Article

Human resource business partner role in respect to internal corporate social responsibility: The case of banking sector

Authors:
  • Kaunas University of Technology, School of Economics and Business
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: For last decade, human resource (HR) function has had to move from its traditional operational, administrative role towards a more strategic role. In the light of transformation and drawing upon business partnering concept (the most well-known Ulrich model), a new formal position of an HR business partner, who acts as an HR subject-matter expert for the leaders of that particular business, has been established in some organisations. Although previous literature suggests the involvement of human resource management (HRM) in the development and implementation of socially responsible business activities, there is a lack of evidence on HR professionals’ role regarding internal corporate social responsibility (CSR), which implies behaviour towards employees. OBJECTIVE: To reveal the role of an HR business partner while developing and implementing internal CSR activities. METHODS: Qualitative research; semi-structured interviews with employees working as HR business partners in the banking sector were conducted. RESULTS: The results revealed a significant HR business partner role in addressing internal CSR, in terms of work-life balance (WLB), diversity and inclusion, learning and development, and psychological and physical well-being. CONCLUSIONS: The research results expand the knowledge on the link between HRM and internal CSR. Moreover, the findings have significant implications encouraging organisations to empower HR professionals to act within the internal CSR field.

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Chapter
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Over the last two decades, human resource (HR) professionals have been practicing traditional human resource processes in their organizations. However, a good number of HR professionals are struggling to implement a strategic impact on their businesses. They are laboring to shift from old‐fashioned traditional HR practices to transformational processes. This research paper aims to determine the traditional and transformational roles of HR that deliver value to the business when we bridge the gap between them. This study conducts a systematic literature review of articles and books. The study primarily analyzed secondary data, including the previous data derived from prior research studies that the researcher extensively reviewed to understand the traditional and transformational HR roles. This study shows that for HR to deliver business value, the core functions of HR need to integrate and align with the transformational roles of HR, which include HR leadership, HR business partner (HRBP), employee champion, and change agent. Here, a conceptual framework of traditional and transformational HR roles is presented, explaining the linkage between them that build successful HR professionals. The study contributes to the development of the literature on HR.
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COVID-19 pandemic has forced people to stay home and switch to the remote working mode, which – reportedly - affect job satisfaction and productivity. The present study investigates the relationship between the residential environment and worker's job satisfaction and productivity in the remote working mode during the COVID-19 pandemic. A hypothetical structural equation model (SEM) of the influencing factors is constructed based on a literature review and experts' opinions. A survey-based respondents' opinions (n = 2276) were then used to test and analyze the model. The model results reveal that a residential built environment has an indirect effect on both remote work satisfaction and productivity. However, among all the factors, comfortable space (separate space and ergonomic furniture) is found to be the most important. This study presents the importance of adopting a residential built environment to respond to a crisis like a pandemic in achieving the desired comfort level of remote work. Although this study provides a holistic approach, it also proposes a base for the future country-specific analysis by providing some possible countries' differences.
Article
This integrative literature review reflects on the discourse in training theory and practice that employee training is gender-neutral. In a review of 78 multidisciplinary empirical studies from across the world, 90% of studies show that sex/gender impacts the work environment of training participants, their characteristics, interaction with the training design, and/or training outcome. This suggests that a gender-neutral approach to training may not reflect the reality of sex/gender differences; hence, there is a need for reflectivity on the role of sex/gender in training theory and practice to ensure that employee training is inclusive and equitable. This review introduces a sex/gender-sensitive model of training to guide future research and practice, including the recommendation to move beyond decontextualised, binary sex-category based research towards a situated and intersectional understanding of the multiple aspects of sex and gender in training.
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The article presents the results of research on the impact of selected factors, such as business strategy, organizational culture, the stage of organizational development, the location of HR in the organizational structure, the type of activity, and the sector to which the company belongs, on the role and scope of the tasks of HR Business Partnering (HR BP). The research method employed was an in–depth, partially structured interview conducted on a group of HR BPs from twenty companies belonging to various sectors. In the interview, the respondents rated the impact of each factor on a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 means definitely has no impact and 5 means there positively is an impact. On the basis of the research, it was shown that the company’s business strategy, organizational culture, and the location of HR in the organizational structure have the greatest impact on the shape and role of HR BP in the surveyed organizations. The organizational development phase is slightly less important. On the other hand, the type of activity of the organization as well as the sector to which the company belongs has only a slight impact on the role and scope of tasks of HR BP in the company.
Article
Purpose There has been a growing call regarding broad criteria for assessing qualitative methods' reliability and validity in international marketing (IM) research. In response, this study synthesizes the past literature to present an overarching, yet adaptable, trustworthiness verification framework for assessing the rigor of various qualitative methods used in IM. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on qualitative research from various disciplines. It uses content analysis to examine how trustworthiness is conceptualized in qualitative studies in International Marketing Review (IMR) from 2005 to 2019. Findings The analysis reveals that strategies to ensure rigor and trustworthiness of qualitative research in IMR are partially applied. There remain gaps in implementing quality criteria across the trustworthiness dimensions of credibility, transferability, dependability, conformability and ethics. Research limitations/implications This paper highlights the importance of incorporating strategies for assessing the quality of qualitative research in IM research. Since the analysis only focused on IMR, future research should explore and test the framework in other IM and business journals to reach a broader consensus in assessing qualitative studies' rigor. Originality/value IM researchers have yet to develop a consensus regarding broad criteria for assessing qualitative methods' reliability and validity. This paper is an attempt to fill this gap.
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Interviewing is the most frequently used qualitative research method for gathering data. Although interviews vary across different epistemological perspectives, questions are central to all interviewing genres. This article focuses on the potential for the wording of interview questions to lead and unduly influence, or bias, the interviewee’s responses. This underacknowledged phenomenon affects the trustworthiness of findings and has implications for knowledge claims made by researchers, particularly in research that aims to elicit interviewees’ subjective experience. We highlight the problem of the influence of interview questions on data; provide a typology of how interview questions can lead responses; and present a method, the “cleanness rating,” that facilitates reflexivity by enabling researchers to review and assess the influence of their interview questions. This clarifies the researcher’s role in the production of interview data and contributes to methodological transparency.
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BACKGROUND: This study builds on the little guidance in the existing literature to analyze the relationship between employee-oriented CSR actions and employee retention in a business context, while using Freeman stakeholders’ model as a theoretical research framework. This research also aims to shed light on significant behavioral factors facilitating the relationship between CSR endeavors and turnover rate. OBJECTIVE: This paper builds on the existing research gap in the literature and suggests that behavioral factors, including job satisfaction, organizational identification, and motivation facilitate the relationship between employee-oriented CSR actions and employee retention, which contributes to laying the foundations of a theoretical framework that has the potential to advance both theoretical and practitioner debates and disentangle the complexity of such a relationship, while offering strategically-focused development venues in CSR and HRM fields. METHODS: This research uses a single case study design to ensure an in-depth and detailed analysis of the phenomenon under scrutiny, while relying on a triangulation methodology for data collection, including a questionnaire used as exploratory approach, interviews to generate explanatory data, and archival data to bring confirmatory insights. Data analysis followed the procedures of a deductive approach. RESULTS: The research results show a positive relationship between employee-oriented CSR actions and employee retention, while demonstrating the facilitating role of job satisfaction, organizational identification, and motivation in moderating such a relationship. The findings also stress the importance of framing CSR interventions within the organization’s strategy and goals, while ensuring employee participation in such decision making processes to maximize the effect of CSR interventions on employee commitment and reduce turnover. CONCLUSIONS: This research has the potential to better clarify the nature of the relationship involving CSR interventions, from an employee perspective, retention, and turnover, while laying the foundations of a theoretical framework linking such constructs and other behavioral factors that underpin and support such a relationship. Building on the study’s findings and assumptions, future research is needed to gain a more comprehensive understanding of how HR-related CSR actions affect behavioral performance dimensions, resulting in employee commitment and retention. Future research should also consider multiple case study, multicultural, and ethnographic approaches for the sake of generalizability and theory building.
Article
Ulrich’s framework of the human resource business partner model (HRBPM) suggests that both the strategic HRM roles (i.e. strategic partner and change agent) and operational HRM roles (i.e. administrative expert and employee champion) jointly add value to an organization. To deepen our understanding of the link between the HRBPM and organizational performance, this study jointly examines the influence of strategic and operational roles on organizational performance and introduces internal efficiency as a central mediating mechanism that explains how the HRBPM contributes to organizational success. In addition, we offer an institutional perspective on the HRBPM to improve our understanding of how the HRBPM is designed in different institutional contexts and whether the performance implications depend on the organization’s institutional environment. Based on data from 300 medium-sized and large organizations from Germany and the UK, we found a joint impact of the HRM roles on organizational performance, mediated by internal efficiency. We also found differences in the design of the HRBPM between the UK and Germany; however, we did not find a moderated mediation for the country comparison concerning the performance implications of the HRBPM. These findings improve our understanding of the success of the HRBPM in different institutional contexts.
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Evidence-based approaches to management receive support from both academics and practitioners, with momentum for this growing as research-practice gaps widen. Knowledge transmission is central to research-practice gaps with ‘knowledge lost before translation’ and ‘knowledge lost in translation’ identified as two areas of concern. To enhance communication channels between academia and practitioners, these gaps require illumination. This study analyzes research and practice literatures connected to the corporate social responsibility/sustainability (CSR/S) and human resource management (HRM) nexus. Findings show there exists broad consensus across these literatures about outcomes (e.g. its salience to employee attraction, retention, involvement with sustainability and organizational performance). However, when it comes to potential approaches to integration (e.g. mechanisms through which CSR/S and sustainable HRM impact outcomes and the role played by contextual factors), research findings are not being disseminated to the practitioner community. This and other points of disjuncture, along with their implications for research and practice, are addressed in this paper.
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This study attempts to understand how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) positively influences the quality of business relationship in the business-to-business market. The purpose of this article is to suggest the CSR model in the B2B context. First, this study discerns two dimensions of firms' CSR activities based on the previous studies in B2B area - Business CSR and Altruistic CSR. Furthermore, we tried to investigate the CSR activities affecting the result of the development of business relationships (economic and non-economic factors) and customer trust as a relationship performance in the B2B market. Managerial implications and limitation of the study were also discussed.
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Eight databases were used to locate research articles examining the use of audience response systems (ARS) for large group teaching in higher education settings which focussed upon the student experience. Qualitative and mixed methods articles were screened according to selection criteria. Of the twenty selected studies, an analysis of the papers helped identify six interconnected themes: 1) engagement 2) interaction 3) anonymity 4) questioning 5) instant feedback and 6) technological benefits and limitations. The themes reveal the complexity of student learning experiences using ARS which, when presented as a model, contributes to current understanding and offers a framework of pedagogical conditions to consider when designing and implementing learning experiences when using ARS.
Article
The nascent literature around corporate social responsibility (CSR) and human resource management (HRM) suggests considerable involvement of HR in the development and implementation of CSR strategy, but there is a lack of consensus around the extent, contingencies and theoretical assumptions underpinning such an emerging role. This study examines how far and under what circumstances HR is engaged in CSR strategy formulation and implementation. Drawing on data from interviews with 29 HRM and CSR professionals in 16 New Zealand organisations, we found that the CSR–HRM relationship varies according to organisational context, including the stage of CSR development and sector, and according to how far the remit of CSR extends to ‘internal’ as well as ‘external’ considerations. Within a multi-dimensional CSR–HRM relationship and context, HRM is likely to provide considerable strategic and operational input to the development and implementation of ‘internal CSR’, the natural domain of HRM relating to employee development and well-being. Utilising Ulrich’s model of HRM, the analysis also finds evidence of the roles of administrative expert, employee champion and change agent in relation to external CSR, though the focus is more on support than ‘strategic partnership’ in this domain. Hence, the role of HR in CSR is multi-faceted and varies according to organisational contextual factors. The paper concludes with implications for HR management and avenues for further research.
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The differential value created by talented employees and their contribution to organizations in the hypercompetitive and complex global economy has made talent management a strategic priority for organizations. Talent management has been advocated as an important strategy to retain talented employees, but academic studies exploring their relationship are limited. Building on the Resource-Based View (RBV) theory and Social Exchange Theory (SET), the present article studies the relationship between talent management and employee retention. In addition, a conceptual model explaining the role of talent perception congruence and organizational justice in the relationship between talent management and employee retention is developed by incorporating the Perceived Organizational Justice Theory and Congruence Theory in talent management context. This article may assist in setting the direction for future research in the area of talent management and help managers understand the significant roles of talent perception congruence and organizational justice in determining the talent management outcomes.
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How human resource management professionals view organizational change and their roles in it matters because those perceptions serve as a foundation for how they define their roles and as a boundary for what they might see as possible. Despite the importance of understanding these perspectives, few studies have explored human resources professionals’ views of organizational change and their roles in it. Data from 547 human resources professionals across a wide range of industries and organizational levels reveal the perception of top-leader involvement in 80 percent of successful changes. The data also suggest that human resources professionals hold numerous roles in change efforts, including those of ‘change agent’ and ‘consultant.’ Additionally, the data revealed that most human resource management professionals tended to view successful organizational change as primarily occurring in a top-down, hierarchical manner. A minority – yet potentially consequential – portion of the respondents viewed their role in organizational change as limited or not very important. We discuss these findings in light of relevant theoretical frameworks of organizational change, offering practical and scholarly implications.
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This study of HRM in an Australian insurance firm applies a critical discursive perspective to examine HR managers’ attempts to position themselves as Human Resources Business Partners. Analysing semi-structured interviews, we aim to provide a situated understanding of HR managers’ experiences as they sought to become accepted as co-equal partners by line management. Our findings draw attention to the gap between prescriptive accounts of HR Business Partnering and the tensions and legitimacy struggles HR managers face when adopting their new roles. We show the impact of line management’s resistance to HRM and the concomitant need for HR managers to legitimate their position in a new way. The introduction of an organizational culture survey, in particular, supplemented discursive attempts to promote the change amongst line managers and constituted a key driver in the process. Our study contributes to the study of HRM change by showing how the shift to an HRM business partnership model can be a precarious accomplishment: (1) enacted through the interweaving of discursive and socio-material practices, and (2) subject to the constraints of existing organisational power/knowledge relations.
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The mutual gains model suggests that HRM should benefit both individuals and organisations. However, the dominant models within HRM theory and research continue to focus largely on ways to improve performance, with employee concerns very much a secondary consideration. Furthermore, pressures at work and in society more widely are creating an increasing threat to employee well-being. If employee concerns and the threats to well-being are to be taken seriously, a different analytic framework for HRM is required. The article sets out an alternative approach to HRM that gives priority to practices designed to enhance well-being and a positive employment relationship, proposing that both elements are essential. Evidence is presented to support the choice of practices and to argue that these also hold the potential to improve both individual and organisational performance. It therefore offers a different path to mutual gains. The research and policy implications of this approach are discussed.
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Research summary : We explore the effect of the interplay between a firm's external and internal actions on market value in the context of corporate social responsibility ( CSR ). Specifically, drawing from the neo‐institutional theory, we distinguish between external and internal CSR actions and argue that they jointly contribute to the accumulation of intangible firm resources and are therefore associated with better market value. Importantly, though, we find that, on average, firms undertake more internal than external CSR actions, and we theorize that a wider gap between external and internal actions is negatively associated with market value. We confirm our hypotheses empirically, using the market‐value equation and a sample comprising 1,492 firms in 33 countries from 2002 to 2008. Finally, we discuss implications for future research and practice . Managerial summary : Companies often accumulate intangible assets by taking internally and externally oriented CSR actions. Contrary to popular beliefs, the data show that they undertake more internal than external ones: firms do more and communicate less. How does a potential gap (i.e., a misalignment) between internal and external CSR actions affect a firm's market value? We find that although together (the sum of) internal and external actions are positively associated with market value, a wider gap has negative implications. In other words, firms do not realize the full benefits of their internal actions when such actions are not externally communicated to key stakeholders, and to the investment community in particular. This negative association with market value is particularly salient in CSR ‐intensive and the natural resources and extractives industries . Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.