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This paper seeks to examine the practice of human resource management (HRM) in the UK voluntary sector. In recent years many voluntary sector organisations have experienced a changing context, where they have become increasingly involved in contracting for the provision of publicly funded services. This paper examines the suggestion made by a number of commentators that as a result the government has exercised influence over the way in which human resources are managed in this sector.

The paper uses data from the Workplace Employment Relations Survey 2004 (WERS 2004) to examine HRM practice in the voluntary sector and compares this with the public and private sectors.

The findings show that most voluntary sector organisations have adopted performance‐oriented HR practices, communication and involvement schemes, and welfare‐oriented practices. This suggests a departure from the relatively unsophisticated HRM that has traditionally been found in the voluntary sector and which may be as a result of the influence of government on HRM standards in the sector.

Future research, which adopts a longitudinal approach, would allow the impact of government influence on HRM practices in the voluntary sector to be examined in more depth.

This paper represents a rare examination of HRM practice across a wide range of voluntary sector organisations and provides insight into the potential influence of government on HRM in the sector.

Based on generational theory, this research studies the preferences of French young graduates from Generation Y for job and organizational attributes of a future employer. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate on the inter- vs intragenerational differences and discusses the common stereotype of an intragroup homogeneity within the Generation Y.

Reviewing generation and job search literature, the paper update graduates’ preferences for job and organizational attributes in their initial job search by using conjoint analysis, a rarely used methodology in human resource management (HRM). To test the intragroup homogeneity and to overcome methodological difficulties inherent in examining differences within a generational cohort, the paper operationalized a homogeneous sample (n=592) composed of people of the same age, career stage, cohort and nationality.

The authors demonstrate that, even if on the whole young graduates from Generation Y prefer job security and a relaxed work atmosphere, their preferences are heterogeneous.

This research leads to discuss the relevance of the concept of Generation Y for recruitment. Additional research is needed to improve the external validity of this study which must be reproduced in other contexts and with different populations.

The results provide useful information to assist HR managers and recruitment specialists in improving the efficiency of the recruitment process and in considering the relevant segmentation criteria for recruitment.

Using an original methodology, conjoint analysis, this paper focusses on the heterogeneity of Generation Y and its consequences in terms of HRM.

Although a need for innovative approaches to the strategic management of human resources (HR) has been identified, many firms continue to rely solely on their HR information systems instead of adapting to the digital consumer with innovative tools and digital HR management (d-HRM). This research aims to evaluate critically the degree of digital innovation of HR practices in the Irish hotel industry.

For this qualitative study, a total of 10 semi-structured interviews were conducted with key personnel at both corporate and property level HR in the two largest Irish hotel groups.

Findings show an overall lack of technological innovation and most of the principal HR activities are digitalised to a very limited extent. In addition, the perception of the degree of digitalisation varies significantly between the managers in both organisations.

In order to attract digital natives and to increase their competitiveness within the sector, Irish hotel corporations will need to invest significantly in innovation within their HR departments to capitalise on the strategic and operational advantages of d-HRM. Thus, a more strategic approach towards HR innovation is needed.

This chapter operationalises the concept of HR innovation in the context of the hotel industry; it analyses the key HR activities in hotel operations with regard to the extent to which they are digitalised; and it develops a model of HR digitalisation that can be applied to the hotel and other industries. This research, therefore, contributes to the existing body of knowledge on HR innovation with a specific focus on the hotel industry.

As e-HRM systems move into the ‘smart’ technology realm, expectations and capabilities for both the automational and informational features of e-HRM systems are increasing. This chapter uses the well-established DeLone and McLean (D&M) model from the information systems literature to analyze how a smart workforce management system can create value for an organization.

The chapter is based on an exploratory case study conducted with a North American industrial products firm. We review three systems-level predictors of success from the D&M model (system quality, information quality, and service quality) and evaluate the company’s systems on these attributes.

The company’s e-HRM systems fall short on the information quality dimension, which limits potential for overall system success related to smart workforce management.

The e-HRM literature focuses on individual-level factors of system success, while the D&M model uses more macro factors. Blending these may help researchers and practitioners develop a more complete view of e-HRM systems. Conclusions from this chapter are limited due to the use of a single, exploratory case study.

Companies must pay attention to all three predictors of system quality when developing smart workforce management systems. In particular, implementation of a data governance program could help companies improve information quality of their systems.

This chapter adds to the literature on smart workforce management by using a model from the information systems literature and a practical example to explore how such a system could add value.

Little is known about actual organisational experiences and challenges with using e-HRM. The focus of this chapter is on the challenges that Australian HR professionals face in using e-HRM and achieving e-HRM outputs.

Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with five HR professionals in different Australian organisations. Content analysis was applied to analyse the transcribed interviews.

Potential of e-HRM to bring efficiency, access to HR data, reporting, as well as contributions to the overall business strategy are thwarted by three groups of e-HRM challenges that HR professionals experience: e-HRM technical issues, HR issues, and e-HRM development issues.

Findings are based on the five interviews with HR professionals in Australian organisations only. Line managers, employees, and managers from other business functions as well as small businesses have not been included in the research sample.

By addressing the e-HRM challenges, HR professionals can achieve e-HRM benefits and enhance their contribution to the overall business.

A major contribution is to show that the HRM literature barely considers the e-HRM challenges facing HR professionals. Another contribution is to provide an understanding of e-HRM challenges in the Australian context.

Up to now, there has been little research on the impact of the external environment on recruitment practices of organizations, and in part it lags behind practice. The purpose of this paper is to rectify this by studying recent changes in recruitment practices of Danish organizations and the adoption of e-recruitment from a macro organizational perspective.

The study employs new institutional theory as a theoretical lens in order to understand how external pressures impact upon recruitment professionals and their practices. The empirical part is based on interpretive methods and the inductive analysis of data. The data were collected from a number of sources, such as exploratory interviews, observations, web sites, and other secondary material from 2008 to 2013.

The findings indicate that recruitment practices are strongly influenced by changes stemming from functional and social pressures of the wider society, such as the labour market and the penetration of the internet into Danish society. That is reflected in the widespread use of digital HRM in general, and e-recruitment in particular. The study concludes that the recruitment field has transformed and reviewed its practices to a great extent due to the changes in how individuals search for employment and expect to be hired.

The empirical part of this study is limited to Denmark, and its economic, social, and cultural domains, yet the research design can be applied elsewhere.

The paper contributes to a better understanding of HRM in context, the pressures and mechanisms for adoption of new recruitment practices, and more specifically the rationale for adopting e-recruitment practices. Additionally, it offers a novel research framework for future research on recruitment from the neoinstitutional perspective.

This chapter examines the adoption of online recruitment — both corporate websites and commercial jobs boards — within the United Kingdom and the possible reasons behind its adoption. The chapter also reports on the development of a structured model explaining the factors that may affect an employer's decision of whether or not to adopt online recruitment methods, using Rogers (2003) diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory as a framework. The chapter draws conclusions as to why organizations adopt online recruitment, as well as discussing the use of DOI theory for the study of e-HRM in general.