Major Selection
For this paper, I have chosen Human Resource Management as my major. I am actually planning to pursue a career that is well-categorized under Human resource management in the future and this research paper will hopefully help me improve my outcomes as a student and later as a human resource management professional.
But first, here is a brief but clear overview about human resource management and what it really is. Human resource actually refers to the employees of a particular organization. HRM’s main responsibility is to ensure that human resources are well-provided for the organization as shortages of employees could really do a lot of damage and even cripple the whole organization by stopping its process.
Human Resource Management Sourcing and Selection
According to McNamara (2011), human resource management is usually a part of a bigger organization that handles the different aspects of human resources. The term “human resources” most often refers employees and talents under an organization.
The organization that handles these employees (human resources) is usually the employer—pays employees to do particular types of jobs. Now, the role of a human resource management department is to ensure that the organization will be able to attract, sort, train and develop and most importantly, retain the assets and talents of the company (as long as it is connected with human resources) needed to maintain an organization’s productivity and meet its goals and objectives.
Computers have evolved in the past years and according to past literatures, HR departments have undergone steep curves on how to integrate successful use of computers with the different stages and phases of human resource management.
Back in the year 1991, Broderick & Boudreau (1991) (the same year) conducted an exploratory study about the possible effects of computers in Human resource management. They later found out that computer usage for HRM processes were only limited to be concentrated on surveys of other equipment, handling of simple applications, a list of reports, do’s and don’ts etc.. Those processes, they reported, were as much as possible linked to purchase and sales to ensure accuracy.
Now, computers are used to post job offerings to potential employees. The number of people joining online job search communities through the internet is also growing fast. Some organization even claims that in the future, the primary method of employment and hiring would be primarily done over the internet.
Nevertheless, it is too early to judge such theories now because most HR departments today still use traditional ways of attracting talents. Some examples include simple job postings and participation in job fairs. Most of the time, employees are the ones who make more efforts to look for a job and not the other way around and this could actually serve as an advantage for organization HR departments. Their only problem now would be to devise a way how to filter the applicants that come to their office and choose only the best among the best.
HRM Assessment and Interview
Computers have evolved so fast and so much, that some organization HR departments already conduct assessment and interview phases of their hiring process over a computer where the interviewer who is usually the HR manager and the applicant or the interviewee are connected via the internet or even a phone.
According to Nunamaker et al.’s (2011) study about the relationship of HR and computers, the practice of conducting HR assessment and interview processes via a computer is not uncommon. Their study was based on the effects of using computer automated kiosks in the arousal, behavioral, cognitive and overall changes of the subjects. They used heterogeneous sensors to detect the changes in their subject’s physiology and behavior while the test is being done, especially during interactions.
Basically, their study promotes the use of automated kiosks that is being controlled by a virtual agent they call “SPECIES” to replace the current practice of actual interview. They have tried using the kiosk on different subjects and they recorded the results. According to their results, it is, as of now, unrealistic to rely solely on the use of virtual agents to understand the complex behavior of humans.
Their results however showed that with enough levels and numbers of sensors (in the study, they only used one sensors and it showed surprising results although not dependable enough to be used in the field) as well as the correct model, automation of HR Assessment and Interview processes could be done in the future.
Their study shows how computers have affected the field of Human resource management. Right now, there are already a lot of organizations who manage their employees virtually. There is not even a single physical contact between the employees, the managers and the executives. Usually, the primary means of communication for these organizations are through electronic mails, text messages, phone calls and different company management software suites.
Conclusions and Recommendations
There is enough evidence that shows how computers revolutionized the norms and traditions in human resource management. A decade ago or two ago, interviews, hiring and sourcing processes were done traditionally; that is, through manual advertisement for vacant job positions to encourage employees to apply as long as they are qualified. Now, even the interviewing and the job itself could be run virtually.
With regards to the effectiveness of using new technology in the different human resource management processes, there is no clear evidence that could prove whether running a virtual HR environment is effective or not. What other researchers could do is to focus on proving the effectiveness of using new technology in a general or just a specific HR process. Nevertheless, there is a vast pool of evidence, both written and non-written that could prove how new technology has changed the way HR departments are being run today.
Bibliography
Boudreau, B. &. (1991). The evolution of computer use in human resource management: interviews with ten leaders. Human resource management.
Klein, M. &. (1987). Things are always more complicated than what you think: An open systems approach to the organizational effects of computer-automated technology. Journal of business and psychology.
Mcnamara. (2011). All about human resources and talent management. Authenticity Consulting.
Nunamaker, D. E. (2011). Embodied conversational agent for agent-based kiosk for automated interviewing. Journal of management information systems.
