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Dana Minbaeva, Professor in Strategic and Global HRM, Department of Strategic Management and Globalization, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. Email: dm.smg@cbs.dk

Anthony Nyberg, Associate Professor, Darla Moore School of Management, University of South Carolina, USA. Email: anthony.nyberg@moore.sc.edu

Participants should have basic knowledge about HRM, organizational behavior and strategy.

The aim of this course is to offer advanced insights related to the recent developments in the area of Strategic HRM, with a specific focus on multi-level and micro-foundations in SHRM research.

The widespread popularity of the strategic human resource management (SHRM) field rests in large part on the idea that when properly designed and implemented, a system of HRM practices can support business strategy and thereby create value for the firm (Wright, Dunford and Snell, 2001). This notion, that resources internal to the firm impact a firm’s competitive advantage (i.e., the resource-based view), represented an important departure from traditional strategy literature which was primarily focused on the impact of external factors on a firm’s competitive advantage.  The allure of SHRM research has been in its ability to link systems for managing people and organizational performance. Nonetheless, the field has recently been criticized for lacking sufficient theoretical perspectives for explicating the role that individuals actually play in this relationship.

This course will focus on the following directions that have been identified as important for improving the contribution of SHRM research. First, the field has been limited in its understanding of the process through which HRM creates value for organizations – the proverbial “black box” of SHRM research (Becker & Gerhart, 1996; Becker & Huselid, 2006; Gerhart & Milkovich, 1992). Until these intervening theoretical processes are better understood, we cannot with confidence infer that SHRM strategies cause organization performance. That limits the both the scholarly value and the policy relevance of the field. Second, and related, Wright and Boswell (2002) argued for the need to integrate micro and macro HRM research.  As they describe it, micro HRM research focuses on the impact of HR practices on individuals, while macro HRM research focuses on the impact of HR practices on organizational-level outcomes while assuming uniformity in the effects of HRM practices within organizations. Unfortunately, these two streams of research have remained largely distinct to the detriment of both.  More recently, a body of work referred to as “strategic human capital” has sought to determine the degree to which the acquisition and retention of human capital, especially firm-specific human capital, may be able to explain firm differences in performance. A major part of this body of work involves theory and evidence on the consequences of collective (employee) turnover on firm performance. Third, there has been a call to better consider intra-firm variability of HR systems for managing specific groups of employees according to the strategic value and uniqueness of their human capital (Lepak & Snell, 1999, 2002). Fourth, a better understanding of the role of context and the extent to which it is a boundary condition on the SHRM-organizational performance relationship.  One important potential contextual variable is country and its specific attributes (e.g., national culture). Fifth, in engaging the workforce, especially in a workplace that increasingly values employee autonomy, self-direction, and creativity, it is important to understand how employees are motivated (or possibly, de-motivated). In this vein, it is helpful to look at key aspects of the literature on intrinsic motivation and compensation.

During this course, participants will be exposed to a multitude of ways in which the SHRM field needs to reexamine its assumptions, and in particular will focus on models that explicate how individual action and interaction with others influence the way HRM impacts individual, unit, and organizational outcomes. We will also critically reflect upon the “claims and evidence” dominating SHRM field. In doing so, we will build upon theories and methods from other fields (e.g., international business, sociology, psychology, social networks, and economics).  We will spend one session as a “research incubator” by having students present original ideas about how to incorporate multi-level issues in their SHRM research; as a group, we will then brainstorm about and refine the ideas so that they become actionable research ideas.  We will conclude with a tutorial on how to publish the advanced SHRM research.    

Lectures, group brainstorming, student presentations, case discussions, literature critiques.

Day 1

Introduction. DM & AN

Session 1 (morning). Strategic HRM, Strategic Human Capital and Performance: (how many) black boxes? DM & AN

• Overview of studies on HRM, Strategic Human Capital, and Performance
• Research challenges. Table-talk and follow up
• The Need for Micro-Foundations in SHRM Research

Session 2 (afternoon). Collective Turnover Consequences. AN

Organizational differences: how and why? AN

• Constraint and Discretion
• Attraction-Selection-Attrition

Day 2

Session 3 (morning). Claims and evidence: Intrinsic motivation, Pay for Performance. AN

• Motivation: Intrinsic and Extrinsic
• Pay for Performance (Incentives) and Motivation

Session 4 (afternoon). Research Incubator DM & AN

• Student presentation of original research ideas & group critique and brainstorming

Day 3

Session 5 (morning). Claims and evidence: Country differences. AN

• Constraint and Discretion
• Effect Size and Policy Claims

Session 6 (afternoon). Pushing HR out of its “natural comfort zone”. DM + AN

• Publishing advanced SHRM research
• Observations, learnings, and questions

Closing and evaluation. DM&AN

There is no exam at the end of the course. However, to obtain the course certificates the participants are expected to show high level of preparation and class participation.