Personal Blogs

Bayes’ application to HRM is limited to event probability but is a topic that is mentioned in passing in a paper on shirking and presenteeism by S. Brown (2004) recommended by Dr. Andrew Bryce (Sheffield), which was written over 20 years ago this year.

Brown (2004) reads as follows:

“Such ‘shirking’ is potentially costly to firms and may incite them to undertake monitoring. BST** envisage a monitoring technology in which there is some probability, α < 1, of each absentee’s true state of health being revealed to the firm.”

After deciding to initiate a brief scoping review for the B812 literature topic of choice (‘Wellbeing’). I thought I would check in with the blog and provide some justification and background for this choice of theme.

This spurious love affair with Bayes’ theorem has loomed over my educational learnings but only in its form as sub-game perfect in non-cooperative game theory. Big thanks to Melvyn Coles, Pierre Regibeau, and Franco Squintani for their lectures and classes from our days in Colchester on Economics. 

I started the HRM course in Nov 2023 and while I am still somewhat aware of some concepts surrounding Bayes, things have changed. Nowadays, Bayes’ theorem (10+ years on) is being used in combination with what we call supervised learning and algorithmic techniques such as neural networks.

So, how do we proceed? Perhaps, it is wise to proceed with caution. A brief scoping review will get me up to speed and updated with new research as much as is feasibly possible.

References

Brown, S. and Sessions, John (2004) “Absenteeism, Presenteeism and Shirking”, Economic Issues, 9(1), pp. 15-22 – Available at: https://econpapers.repec.org/article/eisarticl/104brown.htm (Accessed on 13 March 2024)

**Barmby, T. A., Sessions, J. G. and Treble, J. G. (1994) “Absenteeism, Efficiency Wages and Shirking”, Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 94(4), pp. 561-566 – Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3440797 (Accessed on 13 March 2024)

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This post was written by Alfred Anate Mayaki, a student on the MSc in HRM, and was inspired by the author's previous learnings and experiences.

It is a very important time to be a Nigerian business leader not just because of the challenge of AI and sustainability but because of seismic shifts in the meaning of leadership and effectiveness. I recently attended the B812 Day School and learned from leaders from other sectors, locations, and seniority (such as health, education, and the wider private sector) who felt the same about the role leadership plays at all levels, especially during COVID-19.

Time and time again, what was mentioned was the concept of follow-through - that is, how do we get our employees to act persuasively (and authentically) after a decision has been taken? I told a funny story about my experience researching my father's career who is the chairman of Thomas Wyatt Plc in Nigeria.

I pointed also to the amazing story of the late Herbert Wigwe and how I was watching motivational videos of him and D'Banj back in the day. Herbert was an example to us all and a dedicated nation builder, who led as a transformational MD. Not only in the financing of critical infrastructure across the Federal Republic in his day job but also as a man. Wigwe University, as an example of Herbert's influence, is set to be an outstanding success story. Herbert was an exceptional example of such leadership and I pay my respects.

Literature Topics

What resonated with many of us on B812's Day School was when we were asked what two unit topics we valued most from the Evidence-Based Value in People Management module. Most people cited the hierarchy of evidence or Analytics, but what I found most interesting was neither the aforementioned nor the obvious attraction presented by the apex of Gifford's hierarchy. What was it then? Easy - in hindsight, I found learning through qualitative methods such as semi-structured interviewing and surveying as containing the most to offer.

Andy (a B812 Tutor) asked us to select one of our blogs to present as a discussion topic on the Day School. I chose an extract from this page, where I have posted a total of 23 course-related blogs. For the EMA, I have chosen Wellbeing as a theme for the part 1 literature review and the part 2 critically reflective account. I decided to choose Wellbeing as a theme based on personal experience. I did some prior research into Recruitment as a theme for the EMA however, I decided against it because I want to continue to read more into the role of evidence, data, and analytics in people management. Herein lies an excellent opportunity for me to do so.

My chosen topic for the part 1 lit review within Wellbeing is Presenteeism, which is mentioned a few times in the B812 module in tutorials and the TGFs. One of the earliest references is in December (Week 6). I have since been learning by using various sources (OU’s Library, Google Scholar, JSTOR, etc.) which provide journal articles that explain a diversity of views on why presenteeism is so excessively costly in comparison to a theory known to many in the field as ‘shirking’. Dr Andrew Bryce (Sheffield) wrote in one of my other blog posts that the two aspects of productivity, that is, shirking and presenteeism, are similar but distinct. However, are both the responsibility of HR to ascertain the impact of therein?

Fox, Park and Lang (2007) famously wrote about secondary task reaction times (STRTs) in the context of psychology and communications - a sector I'm very familiar with. In the intervening period, further studies have been conducted on the workplace learning environment as a contextualised example of STRT research (Sewell, Santhosh, and O’Sullivan, 2020). Now, according to Kinman and Grant (2021), there is an estimated cost of approximately £4,000 per UK employee lost due to time spent at work whilst being clinically unwell (Patel, et. al., 2023). This is also known as what we refer to as presenteeism. This blog post hypothesizes that a highly significant correlated relationship exists between low STRTs and a type of presenteeism known as therapeutic presence. In my blog, I build on this theme of research by suggesting that it may be possible to alleviate the 'sunk' cost of low productivity in work which is lost due to the inefficiencies of working while being unproductive. I assume we have access to quality data, which isn't always the case. The blog considers the use of Bayesian inference to predict therapeutic presence (or what many refer to as ‘dysfunctional presenteeism’). 

What is ‘Dysfunctional’ Presenteeism?

Dysfunctional presenteeism can be defined as a type of presenteeism which can occur when an employee remains actively at work despite being clinically unwell (Bryan, Bryce, and Roberts, 2022; Henderson, and Smith, 2022). What we know about presenteeism is very little, particularly in instances of remote work (Schmitz, Bauer, and Niehaus, 2023). Dysfunctional presenteeism can vary in motive and context, but a recent survey estimated that UK employees spend roughly 2 weeks per annum actively working whilst being clinically unwell, which is quite a significant amount of time. Notably, what I have learned today is that presenteeism is frequently framed through the lens of ‘surface acting’ (Correia Leal, et. al., 2023; Patel, et. al., 2023:842).

STRTs and Cognitive Load Theory

How does STRT fit in to this? Well, my thinking is that low secondary responses are a clear indicator of the risk of presenteeism at work. Now, although the predominant focus of much of the literature on cognitive load emerges as research that is based on secondary task responses (Lang, et. al., 2006, Sewell, Santhosh, and O’Sullivan, 2020:1133), the significance of STRTs to cognitive load is insurmountable. As with Lang et. al., 2006:370), we know that when participants perform primary and secondary tasks within what we refer to as the STRT ‘paradigm’, the primary and secondary tasks are clearly defined[1].

Applying Bayes’ Theorem on Inference

Woolridge (2013) and as demonstrated recently in a paper by Saramago and Claxton (2020). Currently working on this in an essay.

Predictive Analytics in the Workplace

Now, Analytics is not necessarily ethical, especially when applied based on Ford’s principles. It is seemingly often pitted against the self-governance of employees by their peers[2], Analytics through surveillance is thus touted as the means of managerial control least appropriate for the digital age. In one instance, the UK's Low Carbon Contracts Company and the Electricity Settlement Company, a publicly owned renewable energy intermediary owned by the Secretary of State for Business, demonstrate through its management organizational chart, a distinctively unique feature (See Appendix Figure 1). Data Analytics is housed separately from People and Strategy. What does this tell us?

Conclusion

With quality data on both the threshold of secondary tasks and length of productive work for individual workers, this blog suggests that statistical inference techniques such as those based on Bayesian estimation, can predict the reduced work productivity of an individual employee (who may or may not be working remotely) instances of increased levels of stress, cognitive overload and eventual presenteeism?

1.     Byran, M. L., Bryce, A. M. and Roberts, J. (2022) “Dysfunctional presenteeism: Effects of physical and mental health on work performance”, The Manchester School, 90(4), pp. 409-438 – Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/manc.12402 (Accessed on 23 November 2023)

2.     Correia Leal, C., Ferreria, A. I. and Carvalho, H. (2023) “Hide your sickness and put on a happy face: The effects of supervision distrust, surface acting, and sickness surface acting on hotel employees’ emotional exhaustion”, Journal of Organisational Behaviour, 44(1), pp. 871-887 – Available at https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2676 (Accessed on 27 February 2023)

3.     Fox, J. R., Park, B., and Lang, A. (2007) “When Available Resources Become Negative Resources: The Effects of Cognitive Overload on Memory Sensitivity and Criterion Bias”, Communication Research, 34(3), pp. 277-296. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650207300429 (Accessed on 23 February 2024)

4.     Henderson, A.A. and Smith, C.E. (2022) “When does presenteeism harm productivity the most? Employee motives as a key moderator of the presenteeism–productivity relationship,” Journal of Managerial Psychology, 37(6), pp. 513–526. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/JMP-08-2020-0446 (Accessed on 26 February 2024)

5.     Kinman, G. and Clements, A. J. (2023) “Presenteeism: the case or action”, Occupational Medicine, 73(4), pp. 181-182 – Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqad033 (Accessed on 26 February 2024)

6.     Kinman, G. and Grant, C. (2021) “Presenteeism during the COVID-19 pandemic: Risk factors and solutions for employers”, Society of Occupational Medicine, Available at: https://www.som.org.uk/Presenteeism_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic_May_2021.pdf (Accessed on 26 February 2024)

7.     Lang, A., Bradley, S. D., Park, B., Shin, M. and Chung, Y. (2006) “Parsing the Resource Pie: Using STRTs to Measure Attention to Mediated Messages”, Media Psychology, 8, pp. 369-394 – Available at: https://doi-org.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/10.1207/s1532785xmep0804_3 (Accessed on 26 February 2024)

8.     Patel, C., Biron, M., Sir Cooper, C. and Budhwar, P. S. (2023) “Sick and Working: Current challenges and emerging directions for future presenteeism research”, Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 44(1), pp. 839-852 – Available at https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2727 (Accessed on 27 February)

9.     Saramago, P., Claxton, K., Welton, N. J. and Soares, M. (2020) “Bayesian econometric modelling of observational data for cost‐effectiveness analysis: establishing the value of negative pressure wound therapy in the healing of open surgical wounds,” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A, Statistics in society, 183(4), pp. 1575–1593. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/rssa.12596 (Accessed on 27 February)

10.   Schmitz, H., Bauer, J. F. and Niehaus, M. (2023). Working Anytime and Anywhere - Even When Feeling Ill? A Cross-sectional Study on Presenteeism in Remote Work. Safety and Health at Work, 14(4), 375–383 – Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2023.11.001 (Accessed on 26 February 2024)

11.   Sewell, J.L., Santhosh, L. and O’Sullivan, P.S. (2020) “How do attending physicians describe cognitive overload among their workplace learners?” Medical education, 54(12), pp. 1129-. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.14289 (Accessed on 26 February 2024)

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This post was written by Alfred Anate Mayaki, a student on the MSc in HRM, and was inspired by the author's previous learnings and experiences.

According to Dr. Teresa Bejan of Oxford’s Department of International Relations, in Ancient Greek democracy, Isegoria (Bejan, 2017) is often used to describe the equal rights of citizens to participate in public debate in the democratic assembly. Why is the concept of Isegoria important to an HR academic? It is important because it is a critical attribute in democratic forms of leadership. Furthermore, in what Revd. Dr. William Lamb (2021) also of Oxford University refers to as a ‘spiritual exercise’ as opposed to a ‘rhetorical device’ another form of free speech is mentioned. Parrhesia or ‘expressive freedom’ is witnessed most visibly during Jesus's spoken interaction with the Pharisees and Sadducees in the Gospel according to Matthew. How does this famous instance affect our view of democratic forms of leadership?

In the words of Collinson et. al (2018), where the Raelinian notion of Leadership-as-Practice (L-A-P) or ‘Leaderful’ practice is referenced to define the norms of ‘democratic tradition’ as enshrined and embedded in practice, or demokratia per se[1], Collinson explains that Raelin is referring to ‘participatory’ and ‘deliberative’ process. In this view, leadership is democratic and "holds an inherently positive connotation associated with certain democratic norms of equality and freedom to participate”. These are the 4C’s that constitute Raelin’s model of L-A-P: Compassion, Collaboration, Collectiveness and Concurrency.

This post was written by Alfred Anate Mayaki, a student on the MSc in HRM, and was inspired by an Organisational Studies article written by Collinson et.al. (2018) entitled 'No More Heroes’: Critical Theories on Leadership Romanticism’

As a postgraduate on the MSc in HRM at the Open University Business School, in a 2-part blog post, I took the liberty to summarise the basic premise of EBP with respect to Gifford’s hierarchy and the four types of evidence (Open University 1a, 2023). In my summary of Gifford’s hierarchy, I also critiqued the perspective of academic and practitioner involvement in EBP citing the work of Dr. Carol Gill, an Associate Professor of HRM at Melbourne Business School. In speaking with Dr. Gill, whose work on evidence-based knowledge and management outlines various flaws in practitioner involvement, I was interested to observe the pluralist^[1] foundations in existence with respect to HRM.

Because HR’s function is primarily non-client facing, in other words, because its role is fundamentally to operationalise other departments in a manner that optimises outlay and adds value, there are added pressures internally to continuously improve^[2]its core offering as a budgeted expense. The setting for this pressure is increasingly a contested showdown between staunch advocates and unwary dissenters to the implementation of EBP. The pluralist debate concerning HR’s value in this respect is principled upon the idea that both quantitative and qualitative research practices can only denigrate HR’s value (Hughes and Hughes, et. al. 2021).

Now, the case for implementing EBP into people management is a relatively recent one, so much so that as recently as October this year an online article was published in People Management (Elder and Nikodem, 2023) which agrees with my blog post on Gill (1998) and her work concerning this thing called an awareness deficit. Elder and Nikodem (2023) state, “there is [perhaps] less awareness of academic evidence” that supports the argument in favour of implementation into HR, stating this lack exists with respect to employee empowerment programs and unconscious bias training initiatives. It should be noted that a perceived lack of awareness is one of the central arguments put forward by Gill (1998).

Discovering the CIPD Professional Map and the value of selective hiring

Vandenabeele and co-authors (2013) build on the work of Moore (1995) who writes on the topic of creating value in the public sector. Their paper states that the concept of strategy as it relates to HRM should be conceptualised more robustly than Moore’s case-study orientation. In the work of Moore, he essentially argues for something referred to as “public-sector production” (1995:53) which Moore explains is a type of public value that is not associated with a “physical good” or “consumed service” but rather created in the mind of the public executive to improve the lives of “particular clients and beneficiaries”. To implement this, Moore notes, in the case of strategic implementation^[3] in diversified conglomerates, that because of a nuanced business context, key personnel could develop into, what he calls a “strategic asset” (1995:68).

How does this extract from Moore relate to evidence-based practice and recruitment? Well, firstly, Moore is resonated by Leisink and Steijn (2008) who regard “selective hiring” as part of a bundle of best HR practices (2008:118). Secondly, it supports the case for selective hiring, which is regarded by several labour economists as the artistic translation for Pissarides (2000) and his search and matching formulae (Merkl and van Rens, 2019). Vandenabeele et. al. (2013) point out in their paper what Moore fails to achieve; to define a structural framework that outlines the findings of his extensive study for application in the conglomerate context. Regarding the strategic advantage of key personnel in a conglomerate, the work of Vandenabeele and co-authors is resolved by the CIPD Profession Map (Elder and Nikodem, 2023). The Professional Map sets out what the CIPD call the “international benchmark”.

References

1.     Elder, S.R. and Nikodem, M. (2023) “Considering the application and relevance of evidence-based HR”, People Management, Available at: https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/article/1845833/considering-application-relevance-evidence-based-hr [Online] (Accessed on 30 November 2023)

2.     Gill, C. (1998) “Don’t know, don’t care: An exploration of evidence-based knowledge and practice in human resource management”, Human Resource Management Review, 28(2), pp. 013-115

3.     Hughes, J., Hughes, K., Sykes, G., Wright, K. (2021) “Moving from what data are to what researchers do with them: a response to Martyn Hammersley”, International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 24(3), pp. 399-400

4.     Learmonth, M. (2008) “Speaking Out: Evidence-Based Management: A Backlash Against Pluralism in Organisational Studies?”, Organization, 15(2), pp. 283-291

5.     Leisink, P. and Steijn, B. (2008) “Recruitment, Attraction and Selection”, chapter in Perry, J. and Hondeghem, A. (eds) ‘Motivation in Public Management: Call of Public Service’, Norfolk: Oxford University Press

6.     Malloch, H. (1997) Strategic and HRM Aspects of Kaizen: A Case Study. New Technology, Work, and Employment. [Online] 12 (2), pp. 108–122.

7.     Merkl, C. and van Rens, T. (2019) “Selective Hiring and Welfare Analysis in Labour Market Models”, Labour Economics, 57(1), pp.117-130

8.     Moore, M. H. (1995) ‘Creating Public Value: Strategic Management in Government’, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press

9.     Open University 1a (2023) “Gifford’s Hierarchy and Carol Gill on the “Knowing and Belief” Gap”, [Online] Available at https://learn1.open.ac.uk/mod/oublog/viewpost.php?post=279019 (Accessed on 24 November 2023)

10.  Pfeffer, J. and Sutton, R. I. (2006) ‘Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management’, Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press

11.  Pissarides, C. (2000) ‘Equilibrium Unemployment Theory’, Second Edition, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press

12.  Vandenabeele, W., Leisink, P. and Knies, E. (2013) ‘Public value cation and strategic human resource management: public service motivation as a linking mechanism’, chapter in Leisink, P., Boslie, P., van Bottenburg, M. and Marie Hosking, D. ‘Managing Social Issues: A Public Values Perspective’, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 37 – 54 [Online] Available at: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781781006962.00010 (Accessed on 30 November 2023)

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This post was written by Alfred Anate Mayaki, a student on the MSc in HRM, and was inspired by a book by Mark H. Moore entitled "Creating Public Value: Strategic Management in Government"

Explaining Evidence-Based Practice in People Management

The academic literature on evidence-based practice is seemingly split into two distinct yet important themes of research. These themes are 1) real-world studies that apply evidence-based methods and 2) what we will call the theory and critique of evidence-based knowledge, and management, indeed as their own nascent domains. As we will now come to see, and as Barends, Rousseau, and Briner (2014) explain, the fundamentals of evidence-based practice can be simply described as the “conscientious”, “explicit” and “judicious” use of the best available evidence from multiple sources by Asking, Acquiring, Appraising, Aggregating, Applying, and Assessing to increase the likelihood of what Briner (2019) calls a "favourable outcome". 

The six A's he cites can be elaborated as follows:

1. Asking: involves converting real-world circumstances into answerable questions
2. Acquiring: involves systematically gathering evidence to answer such questions
3. Appraising: involves thinking critically about the trustworthiness of the evidence
4. Aggregating: involves pulling together the best bits from each source of data
5. Applying: involves deriving a decision-making process using the evidence selected
6. Assessing: involves evaluating the outcome of the decision taken

Source: Briner (2019)

There are generally also 4 types of evidence:

 Source: Barends, Rousseau and Briner (2014) 

1.2: The Hierarchy of Evidence

Source: Gifford (2016)

Carol Gill's Critique of Evidence-Based Practice in Human Resource Management (HRM)

We already know that evidence-based practice in HRM is a contested territory, but the question is, do HR practitioners and academics alike understand why there is this contested arena? 

Gill (2018:103) suggests three perspectives for understanding this question. 

The first perspective is what Gill calls a lack of awareness of such a duality. In essence, here, Gill describes a situation where there are “sides” who “care” or in this case, who may not care, about the interests of the other. Gill illustrates this through evidence-based practices such as high-performance work. Generally speaking, in the view of Gill, the two “sides” are pitted against one another. Here, HRM ultimately to its own detriment, suffers from an awareness deficit that engulfs the empirical research side and the real-world practice side, respectively.

Practitioners are labeled “Machiavellian” in their intent to avoid research, which leads to the second perspective: a lack of belief from both sides or what Gill calls a “knowing and belief gap”. Gill (2018:112) states using the research content on university courses as an example, that evidence-based practice is often vacuous once students depart from university courses in HRM, which leaves practitioners vulnerable to “unreliable” sources of information further permeated by a great divide between these two respective “sides” (academics and practitioners). Gill then reiterates in proposition 1a that precariously unfavourable “attitudes” are formed from managerial beliefs about a lack of evidence-based knowledge.

The third perspective that defines Gill’s critique of evidence-based practice is what, in the backdrop of a decline in managerialism, is known through her paper as a lack of implementation. Throughout the paper, the author proposes an abbreviation known as “HPWP” otherwise known as ‘high-performance work practices. These work practices are what the Institute of Directors (2023) in a recent article published in August concedes can be a “challenging and complex process” to implement. Gill’s findings are that lack of implementation occurs once again because of a lack of belief in the link between investment in human resources and “financial performance”. Here, evidence-based knowledge must compete with what one paper interprets as its role as the organisation’s “handmaiden of efficiency”.

References

1.     Barens, E. Rousseau, D.M. and Briner, R.B. (2014) ‘Evidence-Based Management: The Basic Principles’, Amsterdam: Centre for Evidence-Based Management – Available at https://cebma.org/assets/Uploads/Evidence-Based-Practice-The-Basic-Principles.pdf (Accessed 24 November 2023)

2.     Briner, R.B. (2019) ‘The Basics of Evidence-Based Practice‘, Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)  - Available at: https://www.shrm.org/executive/resources/people-strategy-journal/winter2019/pages/ebp-briner.aspx (Accessed on 24 November 2023)

3.     Gifford, J. (2016) “In search of the best available evidence”, CIPD positioning paper. London: CIPD. Available at: https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/in-search-of-the-best-available-evidence_tcm18-16904.pdf (Accessed: 24 November 2023)

4.     Gill, C. (2018) “Don’t know, don’t care: An exploration of evidence-based knowledge and practice in human resource management”, Human resource management review, [Online] 28 (2), 103–115 – Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2017.06.001

5.     Institute of Directors (2023) ‘High-Performance Work Practices: A Beginners Guide’, IOD Resources Blog – Available at: https://www.iod.com/resources/blog/business-advice/high-performance-work-practices-beginners-guide/ (Accessed on 24 November 2023)

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This post was written by Alfred Anate Mayaki, a student on the MSc in HRM and was inspired by an Academy of Management Perspectives article by Rob Briner, Denise Rousseau and David Denyer (2009) entitled: “Evidence-Based Management: Concept Clean Up Time?”

Over the weekend, I informed one of my tutors that Société Générale once came out with a company report produced by a working committee of influential multi-departmental actors across the Group, which measured approaches to workforce planning at the start of 2020 when the lockdown began which noted that the average number of remote working days in the UK was 11 days per year. The report also noted that from 1 June 2020 – 30 June 2020, “the working group focused on listening to employees and reporting their input in an open and flexible way to enable everyone to express their feelings freely.”

Now, outside of Investment Banking, more generally, I have been impressed by the approach to institutional critique on white privilege, which Prof. Kalwant Bhopal from the University of Birmingham has been influential in sharing. This has inspired me to read the article by Abedi et. al. (2021) where the authors suggest poverty, and in particular Medicaid eligibility, had a strong correlation with the COVID-19 mortality rate in various US states. I was surprised because the health consequences of COVID-19 for those in certain parts of the United States were clear to observe from the article.

Accordingly, for many front-line professions (nursing, ride-hailing, and public sector work) critical race theory is useful in encountering the experience of both black working-class workers and low-income immigrants, particularly caregivers. This is of significant interest to the informed strategies of management through crisis, or what I discovered is referred to by Collings (2021) as “work context” (i.e. hybrid or flexible forms of work).

Collings (2021) cite Wright and McMahon (1992) early on in their paper stating that “They argued that the domain of strategic HRM encompassed ‘the determinants of decisions about HR practices, the composition of human capital resource pools, the specification of the required human resource behaviours, and the effectiveness of these decisions given various business strategies and/or competitive situations'" (Wright and McMahon, 1992, p. 298). Société Générale’s report demonstrates to a degree how important HRM was as a factor during COVID-19’s lockdown, but also how management through crisis is an interdepartmental responsibility, not just that of Human Resources.

As I mentioned earlier in my blog, there is a necessary component called ‘context’, that adds insight into the value of interdepartmental collaboration. Context allows us to see the bigger picture. I am not saying academia seems to misunderstand HR and its function in practice, rather, I am saying context is such a necessary term that I often find it has a plurality of consequences and interpretations in the literature (Johns, 2006) which can be used to critique the conclusion to Collings et. al. (2021) in rhetoric at least, if not in an obscure reality.

References

1.     Abedi, V., Olulana, O., Avula, V., Chaudhary, D., Khan, A., Shahjouei, S., Li., J. and Zand, R. (2021) “Racial, economic, and health inequality and COVID-19 infection in the United States”, Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 8(3), pp. 732–42.

2.     Collings, D.G., McMackin, J., Nyberg, A.J. and Wright, P.M. (2021) ‘Strategic human resource management and COVID‐19: Emerging challenges and research opportunities’, Journal of Management Studies. Available at: https://doi-org.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/10.1111/joms.12695 (Accessed: 19 November 2023)

3.     Johns, G. (2006) "The Essential Impact of Context on Organizational Behaviour", The Academy of Management Review, 31(2), pp. 386–408

4.     Société Générale Report: Future of Work: ‘Building a new work experience together at Société Générale’, July 2020 – Available at https://www.societegenerale.com/sites/default/files/documents/2020-10/future_of_work_livre_blanc_va.pdf

5.     Stuart, M., Spencer, D. A., McLachlan, C. J., Forde, C. (2021) “COVID-19 and the uncertain future of HRM: Furlough, job retention and reform”, Human Resource Management Journal, 31(4), pp. 904-917

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This post was written by Alfred Anate Mayaki, a student on the MSc in HRM and was inspired by a Forbes article entitled: "Companies with flexible remote work policies outperform on revenue growth: report"

Thank you to Hilary Scarlett for taking the time out of your schedule to speak to me about your amazing journey towards your current aspirations (for all but 20 minutes) and thank you for sharing with me how we can help answer important questions with your book on the subject of change.

It was great meeting up with cognitive neuroscientist, author, and scholar Hilary Scarlett yesterday on Zoom. I told her how I used to work opposite two very capable project consultants who each led on change. I also sat beside a very well-paid BA. As I introduced my questions, I noted that what impressed me about these respective roles was the fact that they were concerned with change concurrently with operative business; these people worked on endlessly whilst the business of the department trotted alongside. So, I sort of got the impression that the business was constantly moving and always evolving. Jiras were being filed seamlessly, and Pega requests were being signed off, without interruption.

Now, as you guys know, I recently wrote in an OU blog post that stated “in the postmodern literature on organisational change, the subject is often thought of as an ontology" (Tsoukas and Chia, 2002). I asked Hilary if she would agree that neuroscience is at the forefront of the multi-disciplinary movement to help better understand organisational thought? I didn't quite get the reply I was looking for.

I then told Hilary that one of my main influences was the work of Cambridge University's Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology, Barbara Sahakian in a study she pioneered alongside co-author, CfEL's Professor Shai Vyakarnam entitled: "The Innovative Brain", which was published in Nature (Sahakian, et. al., 2008). Hilary's response was amazing. She gave me insight into a few prominent perspectives on change and explained that in her time as a Languages undergrad and Psychology graduate, she herself was introduced to a paper on neuroscience which convinced her that was the industry she wanted to pursue. We ended our brief conversation shortly after. 

Now, there is a widely cited academic article that focuses on the role of “context” in OB discourse (Gary Johns, 2006). Succinctly put, "context" is seen by Johns as: “the surroundings associated with phenomena which help to illuminate [sic] phenomenon, typically factors associated with units of analysis above those expressly under investigation” (Capelli and Sherer, 1991:56). Alongside this widely cited article are several other articles which reference the work of Gary Johns (2006), and which present the influence of this nature of “context” on the field of HRM. 

I shall leave us all with a question based on this premise: How relevant are cognitive models of analysis such as the Maslows and the McGregors on the emergence of HRM as an interdisciplinary field or as its own research domain? More or less important than our respective realities? 

References

1.      Cappelli, P. and Sherer, P. D. (1991) "The missing role of context in OB: The need for a meso-level approach",  Research in Organizational Behaviour, 13: pp. 55–110

2.      Chia, R. (1995) "From Modern to Postmodern Organizational Analysis", Organization Studies, 16(4), pp. 579-604

3.      Johns, G. (2006) "The Essential Impact of Context on Organizational Behaviour", The Academy of Management Review, 31(2), pp. 386–408

4.      Tsoukas, H. and Chia, R. (2002) “On organizational becoming: rethinking organizational change”, Organization Science, 13(5), pp. 567+

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This post was written by Alfred Anate Mayaki, a student on the MSc in HRM, and was inspired by the work of Barbara Sahakian (2008) in a Nature article entitled: "The Innovative Brain".

Last Wednesday, I wrote a brief e-mail to Peter Ackers asking the prolific Industrial Relations academic to interpret which book or article or indeed which critical perspective he would decide holds the most influence in Alan Fox's extended oeuvre. 

"Is it Unitarism, Pluralism, or Marxist / Radical? " I asked Prof. Ackers, hoping for enlightenment.

Fast forward an academic week and I finally got that long-awaited reply from Peter Ackers yesterday:

"Hello Alfred, Good to hear from you & pleased you found the idea of neo-pluralism interesting. As you'll see from the bottom reference below, I'm still developing this. The old Industrial Relations Pluralism was fairly narrowly based on conflict between trade unions and employers within the IR system. My 1st IRJ piece in 2002 tried to expand this for contemporary society, where unions are weaker, there are other forms of 'voice' & there are tensions between work & family life. Your blog & question are interesting. All 3 frames are still in play, but within academic Employment Relations the main debate is between neo-pluralism & a radical- pluralism based on Fox's later writing. At the same time, much of management thought is unitarist, assuming simple shared interests between management & employees."

Interesting response from Peter Ackers. More here.

Let's get started!

Today's blog post focuses on a critical perspective of HR in what I will argue is HR's gradual excursion into Zeno's paradox of motion. To illustrate, I will begin with an anecdote. When I first joined Société Générale as a Data Analyst intern in May 2014, I was invited to a social event at an illustrious venue in the City - 1 America Square - by the Head of Human Resources, Benjamin Higgens. This was the first informal encounter I had with colleagues from other departments in the bank. By the time I departed from the role in the following year, I had learned enough about the corporate banking industry to move on; I informed my manager of my intent to leave, and a letter of termination was issued by a HR clerk in the following days. Upon reflection, it is easy to see that HR was indeed the first and last form of representation that I had engaged with. Although, HR is arguably an integral part of any successful business operating model, its strategic role in practice is perhaps not as well understood as it could potentially be.

There is a philosophy borrowed from Ancient Greece that may very well have inspired the thinking behind how modern sports analysts observe the reasons behind why some sprinters are so much more exceptional in comparison to other athletes, particularly across generations. Zeno’s paradox of motion states that “the fast runner Achilles can never overtake the slow-moving tortoise” (Wesley, 1980; Tsoukas and Chia, 2002). What has this got to do with changes in HR’s function? Well, likewise, in the field of research, it is often worthwhile to occasionally take a step back and evaluate the successes and shortcomings of change in organisations. Why? Because as academics and practitioners, change does not necessarily signal progression. This blog post will argue that the evolving role of human resource management (HRM) is suffering from a gradual excursion into Zeno’s paradox.

As this blog post explains, using a three-part framework with real-world examples, there are notable ‘drivers’ of change that have influenced comparatively less ethical consideration in the workplace, particularly in HR. This three-part framework corresponds to the ‘TOP’ framework found in the work of Parry and Bondarouk, where a significant driver of change is the concept of Technology or e-HRM (Bondarouk et. al., 2017; Fernandez and Gallardo-Gallardo, 2021; Shipton, et. al., 2017; Tansley et. al., 2014; Poba-Nzaou, et al., 2020). According to Parry and Bondarouk, much of the change in HR’s function has come as the result of web or cloud-based innovations that have emerged within the last 15-20 years. We already know that changes in HR tech over time can be understood in many ways, for example, through ‘rates of adoption’ (Marler and Parry, 2016; Poba-Nzaou et al., 2020). Questions of relevance are important to consider. Has the uptake of HR tech been universal? Through the prism of impact, or ‘degrees of automation’. Has the uptake of HR tech been competitive or transformational (Diaz-Fernandez et. al., 2017; Tansley et. al., 2014)? How do we better understand the impact of changes in HR’s function through tech innovation?

The second significant driver of change is Organisational. HR’s function is already a delicate one. It involves coercive and rhetorical enforcement of the employee-employer relationship with a view to protecting against the possibility of overt breaches and instances of vicarious liability, especially in the world of infrastructure finance. The foresight of any repudiation of a binding contract is a necessary function of HR in the modern workplace. Such rhetorical enforcement is indicative of a shift to the ‘human resource’ professional approach beyond the realm where formal procedures are merely followed, as opposed to a ‘personnel’ management approach, increasingly as large corporates seek to guard themselves against expensive litigation. Take repudiation as one such instance (Cabrelli and Zahn, 2012; Cabrelli and Zahn, 2013) or as in ‘Société Générale vs Raphael Geys (2012)’, where the ‘automatic’ and ‘elective’ theories of repudiation are annotated by the Rt. Hon. Justice, Lord Sumption.

In the postmodern literature on organisational change, the subject is often thought of as an ontology (Tsoukas and Chia, 2002). There are weak ontologies and strong ontologies of becoming in what Chia (1995) emphasises is a transient reality. But it is how the organisation is philosophically viewed that is of the essence. Surveillance, particularly ‘hierarchal surveillance’, has been noted by some HRM academics as an externality that is all too perceivable in modern HR (Kamoche and Newenham-Kahindi, 2012).

Finally, the third driver of change is what the TOP framework references as People. This is akin to shifts in the modes and practices of work (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004; Nwachukwu, 2016).

The TOP framework suggests that HR’s function is adoptive towards digitisation (Fernandez and Gallardo-Gallardo, 2021). However, is this sort of adoption ethical? In a series of qualitative interviews with over 40 respondents from HR, the evidence that one academic presents suggests that HR actively engages in what this blog post will refer to as the 3D’s of unethical HRM - distancing, depersonalising, and dissembling. The respondents achieved the 3D’s in their workplace relationships by neutralising any moral imputes to the role of HR (De Gama et. al., 2012). What does this tell us? Well, it corroborates the view that the rhetoric of digitisation is not always ethical (Legge, 2005). As such, concerns with workforce mobility (Bader et. al., 2023; Harzing et. al., 2020) and imbalances in cross-cultural talent identification (McDonnell et. al., 2023) as an inherent responsibility of the multi-stakeholder model have possibly led to more contested outcomes in the present day.

Aside from the ethicality of the changes I have highlighted in the TOP framework, research on the acquisition by HR professionals of new competencies coincides quite well with Zeno’s paradox. According to the interviews which inform Arthur Yueng’s rendition of the HR competency model (Yueng et. al., 1996), only 10-15% of HR professionals possess the necessary competencies for a transition into a new reinvented business function.

This blog post has shown how HR follows the pattern of Zeno’s paradox. Philosophical and rhetorical changes in HR’s function are an evolving, and multi-faceted concept but in a multi-stakeholder model, these changes are usually unaligned to more rapid changes in business strategy. Using a three-part framework, I have shown how driving factors in the form of the Parry and Bondarouk framework continue to affect the evolving role of HR in practice.

Practitioners should embrace the concept of change in HR’s function, but practice should be informed by evidence founded in relevant areas of empirical research. Developing strategies of competitive advantage with respect to wider operating models.

References

1.        Bader, B., Bucher, J. and Sarabi, A. (2023) “Female expatriates on the move? Gender diversity management in global mobility”, Human Resource Management Journal, [Preprint] – Available at https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12529

2.        Bondarouk, T., Parry, E. and Furtmueller, E. (2017) “Electronic HRM: four decades of research on adoption and consequences”, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 28(1), pp. 98-131 - Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2016.1245672

3.        Bowen, D.E. and Ostroff, C. (2004) “Understanding HRM–Firm Performance Linkages: The Role of the “Strength” of the HRM System”, The Academy of Management review, 29(2), pp. 203–221. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2004.12736076.

4.        Cabrelli, D. & Zahn, R. (2012) “The Elective and Automatic Theories of Termination at Common Law: Resolving the Conundrum?”, Industrial Law Journal (London). [Online] 41 (3), 346–357

5.        Cabrelli, D. & Zahn, R. (2013) “The Elective and Automatic Theories of Termination in the Common Law of the Contract of Employment: Conundrum Resolved?”, Modern Law Review. [Online] 76 (6), 1106–1119

6.        Cooke, F. L., Xiao, Q. and Xiao, M. (2020) “Extending the frontier of research on (strategic) human resources in China: A review of David Lepak and colleagues’ influence and future research direction”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 32(1), pp.183-224 - Available at https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2020.1803949

7.        Chia, R. (1995). From Modern to Postmodern Organizational Analysis. Organization Studies, 16(4), 579-604 – Available at https://doi.org/10.1177/017084069501600406

8.        De Gama, N., McKenna, S. and Peticca-Harris, A. (2012) “Ethics and HRM: Theoretical and Conceptual Analysis: An Alternative Approach to Ethical HRM Through the Discourse and Lived Experiences of HR Professionals”, Journal of Business Ethics, 111(1), pp. 97–145 - Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1479-z

9.        Diaz-Fernandez, M., Bornay-Barrachina, M. and Lopez-Cabrales, A. (2017) HRM practices and innovation performance: a panel-data approach. International Journal of Manpower. [Online] 38 (3), 354–372.

10.     Fernandez, V. & Gallardo-Gallardo, E. (2021) “Tackling the HR digitalization challenge: key factors and barriers to HR analytics adoption”. Competitiveness Review. [Online] 31 (1), 162–187

11.     Harzing, A., Shea . X. and Kohler, T. (2020) “How you see me, how you don’t: ethnic identity self-verification in interactions between local subsidiary employees and ethnically similar expatriates”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 31(19), pp. 2407-2433 - Available at https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2018.1448294

12.     Kamoche, K. and Newenham-Kahindi, A. (2012) “Knowledge appropriation and HRM: the MNC experience in Tanzania”, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23(14), pp. 2854-2873 - Available at https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.671507

13.     Kochan, T. A. and Barocci, T. A. (1995) ‘Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations: Text, Readings and Cases’, Scott Foresman, and Company

14.     Legge, Karen. (2005) ‘Human Resource Management : Rhetorics and Realities’, Anniversary ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan

15.     Marler, J. H. and Parry, E. (2016) “Human Resource Management, Strategic Involvement and e-HRM Technology”, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27(19), pp. 2233-2253 - Available at https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1091980

16.     McDonnell, A., Skuza, A., Jooss, S. and Scullion, H. (2023) “Tensions in talent identification: a multi-stakeholder perspective”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 34(6), pp. 1132-1156 - Available at https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2021.1976245

17.     Morrow, T. (2000) “Integrating human resource management and business strategy in the Northern Ireland clothing industry: A case of oil and water?”, IBAR, 21(1), pp. 131-146

18.     Nwachukwu, C. (2016) “Investigating the linkage between competitive strategy and human resource management practices in Nigeria medium-sized enterprises”, Liverpool John Moores University – Doctor of Philosophy - Available at http://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/4198/1/2016NwachukwuCelestinephd.pdf

19.     Nwachukwu, C. and Akwei, C. (2023) “An exploration of contextual factors affecting the nexus of competitive strategy and human resource management practices in Nigeria emerging market context”, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 34(16), pp. 3079-3122 - Available at https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2022.2104128

20.     Poba-Nzaou, P. et al. (2020) ‘Taxonomy of business value underlying motivations for e-HRM adoption: An empirical investigation based on HR processes’, Business process management journal, 26(6), pp. 1661–1685. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/BPMJ-06-2018-0150

21.     Shipton, H., Sparrow, P., Budhwar, P. and Brown, A. (2017) “HRM and innovation: Looking across levels”, Human Resource Management Journal, 27(2), pp. 246-263 - Available at https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12102

22.     Société Générale London Branch v. Raphael Geys (2012), UK Supreme Court, UKSC 63 - Available at https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2011-0110-judgment.pdf

23.     Tansley, C., Kirk, S., Williams, H., Barton, H., Parry, E. and Strohmeier, S. (2014) “Tipping the scales: ambidexterity practices on e-HRM projects”, Employee relations. [Online] 36 (4), 398–414.

24.     Tsoukas, H. and Chia, R. (2002) “On organizational becoming: rethinking organizational change”, Organization Science, 13(5), pp. 567+

25.     Walsh, C., Glendinning, S., Dawson, R. J., O’Brien, P., Heidrich, O., Rogers, Christopher, D. F., Bryson, J. R. and Purnell, P. (2022) “A Systems Framework for Infrastructure Business Models for Resilient and Sustainable Urban Areas”, Frontiers in Sustainable Cities (Open Access) 4(1) - Available at https://doi.org/10.3389/frsc.2022.825801

26.     Wesley C. S, (1980) ‘Space, Time, and Motion’, Minneapolis: the University of Minnesota Press – Available at https://personal.lse.ac.uk/ROBERT49/teaching/ph103/2013-2014/pdf/Salmon-Zeno.pdf

27.     Yueng, A., Woolcock, P., and Sullivan, J. (1995) “Identifying and developing HR competencies for the future: Keys to sustaining the transformation of HR functions”, The California Strategic Human Resource Partnership, 19(4), pp. 48-58

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This post was written by Alfred Anate Mayaki, a student on the MSc in HRM, and was inspired by the work of Peter Ackers in an International Journal of Human Resource Management article entitled: “Neo-pluralism as a theoretical framework for understanding HRM in sub-Saharan Africa”

Had a fascinating B812 tutorial today. Whilst attempting to form an opinion on the differences between Pluralism and Unitarism, guided by the direction provided by Dr Gill. I kept seeing the work of the late Alan Fox (an author who is undoubtedly a popularly cited authority in the field) on Pluralism.

An interesting read I found refers to a discussion that I would like to share. The e-book defines the term “Employment Relations” as possessing a context which internalises the conflict between institutional groups, (mainly managers and unions), which is typically considered distinct from the focus of what we refer to as “Human Resource Management (HRM)”. The latter is often viewed as a way of describing the critical perspectives on managerial business functions such as appraisal, recruitment, and interviewing.

So, as the title of the post alludes to the e-book introduces a term coined by Alan Fox referred to as “frames of reference”. We are then introduced to Pluralism in the following paragraphs. Fox’s 1966 paper: “A Note on Industrial-Relations Pluralism” is a good primer on this. 

As a peer mediator in my school days, I was certainly intrigued by the practical balance that may be achieved through approaches founded on unitarism, but inherently I was drawn toward the middle ground. I reluctantly chose to fence sit. Somewhere between Fox's unitarian perspective and Fox's radical perspective.

Neo-pluralism.

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This post was written by Alfred Anate Mayaki, a student on the MSc in HRM, and was inspired by the work of Peter Ackers in an International Journal of Human Resource Management article entitled: “Neo-pluralism as a theoretical framework for understanding HRM in sub-Saharan Africa”.

Short post today. 

There exists a gem of an article, that I suspect many are attuned to, so I will be very brief with my own interpretation. The article is by Dr. Carol Gill of Melbourne Business School. Dr. Gill’s article is interesting in that it establishes the argument that the HR profession has not really changed much in the last 25 – 30 years (which is a very long time horizon and somewhat of an odd claim to have made if not only due to advances we've all experienced in digital technology).

But, the more important fact is that the human resource profession seemingly, according to Gill, exudes itself through a pellucid vortex of insufficient academic oversight. Central to Gill’s position in this article is the view that current industry approaches (and more so, by extension, its rhetorical domain) are not siphoned enough to contemporary models of practice through informed research.

An interesting view.

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This post was written by Alfred Anate Mayaki, a student on the MSc in HRM, and was inspired by the work of Carol Gill in a Human Resource Management Review article entitled: “Don't know, don't care: An exploration of evidence-based knowledge and practice in human resource management”

Dr. Andrew Bryce, the author and research academic from the University of Sheffield - who I mentioned in a previous OU Blog post, sent me this email yesterday:

"Indeed shirking and presenteeism are two sides of the same coin. As my colleague Sarah Brown shows in her paper, the problem is that true health is not observed by the employer so it is difficult to know whether a worker is shirking or genuinely too ill to work. Likewise, they don't know whether the staff who do attend work are well enough to do the work effectively. This may be even more difficult when staff habitually work remotely. So the challenge to HR practitioners is to have incentives in place to encourage sick workers to stay at home and workers in good health to come in.

I can't say much in answer to your specific question as the policies and practices adopted by firms have not been the focus of my research. You may wish to look at another paper I have recently published with the same co-authors, looking at sickness absence. In the literature review, we highlight a number of studies that look at the effectiveness of different approaches and working conditions for reducing sickness absence. I hope this will help to guide your further reading on this subject."

Lots of ways to look at this...

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This post was written by Alfred Anate Mayaki, a student on the MSc in HRM, and was inspired by the work of Andrew M. Bryce, Jennifer Roberts, and Mark L. Bryan (2021) in a European Journal of Health Economics article entitled, “The effects of long-term health conditions on sickness absence in the UK"