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This paper aims to examine the influence of the emotional intelligence (EI) of the human resources (HR) decision-maker on firm performance in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as the possible mediating role of the use of a system of HR practices in that relationship.

The research involves a sample of 157 managers responsible for HR in SMEs. SMEs are examined because in these firms, decisions are not usually adopted on a collegiate basis. It makes these firms an ideal context for studying the relationship between HR decision-maker’s EI and firm performance.

Results show that the HR decision-maker’s EI determines firm performance in terms of generation of valuable HR and financial outcomes. They also confirm the mediating role of the system of HR practices in that relationship.

This research suggests that an adequate understanding of the importance of EI can guide efforts to boost SMEs competitiveness. Thus, as SMEs are an important part of the business fabric in the majority of developed economies, the implications of this study are significant.

Findings in this research suggest that the workplace is not managed exclusively on a cognitive basis since emotional competences may play an important role in the HR management and SMEs’ performance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of the emotional intelligence (EI) of the person in charge of making human resource management (HRM) decisions on the adoption of high-performance human resource (HR) practices in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

This study takes evidences from 157 HR decision makers in SMEs who autonomously make the decisions in the HR area and were responsible for the HR practices in their firm. The authors used multiple linear regression analysis to test the hypotheses.

Results show that both the EI and the different EI competencies of which it is comprised affect the adoption of various HR practices. Thus, the main theoretical contribution of this work stems from the incorporation of a psychological variable (EI) as an antecedent of HRM. Managers of the SME will find guidance about which emotional competencies are the most important for them to be more successful in their roles and for improving HRM.

First, the sample of firms the authors studied is limited to a specific geographic area in one country – Spain (Canary Islands) – that will necessarily limit generalisation of the results obtained to other populations of SMEs. Researchers should replicate the current model in other geographic areas. Second, and with regard the methodology, researchers could explore other tools to measure EI and emotional competencies. It would be interesting to measure this construct using qualitative analytical techniques, with 360 – or 180 – degree tools. Finally, the current study is cross-sectional in nature, which limits our ability to draw causal inferences from the data. This cross-sectional design prevents us, for example, from analysing EI’s influence on the continued development of high-performance HR practices over time. Future research using longitudinal methodologies to study these variables could provide additional advances in this area. This work makes important contributions to both the literature and the business world. With regard to the theoretical implications, results confirm that EI as a whole, as well as in terms of its specific emotional competencies, affects the decision making related to the adoption of high-performance HR practices, which is known to contribute to the organisational performance.

With regard its practical implications, SMEs’ owners-managers and HR practitioners may find our results and conclusions interesting. Indeed, recommendations in business management have often been accompanied by new approaches in HRM (Kent, 2005), as this study proposes. In particular, managers will find evidence of how a decision-maker’s higher EI propitiates the adoption of high-performance HR practices, thus being able to improve HRM in their SMEs. Moreover, managers will obtain guidance on which emotional competencies are the most important for adopting each HR practice, and so find greater success in their HRM roles. SMEs could organise programmes to develop the HR decision-maker’s emotional competencies, as large firms do for their executives.

Thus, the main theoretical contribution of this work stems from the incorporation of a psychological variable (EI) as an antecedent of HRM. Managers of the SME will find guidance about which emotional competencies are the most important for them to be more successful in their roles and for improving HRM.

While previous human resources management (HRM) studies have focused on human resources (HR) practices to explain the strategic HRM-performance link, organizational communication is studied as a key HRM process and an alternative perspective explains the factors influencing communication implementation and subsequently internal HRM system consistency. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

HR decision makers’ human capital is examined as a determinant of communication implementation by applying the partial least squares approach to a sample of 120 Spanish HR managers.

The results confirm the relevance of HR decision makers’ cognitive skills, showing that communication of HRM strategy does not appear to require a particular cognitive approach but rather a balance of creative and rational skills. Additionally, the findings suggest that appropriate communication implementation improves the internal consistency of the HRM system by creating coherent HR messages about the implemented practices.

This study presents three main contributions: analyzing conditions that promote more appropriate communication implementation; providing a process perspective instead of the traditional content focus to explain HRM, and deepening the ways in which communication affects the internal consistency of the HRM system.

This work examines the intersection between traditional human resource management and the novel employment arrangements of the expanding gig economy. While there is a substantial multidisciplinary literature on the digital platform labor phenomenon, it has been largely centered on the experiences of gig workers. As digital labor platforms continue to grow and specialize, more managers, executives, and human resource practitioners will need to make decisions about whether and how to utilize gig workers. Here the authors explore and interrogate the unique features of human resource management (HRM) activities in the context of digital labor platforms. The authors discuss challenges and opportunities regarding (1) HRM in organizations that outsource labor needs to external labor platforms, (2) HRM functions within digital labor platform firms, and (3) HRM policies and practices for organizations that develop their own spin-off digital labor platform. To foster a more nuanced understanding of work in the gig economy, the authors identify common themes across these contexts, highlight knowledge gaps, offer recommendations for future research, and outline pathways for collecting empirical data on HRM in the gig economy.

The purpose of this study is to provide deeper and broader insights into human resource outsourcing (HRO) trends and practices specific to the Malaysian context.

Data were collected from HR managers through a questionnaire-based survey, using convenient sampling with random selection.

HRO practices were found to have evolved into second-generation outsourcing, with considerable potential to grow further in the future. Firm size and sector had little or no effect on the degree of HRO. Both cost benefits and resourced-based benefits were key drivers of HRO decisions, with a majority of the firms reporting having achieved these benefits equally and positively. Most of the functions outsourced were traditional-transactional HR functions. Slightly more than half of the HRO decisions were made by top management without the involvement of HR managers. More than half of the firms surveyed intended to do more outsourcing in the near future (i.e. within the next two to five years), including firms that had previously experienced HRO failure.

While convenience sampling limits the generalisability of the findings, it is suitable for a study like this, especially as there is no pre-established list of firms outsourcing HR available in Malaysia. The study did not cover trends in either HR shared services or insourcing – either of which could potentially affect future HRO trends in the future. The findings also serve as a warning to future HRO researchers about the importance of contextual knowledge to strengthen the validity of their findings.

The findings provide both practitioners and service providers with insights into HRO practices and trends in Malaysia, which are comprehensively discussed in the paper.

This paper presents a broad, yet up-to-date, overview of HRO practices and trends specific to the Malaysian context. It covers aspects and details of HRO not explored or explicitly discussed before.

As the implementation and acceptance of utility analyses are afflicted by several problems, this paper sets out to describe how to circumvent these problems by implementing a new framework for utility analysis.

The HC BRidge™ model, developed by Boudreau and Ramstad, was implemented to determine the utility of assessment centers within a call center company.

The results demonstrate the utility of the assessment centers and the usefulness of the HC BRidge™ model.

Future research should clarify under which conditions human resource specialists can communicate effectively and reach an optimal decision within the HC BRidge™ model of utility analysis.

It is highlighted how human resource experts can assist in using utility analyses (as a component of HR strategy) for decision‐making processes concerning limited organizational resources.

To demonstrate the usefulness and value of the HC BRidge™ model for both researchers and practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest that in the arena of human capital, risk-mitigation may overshadow risk-optimized decisions, and show how a more balanced approach can be achieved by understanding and applying frameworks from behavioral decision theory, as well as framing human capital risk using tools and frameworks that have a long history in other management arenas, such as finance.

Review risk-optimization frameworks in human resource and general management, distill key connections, suggest ways to enhance risk optimization for human capital, and offer suggestions for future research and practice.

For human capital, risk-mitigation may overshadow risk-optimization, a balanced approach can be achieved by applying behavioral decision theory and by using frameworks from other management arenas, such as finance.

Organizations must acknowledge and skillfully manage the connections between human capital and competitive strategy in this emerging arena of human capital risk, or they will miss key strategic opportunities.

Attention to human capital risk has largely emphasized minimizing or controlling unwanted outcomes, but the paper proposes that risk-optimization requires balanced attention to risk-taking as well.

This study aims to determine the influence of candidate employees' social media accounts (SMAs) on human resource (HR) professionals' hiring decisions as a job application reference in the tourism industry.

Using a qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted in tourism businesses, such as hotels, travel agencies, restaurants, bars, and ground-handling service companies. In-depth, open-ended interviews with 16 questions were conducted to gather data face to face between October 15 and December 20, 2021, with 38 HR professionals. The research questions were analyzed using thematic analysis and discussed under three main themes.

The findings of this study showed that HR managers in the tourism industry generally prefer to examine candidates' SMAs rather than traditional references because they can quickly and cheaply screen many applicants.

Social media (SM) is increasingly used as a crucial channel in recruitment within organizations. This paper contributes by filling a gap in HR management, which empirical studies on the influence of job applicant's SMAs on recruiters' hiring decisions have been limited so far.

With the advent of technology and science, the business environment will keep changing very fast. Today, Information Technology (IT) is used in almost all business applications. The most important improvements are being realized at the management side since IT is fully supporting decision-making processes now. Human Resources Management (HRM) is being affected by IT such as web-based technologies and intelligent systems and these systems make HRM much more effective. Today’s HRM-related software do not deal with just payrolls, they also include recruiting and record-keeping, training and performance appraisal which have transitioned HRM from task-oriented to people-oriented. Today, Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) and electronic HRM (e-HRM) are being utilized by many organizations all over the world and play a strategic role in decision-making processes for effective and efficient HRM. This study investigates the recent literature on HRIS, e-HRM and Decision Support Systems in HRM to identify the improvements and debates on contemporary Human Resources Management.

A strong HRM system (encompassing the dimensions of distinctiveness, consistency and consensus) facilitates a collective interpretation of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices in a common direction, and consequently, a conjoint response by employees. The purpose of this paper is two fold: first to argue that those dimensions have a direct impact on the reaction of employees (organisational citizenship behaviour, OCB and intention to remain, IR); and second, the authors propose that these dimensions are not independent, but rather can interact in such a way that consensus impacts on the consistency of an HRM system, and consistency mediates the relationship between consensus and OCB and IR.

The authors surveyed HR managers and employees from a sample of 102 Spanish hotels. Specifically, HR managers were asked to complete a questionnaire assessing the dimensions of HRM strength, and employees completed a different questionnaire reporting their levels of OCB and IR. The authors examined the reliability and validity of measures by means of Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Finally, structural equations models were applied to test direct effects and mediating hypotheses.

As an initial finding, the authors obtained two dimensions of HRM strength: consistency and a new factor, which is a combination of distinctiveness and consensus, labelled the “Reputation” of the HRM system. A second result is that such the reputation of the HRM system positively affects OCB and IR. Third, consistency mediates in the relationships between the reputation of the HRM system and OCB and IR.

Although the authors are aware of the limitations of our paper, regarding the cross-sectional data design and the assessment of HR strength by managers, the authors believe that the results highlight the importance of HRM system strength, since it affects individual outcomes.

One of the valuable contributions made by this paper is that the authors obtained two dimensions for HRM strength instead of the three proposed by Bowen and Ostroff (2004): consistency and reputation (as a combination of distinctiveness and consensus). The authors explain that the new dimension is related to the concept of employer branding, emphasising HRM system’s internal image, facilitating common expectations that guide employees towards the desired responses. Second, Reputation impacts Consistency, improving employees’ OCB and IR; hence, the dimensions of HRM system strength are not independent, but they are better able to interact in order to affect employee outcomes.