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management revue
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Editors: Richard Croucher, Cranfield University, UK
Rüdiger Kabst, University of Paderborn, Germany
Rita Kellermann, Rotterdam School of M., Netherlands
Wenzel Matiaske, University of Flensburg, Germany
Editorial/ John W. Boudreau, University of Southern California, USA
Advisory Chris Brewster, Henley Management College, UK
Board Dirk Buyens, De Vlerick School of Management, Belgium
Jean-Luc Cerdin, ESSEC, France
Peter Dowling, University of Canberra, Australia
Amos Drory, Ben Gurion University, Israel
Barney Erasmus, University of South Africa, South Africa
Mark Fenton O'Creevy, Open University, UK
Per Freytag, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
Diether Gebert, Technical University Berlin, Germany
Barry Gerhart, University of Wisconsin, USA
Paul Gooderham, Norwegian Business School, Norway
Bo Hansson, IPF/Uppsala University, Sweden
Peter-J. Jost, WHU Koblenz, Germany
Arne Kalleberg, University of North Carolina, USA
Jan Kees Looise, University of Twente, The Netherlands
Seong-Koog Kim, EWHA, South Korea
Hendrik Holt Larsen, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
Huseyin Leblebici, University of Illinois, USA
Albert Martin, University of Lüneburg, Germany
Wolfgang Mayrhofer, Vienna Univ. of Bus. a. Econ., Austria
Michael Morley, University of Limerick, Ireland
Werner Nienhueser, University of Essen, Germany
Nancy Papalexandris, Athens Univ. of Bus. a. Econ., Greece
Erik Poutsma, Nijmegen Business School, The Netherlands
Dieter Sadowski, IAAEG/University of Trier, Germany
Wilhelm Schaufeli, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands
Florian Schramm, HWP, Germany
James Sesil, The State University of New Jersey Rutgers, USA
Rick Steers, University of Oregon, USA
Wolfgang Weber, University of Paderborn, Germany
management revue
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management revue, vol 15, issue 3, 2004 275
management revue, volume 15, issue 3, 2004 mrev 15(3)
Special Issue:
Organisational Innovation and HRM
edited by Jan Kees Looise, Maarten van Riemsdijk
Jan Kees Looise, Maarten van Riemsdijk
Innovating Organisations and HRM: A Conceptual Framework 277
Juani Swart, Nicholas Kinnie, John Purcell
Human Resource Advantage in the Networked Organisation 288
Clare Kelliher, Catherine Truss, Veronica Hope Hailey
Disappearing Between the Cracks: HRM in Permeable Organisations 305
Nicole Torka
Atypical Employment Relationships and Commitment:
Wishful Thinking or HR Challenge? 324
Francesca Andreescu
Innovating the HR Function in a Commercialising British Public
Sector Organisation: Towards a More Strategic Role for HR? 344
Huub Ruël, Tanya Bondarouk, Jan Kees Looise
E-HRM: Innovation or Irritation. An Explorative Empirical Study
in Five Large Companies on Web-based HRM 364
Rien Huiskamp, Frits Kluytmans
Between Employment Relationships and Market Relationships:
Dilemmas for HR Management 381
Book Reviews
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Studie (by Anja Schmelter) 399
New Publications 402
276 management revue, vol 15, issue 3, 2004
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364 Huub Ruël, Tanya Bondarouk, Jan Kees Looise: E-HRM: Innovation or Irritation
Huub Ruël, Tanya Bondarouk, Jan Kees Looise*
E-HRM: Innovation or Irritation.
An Explorative Empirical Study in Five Large Companies on
Web-based HRM**
Technological optimistic voices assume that, from a technical perspective, the IT pos-
sibilities for HRM are endless: in principal all HR processes can be supported by IT.
E-HRM is the relatively new term for this IT supported HRM, especially through the
use of web technology. This paper aims at demystifying e-HRM by answering the fol-
lowing questions: what actually is e-HRM?, what are the goals of starting with e-
HRM?, what types can be distinguished? and what are the outcomes of e-HRM?
Based upon the literature, an e-HRM research model is developed and, guided by this
model, five organizations have been studied that have already been on the ‘e-HR road’
for a number of years. We conclude that the goals of e-HRM are mainly to improve
HR’s administrative efficiency/to achieve cost reduction. Next to this goals, interna-
tional companies seem to use the introduction of e-HRM to standardize/harmonize
HR policies and processes. Further, there is a ‘gap’ between e-HRM in a technical
sense and e-HRM in a practical sense in the five companies involved in our study. Fi-
nally, e-HRM hardly helped to improve employee competences, but resulted in cost
reduction and a reduction of the administrative burden.
Key words: Electronic Human Resource Management, Human Resource
Management, Information Technology, Explorative Case Studies
___________________________________________________________________
* Huub Ruël, Utrecht University, Bijlhouwerstraat 6, 3511 ZC, Utrecht, The Netherlands,
Phone : E-Mail: h.ruel@usg.uu.nl.
Tanya Bondarouk, Twente University, P.O. box 217, 7500 AE, Enschede, The Nether-
lands, E-Mail: t.bondarouk@utwente.nl.
Jan Kees Looise, Twente University, P.O. box 217, 7500 AE, Enschede, E-Mail: The
Netherlands, j.c.looise@utwente.nl.
** Article received: March 26, 2004
Revised version accepted after double blind review: May 28, 2004.
management revue, vol 15, issue 3, 2004 365
1. Introduction
Technologically optimistic voices assume that, from a technical perspective, the IT
possibilities for HRM are endless: in principal all HR processes can be supported by
IT. Words are becoming even more provocative when some say that the question
whether HR should become digital already is outdated: HR must become digital!
Trapp (2001) warns against the idea that e-commerce is over because the dot.com
bubble has burst. He is convinced that the internet will never go away: the use of the
internet will keep on increasing as companies look for ways to reduce costs. Accord-
ing to Trapp, HR departments are not immune from such trends, in particular nowa-
days when they are being pressed to prove their added value to business performance.
Jäger (2001) believes that HRM will acquire a new dimension with the emergence of e-
business.
Wright and Dyer (2000) present a similar line of reasoning: e-business is emerg-
ing, and therefore HR and HR professionals are faced with the challenge of perform-
ing in ways that are in line with the business. In their view ‘HR functions [can] be-
come critical partners in driving success, but to do so requires that HR changes its fo-
cus, its role, and its delivery systems’ (Wright and Dyer, p. 52). According to them, in
e-business, the application of intranet technology for HR is inevitable.
We will review the literature and present five case studies. Based upon the litera-
ture, an e-HR research model is developed and, guided by this model, five organiza-
tions have been studied that have already been on the ‘e-HR road’ for a number of
years.
Before starting to define e-HRM, it is important to identify terms that possibly
carry similar meanings to the term e-HRM. In the literature, in addition to e-HR and
e-HRM, terms are used such as virtual HR(M), HR intranet, web-based HR, com-
puter-based human resource management systems (CHRIS), and HR portals. We are
excluding HR information systems (HRIS), which have been discussed extensively
(e.g. DeSanctis, 1986; Kavanagh et al., 1990; Cascio and Awad, 1981; Haines and Petit,
1997), since there is a fundamental difference between HRIS and e-HR in that basi-
cally HRIS are directed towards the HR department itself. Users of these systems are
mainly HR staff. These types of systems aim to improve the processes within the HR
departments itself, albeit in order to improve the service towards the business. With e-
HR, the target group is not the HR staff but people outside this department: the em-
ployees and management. HRM services are being offered through an intranet for use
by employees. The difference between HRIS and e-HR can be identified as the switch
from the automation of HR services towards technological support of information on
HR services. There are authors who write about HRIS, or write from an HRIS per-
spective, but who cross the divide with e-HR when they start to develop their ideas.
For example, the so-called stage-oriented approaches regarding the relationship be-
tween IT and HRM make, at a certain stage, a step over to e-HR. Technically speak-
ing, it can be said that e-HR is the technical unlocking of HRIS for all employees of an
organization.
In our view it concerns the following: e-HRM is a way of implementing HR
strategies, policies, and practices in organizations through a conscious and directed
366 Huub Ruël, Tanya Bondarouk, Jan Kees Looise: E-HRM: Innovation or Irritation
support of and/or with the full use of web-technology-based channels. The word ‘im-
plementing’ in this context has a broad meaning, such as making something work,
putting something into practice, or having something realized. E-HRM, therefore, is a
concept - a way of ‘doing’ HRM.
Research questions
Having a clear picture of the phenomenon that is e-HRM, and to what extent some-
thing is going on, makes it possible to pose a central research question as the basis of
our empirical ambitions. Our conclusion about what is known about e-HRM, and
how it is working out in reality, is that it is limited and very much based upon consul-
tancy-based survey material. What are lacking are more explorative, qualitative data-
based results. Therefore, our aim is to fill up this gap and, to this end, we pose the fol-
lowing central research question:
To what extent does the management of employee relationships in companies change with the
planned use of web-tools for HRM purposes, and how does this change occur?
From this basis, we distinguish a number of sub-questions:
1. What are the goals that decision-makers within companies try to achieve when
they start with the planned use of web-tools for HRM purposes?
2. What types of e-HRM can be distinguished in companies?
3. What are the consequences, in terms of HR outcomes, of the use of web-tools
for HRM?
2. A research model
Having laid a basis for e-HRM by defining it, seen to what extent it is already becom-
ing reality, we will now dig deeper by theoretically framing e-HRM guided by the re-
search questions as posed. The steps towards the theoretical framework will be: the
state of HRM in an organization, the e-HRM goals, types of e-HRM, HRM outcomes.
2.1 The state of HRM in an organization
Organizations do not start with nothing when they step out onto the e-HRM road.
For a start there will be certain implicit or explicit HRM policy assumptions and prac-
tices already in use. Further, every management decision contains some HRM compo-
nent. Beer et al. speak about HRM policy choices. The set of HRM policy choices
within an organization can be categorized into one of the three types distinguished by
Beer et al.: the bureaucratic policy, the market policy, and the clan policy. Each type is
typified by specific characteristics regarding the HRM policy areas: employees’ influ-
ence, flow, rewards, and work systems. This distinction is more than simply a charac-
terization of the development stages of HRM within organizations. Bureaucratic poli-
cies are especially found in organizations that operate within a stable environment,
both technologically as well as socioeconomically. A market policy is often seen in or-
ganizations that have to react rapidly to changes in their environment, for example to
strongly fluctuating markets. Finally, the clan policy can be found in organizations that
quite heavily rely on delivering quality and on innovation. The expertise of employees
in such companies is decisive in the organization’s success.
management revue, vol 15, issue 3, 2004 367
From the existing state of the HRM in an organization (the frame of reference),
the individuals and groups involved (the stakeholders) make choices with regard to e-
HRM. As these are made within a certain context, the choices are purpose-driven.
2.2 E-HRM goals
What goals drive stakeholders when deciding about e-HRM? All the reasons men-
tioned so far in professionally-oriented sources (for example Personnel Journal, June
1995; Information Systems Management, autumn 2000; Internetweek, 12 March, 2001) are
‘confirmed’ in a scientific article entitled Human Resource Management Review by Lepak
and Snell (1998). They refer to the four ‘pressures’ of virtual HRM. First of all, HRM
departments are asked to focus on strategic questions. Secondly, these departments
need to be flexible in terms of policymaking and practices. Thirdly, HRM departments
should work efficiently and be aware of costs (“…a hard line on costs”). Fourthly,
HRM departments should be service-oriented towards management and employees.
In short, HRM departments must be strategy-focused, flexible, efficient, and client
oriented; and all at the same time (Lepak and Snell, 1998).
Ruël et al. (2002) highlight an aspect that is fairly well covered by the above but
that is nevertheless interesting to spell out, namely the changing nature of the em-
ployment relationship. With the supply shortage in the labor market (during the eco-
nomic upturn of the 1990s), the individualization of society, and the increased educa-
tional level of citizens (and thus of employees), the power balance in the employment
relationship has shifted in the direction of the employees: they want to steer their own
career paths. In the view of Ruël et al., a move towards e-HRM can provide the tools
to support this development. This aspect fits into earlier-mentioned drivers such as
improving service towards internal clients, but has an external societal drive.
The rapid developments in IT, and in its possibilities for HRM, have even led to
new journals and magazines especially focused on the integration of these areas.
Based upon the above, we can draw conclusions about the reasons or goals of
organizations making steps towards e-HRM. The four ‘pressures’ from Lepak and
Snell (1998) were a good start, but we think that they can be reduced to three types of
goals, namely:
1. Improving the strategic orientation of HRM
2. Cost reduction/efficiency gains
3. Client service improvement/facilitating management and employees.
This division of objectives is in line with the conclusion of the annual study on e-
HRM in the United States conducted by the consultancy firm of Watson Wyatt. The
results from their 2002 study show that companies that had invested in e-HRM, and
there were many, were driven by the aim of improving the strategic role of HRM, re-
ducing administrative HR work, and improving employees’ satisfaction with HRM
services. The three types of goals are essentially the building blocks for the e-HRM re-
search model we will develop.
The goals that drive parties, stakeholders, and individuals in organizations will set
a framework for the real e-HRM applications and approaches to be implemented. In
our view, the ‘choice’ of possible e-HRM approaches can be reduced to one.
368 Huub Ruël, Tanya Bondarouk, Jan Kees Looise: E-HRM: Innovation or Irritation
2.3 Types of e-HRM
E-HRM is not a specific stage in the development of HRM, but a choice for an ap-
proach to HRM. Wright and Dyer (2000) distinguish three areas of HRM where or-
ganizations can choose to ‘offer’ HR services face-to-face or through an electronic
means: transactional HRM, traditional HRM, and transformational HRM. Lepak and
Snell (1998) make a similar distinction, namely operational HRM, relational HRM and
transformational HRM.
The first area, operational HRM, concerns the basic HR activities in the adminis-
trative area. One could think of salary administration (payroll) and personnel data ad-
ministration. The second area, relational HRM, concerns more advanced HRM activi-
ties. The emphasis here is not on administering, but on HR tools that support basic
business processes such as recruiting and the selection of new personnel, training, per-
formance management and appraisal, and rewards. Transformational HRM, the third
area concerns HRM activities with a strategic character. Here we are talking about ac-
tivities regarding organizational change processes, strategic re-orientation, strategic
competence management, and strategic knowledge management.
The areas mentioned could also be considered as types of HRM that can be ob-
served in practice. In some organizations, the HRM emphasis is on administration and
registration, in others on the application of operational HRM instruments, and in a
third group the HRM stress is on its strategic role. Within all the types of HRM,
choices can be made in terms of which HRM activities will be offered face-to-face,
and which will be offered through web-based HR (e-enabled). This question, for the
operational type of HRM, provides the choice between asking employees to keep their
own personal data up-to-date through an HR website or to have an administrative
force in place to do this.
For relational HRM there is the choice between supporting recruitment and
selection through a web-based application or using a paper-based approach (through
advertisements, paper-based application forms and letters etc.). Finally, in terms of
transformational HRM, it is possible to create a change-ready workforce through an
integrated set of web-based tools that enables the workforce to develop in line with
the company’s strategic choices or to have paper-based materials.
In cases where an organization consciously and in a focused way chooses to put
in place web technology for HRM purposes, based upon the idea that management
and employees should play an active role in carrying out HR work, we can speak of e-
HRM. With this line of reasoning, three types of e-HRM can be distinguished: Opera-
tional e-HRM, Relational e-HRM, and Transformational e-HRM; and these three ty-
pes are included in our model.
2.4 E-HRM outcomes
We assume, based upon Beer et al.’s ideas about the expected results or outcomes of
HRM, that e-HRM also aims to achieve a certain set of outcomes. There is a danger of
confusing these with the e-HRM goals distinguished earlier but there is a clear differ-
ence. As stated earlier, e-HRM is, in our view, a way of carrying out HRM, it is a way
of thinking about and implementing HRM strategies, policies, and practices. By fol-
management revue, vol 15, issue 3, 2004 369
lowing a specific e-HRM direction, an organization expects to achieve certain goals: an
improvement in the HR’s strategic orientation, an improvement in client focus and
satisfaction, and a decrease in costs or increased efficiency.
Besides these goals that can lead to anticipated outcomes, a number of so-called
‘overall’ organizational goals can be distinguished regarding an organization’s ‘social
capital’. All HRM activities, and therefore also all e-HRM activities, will implicitly or
explicitly be directed towards these ‘overall’ goals. Beer et al. (1984) distinguish four
possibilities: high commitment, high competence, cost effectiveness, and higher con-
gruence. By high commitment they mean that the workforce is motivated and under-
standing, and that they are willing to interact with the management about changes in
the organizational environment and the impact that this can have on the internal or-
ganization. For HR itself, this means that it should be able to play the role of change
agent, to use Ulrich’s (1997) terminology. High commitment implies a high level of
trust between management and workforce. High competence points towards the ca-
pacities of employees to learn new tasks and roles if the circumstances require it. For
HR itself it means, in Ulrich’s framework, playing the employee champion role. Cost
effectiveness refers to the competitiveness of pay levels and employee turnover rate,
and to the acceptability of costs resulting from employee resistance such as strikes. As
Ulrich (1997) states, HR itself has to be able to play the administrative expert role in
order to contribute to an organization’s cost effectiveness. Finally, higher congruence
refers to the internal organization, the reward system, and the ‘input, throughput, and
output’ of personnel, which need to be structured in the interests of all stakeholders.
Depending upon the way in which individuals and parties want to be affected by
e-HRM, in line with the defined goals, outcomes will to some extent emerge. These
outcomes, in turn, may change the state of HRM in an organization, or through indi-
viduals and/or groups within an organization actually result in a new HRM state. This
closes the circle.
With the addition of the e-HRM outcomes, the building blocks have been identi-
fied that are needed to finalize our e-HRM model (see Figure 1) taking into account
the preconditions as described.
After having modelled e-HRM, there is another question for us to answer: what
are the consequences of e-HRM for the HR department itself? The next section deals
with this question.
2.5 Consequences of e-HRM for the HR department
The literature seems to clear: e-HRM will not leave HR departments ‘untouched’. Less
administrative tasks for the HR department and therefore less administrative posi-
tions, more focus on the strategic goals of the organization and therefore an HRM
staff consisting mainly of ‘thinkers’; this is, in essence, what HR departments can ex-
pect or are already facing and experiencing. Let us look more closely at some relevant
sources.
Kavanagh et al. (1990) actually gave a good ‘push’ when they wrote about the
consequences of HR information systems (which we distinguish from e-HRM) for
HRM professionals: “Today and in the future, however, the successful HR profes-
sional must be part HR generalist, part HR functional specialist, part consultant, part
370 Huub Ruël, Tanya Bondarouk, Jan Kees Looise: E-HRM: Innovation or Irritation
business manager, and must understand and be comfortable using information systems”
(p. 325). More specifically, they state that HR departments will be more involved in stra-
tegic planning processes if they are able to provide adequate, accurate and fast informa-
tion through the use of information technology. A change for HR departments, related
to this, is that with an appropriate use of information technology they can improve their
client focus. “…the HR group will focus on providing services to employees, line man-
agers, and senior management, often by serving as an internal consultant. This will better
enable the HR function to truly support the business” (p. 323).
Figure 1: The e-HRM model
Other authors (for example Rampton et al., 1997; LeTart, 1997; Walker and Regan,
1997) also think that by the use of IT for HRM purposes there will be more time left
for strategic decision-making. Fewer administrative tasks and a decrease in HR related
questions from employees and line management, for example about training and de-
velopment opportunities, will create this available time.
Clan approach
Market approach
Bureaucratic approach
Initial HRM strategy and
policy (1) Improving HR’s
strategic role
Improving
client-service
Improving efficiency/
administrative
processess
e-HRM goals (2)
Transformational
Relational
Operational
e-HRM type (3)
Costeffectiveness
Congruence
Competence
Commitment
e-HRM outcomes (4)
Internal agents:
Top & line
management,
Employees,
workers council.
Environment:
-competition
-technological
development
-HRM state of the
art
-labor market
-societal
developments
-governmental
regulation
management revue, vol 15, issue 3, 2004 371
Trapp (2000) writes about a study undertaken by the Cranfield School of Man-
agement’s researchers Andrew and Nada Kakabadse on outsourcing. The results will
be published with the title: ‘Smartsourcing: international practice’. According to
Trapp, these researchers believe that the HR function in the future will be the prime
target for outsourcing. Some companies divide their HR function into transactional
activities, which are attractive for outsourcing, and management and organization de-
velopment, which have a more strategic value and therefore have a more crucial role.
HR departments that do not make this change will probably be reduced in size.
From our definition of, and approach to, e-HRM the following can be concluded
about the consequences of e-HRM for the HR department. E-HRM will assume an
active role for line management and employees in implementing HRM strategies, poli-
cies, and practices. In terms of the more operational and information processing work,
such as administration, registration and information distribution, there will be less
demand for HR people. This seems most logical for organizations with an operational
e-HRM approach. However, also with a relational e-HRM approach dominating, a
smaller HR staff will be necessary if line management and employees pick up and use
the HRM instruments provided by the HR intranet. There will still be HR experience
necessary for the renewal of instruments and to prepare them for easy intranet-based
use. Finally, with a more transformational e-HRM approach, strategic HRM expertise
will be necessary in order to formulate adequate strategic HRM plans.
3. Research method
3.1 The case study method
In our study we have opted for the case study method. It is not necessary to fully
elaborate here on the case study method as such since there are a number of good
overviews available (e.g. Yin, 1994; Lee, 1999). Rather, this section just develops our
specific application of the method.
A case study has five main components (Lee, 1999): Research questions, Theo-
retical propositions, Units of analysis, The logic linking data to these theoretical
propositions, and the criteria for evaluating these propositions.
By including these five components, our case study will hopefully be seen as
“proper”. With regard to the first component; our study’s central research question
has been presented in Section One. Section Two “focused the lens” to be applied in
this study, and therefore the second component has also been properly addressed. The
third component, determining the unit of analysis, needs further explanation. The unit
of analysis should reflect the phenomenon that is to be studied. The danger with case
study research is the isolation of the phenomenon from its broader context. Obvious
solutions are not readily available, so it is important to be as explicit as possible when
defining the unit of analysis. The unit of analysis chosen for our study is the organiza-
tion.
The fourth component, the logic linking data to the theoretical propositions,
concerns a study’s specific techniques. In other words: how does a researcher collect
the data appropriate for finding answers to the research questions or testing the theo-
372 Huub Ruël, Tanya Bondarouk, Jan Kees Looise: E-HRM: Innovation or Irritation
retical propositions? This question, and the answer to the fifth component, the criteria
for evaluating these propositions, are discussed below.
3.2 Case selection
We have selected large companies (> 10 000 employees) in order to present and ex-
plore interesting cases. Furthermore, the selected companies needed to have a good
reputation regarding developments in e-HRM. This case selection procedure is valid
and appropriate since it is not this study’s intent to generalize in a statistical way across
all companies. The intent is to explore and, as a result, to make a start with theoretical
generalization (Yin, 1994).
We involved the following five large companies (each with more than 15 000 em-
ployees): Dow Chemicals, ABN AMRO, Ford Motor Company, IBM, and Belgacom.
All of them have been on the ‘e-HR road’ for a number of years, and in a variety of
ways. In fact this suggests the first conclusion: there does not seem to be ‘one natural
way’ to get on the ‘e-HR road’. Companies are different, operate in different markets,
and have various structures and cultures. It is up to the reader therefore to decide
which of the companies they can identify with.
3.3 Case study techniques
Within the case study approach, specific techniques have to be selected for collecting
the data. For our study, we have chosen conversational interviews as the dominant
technique. The conversational interviews are particularly used to describe the variables
in the research model. Conversational interviews are adequate for the following rea-
sons. Firstly, we have studied e-HRM in companies retrospectively since, because of
time constraints, it was not possible to participate in e-HRM projects from start to fin-
ish. Secondly, through the use of conversational interviews, with representatives of
relevant groups of participants, it is possible to ‘reconstruct’ what happened from the
start through to the moment of our investigation.
We have also used immediate participant observations as a source of data. In all
of the cases studied we observed a number of users of web-tools for HRM purposes
over short periods of time.
The data collected through the conversational interviews, documents, and ob-
servations were analyzed using a categorization process. We categorized the re-
sponses to the questions in the interviews, the documents, and the observations in
line with the indicators for the variables discerned. From this categorized data, con-
clusions were drawn regarding the individual cases and, later on, across all five cases.
4. Results
4.1 Commencing with e-HRM at our five case companies: an overall as-
sessment
Starting to work with e-HRM seems to be connected with the process and globaliza-
tion aims of the companies. This is one of the more interesting points to emerge from
our look at the five companies. Four of them operated internationally, and all of these
linked their e-HRM plans with their aim of becoming a global company rather than an
internationally dispersed one.
management revue, vol 15, issue 3, 2004 373
The following quotes illustrate this:
“The goal of the project is to establish a common HR information infrastructure across
the [company]. We try to put in place one package for the whole world.” (A project man-
ager)
“If [the company] wants to do talent management, if it wants to steer all kinds of HR
processes across the world, utilize the skills and competencies you have worldwide in the
most optimal way, then [the company] has to do these kind of things [e-HRM].” (A pro-
ject manager)
“Technology is just a tool, and I experience that [the company] wants to present itself
more and more as a global player, also internally, and therefore tries to align and make
clear procedures, to harmonize and standardize HR processes, across country borders.
Because you want to harmonize and to standardize, technology can be used to help, espe-
cially because technology offers more and more possibilities and my perception is that
these possibilities as applied to the maximum.” (An HRD professional)
The fifth company involved, Belgacom, is not yet an international company, and
therefore would not make this connection.
The four international companies in our study chose to standardize and harmo-
nize HR policies and practices as a precondition for becoming a global company and
also to create a sound basis for e-HRM, or because they saw no other option but to
achieve globally standardized and harmonized HR policies and practices. Interestingly,
in all of these companies, ‘globalizing’ HR produced a tendency to centralize HR pol-
icy responsibilities at the company headquarters, while responsibilities for applying
HR responsibilities were actually decentralized, placed in the hands of line managers
and employees. Through the last of these aspects, it seems that, with the ‘rise’ of e-
HRM, the responsibility for carrying out HR policies is actually becoming a line re-
sponsibility - something that HRM theory has been proclaiming since the mid-1980s!
Overall, it is necessary to recognize that a fourth goal should be added to the
three we distinguished for our model in Section Two, namely: to improve a company’s
global orientation.
Further, what we see is that the companies involved have ambitious aims with
HR and in implementing e-HRM. As examples, the following quote:
“All the processes we have are on-line: performance evaluation, job goals, etc. All the
forms are on-line. Secretaries don’t have paper-based forms any more. Latest news, “you
and [the company name]”…. If you go to “You and [the company name]”, you will see
such information as pension, skills, etc. When you go to the HR, you see everything: your
life, your money, your career. It is generated by the Service Centre in UK.” (An HRM
manager)
The three types of e-HRM goals that we distinguished based upon the literature,
namely to improve administration and efficiency, to improve client orientation and
service, and to improve HR’s strategic orientation, were all selected by the companies
involved in this study. However, they all seem to have been selected without any clear
priority or, in other words, the three seem to be almost equally important. Or like one
e-HR project manager put it:
“In fact, with e-HR we want to improve customer satisfaction, decrease costs, and
improve efficiency.”
374 Huub Ruël, Tanya Bondarouk, Jan Kees Looise: E-HRM: Innovation or Irritation
This is surprising, and actually rather strange, because it is questionable whether an
improvement in HR service to employees and line management can coexist with an
improved efficiency (for which read decreasing costs).
Furthermore, only two of the five companies had a clearly defined HRM strategy
on which the e-HR tools were based; the other three had ideas about where they
wanted to go with e-HR, but the links between the e-HRM content and the overall
HRM strategy were less clear. The return on investment therefore cannot be seen as
quick, it will need several years to “recoup” the outgoings. In one case this was openly
acknowledged. In our view, the cost reduction goal is more of a hope than a short-
term expectation, and perhaps a way of ‘selling’ e-HR plans to the top management.
The complex set of chosen goals in starting out with e-HRM is also surprising
because it goes against the general belief that clearly defined goals are a very important
precondition for successful project management. In the companies involved in our
study it seems to be the case that goals are used pragmatically: if one is not achieved,
then at least one of the others might be. Furthermore, only two of the five companies
(Dow and IBM) had a clearly defined HRM strategy on which the e-HR tools were
based; the other three (ABN AMRO, Ford and Belgacom) had ideas about where they
wanted to go with e-HR, but the links between the e-HRM content and the overall
HRM strategy were less clear.
Below, in Table 4.1, we have placed the companies and the e-HRM goals in a ma-
trix, and made a judgment about the emphasis placed by the companies on the se-
lected goals.
Table 1: The companies involved and their e-HR goals
Dow
Chemicals
ABN
AMRO
IBM Ford Belga-
com
To globalize the company (standard-
ize/harmonize HR policies and proc-
esses)
*** *** ** *
To improve HR’s strategic orientation ** ** ** **
To improve internal client orientation and
service delivery
** ** ** *** ***
To improve administrative efficiency/
achieve a cost reduction
** *** *** *** **
*** = strongly emphasized, ** = moderately emphasized, * = slightly emphasized
4.2 E-HRM types
Placing the companies side-by-side allows an overview and comparison. This overview
is not intended to classify the e-HRM experiences as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ but to show the
differences between what is available in the technical sense for employees and man-
agement, and how it was being used in practice at the time of our study. All the com-
panies were, and still are, working on further developments and further improve-
ments, and therefore this overview has somewhat of a transitory value. However, the
goal of Table 5.6 is not so much the labeling of the type of e-HRM in use, but to
compare between the technical state of the e-HRM and the ‘use-state’. What is clear is
management revue, vol 15, issue 3, 2004 375
that there is a ‘gap’ between e-HRM in a technical sense (the available functionality)
and the use and adoption of it by employees and line managers. The actual us-
age/adoption lags behind what is possible. An initial response to this observation
could be that this is natural: real use always follows behind technical implementation.
In our view, this ‘gap’ is more than just a normal phenomenon. As we saw at Dow
Chemicals, the time taken for the adoption of e-HRM by users to catch up with the
technical possibilities can be around three years! The main explanation for this, in our
view, is that starting with e-HRM does not mean that users simply have to learn to
work with a new version of a familiar system, but rather that employees and line man-
agers have to be ready, able and willing to pick up responsibilities that were previously
someone else’s. This really does require a change in mindset!
Table 2: Comparison between e-HRM in a technical sense (available functional-
ity) and e-HRM in practice
e-HRM technical sense e-HRM in practice
Dow Chemicals (Benelux) Transformational Relational/Transformational
ABNAMRO (Luxembourg) Operational/Relational Operational
Ford Motor Company (Germany) Operational/Relational Operational
IBM (Netherlands) Transformational Relational
Belgacom (Belgium) Relational/
Transformational
Operational
4.3 E-HRM outcomes
Cost reduction and a reduction of the administrative burden are in most cases men-
tioned as an effect of e-HRM. However, no exact figures exist regarding the size of
these reductions. Most concrete is the reduction in (HR-)staff level, but to give the
whole picture we have to calculate the extra time that is needed by middle-manager
and employees to keep up their own HR-administration and to search for their own
possibilities at the intranet. For instance at Dow we saw the development of a new
function, namely an assistant for management and employees to help them with the
use of e-HRM. There is a danger of information overkill through the HR intranet. A
line manager described the following observation:
“I think that still many people don’t go deeply to the system. Of course, easy and simple
applications are not used by 50%. They [subordinates] always say that they don’t have
time to work with it. It was all in English, now it is translated, but I did not notice any
change in attitudes towards this. It is like when you go to the Internet, you don’t know
what are you looking for…. There is too much information, you are simply lost.”
Without a clear and easy structure employees and line management can be afraid of
spending time on exploring web-based HR tools. For example, at IBM employees and
line managers felt that the HR intranet site contained too much info in a non-easy
way. Therefore they called to the HR call center (ask HR) to get answers to their im-
mediate HR related questions instead of searching the HR site. Strikingly, the HR call
center assistants use the same source, the HR intranet site, to give the answers! Al-
though IBM reported a convincing reduction of costs, the abovementioned might
376 Huub Ruël, Tanya Bondarouk, Jan Kees Looise: E-HRM: Innovation or Irritation
raise questions. As was known, IBM outsourced the HR call center and this itself may
have reduced costs
Most important e-HRM effect, however, seems to be the strategic integration of
HRM with the (revised) company strategy, structure and culture. In all cases e-HRM is
mainly seen as an indispensable instrument to help to realize this integration by on the
hand centralizing and standardizing HR-policies and practices and on the other decen-
tralizing their execution. An HRM manager put it like this:
“The key meaning in e-HR for us is HR for the employees. It means re-designing of HR
processes – from HR-department to the employees themselves. If earlier most of the HR
activities were done by the HR department, now employees can and do that.”
This is the same effect we see with IT-applications on other fields, like production, lo-
gistics, finance, etc. IT makes it possible to combine centralization and standardization
on the one hand and decentralization in the execution and operations at the other.
Against this background we may expect companies to continue with e-HRM, more or
less regardless the costs.
For the employees, the introduction of e-HRM brings changes in the way experi-
ence HRM in a company and in the HR tools and instruments they get offered. They
get the opportunity to be up-dated in the organizational developments, take part in the
on-line discussions, chose their career path. However, not all employees are willing to
pick up the full responsibility for their personal career development through the avail-
able web based HR tools. Some (and the cases suggest a certain group) find that their
managers have to come up with career development initiatives. At Dow Chemicals
Benelux the philosophy was that through the availability of HR online tools employ-
ees would become the initiators of their own career development. However, employ-
ees in the plants or factory (instead of in those in offices) did not even have access to
online HR-tools because of a lack of PC’s or because of costs considerations. This
was also the case at Ford Motor Company Cologne. The availability of PC’s in all
‘corners’ of the company and sufficient PC skills with management and employees are
important requisites for the success of e-HRM.
Further, although e-HRM creates new opportunities for line management and
employees, the organizational practice in using these opportunities can be limited be-
cause of a lack of time and the willingness to pick them up.
What tends to be forgotten is that e-HRM is not primarily technical; it is first and
foremost a change in the mindsets and behaviors of HR personnel, line managers, and
employees, as acknowledged by an HR manager:
“HR is going to be de-centralised. To do that – to re-design our HR processes and to
change employees’ minds that is the most difficult.”
Only secondly is it about facilitating the above through IT. In the companies studied it
seemed to be the case that IT played a very large role: selection of the right package,
and implementation of pieces or part of the ‘package’, received a lot of attention. The
fact that the philosophy underpinning the usefulness of the technology had to be
‘sold’ and incorporated into the day-to-day working routines was, in the first instance,
forgotten. An example of this occurred in the ABN AMRO case where the line man-
agers and the employees did not have a clear idea about the reasoning behind the
management revue, vol 15, issue 3, 2004 377
online HR tools that were being made available. Further, the employees and line man-
agers felt that they hardly had any time to explore the tools. In response, the HRM
department (at ABN AMRO Luxembourg) did a good job by starting ‘marketing
campaigns’ a number of times per year to stimulate use and these were quite success-
ful.
To make local HRM professionals change their way of working is difficult. When
implementing e-HRM globally it can be difficult to get the support of relatively small
components of the company. Implementing e-HRM on a global scale is not easy to
make e-HRM advantageous on a local scale. That makes it harder to get local HRM
professional enthusiastic for it. ABN AMRO is the best example of this point in our
study.
Good and clear goals and a good plan how to achieve them cannot be missed in
order to convince users of the usefulness of online HRM.
Table 3: e-HRM outcomes
DOW ABN
AMRO
FORD IBM Belgacom
Cost effective,
growth in em-
ployee compe-
tences, more
‘open’ culture,
transparant and
flexible internal
labour market.
Hardly yet,
especially not
at the level of
employees.
For line man-
agers first
administrative
support. For
HR depart-
ments less
administrative
work load.
HR-intranet site
(HR online) be-
came global inter-
nal brand for HR
services. 80% con-
siders HR-online
as primary source
for HR. High client
satisfaction with e-
HR service. HR
site most visited in-
ternal website.
ROI in the long
term, not in short
term.
Cost reduction
(57%), organisa-
tional climate
change: more
flexiblity, better bal-
ance work/private
life.
Communication
improved. Support
risk-taking and in-
novation. Empha-
sizing flexibility
over bureaucracy.
Client-satisfaction
strongly improved.
67% of all HR
data entries go
through the em-
ployee self ser-
vice. Improved
employee satis-
faction with HR
service, from 4,
39 to 4,93 (on
five point scale)
in one year.
ROI in 2006
5. Discussion
Alongside the main findings, we observed a number of additional aspects. Firstly, e-
HRM seems to be providing an important ‘push’: to put HR responsibility in the
hands of the line manager. After 15 years of ‘preaching’, an administrative component
of HR is becoming a task for the line management. The introduction of e-HRM is ac-
companied by the decentralization of HR tasks and by the harmonization and stan-
dardization of HR processes. In order to become a ‘real’ global company, HR policies
and practices need to be the same in ‘all the corners of the globe’ where a company is
present. Differences in cultures and languages between continents and countries are a
hurdle in the acceptance of newly introduced web-based HR facilities.
For the HR department, introducing e-HRM shows itself to be a ‘push-factor’ for
changing HRM within an organization: from a bureaucratic approach towards a mar-
ket/clan approach. Introducing e-HRM will be accompanied by a reduction in HR
staff levels, especially in terms of administrative staff. If implemented well, it provides
378 Huub Ruël, Tanya Bondarouk, Jan Kees Looise: E-HRM: Innovation or Irritation
an opportunity for an HR department to get a clearer profile and a better image. One
HR professional described the following experience:
“Responsibilities were shifted from HR department to the managers. The HR department
changed the role – we became more the consultancy instead of the police office. We had
to learn not to play the role of the police office to be more a consultant. It was a smooth
transition. To accept the whole system it took a while – to get used to a new situation. In
the compensation part [of the HR department] there were 5-6 people [HR staff], with less
countries. Now – only 2-3 people, with more countries.”
Turning to the employees, the introduction of e-HRM brings changes in the way they
experience HRM in their company and in the HR tools and instruments they get of-
fered.
“We have some statistics: the source of info are 70% from Intranet, following by the col-
leagues. While earlier the first source of information was the direct manager. You don’t
have the relationships what we had in the past: manager-employee. You can work at
home and be connected with HR information. It is not necessary any more to come to
the office to get information. We support the flexibility and interplay between the private
and business life. If you have to take care of a kid, it is no problem. We don’t measure
time, but only outputs. If we support flexible way of working, we have to provide differ-
ent ways of communicating. In our case it is Intranet, so people need to use it. Otherwise
they are lost. And this is the only way to get information.” (An HRM manager)
Interestingly, in those companies that had an ‘industrial’ nature, PC availability in all
‘corners’ of the company and the PC skills of employees was found to be a crucial
element in successful switching to e-HRM. Employees in the plants or factory (unlike
those in offices) tended not have access, or at best only limited access, to online HR
tools because of a lack of PCs or because of cost considerations. This was the case at
Dow Chemicals Benelux and at the Ford Motor Company in Cologne. Perhaps one
can speak of a cyber-division at the organizational level?
What became clear, related to this aspect, is that institutional aspects of the
organizational environment are a complicating factor in global e-HRM initiatives. Two
examples from our study can illustrate this. At Belgacom, the publication of personal
information through the HR intranet was complicated by the Belgian law on privacy.
At Fords, in Germany, the project team hinted at the wide diversity in the nationalities
of employees working for Ford; but at the same time warned us not to ask questions
that could be related to the issues of different nationalities, cross-cultural differences,
etc. Such issues were considered by the Works Council as sensitive.
Guaranteeing the security and confidentiality of input data is an important issue
for employees in order that they should feel ‘safe’ when using web-based HR tools.
Information technology and the like have the image that they make it easy for one to
be checked upon and observed by ’invisible third parties’. When implementing online
HRM tools and asking employees and line managers to input personal data, the ques-
tion arises as to who is authorized to look at the data and to use them? If employees
do not feel comfortable about the confidentiality of certain types of data, they will be
hesitant about inputting such data.
management revue, vol 15, issue 3, 2004 379
Further, a good e-HRM strategy (i.e. where are we heading, and how are we going
to get there?) is important. Good and clear goals, and a good plan how to achieve
them, cannot be avoided if one is to convince users of the usefulness of online HRM.
Our final observation is that employees and line managers’ mindsets need to be
changed: they have to realize and accept the usefulness of web-based HR tools. They
generally feel that they lack the time and space needed to work quietly and thought-
fully with web-based HR tools and so, if there is no real need, they will not do it.
We believe that e-HRM is a movement that will not go away, but so far it seems
to be more suited and attractive to large companies than to small and medium-sized
ones.
Referring back to the title of this article, irritation seems to start when goals are
neither clear nor realistic to line managers and employees; when the aimed for e-HRM
type does not fit the real needs of line managers, employees, and HR departments;
when expected results do not emerge or are shown to be unrealistic; when the imple-
mentation route map is not clear; and when it all is too technology-driven.
E-HRM is an innovation in terms of HRM. In the first place because of the oppor-
tunities it creates to put employee-management relationships in the hands of the em-
ployees and line managers. In the second place because information technology cre-
ates possibilities to design HRM tools and instruments that would not be possible
without this information technology. A good example is advanced personal assess-
ment and measurement tools that can be used at any moment of the day, and in any
location. Employees really can begin to steer their careers with a click of a mouse. HR
professionals have to realize and accept this: it will not go away. It is probable that we
won’t even need to point this out in a few years time: it will be seen as stating the ob-
vious!
Overall, our curiosity is not yet satisfied; actually we are only at a preliminary
stage regarding the relationship between IT and HRM in organizations. We lack a
good theory linking the relationship between technology and HR developments. Our
research project has laid a basis, but further developments would be welcome.
Further research is also needed on the theory concerning the staged approach to
e-HRM: is it a matter of growth or planning, how should it be implemented, what are
the real effects in the longer term, and how does it influence the role of the HR de-
partment? All of this to avoid possible irritation!
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