word, it
facilitates corporate HRD (human resource development)
which is an important portion for good performance. All
of these are achieved by using the completely e-HRM
system to cooperate with the ERP system. It has two ways
to obtain the appropriate system, internal exploration
combines with cooperated exploit or purchase. Company A
conducted internal exploration combines with cooperated
153
exploit, because in this way the system could cater for
the company demands furthest and facilitate performance
most.
4.3.3 The differences between conventional HRM and e-HRM
in daily practice from both managers’ and employees’
perspectives
Question 7: To company A: Did it make big different in
your company and had some impact on your work? Do you
much satisfy with it?
154
This question intends to explore the effect of using e-
HRM, and find out the differences between e-HRM and
conventional HRM father based on the question 2. All
(100%) the interviewees agreed that the application of e-
HRM system brought many differences and satisfied with
it.
To the employees, it always reflected on some daily
affair. For example, the absence control and e-HRM
calendars could not only enable managers to identify and
address issues promptly by highlighting of absence, but
155
also help staffs to automate absent applying and holiday
booking. They are satisfying with the easy accession of
information and online self-management.
The manager and HR staff said it provided easy access to
employee information, and enabled managers to automate
and enforce HR processes, analyze trends, record
feedback, and meet legislative changes, all of which
facilitates decision-making and gives the managers more
time for strategic planning. It reduces the workload and
increases efficiency and accuracy. The previous system
156
was just a static data base, but the new system is
dynamic to meet the demands of HRM reformation. Therefore
e-HRM helps the company to build a more productive
working environment and contribute to create a stronger,
better-informed and more highly skilled organization
which keeps pace with the rapid change and increased
complexity of the new era.
4.3.4 The future of HRM
Question 5: To manager of company B: If it is possible,
how do you want to change the HRM in your company?
157
This question is set to ask the conventional HR managers’
thought of their future plan of HRM.
The manager of company B answered that adoption of e-HRM
will be definitely come true one day in this company, but
it needs a long way. There are some resistance now
because of the policy and organizational environment.
More important is that there are risks in transforming.
Indeed, the current system is obviously out of date. He
planned to change the system gradually to enable the
company meet the requirements.
158
Question 6: How do you think e-HRM would be the trend of
HRM in the IT era?
This is a question to know opinions of the HRM trend and
how they look on e-HRM in today’s society.
70% (seven) of interviewees show their confidence in the
future of e-HRM. The IT on HR is changing overtime, and
the developments always benefit someone which means it
meets the dire need of customers. E-HRM is emerged with
the demands of efficiency and IT solution of HRM. These
demands will be sustained in the near future, so that the
159
great prospect of e-HRM is indubitable. However the other
30% (three) interviewees were not sure about that e-HRM
would be the only future of HRM. They thought it depended
on the nature of companies. Conventional HRM with simple
HRIS could still be valuable and suitable for some
special companies.
4.3.5 The practice of e-HRM
Question 9: To company A: How do you choose the
appropriate software or what should be noticed if you
need to choose the software?
160
The question 9 aims to investigate how to choose the e-
HRM software, and also the important points need to be
noticed and the conditions need to be considered.
To managers this is a practical question but to employees
this is just an imaginative question under their
reasonable inductive from the users’ perspectives.
However the finding shows that the answers from managers
and employees are almost the same in some crucial points.
According to the manager, the main principle in choosing
the software is “easy to use, practical to use and
161
sufficient to use” and the starting point need to be in
the particular organization, and it needs consult users,
or else there might be some improper problems. This also
includes functions, prices and after sale service.
Besides, there is another important point is that the
expansibility of the software. It needs to change and
develop with the changing of management practice.
Question 10: To company A: Is there any problem and
crucial points that should be noticed in conducting e-HRM
in your point of view?
162
Through this question, the author intends to understand
the e-HRM practice deeply and find out the problems exist
at present.
The manager and HR staffs said that buying the system was
just the start, much more work need to do to cooperate
conducting it, because development needs people and
money. Therefore more training and investment are
required, or else the effectiveness of the system could
not be fulfilled. Currently the main problem is that it
is difficult and needs long time to build the corporate
163
culture which encourages everyone to catch up with the
pace of reform and take full advantage of the system.
Otherwise, the other interviewees had another opinion
that the system is just the mean, the data and analysis
is the end. The attention should be on the outcome of
adopting the system and make it contribute more to the
overall performance. At present, the company A emphasizes
the system itself and the fact rather that its outcome.
Although the advantages and effectiveness of e-HRM is
unexceptionable, there are some problems in the process
164
of carrying it out. Those above are from company A, but
are representative to some extent.
Chapter 5: Discussion and suggestions
5.1 Introduction
This part will analyze the findings critically with
165
reference to the literature reviewed in chapter 2. Ground
on the literature, research objectives, research
questions and the grouped findings, the discussion will
progress in three aspects: how to understand e-HRM after
comparing it with conventional HRM, the contribution of
e-HRM to HRM effectiveness and corporate performance, and
the controversy and future of e-HRM. After this
discussion, the e-HRM in the new era will be explained
incisively and vividly.
5.2 Comparing conventional HRM and e-HRM to
166
understand e-HRM
5.2.1 Differences between conventional HRM and e-HRM
Through the observation in the exhibition and interviews
the differences between conventional HRM and e-HRM based
on the application of e-HRM software could be explained
in terms of the four main functions of HRM, HR planning,
recruitment and selection, training and development, and
rewards.
In conventional HRM, HR planning is simply to comply with
167
the order of the superior managers and cooperate with the
needs of the corporation, while e-HRM emphasizes that the
HR planning participates the strategic management of the
corporation actively and connects with outside source to
set up the reserve pool of people. In addition it helps
existing employees do career planning strategically.
In the recruitment and selection process, e-HRM achieves
efficiency much greatly than conventional HRM. It could
provide a more instant channel for both those who are
hunting a job and corporate recruiters to access to the
168
information easily. Due to the usage of software,
hundreds of applications could be sorted into a shortlist
of candidates in a second using any conditions. Therefore
e-HRM saves a plenty of time and money compared with
conventional ways.
Training and development became more flexible and could
satisfy more people using e-HRM software. The self-
service choice creates more opportunities for employees
to attend any training. Besides all the programs could be
harmonized under the control of the system to make it not
169
only cater to everyone’s taste, but also assist to the
strategic development of the corporation.
As to the performance and rewards, the payroll software
before e-HRM software has already given the solutions.
Now in the e-HRM systems, the performance and rewards
part is similar with payroll system. It makes all the
payment process to be automatically and much open to
employees than it does in conventional way.
Hence the core differences between conventional HRM and
e-HRM, which due to the application of software could be
170
seen from these four functions much clearer. E-HRM views
employees as the internal customer. The achievement of
both B2B and B2C communication makes HRM become more
effectiveness and easy to acceptable for employees.
5.2.2 Features and advantages of e-HRM
According to the differences above, and to sum up what
the literatures listed and primary research findings, the
features of e-HRM are acknowledged as below:
Flexible in customizable work flow
Capable to access control and multi site
Capability of self-service such as online leave
171
application, auto routing and approval
Integrated with time management system and strategic
plan of the whole corporation
Integrated with recruitment system, training system
and payroll system
Web reporting features
These are contained by the three levels feature of e-HRM
just as Panayotopoulou, Vakola and Galanaki, (2007)
summarized, publishing of information, automation of
transactions with integration of workflow, and
transformation of the HR function.
172
Based on these features the advantages in implementing e-
HRM are:
Building efficient HRM processes
Enhancing the employee satisfaction through higher
level of internal service
Strategic contribution
Improving employment relationship
Cost reduction
Changing the centre of HRM from operational management
to strategic management.
Reducing unfairness and dissatisfaction in performance
appraisal
Meeting the requirement of IT era
173
Achieving more competitive advantages
5.2.3 Understand of e-HRM
Through comparing the differences between conventional
HRM and e-HRM, the features and advantages of e-HRM are
obviously. To summarize, e-HRM could be understand from
four main aspects. First is the change of HR department’s
role and goal. Second is providing better service for
internal customers – employees. Third is reformation of
management concepts. Lastly is reducing cost through
applying new technology. Hence the “e” in term e-HRM
174
could not stand for “electronic”, but also for
“efficiency”. Efficiency is the ultimate goal of HRM or
management, while electronic is only the mean.
5.3 Contribution of e-HRM to HRM effectiveness
and corporate performance
5.3.1 The contribution of e-HRM to HRM effectiveness
Through the three cases study in the literature review
and the interviews conducted in two different types of
corporations, the contribution of e-HRM to HRM
175
effectiveness are obvious. The literatures indicated that
e-HRM helped the company became more efficient and
effective and it attributes not only to the application
of new technology, but also to the acknowledgement and
high estimate of e-HRM system by employees. (Runy, 2006;
Ruel, Bondarouk and Velde, 2007; Zhang and Wang, 2006;
Ford, 2006; Cronin, 2006)
In addition, from the interview questions on managers’
and employees’ insight of conventional HRM and e-HRM in
general and their opinions of the contribution of e-HRM
176
to HRM effectiveness, it can be found that the judgments
of e-HRM are positive. In company B, even if it still
conducting conventional HRM, HR managers and most of the
employees could understand the trend of e-HRM, because
the limitation of conventional HRM are evident in the IT
era.
There is some other evidence from the exhibition. The
cases showed there illustrated the effectiveness of e-HRM
further. For example National express said “all HR
systems basically do the same job but we need a fully
177
integrated system that is quick to deploy, minimizes
manual input, copes with our unusual company structure
and employee shift patterns and, importantly, includes a
really flexible reporting tool. KCS offers all of these.”
(Order story, 2007) e-HRM just combines all of the HR
partial systems together to integrate into a whole which
accomplishes huge HRM effectiveness.
5.3.2 The contribution of e-HRM to corporate performance
Corporate performance is influenced by many factors.
Commonly, the product, marketing, investment and
178
executive management could contribute to the performance
as everyone knows. Moreover, the corporate culture,
organizational commitment, corporate branding and
reputation, leaders, managers and staff, organizational
learning and the management of all the departments could
impact on the financial or other performance of the
corporation. (Harris & Chernatony, 2001; Inglis, Morley &
Sammut, 2006; Lee & Yu, 2004; Rashid, Sambasivan &
Johari, 2003; Liyanage and Poon, 2003)
The traditional dimensions of corporate performance are
179
profitability, productivity and market valuation, as well
as the corporate social responsibility is considered as a
part of the performance nowadays. Firer and Williams
(2003) found out that under these dimensions, the
corporate performance heavily relies on the intellectual
capital or human resources of the corporation. As a
result, the corporate performance is evidently related
with the management of human resources. Guest (1997)’s
‘box model’ also shows the linkage between HRM and
performance. It could be explained in this way:
organization strategy is reflected through HRM practices,
180
while HRM behavior and performance outcomes influence the
organization’s financial outcomes. Thus how to manage HR
effectively to make them contribute more to the
corporation becomes an important question in order to
make a better performance. The application of e-HRM
strengthens the HRM effectiveness that could contribute
to corporate performance further.
A survey indicated that the goal to make HR to be more
strategic has been achieved by using of technology in 75%
of the respondents. The self-service brought by
181
technology providing operational efficiency in particular
and it enables HR possess much more additional strategic
value, such as gathering metrics for proactive budget,
offering strategic consulting to line managers and
improving revenue growth. (HR Focus, 2007)
The interviews with company A and B show that the
contribution of e-HRM to corporate performance is
acknowledged by both managers and employees. Although
some of them could only see the direct effect and
understand it through their own experience, the fact that
182
e-HRM affects performance is indubitable.
5.4 The controversy and future of e-HRM practice
5.4.1 The problems and controversy of e-HRM practice
Literatures indicated that e-HRM is still at the infant
stage that there must be problems in practice. (Zhang and
Wang, 2006; Turnbull, 2005) Some scholars and managers in
the exhibition said that the functions and integrity of
the e-HRM system has been much better than before.
However it does not mean that it has already done the
183
best. There will be more preferable functions or features
should be achieved in the future. For instance, the most
of the software currently are designed for big companies
and its effectiveness and efficiency could only be
accomplished in big sized corporations. The sellers
agreed this sentence that their target customers are
mostly the large companies, because it might not that
helpful for small-sized companies. Just as some
researchers pointed out that the effectiveness of e-HRM
system depends on the size of the corporation. (Ball,
2001)
184
Although some other scholars believed that the size of
corporations could not influence the effectiveness of e-
HRM (Hussain, Wallace and Cornelius, 2006), the evidences
from both sellers and customers of e-HRM software at
least demonstrate that the e-HRM software is not suitable
and popular for small-sized companies at present. The
software companies should notice this controversy on the
size of the corporation and the e-HRM application. The e-
HRM software should also try to meet the requirements of
small companies.
185
Some other problems in e-HRM practice are listed by the
interviewees from company A, as well as by Turnbull
(2005). The corporations which is implementing or will
implement e-HRM should conceive that it not a simple
process of change the IT system of HRM, but involves the
culture changing, the strategic management and continuous
learning.
5.4.2 The future and development of e-HRM
Most of people recognized that the future of e-HRM is
186
optimistic. It would be the trend of HRM in IT era. (HR
focus, 2004) As the literature on e-HRM turned into
flourishing, it can be said that the implementation of e-
HRM became popular, and it is proved by the primary
interviews. Either the company which has applied e-HRM or
the company which is still in the conventional HRM stage,
they preferred e-HRM because its outstanding advantages
displayed in today’s IT environment.
With the higher requirement of business and technology,
the future e-HRM system would be more perfect an even
187
developed. As the author knows from the exhibition,
development of e-HRM system focus from now on should be
on the area of national e-HRM standards, management
information – especially for new equalities duties,
learning and development, and supporting home and remote
workers. Another Report of Customer Investigation in
Using E-HRM Software provided by a professional HR
website in China supported the findings greatly. It
investigated the situation of using e-HRM software in 524
corporations. It tested the software from nine aspects.
First is the basic functions, the result is that the
188
producers of e-HRM software currently emphasizes
technology more than the HRM functions of the software.
Second is that whether it is easy to use. It shows most
of them are easy for staff to understand and use. Third
is its expansibility which is evaluated on the low side.
Fourth is after-sale service. All most all the informants
are satisfy with the currently after-sale service of the
software companies. Fifth is the price of the software.
Most of the customers considered the price are
reasonable. Last one is the satisfaction of the software.
Only half of the customers are satisfy with the software
189
in general, so that the unitary appraisal of e-HRM
software is still low. (Chinahrd, 2007)
Therefore, on the one hand, with the number of companies
which applies e-HRM increasing, e-HRM would be stressed
by more corporations to enhance their management level,
on the other hand, in the future e-HRM has a long way to
become developed and satisfied most of the customers in
all aspects.
5.5 Suggestions
190
After understanding of e-HRM compared with conventional
HRM, some suggestions will be given for the producers of
e-HRM software and the corporation which intends to
implement e-HRM at the end of this study.
For the producers of e-HRM software, they should pay
attention that e-HRM is not simply change traditional way
of HRM practices into the electronic way, but is to
achieve the cooperation of IT and HR functions that
contribute to the effectiveness of HRM and corporate
management. Therefore more attention is needed to know
191
what the managers and employees really want.
For the companies which will implement e-HRM, they should
know that the e-HRM is not a simple use of software, but
is a system project, needs to meet the fact of the
corporation and transform in many aspects continuously,
so that the applying of e-HRM could improve the
management of HR and facilitate the corporate
development. In addition, to choose an experienced
producer and appropriate software package is crucial to
be successful.
192
How to select a package? The most important are: software
Author, product, functionality, look and feel,
flexibility, technology and cost. Firstly the software
author needs to meet several standards, company
stability, existing customers and financial requirement.
As to the product, there should be a stable version and
many successful live users. Third is functionality, means
the system could grow and change with the business and
fulfill all the requirements. Lastly, the cost including
that how easy and quick it could be implemented, the
training, consultancy and configuration cost, ongoing
193
Chapter 6: Conclusion and limitations
6.1 Conclusion of the study
This dissertation will gave an introduction of e-HRM and
adopts comparison in many aspects to demonstrate e-HRM
actually which is different from most of the pervious
studies. It includes the comparison between two
195
corporations currently conducting different HRM style, as
well as the comparison between the previous system and
new e-HRM system in one corporation. Based on these
comparisons this dissertation examined the facts of e-HRM
both in theory and in practice through comparison study
between conventional HRM and e-HRM in the purpose of
contributing to advancing e-HRM research. Taking the
essential theories of HRM as the foundation which
promoted by several famous researchers such as Storey,
this study learned the previous research on both
conventional HRM and e-HRM and found out how is the e-HRM
196
developed and its relationship with conventional HRM.
Furthermore the features and advantages of e-HRM are
generalized according to all kinds of research papers.
Therefore the reasons for adoption of e-HRM were educed.
In general, e-HRM is developed from HRIS and shares the
same basic theory with conventional HRM, whereas the
efficiency and effectiveness of e-HRM are much higher
than conventional HRM because of the adoption of
technology in e-HRM. Thus the performance of e-HRM mainly
depend on the application of software or even larger
management system, including self-service capability
197
based on internet and intranet, integrated capability,
and shaking off the inefficient work flow. Moreover
contribution of e-HRM to strategic HRM is distinct. The
cases and evidences from literatures illustrated better
that the application of e-HRM could bring a great many
benefits in the long term. (Runy, 2006; Ruel, Bondarouk
and Velde, 2007; Zhang and Wang, 2006)
In order to investigate more about the up to date usage
of e-HRM in practice, this dissertation mainly conducted
interviews with two different corporations which
198
implement conventional HRM and e-HRM respectively.
Supported by observation of the e-HRM software
exhibition, the actuality of e-HRM and the effect of e-
HRM adoption as well as problems associated with it have
been discussed among managers, employees, scholars,
designers and sellers. The findings show that adoption of
e-HRM could build efficient HRM processes, enhance the
employee satisfaction through higher level of internal
service, improve employment relationship, reduce cost,
change the centre of HRM from operational management to
strategic management, as well as reduce unfairness and
199
dissatisfaction in performance appraisal. It really
brings plenty of benefits for effective HRM and corporate
performance. Moreover the interviews show that e-HRM has
been accepted by most of managers and employees, though
there are still some problems in implementing. The
culture problem is the most important problem one, any
corporation wants to change the style of HRM should do
more on the improvement of their corporate culture and
system first. It means the acceptable culture among
employees and managers could lead to the success of e-
HRM.
200
Considering the controversies of the relationship between
the corporate size and e-HRM practices, the findings show
that it indeed existed. On the one hand, the producers of
e-HRM software could not consider more about the small-
sized companies’ needs. On the other hand, the e-HRM is
not that popular in most of the companies, especially in
small-sized companies. Therefore the effectiveness of e-
HR for small companies won’t be achieved unless much
effort from both providers of software and companies
themselves.
201
6.2 Contribution and beneficiaries of this
dissertation
After discussing the findings of the primary research and
data from secondary research, the aims and objectives of
this dissertation are achieved and the research questions
are answered. The explanation of advantages of e-HRM
answered why it is preferable and provides managers
useful information when they intend to adopt e-HRM.
Moreover the findings show that due to the HR software
usage e-HRM facilitates effective HRM and better
202
performance of corporations. Therefore these findings
could help more managers to consider about the
transformation of HRM. The effectiveness of e-HRM also
reminds managers to focus more on B2C communication,
which views employees as the internal customers.
According to the exhibition observation and interviews,
the exploration of using HR software and suggestions
offered information for managers and providers to know
each other better. Managers could learn how to choose the
HR software while providers could know what kinds of
products should be provided and they could understand
203
better about HRM. These suggestions to both customers and
producers of e-HRM software provided a valuable
consultation for them to develop.
For other researchers on HRM, this comparison study
provides a comprehensive explanation of e-HRM from
another point of view. It introduced e-HRM compared with
conventional HRM and explained the relationship between
them, so that the inevitable trend of e-HRM popularity is
obviously. This dissertation also examined the actuality
of e-HRM more detailed in practice according to the
204
interviews and observation. It could help people to
understand e-HRM deeply and have clear cognition of e-HRM
application after identifying critical factors in e-HRM
adoption, and discussing the manner in which e-HRM shapes
the role of HRM in the new economy. People will perceive
the effect of e-HRM in the future.
6.3 Limitations
Finally it has to be explained that there were some
limitations in conducting this research. Firstly, the
interview did not involve a broad range of interviewees,
205
thus the findings might not be comprehensive
representatively. The reason is that this topic might
relate to some corporate secret and most of the
corporations did not like to communicate with the author
about their management affair. The future research should
try to cover more corporations. Secondly, most of the
interviewees are employees and their responds to the
interviews were simply based on their perception. Further
studies needs to interview as many managers as employees.
Therefore, it must be cautious to use the findings in
other research.
206
Bibliography
Anon Collins (1989): New Compact English Dictionary. 2nd
Edition. HarperCollins Publishers, Glasgow.
Anonymous (2005) How to implement an effective process
for a new HR management system. HR focus, 82(1)3-4
Anonymous (2007) HR technology trends to watch in 2007.
HR focus, 84(1)1-6
Anonymous (2004) HR information system trends. HR focus,
81(12)1
208
Ball, K.S. (2001) The use of human resource information
systems: a survey. Personnel review, 3 (5/6) 677-694
Barnatt, C. (1994) The computers in business Oxford:
Blackwell Publishers
Bocij, P., Chaffey, D., Greasley, A. & Hickie, S. (2003)
Business information systems: technology, development and management for
the e-business. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.
Boxall, P. & Purcell, J. (2000) Strategic human resource
management: where have we come from and where should we
be going. International journal of management reviews, 2(2)183-203
Bryman, A. & Bell, E. (2003) Business research methods.
209
Oxford: Oxford university press.
Byars, L. & Rue, L. (2004) Human Resource Management. New
York: McGraw-Hill
Chang, W. & Huang, T. (2005) Relationship between
strategic human resource management and firm performance.
International Journal of Manpower, 26 (5) 434-449
Chinahrd (2006) Report of Customer Investigation in Using E-HR
Software. http://survey.chinahrd.net/Article.aspx?ArticleId=323
[Accessed 24th June 2007]
Cronin, B. et al. (2006) Public sector use of technology
in managing human resources. Human resource management review,
16(2006)416-430
210
Dowling, P.J., et al (1999) International Human Resource
Management: Managing People in a Multinational Context. South-
Western College Publishing, Cincinnati, OH.
Elias, J. & Scarbrough, H. (2004) Evaluating human
capital: an exploratory study of management practice.
Human resource management journal. 14(4) 21-40
Eplee et al. (2002) Electronic management systems.
European journal of dental education, 6 (3) 152-160
Farndale, E. & Brewster, C. (2005) In search of
legitimacy: personnel management associations worldwide.
Human resource management journal. 15(3) 33-48
Firer, S. & Williams, S.M. (2003) Intellectual capital
211
and traditional measures of corporate performance. Journal
of Intellectual Capital. 4 (3) 348-360
Ford, N.J. (2006) The development and evaluation of an
information technology support system to facilitate
inter-organizational collaboration in HRD. Journal of
European Industrial, 30(7)569-588
Frauenheim, E. (2006) Bumps in the road to going global.
Workforce management, 85(19) 29-32
Guest, D. (1997) Human resource management and
performance: a review and research agenda. International
Journal of Human Resource Management, 8(3) 263-276
Gupta, M. & Kohli, A. (2006) Enterprise resource planning
212
system and its implications for operations function.
Technovation 26(2006) 687-696
Harris, F. & Chernatony, L. (2001) Corporate branding and
corporate brand performance. European Journal of Marketing, 35
(3/4) 441-456
Hooi, L. W. (2006) Implementing e-HRM: the readiness of
small and medium sized manufacturing companies in
Malaysia. Asia Pacific Business Review, 12 (4) 465-485
Hoppszallern, S. (2005) Embracing e-staffing: human
resources tools empower the workforce. Hospitals & Health
Network, 4(4) 48
Hoque, K. (1999) Human resource management and
213
performance in the UK hotel industry. British Journal of
Industrial relations, 37(3) 419-443
Hussain, Z., Wallace, J. & Cornelius, N. (2006) The use
and impact of human resource information systems on human
resource management professionals. Information and
management, 10 (6) 1-16
Inglis, R., Morley, C. & Sammut, P. (2006) Corporate
reputation and organizational performance: an Australian
study. Managerial Auditing Journal. 21 (9) 934-947
KCS (2007) Order Story. www.kcsplc.com [Accessed 28th April
2007]
Kotey, B. & Sheridan, A. (2004) Changing HRM practices
214
with firm growth. Journal of small business and enterprise
development, 11 (4) 474-485
Leede, J. & Looise, J. (2005) Innovation and HRM: Towards
an Integrated Framework. Creativity and Innovation Management,
14(2) 108-117
Lee, S. & Yu, K. (2004) Corporate culture and
organizational performance. Journal of Managerial Psychology. 19
(4) 340-359
Legge,K.(2005) Human resource management : rhetoric and realities.
Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan
Lengnick-Hall, M.L. & Moritz, S. (2003) The impact of e-
HR on the HRM function. Journal of labour research, 24(3) 365-
215
379
Li, X. & Wu, L.P. (2002) Digitalized human resource
management in the new era. Journal of WUT, 24(5)74-76
Linden, G. & Parker, P. (1998) On paradoxes between human
resources management, postmodernism, and HR information
systems. Accounting management and information technologies, 8
(unknown) 265-282
Liyanage, S. & Poon, P.S. (2003) Technology and
innovation management learning in the knowledge economy.
Journal of management development. 22(7) 579-602
Mabey, C. (1998) Human Resource Management: A Strategic
Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd
216
Manley, J. H. (1996) Enterprise information system
modeling for continuous improvement. 19th international
conference on computers and industrial engineering, 31(1/2) 273-276
Nieto, M. (2006) An introduction to human resource management: an
integrated approach. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan
Osman, I. & Hashim, M. K. (2003) An evaluation of the
business practices in Malaysian SEMs, Malaysian management
review, 38 (2)
Panayotopoulou, L., Vakola, M. and Galanaki, E. (2007) E-
HR adoption and the role of HRM: evidence from Greece.
Personnel review, 36(2)277-294
217
Powell, T. & Dent, A. (1997) Information technology as
competitive advantage: the role of human, business, and
technology resources. Strategic Management Journal, 18 (5) 375-
405
Rashid, M., Sambasivan, M. & Johari, J. (2003) The
influence of corporate culture and organizational
commitment on performance. Journal of Management Development.
22 (8) 708-728
Ruel, H.J.M., Bondarouk, T.V., & Velde, M.V. (2007) The
contribution of e-HRM to HRM effectiveness: result from a
quantitative study in a Dutch Ministry. Employee
relations, 29(3)280-291
218
Runy, L.A.(2006) HR information systems. Hospital & Health
networks, 5(2)24-30
Roberts, B. (2006) New HR system on the horizon. HR
Magazine, 51(5) 103-108
Safran, G.. (2006) Making the case for an HRMS. Canadian HR
Reporter, 19(7) 13
Saunders, M., Lewis, P., and Thornhill, A. (2003) Research
Methods for Business Students. 3th Edition. Prentice Hall,
England.
Silverman, D. (2005) Doing qualitative research. London: Sage..
Spanos, Y.E. et al. (2002) The relationship between
219
information and communication technologies adoption and
management. Information & management, 39 (2002) 659-675
Storey, J. (1993) Developments of managing human resources.
Oxford: Blackwell publishers.
Storey, J. (2001) Human resource management: a critical text.
London: Thomson.
Turnbull, I. (2005) After the implementation: maintenance
of your new HR system. Canadian HR reporter, 18(19) 13
Ulrich, D. (1997) HR of the future: conclusions and
observations. Human resource management, 36 (1) 175-179
Watson, R.T. (2004) Foundations of net-enhanced organizations:
220
transforming the organization through internet technologies. America:
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
William, G. (2003) Business research methods. London: Thomson
Zhang, L. & Wang, H. (2006) Intelligent information
processing in human resource management: an
implementation case in China. Expert System, 23 (5) 356-369
Websites:
http://www.hroot.com/ [Visited on 24th May]
http://www.softworld.co.uk/ [Visited on 25th February]
http://www.chinahrd.net/ [Visited on 4th May]
http://www.benq.com/ [Visited on 8th June]
http://www.selecthr.co.uk/ [Visited on 28th June]
221
http://www.northgate-hrs.com/ [Visited on 25th February]
http://www.frontiersoftware.com/ [Visited on 25th
February]
http://www.safecomputing.co.uk/ [Visited on 25th February]
http://www.icscomputing.co.uk/ [Visited on 25th February]
http://www.asr.co.uk/ [Visited on 25th February]
222
Appendix A
Letter used in Semi-structured interviews
Dear Sir/Madam,
My name is Yanbo Hao. I am a postgraduate in the major of
MSc Human Resource and Employment Relations at Brunel
University. Currently, I am required to undertake a
dissertation about comparison between conventional HRM
and e-HRM.
For my primary research, I would like to interview you to
find out opinions about the conventional HRM practices
and e-HRM conducting on management perspective or
223
application perspective.
It would be greatly appreciated if you could assist me by
providing some information, which will help me to
complete the dissertation. I promise that the information
you provide would not be disclosed to anyone else so that
confidentiality is assured.
I much appreciate of your help and thank you very much
for your participation.
Yours sincerely,
Yanbo Hao
23rd July 2007
224
Appendix B
Interview questions
1. What kind of HRM is your company conducting currently,
Conventional HRM or e-HRM? How many employees does this
company have and how many staffs are there in HR
department?
2: To company A: What were the reasons for updating your
HR system?
225
To both company A and B: What do you think about its
contribution to HRM effectiveness or the main advantages
and disadvantages of conducting this kind of HRM?
3. To company B: Do you think this system needs to be
improved and how?
4. To company B: Does this system could still meet the
requirements of development and facilitate the
corporation make even better performance?
Question 5: To manager of company B: If it is possible,
how do you want to change the HRM in your company?
6. To company B: How do you think e-HRM would be the
trend of HRM in the IT era?
7. To company A: Did it make big different in your
company and had some impact on your work? Do you much
satisfy with it?
226
8. To company A: Does it facilitate the corporation
makes superior performance than before and how?
Question 9: To company A: How do you choose the
appropriate software or what should be noticed if you
need to choose the software?
Question 10: To company A: Is there any problem and
crucial points that should be noticed in conducting e-HRM
in your point of view?
Appendix C
Interview examples
1. Company A Yitai Group, HR department staff
(2nd Aug. 2007)
227