Project Team: Dr. Jamie Power ([email protected]), Dr. Brigid, M. Milner (Waterford Institute of Technology), Prof. Thomas N. (Garavan University of Limerick)
This research project was funded by the Irish Research Council and Waterford Institute of Technology’s Advanced Scholar Scheme. It had a lead time of 48 months, and was completed in 2009.
The Project Aim:
Acknowledging the vociferous calls for research to advance upon existing studies in the field of HRM devolution that simply frame the roles and impacts to line managers and HR professionals, this research sought to focus on the relational aspects of the phenomenon by identify the following research question: What are the features and associated impacts of the line manager-HR professional relationship that emerge in the realisation of collaborative HRM? The adoption of a mixed theoretical lens consisting of social exchange theory, social penetration and sensemaking facilitated the overarching research objective.
Methods:
The research embodied an interpretivist orientation in conjunction to adopting a subjectivist (ideographic) methodological stance. In addition to an extensive programme of secondary research, semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis formed the underpinning research methods. A single case study research design in the context of a semi-state organisation was utilised. The units of analysis included line managers, HR professionals, business-unit HR Managers and individual Group HR Managers.
Engagement Activity:
This research project, given its single case study design, involved significant and prolonged engagement with a multi-business unit Irish semi-state organisation, where the units of analysis included line managers, HR professionals, businessunit HR Managers and Group HR Managers. Through the study itself and beyond, findings and results were disseminated and presented at a policy level to the research funding organisation and equally, at a research level through various management and academic conferences.
Impact:
In responding to vociferous calls for research to advance upon the existing knowledge and studies in the field, this research has contributed at knowledge, theoretical, methodological and practical levels:
• This research study has enhanced knowledge and understanding on line manager-HR professional relationships with reference to HRM delivery and furthermore, has achieved this within an Irish organisational context. Moreover, the research findings have identified avenues for further and complementary research in the field;
• Adopting a multi-theoretical approach integrating social exchange theory with social penetration and sensemaking, served to develop a coherent and robust theoretical underpinning for future research on organisational relationships;
• The single case study design, with the incorporation of multiple responding actors assisted in developing a research framework for fully capturing the research phenomenon from multiple perspectives which was lacking in the existing body of literature;
• In a practical sense, this research has surfaced a variety of relationship features and dynamics and illustrates the need, in addition to providing a framework, to appreciate the range of relationships which exist in crossfunctional settings. Additionally, the research findings produced a series of recommendations for strategic human resource management practice.
RIKON 2013.