E-HRM in Competence Recognition and Management

Introduction

The human resource management (HRM) can be structured according to different key perspectives (e.g., Stone, 2002). One viewpoint concerns the applications and information technology-based human resource information systems (HRIS) that can be seen as an additional solution to carry out the successful human resource management. The historical perspective of the current topic shows how organizations have had various management information systems and decision supportive systems. Both of these have direct links to human-computer interaction and human behavior (e.g., Zhang & Dillon, 2003). In management context, however, demand for successful HRM is challenging as human resources are led in specific situations (Hershey, Blanchard, & Johnson, 2000) and managed in changing organizational environments (Sashkin & Sashkin, 2003). Leadership studies have shown that management should be accompanied with the wide-range of managerial options. Hence, as one element of e-governance, there is need for advanced electronic human resource management (e-HRM) systems that are acceptable and effective (rf. Stone, Stone-Romero, & Lukaszewski, 2006).

The internal and external environment of organizations is indeed changing continuously which causes new demands: for the human competence and capacity (Leonard, 1998; Syväjärvi, Stenvall, Jurvansuu, & Harisalo, 2005), for the detection and recognition of those (e.g., Hershey, Blanchard, & Johnson, 2000) and for organizational perception (e.g., London, 2001). These fields are indeed a part of human resource management. The human competence (or capacity) refers here to behaviors and actions, but also to the tacit abilities underlying human behavior and action. Thus, need for developing the organizational information systems exists also in the field of HRM. Organizations want to improve their human competence detection and management.

Ghoshal, Bartlett, and Moran (2000) have showed that people’s knowledge and competence will be an increasingly critical element of organizational success. Those who can recognize competencies, and further, who can create new knowledge will be successful in organizational settings (rf. Ghoshal et al., 2000; Stacey, 2001). However, the human competence is found so difficult and complex that its recognition or development for organizational purposes can not be easily completed by the management. In this context, the e-HRM systems are needed as those may provide valuable information for decision making. Electronic mechanisms or management information systems are of extreme importance as the information produced can be utilized in management (e.g., Zhang & Li, 2002).

Organizational benefits and success factors of electronic approaches are complex (Gil-Carcia & Helbig, 2006). Traditional HRM systems are repeatedly too expensive, quite slow, or otherwise complicated. These are simultaneously problematical in respect of the effective management. This article will search for a new e-HRM system to measure and analyze tacit human signals in organizations. Tacit signals refer to personal beliefs concerning both the recognitions and the improvement needs of human competencies (rf. Stone, 2002; Syväjärvi et al., 2005), but as well to the fundamentals of effective leadership (Kets de Vries, 2006). Hence, a research question is set as follows: