Reactions to HRM: An Employee Perspective from South Africa and New Zealand

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to provide a representation of the employee viewpoint on emerging issues related to HRM practices associated with the ‘new employment relationship’. Data obtained from employees across two studies in two very different countries – South Africa and New Zealand has been used to represent the employee perspective. Interestingly, a number of shared perceptions about these HRM practices are found to exist between employees from South Africa and New Zealand, suggesting the problems employees currently experience with the HR practices in the workplace that aim to promote this new relationship could be more widely shared.The areas of shared concern highlighted by employees were mainly related to the implementation of HRM practices. For example, insufficient line management commitment, unfairness and inconsistency in the application of HR policies were all issues that were commonly raised, as was poor communication. Employees attributed these problems to the inadequate skills of those responsible for the implementation of HRM, and tended to be of the view that they could effectively be resolved through the HR department playing a more central role in the implementation of HRM in an organisation, training of line managers to carry out their HR responsibilities more effectively and increased consultation with employees.Employees participating in these studies appeared to demonstrate a surprisingly high level of awareness and cognisance in identifying problems with HR practice and more significantly how these problems might be rectified. This would support the importance of accessing the employee perspective in both the implementation and research into HRM in practice. Based on the issues highlighted by the employees, increased co operation between line management, the HR department and employees is suggested to facilitate the effective design and implementation of HRM practice in this era of new employment relations.

The future context of work in the business environment in South Africa: Some empirical evidence

“…The results clearly indicate that South African HR practitioners involvement in strategic management issues impacting on organisations correspond with empirical studies executed elsewhere in the world such as New Zealand, Australia (Kane, 2001;Edgar & Browning, 2004;Burchell, 2002). …”

“…The debate regarding the soft model approach is a developmental humanist approach and for the hard model approach a situational contingent approach is followed, but it is neither yet resolved (Story, 1992; Legge, 1995;Boxall, 1996;Kane, 1999;Browning & Edgar, 2004). The soft approach can be summarised as HRM being effective when it involves a focus, which includes employee motivation, commitment and development.…”

“…The overlap of HRM into line and the reverse has consequently been the subject of debate for years, which has been well researched and published (Ulrich, 1998; Kane, 2001; Storey, 1995; Legge, 1995;Swanepoel et al, 2003;. Various issues have also been identified through the research of Browning and Edgar (2004), based on South African and New Zealand data in particular.…”

The Impact Of A Unitary Regulatory And Hrm Framework: Managerial And Worker Views From The New Zealand Workplace

“…The bulk of the negative responses concerned a lack of consistency in the application of HRM policies and a perceived gap between policy rhetoric and policy implementation. These views are consistent with those found in a previous study on New Zealand employee views towards HRM (Browning and Edgar, 2004 The positive responses, on the other hand, suggest HR professionals in New Zealand tend to be actively engaging in the role of employee champion (Ulrich, 1997), and establishing more effective channels of communication with workers. This suggests a reversal of the trend found some years ago in the study by Browning and Edgar (2004).…”

Realising competitive advantage through HRM in New Zealand service industries

“…A long-term orientation to training, learning and development is therefore also considered important. Not only does this enable employees to maintain proficiency in their work, but it also allows them to keep abreast of developments in their field that may affect their future employability (Browning & Edgar, 2004). Heskett, Sasser, and Schlesinger (1997) find that many of the outstanding service organisations view training as not only providing employees with the skills to do their job better but also improving employees' self-confidence, pride and ability to cope with life.…”