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The purpose of this study is to explore e-HRM in MNC setting from various stakeholder´s perspectives. The chapter aims to understand the motives behind the implementation of e-HRM in an MNC. Second, the chapter studies the impacts e-HRM has on various stakeholders and finally aims to deliver understanding of the concept of strategic e-HRM in an MNC.

The study follows a qualitative case study method and the interviewees represented three groups: top management, HR professionals, and line managers.

Main findings suggest that the implementation was motivated by issues related to standardization and overall introduction of a strategic way of working. As an impact of e-HRM implementation, the control of subsidiaries became easier; external and internal transparency and HR image improved; HR operations gained efficiency; and the possibility for “fact based decision making” enabled strategic e-HRM realization for some stakeholders, with the exception of line managers who were considerably more skeptical about issues related to strategic e-HRM.

The issues of change management and system training should be transparent. The strategic benefits could be realized for the line managers and operational HR by discussing how e-HRM impacts their work and roles and how they contribute to achieving the business targets.

The chapter highlights the need for communication in all levels of MNC, and the needs to update e-HRM regularly and taking equally into account various stakeholder’s perspectives.

We pioneer a multilevel perspective of e-HRM implementation and impact in an MNC setting and improve the understanding of taking account various stakeholder’s views when aiming for strategic e-HRM partnerships.

There is currently a proliferation of digital analytics and machine/artificial intelligence productivity tools for creating and sustaining competitive advantage through strategic flexibility. Transformational e-HRM enables organizations to achieve and sustain competitive advantage through exploitation of these new productivity tools and approaches. However, it has been observed that many organizations have not been able to realize this. Using findings from an empirical exploration of e-HRM’s contribution to sustaining business performance, derived through an interpretative phenomenological analysis of a single case study, we propose in this chapter that for organizations to leverage the productivity gains of implementing Transformational e-HRM, HR and frontline managers require access to readily available artificial intelligence productivity tools. For e-HRM to contribute to sustaining business performance, we add to strategic flexibility theory that this can be realized by using e-HRM to enable strategic flexibility and adaptive capability. As we propose that it will be about organizations using the strategic capability derived by using Transformational e-HRM to create flexible and adaptive organizations. Its implications for practice are stated.

This study aims to explore the relationship between IT and HRM in the context of manufacturing SMEs, more specifically the relationship between strategic HRM and e-HRM as well as the performance effects of this relationship. The conceptual framework is founded upon the resource-based view (RBV), specifically upon the strategic HRM and e-HRM capabilities of SMEs and upon the strategic alignment of these capabilities in the form of capability configurations or “gestalts.”

To answer the research questions, a questionnaire was constructed and mailed to 1854 manufacturing SMEs in the province of Quebec, Canada, producing 216 valid responses that were used for statistical analysis purposes. Capability configurations were identified through a cluster analysis of the e-HRM and strategic HRM capabilities developed by these firms.

Using structural equation modeling to validate the research model, a causal analysis confirmed a positive influence of the sampled SMEs’ strategic orientation upon their development of strategic HRM capabilities. More importantly, a higher level of alignment between the SMEs’ strategic HRM and e-HRM capabilities was associated to a higher level of strategic HRM performance.

To our knowledge, ours is the first study to show interest in the effect of the strategic alignment of HRM and IT capabilities upon HRM performance, by adopting a configurational perspective and considering organizational IT from a functional point of view. Given the specific context of SMEs, the focus was on e-HRM capabilities related to the IT infrastructure of these organizations and the IT competencies of individuals related to HRM.

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.

Three decades of academic and professional discourse on HR technologies (HRTs) have produced continued disagreement over construct definitions and research streams that are highly fragmented. These realities suggest that greater consistency in meanings is sorely needed if we are to integrate and upgrade knowledge in this area. This chapter draws on the findings of a systematic research review to properly define the content domains of human resource information systems (HRIS), virtual human resources (virtual HR), electronic human resource management (e-HRM), and business-to-employee (B2E) systems. An integrative synthesis was performed on 242 system-level writings that appeared in the literature from 1983 to 2017. The weight of the evidence strongly supports treating HRIS, virtual HR, e-HRM, and B2E systems as independent, complimentary constructs. While the first three comprise a firm’s HRT system, the fourth construct is more appropriately positioned in the business-collaborative system. The sample was further evaluated with an analytic framework to detect patterns of practice in research designs. This revealed that much more attention has been focused on system actions and outcomes than on attitudes and system characteristics. Different units of analysis were well represented aside from trans-organizational studies. Finally, a case is made for better contextualizing HRT research by recognizing differences in assimilation stage, functional penetration, and collective proficiency. These factors are rarely mentioned, let alone studied, raising additional concerns about measurement error. Detailed suggestions are offered on ways to incorporate them. Together, these materials should promote more sophisticated and generalizable assessments of technology, improving our ability to understand its impacts.

This chapter addresses a lack of theory building in electronic-HRM (e-HRM) research and attempts to contribute with a (re-)conceptualisation of e-HRM as a nexus of practices and their material arrangements.

The work draws on theories from information systems research, science and technology studies, and sociology and organisation studies.

The (re-)conceptualisation indicates that future research should make further enquiries into the role of human agency and political processes in e-HRM.

As a methodological pathway a combination of ethnography and philosophical hermeneutics is proposed, enabling the achievement of a required pertinent sensibility in the study of social practices and human intentionality. Action research is also considered to be relevant for an engaged e-HRM scholarship.

The social implication of this research is the advancement of theories that emphasise the importance of human agency, morality and materiality in organisational processes.

The conceptualisation may thus facilitate research that reveal insights about involvement, reciprocity and power in e-HRM projects – knowledge that can direct the development of e-HRM project teams and thus facilitate strategic HRM.

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.

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.