Encyclopedia of

Electronic HRM

Edited by
Tanya Bondarouk and Sandra Fisher
ISBN 978-3-11-062899-9
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-063370-2
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-062998-9

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Contents
Sandra L. Fisher and Tanya Bondarouk
Introduction V

Part 1: Basics of e-HRM

Julio Canedo
Strategic Electronic Human Resource Management 3

Richard D. Johnson
Human Computer Interaction and HRIS 8

Stefan Strohmeier
HR Digitalisation Technologies 14

Sebastian Marin and Richard Landers

Gamification in e-HRM 20

Valentina Battista and Emma Parry

Social Media and Human Resource Management 27

Part 2: Context of e-HRM

Emma Parry and Hilla Peretz

Organizational Outcomes and e-HRM 35

Rita Bissola
Industry 4.0 and e-HRM 40

Huub Ruël
e-HRM goals, Types and Outcomes in e-HRM Innovation 47

Stefan Strohmeier
Algorithmic Decision Making in HRM 54
VI Contents

Part 3: Organizational Issues in e-HRM

Tanya Bondarouk
Implementation of e-HRM: Definitions and Theoretical Approaches 63

Sandra L. Fisher
Organisational Change in the Context of e-HRM 70

Guido Hertel, Sarah M. Meeßen, and Miriam Höddinghaus

Trust in the Context of e-HRM 76

Barbara Imperatori
Implications of e-HRM for the Role of Employees 82

Tanya Bondarouk
Employer Branding and Social Media 90

Anna B. Holm
Virtual HRM and Virtual Organizing 95

Rita Bissola
Design Thinking and Implications for Organizational Design 99

Part 4: Theoretical Viewpoints

Anna B. Holm
Institutional Theory Perspective 109

Alessandra Lazazzara and Eleanna Galanaki

Resource-Based View Perspective in e-HRM Research 117

Part 5: Social Issues of e-HRM

Jamie A. Gruman and Alan M. Saks

e-Socialization 125

Surinder Kahai
e-Leadership 131
 Contents VII

Stefan Strohmeier
Sustainable Electronic HRM 138

Sharna Wiblen
Talent Management and Digitalised Talent Management 144

Debora Jeske and Thomas S. Calvard

Risk Management in the Age of e-HRM 150

Michael E. Wasserman and Sandra L. Fisher

Sailing in Stormy Weather: Digitalization, Ethics and e-HRM 156

Debora Jeske
Introducing e-Internships 163

Part 6: Functional Areas of e-HRM

Andrea R. Neely and John L. Cotton

e-Mentoring 171

Anthony S. Boyce and Christine E. Boyce

Talent Identification in the Digital Age: Moving from Selection
to e-Selection 176

Stefan V. Dumlao, Anjelica M. Mendoza, and Stephanie C. Payne

Performance Monitoring in the 21st Century 182

Michael E. Wasserman and Sandra L. Fisher

e-Learning 188

Anna B. Holm
e-Recruiting 195

Stephanie C. Payne and Anjelica M. Mendoza

e-Performance Management 202

Sladjana Nørskov and John P. Ulhøi

The Use of Robots in Job Interviews 208
VIII Contents

Anna B. Holm
Applicant Tracking Systems 214

Christopher J. Hartwell and Regan Eggli

Social Media Screening in Employee Selection 220

Part 7: Serving Different Audiences

Emma Parry
Generations 231

Jeroen Meijerink
Gig Work and Online Labour Platforms’ Use of e-HRM 237

Miguel R. Olivas-Luján, M-Y. Yusliza, and Sergio Madero-Gómez

Emerging Markets and e-HRM 244

Jeroen Meijerink
HR Shared Services 251

Part 8: Technical Issues in e-HRM

Stefan Strohmeier
Big HR Data 259

Christine R. Scheu
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Assessment,
and HR Considerations 265

Elena M. Auer and Richard N. Landers

Creating Data-Driven HR Insights: Data Science in HRM 270

Daniel Shore
Cybersecurity Challenges in Protecting Human Resource Information
Systems 276

Janet H. Marler
HR/People Analytics 283
 Contents IX

Eleanna Galanaki and Alessandra Lazazzara

HR Metrics 288

Miguel R. Olivas-Luján
Blockchains in HRM 293

Authors 299

List of Tables 309

List of Figures 310

Index 311
Sandra L. Fisher and Tanya Bondarouk
Introduction
We have been working on this project for almost three years, and we are proud to offer
the Encyclopedia – a unique book about electronic Human Resource Management.
The world does not lack for HRM and technology books, podcasts, videos, and articles.
Hundreds of researchers and business leaders produce thousands of knowledge-items
about HRM and technology each year. But few dare to build bridges from the past his-
tory towards the future. That is the idea of this encyclopedia – with respect for history,
grounded in research, connected with practice, but built for questions to guide future
inquiries.
The field of electronic human resource management, or e-HRM, has become an
important interface between people and technology in organizations. As the impor-
tance of digital technologies in the management of people has increased, so has the
volume of information available about tools, processes, and theories for doing this
more effectively. Our concept for this encyclopedia was to offer a valuable compan-
ion for HR researchers, HR executives, PhD candidates and students wanting to find
concise definitions, summaries and debates about a plethora of terms within the e-
HRM field in one place. This volume includes state-of-the art contributions from
leading experts in the field, who also offer their views on the future research direc-
tions. You will find here more than one hundred research questions, that each on its
own can inspire a new PhD project! While there has been much discussion about
the definition of e-HRM and how it differs from related concepts such as human re-
source information systems (HRIS) and virtual HR (Florkowski, 2018), we treat e-
HRM inclusively in this encyclopedia, including a wide range of topics that touch on
this use of digital tools to manage people both now and in the future. An earlier en-
cyclopedia (Torres-Corronas & Arias-Olivas, 2008) explicitly tied together HRIS and
e-HRM, and this volume strives to provide an updated viewpoint on many of those
topics.

Brief History of e-HRM

The field of e-HRM has developed significantly over the past 20 years, becoming a
legitimate area of study and practice within broader human resource management.
One artifact of this development is the Sierra-Cedar industry survey, now in its
22nd year of tracking organisational-level adoption of HR technologies. Started in
1997 by the Hunter Group as a survey on HR self-service technologies, the survey
has grown substantially in both breadth of coverage and number of respondents
and has provided researchers and practitioners with an effective gauge of changes
in the field.

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110633702-202
XII Sandra L. Fisher and Tanya Bondarouk

The presence of the international conference on e-HRM is another indication of

growth and development in the field. International researchers in e-HRM started a
biannual conference series in 2006, allowing researchers to gather in a venue pro-
moting the exchange of the latest research findings in the field, mixing with busi-
ness leaders and consultants to ensure the connection with practice. Conference
locations have included the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Germany,
the United States, Italy, and Denmark. The conference started expanding beyond a
tight definition of e-HRM to include concepts of digital HRM in 2016, Industry 4.0 in
2018, and digitalized organizations and ecosystems in 2020. We also see many ses-
sions on e-HRM topics at mainstream international conferences in management
and I/O psychology, such as the Academy of Management Meetings, the Society for
Industrial/Organizational Psychology, and the European Association of Work and
Organizational Psychology.
There have been no fewer than ten special issues of peer reviewed journals
focusing on e-HRM research in the past 15 years (Bondarouk, Ruël & Parry, 2017),
starting with a special issue of Human Resource Management on e-HR in 2004.
These special issues have addressed topics such as value creation, workforce
management, e-HRM in a multinational or cross-national context, and the trans-
formation of the HR function. These special issues have helped to promote the devel-
opment of an emerging field, placing special attention on publication opportunities
for authors in related areas. Similarly, a number of edited books examining e-HRM
have been published throughout the years, some as an outgrowth of the international
e-HRM conferences (e.g., Bissola & Imperatori, 2019; Bondarouk, Ruël & Parry, 2017)
and others as part of a professional book series (e.g., Bondarouk, Ruël, & Looise,
2011; Gueutal & Stone, 2005). These books have helped move the field forward by
publishing accessible volumes of recent research, providing detailed information on
selected topics. We have also seen publication of textbooks on e-HRM, with
Kavanaugh, Thite and Johnson (2012) as an example of an early text blending HRIS
and HR practices, and Thite (2018) specifically addressing e-HRM. There has also
been development of academic study programs at multiple universities allowing stu-
dents to focus their studies on this intersection of HRM and technology. And, by
2020, there have been more than twenty PhD projects dedicated to a topic within e-
HRM.
With all of these developments, we believed it was time to assemble this ency-
clopedia to recognize and further promote formalization and institutionalization of
the academic field of e-HRM. Many of the contributors to this encyclopedia noted
that the science behind application of technology to HRM is lagging behind the
practice. This offers great opportunity to researchers to conduct research that will
test and evaluate the many ways in which e-HRM is already in use, making recom-
mendations for the effective and ethical application of technology to managing peo-
ple in organisations.
 Introduction XIII

Interdisciplinary and Diverse

One of our goals with this encyclopedia was to integrate contributions about e-HRM
from different disciplines like Information Systems, Computer Sciences, Design
Sciences, Decision Science, Organizational Behavior, Human Resource Management,
and Industrial/Organizational (Work) Psychology, demonstrating the interdisciplin-
ary nature of the research. This is reflected in the wide range of theories applied,
published works cited, and perspectives taken. The 42 different authors of the entries
are diverse in other respects as well. Given the practical nature of the topic we have a
mix of academic researchers and practitioners represented. The academic research-
ers are working in schools of business or management, and departments of psychol-
ogy, economics, industrial engineering, social and political science, management
information systems, and business development and technology. The practitioners
include both consultants and industry representatives. The authors also represent
the global nature of the e-HRM field, with authors from 14 different countries.

Overview of the Entries

There are 47 entries in the encyclopedia. Many of them represent specific systems
with which HR professionals or employees might interact, such as recruiting, selec-
tion, performance management, talent management, socialization, mentoring, and
e-learning. These systems have formed the backbone of e-HRM research and appli-
cation. Entries in this section address the foundational components of such func-
tional areas and look forward to how such systems are changing to leverage new
technologies and support emerging HR needs.
Other entries focus on specific theories underpinning some of the research.
These theoretical approaches include institutional theory, resource-based view of
the firm, and human computer interaction. Other key theories used in e-HRM re-
search, such as those related to trust, communication, person-organisation fit, and
leadership, are described in entries found in other sections of the encyclopedia.
The next section examines organizational level issues in the implementation of e-
HRM. Here authors consider the strategic nature of e-HRM and various organizational
goals for the use of e-HRM systems. One common framework looks at operational, rela-
tional, and transformational outcomes of e-HRM systems, with transformational
outcomes generally defined as those of a strategic nature. This has been a key de-
bate in the e-HRM literature since Marler and Fisher (2013) noted there was little
empirical evidence that e-HRM makes the HR function more strategic. Factors re-
lated to this debate and the overall contribution of e-HRM to organizational func-
tioning are discussed further in this section and will doubtless continue to be an
important point of discussion moving forward.
XIV Sandra L. Fisher and Tanya Bondarouk

Another group of entries addresses various contexts within which e-HRM is

used. This section includes entries on generational differences, emerging econo-
mies, the gig economy, and Industry 4.0. These entries examine ways in which the
specific context in which the technology is used offers both opportunities and limi-
tations for the application of e-HRM. For example, developments in the online gig
economy require development of new ways to manage workers through technology,
while Industry 4.0 challenges HRM to increase digitalization and support new char-
acteristics of work.
Entries in the next section address how e-HRM affects work that is performed
within the HR function, both what kind of work is performed and how it is accom-
plished. These entries address shared service centers, the role of employees in HR
work and how e-HRM facilitates co-creation, the use of HR metrics in driving and
assessing HR practices, and the role of HR analytics in the modern HR function.
Without a doubt, the role of HR professionals has changed significantly due to e-
HRM. These entries explore some of these changes and how the HR function can
continue to have a positive impact on organisations. For example, the use of data
and analytics is often viewed as one route to more strategic application of e-HRM,
and the authors in this section help identify key issues in this effort.
The next section focuses on underlying technological, structural and organiza-
tional issues with any e-HRM system such as trust, ethics, risk management, cyberse-
curity, organizational change, and legal constraints. Many of the individual entries in
other sections of the volume also mention ethical concerns. Rapidly changing law re-
garding the use and management of employee data creates challenges for employers
and consultants alike. Europe has had the strongest data protection regulations with
the GDPR but other countries are enhancing legal protections for employees in ways
that will likely impact use of HR data in coming years. Indeed, the 2020 implementa-
tion of new data privacy regulations in the California Consumer Protection Act also
governs the use of some employee data, requiring disclosure of how data will be
used. Other regulations govern the use of algorithms for employment decision mak-
ing. Issues of trust, risk management, and organizational change are intertwined as
employees decide how they feel about new technologies as part of their work lives
and act accordingly.
Another group of entries details how foundational technology concepts originat-
ing in other disciplines are applied to emerging e-HRM practices. Here authors de-
scribe and debate how data science, big data, algorithms, gamification, robots, social
media, blockchain and other concepts apply to e-HRM. HR researchers and practi-
tioners often see these concepts in the media and may draw some intuitive but inac-
curate conclusions about their application to HR practices. The entries in this section
clarify, for example, what data science entails and how it is related to HRM, and if we
really have Big Data in HR. Similarly, the entry on gamification clarifies how this
technique is different from games, and how it can be applied to recruiting, selection,
training, and performance management. The entry on digitalization technologies
 References XV

describes five core technologies (social, mobile, analytics, cloud, and internet of
things) and explains how all five, known as SMACIT, are included in the study of e-
HRM. All five of these technologies are also addressed in other entries.
One core challenge of developing a volume such as this is keeping up with the
rapid developments in technology, even between submission of the entries in 2019
and the actual publication of the book in 2020. Many of the entries specifically ad-
dress the evolution (and in some cases, revolution) of technologies in their area.
For example, the entry on applicant tracking systems (ATS) describes the gradual
evolution of these systems from a recruiting database system to a full-service re-
cruiting platform. Developments in augmented and virtual reality technologies af-
fect opportunities to develop new methods for e-learning and trainee assessment,
and advances in artificial intelligence are rapidly changing recruiting and selection
practices. We are pleased that authors were able to offer general principles and
frameworks underlying these technologies to assist the reader in better understand-
ing the current state but also to help accommodate further developments. In the
spirit of continuous development, each entry offers future research directions to
provide guidance for the field. The authors have also provided their recommenda-
tions for the most important readings for learning more about each topic. We hope
that all readers find the volume useful, whether you have been a part of the e-HRM
community for many years or are just now joining in the journey.

References

Bissola, R. & Imperatori, B. (Eds.) (2019), HRM 4.0 For Human-Centered Organizations (Advanced
Series in Management, Vol. 23), Emerald Publishing Limited
Bondarouk, T., Parry, E., & Furtmueller, E. (2017). Electronic HRM: four decades of research on
adoption and consequences. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 28(1),
98–131.
Bondarouk,T., Ruël, H. J. M. & Looise, J. C. (Eds.) (2011), Electronic HRM in Theory and Practice
(Advanced Series in Management, Vol 8)
Florkowski, G.W. (2018). HR Technology Systems: An evidence-based approach to construct
measurement. Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, 36, 197–239.
Gueutal, H., Stone, D. L., & Salas, E. (2005). The Brave New World of eHR: Human Resources in the
Digital Age: Wiley
Kavanagh, M.J., Thite, M. & Johnson, R. D. (Eds.) Human Resource Information Systems: Basics,
Applications & Directions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Marler, J., & Fisher, S.L. (2013). An evidence based review of e-HRM and strategic human resource
management. Human Resource Management Review, 23, 18–36.
Thite, M. (2018). E-HRM: Digital Approaches, Directions, and Applications. Routledge.
Torres-Corronas, T. & Arias-Olivas, M. (Eds.) (2008). Encyclopedia of Human Resources Information
Systems: Challenges in e-HRM. Hershey: IGI.