HRM 4.0 and New Managerial Competences Profile: The COMAU Case

Abstract

The digital revolution has generated huge changes in the world of work, with relevant implications for the Human Resources Management (HRM) function. New challenges arise in facing digital work, digital employees, and digital management, such that the connection between new technologies and HRM is now described as electronic HRM (e-HRM). Challenges and connection entail the possibility to review the notion of HRM itself, examining new research perspectives and lines of interpretation following a Critical Management Studies approach, thus developing a more contextualized view in conceiving HRM, a more expansive consideration of stakeholders, and a longer-term perspective in approaching the results of digital transformation and HRM outcomes. The article analyzes a specific organizational case, involving a multinational enterprise, and explores how the case study enhances the understanding of HRM as a social practice embedded in specific situated contexts. Such a conception enables the engagement of multiple rationalities, related to both internal and external stakeholders, overcoming a “mere antiperformance stance” and achieving forms of reconstructive reflexivity concerning the interconnection between the digital age, HRM, and the innovative generation of social value through an authentic corporate responsibility.

New Working Capabilities for Coping With COVID Time Challenges

“…In a similar scenario, the future of labor can only be perceived as unclear; nevertheless, what is certain is that a new culture of work is needed to face the challenges emerging from the constantly changing globalized reality, where we are all interconnected and influenced from the outside environment ( Fregnan et al, 2020 ). For many decades, organizations have been characterized by a solid structure functioning, thanks to rigorous processes and strict procedures, where each role corresponded to specific tasks and a well-defined position, requiring hard and soft skills, rarely undergoing significant changes.…”

“…At stake is the need to cope with the transformation of work as an impact of 4.0 Industrial Revolution, accelerated by the pandemic scenario, going beyond the traditional distinction between hard and soft skills, achieving concrete and actionable skills as, peculiarly, human abilities, which represent the great qualitative difference between man and machines, enhancing sustainable hybrid professional and managerial cultures ( Fregnan et al, 2020 ) and ad-hocratic and agile organizational systems ( Mintzberg, 2009 ).…”

Dwelling within the fourth industrial revolution: organizational learning for new competences, processes and work cultures

“…Coping with the spreading digital age, dealing with “digital employees,” “digital work” and “digital employee management” (Strohmeier and Parry, 2014), requires relevant shifting points in innovative workplaces: a strong revision of the traditional approach in conceiving the managerial function and in achieving new competences and tools for changing and aligning strategies and activities to these new labor features (Fregnan et al , 2020); to identify and develop the skills necessary for the workforce of the future, as one of the greatest challenges for organizations in this transition phase; a strong and diffused learning culture that allows constant updating of the skills of the employees, with specific regard to the impact of the fourth industrial revolution on workers’ activities; exploring new learning opportunities and tools; and developing the so-called “soft skills,” as peculiarly human abilities, which represent the great qualitative difference between man and machine, enhancing a sustainable hybrid production system. …”

“…a strong revision of the traditional approach in conceiving the managerial function and in achieving new competences and tools for changing and aligning strategies and activities to these new labor features (Fregnan et al , 2020);…”

Strategic Choices for Social Responsibility of Startups in China

“…At the same time, since the outbreak of the pandemic, the public and consumers have paid more attention to environmental protection, health, and other product characteristics, and sustainable consumption has become the mainstream in consumption, which in turn has led to some degree of environmental protection and transformation of startups. To take advantage of opportunities, startups need to reconsider the effectiveness, sustainability, and effectiveness of the product ( Fregnan et al, 2020 ).…”