Digital human resource management: A conceptual clarification

Abstract

<jats:p> The concept of digital human resource management and related concepts such as the digitization of human resource management, the digitalization of human resource management, the digital transformation of human resource management, and the digital disruption of human resource management are gaining prominence in scholarly discussion. Frequently, however, the use of these concepts is implicit, heterogeneous, and proliferating. These concepts, thus, lack the “conceptual clarity” necessary in research. Therefore, this article aims at a conceptual clarification of digital human resource management and of related concepts of the digitization of human resource management, the digitalization of human resource management, the digital transformation of human resource management, and the digital disruption of human resource management. To do so, the article references general literature on digital organizations to develop a terminology and typology of digital human resource management. The terminology offers precise and parsimonious definitions of the concepts and relationships between them, offering a basic understanding. The typology offers precise and parsimonious ideal-types, which order and classify phenomena related to digital human resource management, in turn expanding knowledge about these phenomena. Together, the terminology and typology clarify the concept of digital human resource management and related concepts, uncover digital human resource management as an evolutionary advancement of previous conceptualizations of technology-based human resource management, and provide a conceptual basis for future work on digital human resource management. </jats:p>

Algorithmic human resource management: Synthesizing developments and cross-disciplinary insights on digital HRM

“…Our definition highlights three main features of algorithmic HRM: 1) the generation and use of digital data, 2) the deployment of software algorithms that process digital data, and 3) the partial or full automation of HRM-related decision-making. Using this definition, we regard algorithmic HRM as a specific subset/type of digital, or electronic, HRM (Bondarouk et al, 2017;Strohmeier, 2020b). Here, digital HRM "denotes the socio-technical result of the digitalization of HRM" (Strohmeier, 2020b: 352), with the digitalization of HRM referring to the process by which the potential of digital data about work, workers or HRM practices is used for HRM purposes (Parry & Strohmeier, 2014;Strohmeier, 2020b).…”

“…Moreover, these various concepts are studied alongsideand at times interchangeably with -related phenomena including Big Data (Garcia-Arroyo & Osca, 2019), artificial intelligence (Strohmeier & Piazza, 2015;Tambe et al, 2019) and online labor platforms (Duggan et al, 2020;Newlands, 2020;Veen et al, 2020). These terms and developments are often loosely linked to, or aggregated as, 'digital HRM' which, as a broad notion covers a multitude of topics and issues with unclear and ambiguous relations between them (Strohmeier, 2020b). Studies into HR analytics ( Marler & Boudreau, 2017;Minbaeva, 2017;Tursunbayeva et al, 2018;Van den Heuvel & Bondarouk et al, 2017 ), HRM algorithms (Cheng & Hackett, 2021;Leicht-Deobald et al, 2019), and artificial intelligence (AI) deployed in HRM practices (Strohmeier & Piazza, 2015;Vrontis et al, 2021), while beginning to coalesce around key issues, tend to use different terms to describe seemingly similar content leading to a lack of construct clarity that may prevent the scholarly community from building a collective and coherent body of knowledge (Suddaby, 2010).…”

Recruiting digital talent: The strategic role of recruitment in organisations’ digital transformation

“…Although HR research on digital transformation and digital HRM has been growing (Strohmeier, 2020), most prior studies have focussed on the question of how digital technologies affect HR-related activities (for a review, see Chapman and Gödöllei, 2017; Stone and Deadrick, 2015). For instance, they have analysed the efficacy of company websites and social networking sites in attracting applicants (e.g.…”

Digitalisation of Human Resource Management. Key Roles and Relevant Issues for Military Organisations

“…Several studies have focused on clarifying this concept from the perspective of the extent to which digital tools and influence the future of human resource management. Referring to the impact of digital transformations on HRM, Betchoo Nirmal Kurmal (2016) promotes the idea that new technologies have an important influence on human resource management [2], while a cross-sectional analysis by Tanvi Rana (2019), argues that e-HRM refers to an integrated, organisation-wide electronic network of information, services, devices, applications and human resource exchanges that implement organisational strategies [3]. During these studies, it is argued that e-HRM does not only refer to computer systems and software, but is related to the implications of using tools such as social media, web applications/platforms and cloud databases, which have a radical impact on human resources.…”