Human Resource Management and Technological Challenges

This chapter explores the implementation of electronic HRM systems (e-HRM) in multinational corporations (MNCs) from a vendor consultant’s point of view. By presenting the issues surrounding implementation in MNCs and extending e-HRM definition to the MNC setting, this chapter combines the micro-political and institutional views and aims, firstly, to shed light on the micro-political issues and conflicts areas in e-HRM implementation and, secondly, to investigate how the institutional environment affects the e-HRM system implementation. The chapter contributes to our knowledge of e-HRM by exploring the previously largely unrecognized role of e-HRM vendor consultants and contributes to the theoretical discussion by extending and empirically testing a framework from the field of HRM to the field of e-HRM in MNCs.

Psychological contracts are unwritten agreements that mutually shape the employment relationship between the employer and the employee. This chapter presents a basic overview of the anticipations and beliefs of today’s workforce in contemporary work settings. Since social relations have become a crucial part of the work life, the two main pillars of the social network theory—actors and interactions—are taken as the theoretical basis in explaining how individual employees interact and how such interactions may shape their beliefs and perceptions about their jobs.

This chapter deals with the challenges that Top Managers of technology start-ups face in regard to human resource management. Technological innovation is seen as main driver of our economy. However, SMEs developing these high-tech products are widely neglected in the public discourse and in research. As human resource management in this setting is completely different to HRM carried out in HR departments of large firms, we raise awareness of HRM in technology start-ups, shed light on the characteristics of HRM in this context, present two case studies and identify their HRM practices, discuss strengths and weaknesses of identified practices, deal with the challenges for the Top Management regarding HRM in the growth process, and derive success factors for HRM in technology start-ups. In the end, we present the managerial and theoretical implications of our research.

This chapter analyses the contribution of human resource management (HRM) to building up and deepening organisational knowledge. If we perceive the management of knowledge as a collective phenomenon, based on persons, their qualities and interests, we need to question just how organisations may attract, develop, motivate and retain such members of staff. Throughout this chapter, we seek to respond to this question and demonstrate just how HRM may contribute to the effective management of knowledge. In parallel, we also aim to understand the way in which information and communication technologies may encourage and motivate such interactions between persons. To this end, we put forward a set of HRM practices susceptible to benefiting from the utilisation of technology in terms of encouraging both intra- and inter-organisational flows. The suggestions and examples presented provide important guidelines for the implementation of HRM practices structured around boosting the potential for knowledge management success.

Governments are now very aware of the importance of technological development for business and economic growth, and this has led to efforts to stimulate investment by organisations in research and development (R&D). There are two main policy approaches for achieving this: (1) direct procurement and/or provision in public facilities and (2) incentives for private investment such as tax incentives or R&D subsidies. In this chapter, the focus is on the second of these approaches, incentives for R&D, and specifically examining these investments through the lens of human resource management (HRM) practices. A focus on HRM is warranted, given that R&D investment is dominated by capital equipment and knowledge workers with longer-term organisational benefits most commonly achieved through R&D employees as behaviours acquired through the publicly supported R&D are sustained in the post-funding period. However, this raises important issues where government investment is in private sector organisations such as businesses or public sector organisations such as universities. To what extent are there similarities and differences in the profile of R&D employees and HRM practices of business and university R&D centres? What are the implications of this for government efforts to stimulate R&D investment through subsidies?

In this paper, the social aspects related to new concepts on the complex work environments (CWE) will be analysed, especially those that configure the design of work organisation systems with automated equipment. In such environments, the work with autonomous systems (AS) represents specific options in the design of workplaces. This means that human resources management (HRM) is becoming more decisive for a successful design of a complex and automated system. Traditionally, it was thought that automation would replace operational work and the importance of the dimension of human resource would become less decisive for management option. Most recent studies are demonstrating total different conclusions. We intend to present here some of those results. Another topic covered by this article is the relation of humans with computers in their working environment. That means the role of agents in the human–computer interaction (HCI) (robots, human operators, other automated machinery, sensors) and the implications in the management of human resources. The technology development represents also a challenge for managerial options.

Technology has been increasingly important for any kind of companies and has a strong influence on the activity they develop. High-technology companies are based on the knowledge and development of edge technologies. By its hand, staffing is the process of acquiring, deploying, and retaining a company workforce. Staffing includes (but is not limited to) recruiting, hiring, transfers, promotions, redeployment, layoffs, retirements, terminations, and retention. Staffing process in high-technology is addressed.

Throughout the last few years, the Internet has become a common tool at the workplace. Companies, from different activity sectors, were quick to embrace the opportunities and potential given by the Internet and put them to good use to achieve their goals. However, despite having contributed to the efficiency of employees, by allowing them to have immediate access to information on a variety of topics and facilitating communication all over the world, it also contributed to never before encountered concerns to employers. Initial research into the use of the Internet for personal reasons during working hours stated that such use had a negative impact on productivity. The reasoning for such was that employees would be wasting time which could be used to further their work, thus possibly making them unproductive. On the other hand, recent research has shown the Internet to be quite valuable to productivity. Studies have shown that not only is the Internet a priceless tool which aids workers to accomplish their designated tasks, but also when used reasonably, allows those who are working to have moments of relaxation. This contributes to improvements in concentration and ultimately in productivity. Due to this ambiguity and the absence of works on this theme in Portugal, a decision was made to base this study on the impact of the Internet usage on productivity.