Human Resource Management: Annotated Bibliography

Statement of Topic

Human Resources Management has been a recognized field for many years, but it has often lacked the credibility of other management fields because its contributions have classically been difficult to quantify.  In recent years, a push has been made to form metrics for Strategic Human Resources Management.  If the contribution of SHRM can be measured, it can be incorporated directly into the strategic level of overall business management and HR managers can achieve the same influence and prestige as the managers of other departments.

Beatty, R. W., Huselid, M. A., & Schneier, C. E. (2003). New HR metrics: Scoring on the business scorecard. Organizational Dynamics, 32(2), 107-121. Retrieved from http://molar.crb.ucp.pt/cursos/2%C2%BA%20Ciclo%20-%20Mestrados/Gest%C3%A3o/2007-09/DGRH/Papers/Beaty_Huselid_Schneier_rhscorecard%20e%20alinhamento%20das%20pr%C3%A1ticas.pdf

R.W. Beatty, PhD., has published multiple books and over a hundred articles on the subject of human resource management.  He holds a faculty position at both Rutgers University and the University of Michigan.  This article is a brief but comprehensive description of HR’s role in business in recent history.  It focuses on ways that HR managers can contribute strategically to their business organizations.  To this end, Beatty develops a scorecard metric and describes how that scorecard should be combined with a business’ overall scorecard.  There are several examples of HR metrics in this article, one of which is, “HR practices can be assessed against ‘best practices,’ or benchmarking.  What can the HR function learn from other firms?  How well is it doing relative to others in instituting policy changes” (Beatty, 2003, p. 111)?

Becker, B. E., & Huselid, M. A. (2006). Strategic human resources management: Where do we go from here? Journal of Management, 32(6), 898-925. 

B. E. Becker, Ph.D., teaches and does research in the field of SHRM.  He is currently a human resources professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo in the School of Management.  This article discusses the challenges of integrating Human Resources and overall business management strategy.  It discusses this in terms of the resource-based view (RBV).  It also suggests that a dynamic HR structure within the larger business structure is the most effective way to implement HR metrics into the overall strategy.  This focus on differentiation is summarized, “If the HR architecture is fitted to the strategic business process, rather than the more generic positioning strategy, it also follows that there will be a need for greater differentiation of HR architecture(s) within the firm” (Becker, 2006, p. 904).

Birkman. (2008, January 1). HR measurement and metrics: Gaining HR a seat at the strategy table. Birkman. Retrieved from www.birkman.com/news/HRMeasAndMetrics020108.pdf

Birkman International, Inc. is a company founded by Roger W. Birkman, Ph.D.  It has a proprietary personality assessment method which it markets to human resource departments all over the world.  This article discusses the ways that metrics have previously been employed by HR departments and it suggests ways that they could be more effectively used to empower HR managers within their respective business structures.  An example of the discrepancies between HR metrics and other business metrics discussed in the article is, “Our survey indicates that the lack of an HR-specific enterprise data-collection and reporting tool correlates with a low level of measurement and metric development and utilization” (Birkman, 2008, p. 2).

Boudreau, J. W., & Ramstad, P. M. (1998, April 1). Human resource metrics: Can measures be strategic. Cornell University. Retrieved from digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu

Dr. J. W. Boudreau is a world-renowned researcher of Strategic Human Resource Management methods and applications.  This article takes for granted that SHRM metrics exist, but argues that they lack application.  Boudreau suggests that the information produced by HR metrics needs to be strategically employed for it to matter to the science practice of SHRM.  An example of the link between SHRM and metrics methods is, “in order to test SHRM propositions, operational measures of the variables must be developed.  Less obvious are the underlying assumptions and inferences behind the measures” (Boudreau, 1998, p. 5).

Colbert, B. A. (2004). The complex resource-based view: implications for theory and practice in strategic human resource management. Academy of Management Review, 29(3), 341-358. Retrieved from https://www.wlu.ca/documents/26201/Colbert_2004_-_AMR_-_Complex_RBV.pdf

B. A. Colbert is a strategic management Ph.D. student at the Schulich School of Business.  Before joining the E. K. Haub Program in Business and Sustainability, he worked in the Canadian steel industry for twenty years.  This article focuses on the integration of SHRM with the resource-based view (RBV).  It operates from the understanding that while there are metric data regarding SHRM, it is poorly implemented.  It then presents a framework for implementing metric data into HR strategy.  Since the RBV is the central point of this paper, it is the most useful contribution by this article to a discussion about HR metrics, “The RBV states that a firm develops competitive advantage by not only acquiring but also developing, combining, and effectively deploying its physical, human, and organizational resources in ways that add unique value and are difficult for competitors to imitate” (Colber, 2004, p. 343).

Hesketh, A., & Fleetwood, S. (2006). Beyond measuring the human resources management-organizational performance link: Applying critical realist meta-theory. The organization, 13(5), 677-699. Retrieved from the SAGEPub database.

A. Hesketh is a Human Resources professor at Lancaster University’s Management School.  He has been published multiple times and he is Director of LU’s Centre for Performance-Led HR.  This article argues against reliance on metrics in Human Resources Management.  It presents evidence that existing use of metrics is poorly developed and based on faulty methods and that a ‘critical realist’ approach is more practical.  Its comprehensive purpose is, “Although the ‘scientific’ approach, with its commitment to empirical research techniques, might be a useful starting point for understanding the HRM-[Perfomance] link, it is currently treated as the end game.  We suggest that critical realism, by offering a more fruitful meta-theory, can play a significant part in developing an understanding to the causal role played by HR in organizational performance” (Hesketh, 2006, p. 694).

Lawler III, E. E., Levenson, A., & Boudreau, J. W. (2004, May 1). HR metrics and analytics - uses and impacts. Center for Effective Organizations. Retrieved from classic.marshall.usc.edu/assets/048/9984.pdf

E. E. Lawler III has been a Professor in the Marshall School of Business at USC since 1978.  He is also the founder and director of the Center for Effective Organizations.  This article discusses the ways that data is gathered by HR departments and the ways that it fails to employ that data strategically. For example, in mismanaging employee benefits. It also discusses examples of HR organizations that do employ their metric data and how much more they participate in forming the overall business strategy.  A summary of the article’s scope is, “In order for HR metrics to drive change, the right analyses need to be done.  The wrong analyses can mislead” (Lawler, 2004, p. 12).

Walker, G., & MacDonald, J. R. (2001). Designing and implementing an HR scorecard. Human Resource Management, 40(4), 365-377. Retrieved from http://www.davidmanurung.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/1designing-hr-scorecard.pdf

G. Walker has a history of developing human capital in corporate environments.  Previously he lead the development of Verizon’s HR Balances Scorecard and he is currently at IBM as the Director of Corporate Learning.  This source is the project report for the HR Balanced Scorecard.  It describes a metric for measuring and tracking human capital factors which can then be used to inform overall business strategy and apply it where it will be most effective.  It provides a specific example of HR metrics in action and reinforces the same concern with implementation that most other sources agree is the problem with HR metrics, “Communicating the HR Scorecard across the HR organization and the business was critical aspect of successful implementation (sic)” (Walker, 2001, p. 373).