To read this content please select one of the options below:

Augmenting a Profession: How Data Analytics is Transforming Human Resource Management

Georg Loscher (Bundeswehr University Munich, Germany)
Verena Bader (Bundeswehr University Munich, Germany)

Digital Transformation and Institutional Theory

ISBN: 978-1-80262-222-5, eISBN: 978-1-80262-221-8

Publication date: 23 September 2022

Abstract

In this paper, we explore the effects of emerging digital technologies on professionalization within organizations. Specifically, we examine how the emergence of data analytics as a new cross-functional profession rooted in new digital technologies is challenging human resources (HR) as an established organizational profession. Our qualitative study reveals how rhetorical work and material work have established a symbiosis between data science and HR. Rather than leading to de-professionalization, new technologies are enabling HR practices to be augmented and new actors to be integrated into the professionalization project, thereby elevating the status of HR. These findings contribute to the literature on the role of technology in institutional theory and its influences on the professionalization.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

We want to thank the blind reviewer for the feedback and the editors Danielle Logue, Thomas Gegenhuber, Bob (CR) Hinings and Michael Barrett for their guidance. Moreover, we are thankful to the participants from the EGOS 2020 Sub-theme “Digital Technologies and Institutional Theory: Opportunities and Challenges” for feedback on earlier versions of the paper.

Citation

Loscher, G. and Bader, V. (2022), "Augmenting a Profession: How Data Analytics is Transforming Human Resource Management", Gegenhuber, T., Logue, D., Hinings, C.R.(B). and Barrett, M. (Ed.) Digital Transformation and Institutional Theory (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 83), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 87-110. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20220000083004

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022 Georg Loscher and Verena Bader