STRATEGIC HR ROLES AND ORGANISATIONAL LEARNING CAPABILITY AFFECTING ORGANISATIONAL COMMITMENT: AN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE
Jyotsna Bhatnagar
/
Institute for Integrated Learning in Management
New Delhi –India
Phone: 011-24647820-ext: 240
Dr. Anuradha Sharma
Indian Institute of Technology
Humanities and Social Sciences
Hauz Khas, New Delhi.India
Phone: 011-26596509
Abstract
The current debate in India is on the status of HRM and we discern the movement into the strategic realm. The current research study proposes to find answers to the questions which revolve around the Strategic role of HRM and the organisational learning capability , along with organisational and background variables. These, in turn are proposed to being affected by the organizational commitment of employees, moderated by Psychological empowerment perceived in the work place. The study will be using standardized scales and proposes to collect data from 1000 Indian managers to look for evidence in the relationship of these variables, using a quantitative and a qualitative data analysis approach. The proposed study will be a contribution to the theory of strategic HRM.
Key words: Strategic HR roles, Organisational Learning Capability/Psychological Empowerment, Organisational Commitment, Firm Performance
1.0 Introduction:
Since the 1960s employee commitment continues to be one of the most exciting issues for both managers and researchers. Many studies have attempted to explore its effect on work outcomes such as turnover and job performance. Nevertheless, the need for a greater understanding of this Organisational phenomenon increases daily. (Suliman and Iles, 2000).The major driving force behind this continuous recognition of commitment in the management literature for more than three decades is that it is often seen as the key to "business success" (Benkhoff, 1997a). More recently, some researchers (e.g. Baruch, 1998; Carson ET al., 1999) have started doubting the viability and suitability of Organisational commitment (OC) to today's fast changing environment in the West. On the contrary, other researchers argue that one of the year 2000 key issues is Organisational Commitment.
Keep (1989), uses the term commitment in his definition of HRD: ‘One of the primary objectives of HRD is the creation of conditions whereby the latent potential of employees will be realized and their commitment to the course of the organization secured. The latent potential is taken to include not merely the capacity to acquire new skills and knowledge …’ Given this definition thus, the linkage of commitment to HR, and the linkage of Organisational learning to HR becomes evident, which this study proposes to test both empirically and qualitatively . Further, Guest (1987), recommends researchers use attitudinal component of Organisational commitment (Mowday, Porter and Steers, 1982), due to it being more applicable to HR policy and formation. Guest(1987,1992,1995) and Coopey and Hartlet (1991) further argue that HR policies have been designed to produce HR outcomes, such as eliciting employee commitment. According to Beer and Spector (1985), commitment entailed the creation of high trust relations between all sectors of the workforce, which in turn meant employees being able to exercise influence and in some way be ‘empowered’. Iverson (1996) pointed out that, ‘Future research…should focus on the increasing importance of appropriate HR policies to elicit Organisational commitment in both public-and private sector organizations, in manufacturing and service industries…’ The current research study attempts fills this caveat pointed out by researchers. So the questions, which this research study proposes to probe, are as follows: Are human resource managers able to sustain the commitment and psychological empowerment of the workforce? What is the impact of HR role and Learning capability on Organisational commitment? These are some of the issues which need to be clarified through research, which this study proposes to pursue. Let us look at the status of HRM in India vis .a, vis liberalization.
1.1 The New Business scenario and HRM in India:
The liberalization of economic policies and increased level of competition by overseas firms have increased the pressure on the personnel function of Indian domestic companies to prepare and develop their employees so that they can compete with overseas firms in skills, efficiency and effectiveness (for more details, see Budhwar and Sparrow 1997;Krishna and Monappa 1994; Sparrow and Budhwar 1997a; Venkataratnam 1995) Though the existing Indian literature …shows a ten year gap regarding the developments in personnel function compared to the west (Budhwar 2000), yet some studies have shown, that HRM is slowly growing strategic in India (See Budhwar, 2000; Singh; 2001; Kandula 2001; Sharma and Sharma, 2002;Bhatnagar and Sharma 2002). How does commitment fit in here? Is the workforce who looks not at life long employment still committed? Does HR role drive commitment? Does Human Resource Role affect Organisational commitment? What has been the role of Human Resources in the face of so much transformation? Are there some other conditions which are required for effective role fulfillment and increased commitment? What is the level of Organisational learning capabilities here? Do the roles of HR have an impact on the psychological empowerment of the Employees? Does the life cycle of an organization affect HR Role? Similarly is size of an organization impacting the Psychological empowerment? What is the position of gender in terms of these variables? Do education and age of the managers affect HR Roles and commitment? These questions have lead to firming up he research question for the study, which is:
2.0 Research Question:
How do Strategic HR roles, Organisational learning Capability, background variables and Organisational variables affect Organisational commitment? Is this relationship moderated by Psychological empowerment?
3.0 Objectives of Research:
The broad objective of this research is to arrive at the antecedents of Organisational commitment. Sub-objectives are to find out:
- What is the impact of Organisational learning Capability and strategic HR roles background variables and Organisational variables on Organisational commitment.
- Is the relationship moderated by psychological empowerment?
- What is the relationship between Strategic HR roles and Organisational learning capability?
- What are the predictors of Organisational commitment?
- What is the relationship between these variables and Firm performance?
4.0 Brief Literature Review
4.1.1 Organisational Commitment:
The twenty-first century will witness the rising of commitment research across cultures, not the falling as some researchers argue (e.g. Baruch, 1998). The recent perspective of multidimensional organisational commitment is taking over from the unidimensional approach that has dominated management research for more than three decades. The majority of the commitment studies have been conducted in the Western countries. According to Meyer (1997, p. 218) "the models of commitment ... have been developed and tested in Western countries. There is a need for more systematic research to determine whether these models apply elsewhere". The link between HR roles and commitment is not present in research, though the link between commitment and role behaviour is much researched. Stevens, Beyer and Trice (1978) developed a role-taking model in their attempt to clarify psychological and structural determinants of the managerial commitment process. On the other hand it was found that Organisational commitment was negatively associated with role stress. (Diesh, 1997;Mathieu, 1991; Chatterjee1992). Commitment and role –making behaviour seem to have tentative linkages (Sayeed, 2001). Further the link between HR and commitment gets impetus from the research of Guzzo and Noonan 1994, which illustrated the connection between interpretations of HR practices and employee commitment. This is an area where a research lacuna exists and the proposed study addresses this research gap. Also the linkage between Organisational commitment and Organisational learning is important and conceptually relevant. Let us look at the research in this area.
4.1.2 Organisational Learning Capability:
The well-known Organisational learning frameworks (Daft and Weick, 1984; Huber, 1991; March, 1991; March and Olsen, 1975; Watkins and Marsick, 1993) recognizes the tension of strategic renewal. In India Ramnarayan and Bhatnagar (1993), looked at the triggers for organisational learning and found HR to be one of those triggers. (for a detailed literature review on Organisational Learning see Bhatnagar, 2000). HR roles have been overlooked by researchers, though linkage between Organisational learning and HRM, Role of consultants, supervisors, and the role of change strategies and Organisational learning has been researched. ( Beckherd and Prichard 1992;Walton 1999; Massey and Walker, 1999;London and Smither 1999, Mohrman & Lawler 1997). For linkage and review of these two variables, see Sharma and Sharma (2002), where it is evident that (1) the issue of learning is positively related to strategic HRM. Linkage between these two variables of Strategic HR role and Organisational learning capability is proposed by this study. Further, researchers have pointed out that learning organizations claim substantial benefits, and one among them is organisational commitment. (Walton, 1999: pp 409). Using the above research context it can be further argued that learning organisations create and retain their workforce for a longer time, as the loyalty and commitment level of the workforce is high. According to Sayeed (2000), ‘it is extensively debated in the management literature, that if non-learning organisations are properly guided from within, they can develop a learning style’, or even learning capability, which this study proposes to probe. It can also be claimed that such organisations develop a tremendous capacity to look inwards as well as outwards to optimally utilize various types of resources (Pedlar ET al, 1991). The Organisational learning capability is quite significant in the context of making employees committed to the organization, and this is possible if the organization follows a employee centered role which is accentuated through Strategic HR roles within the organization. It is this linkage which the proposed study proposes to study intensively.
4.1.3 Strategic HR Roles :
Role conflict and commitment is very extensively researched ( Hrebiniak and Alutto, 1972; Singh et. al, 1981, Becker ET al, 1995), but there very few studies which have related Strategic HR roles and Employee commitment. Literature does point out the connection between interpretations of HR practices and employee commitment. (Guzzo and Noonan, 1994). It was observed that workers’ interpretation of their employer’s human resource practices affected their psychological contract with the employer and consequently their commitment to the employer. HR and Commitment have broad linkages in Literature. Walton (1985) states a broad HRM approach to the ways in which people are treated, jobs are designed and organizations are managed. As Guest (1987) has indicated, HR policies are designed to maximize organisational integration, employee commitment, flexibility and quality of work. It is these linkages that the study proposes to look at.
Though HR practice interpretations have been studied, HR roles and Commitment linkages remain largely unexplored. Further Strategic HR roles in themselves need further research, as has been pointed out by the literature.Human Resource roles have formed the basis of prescriptive and theoretical studies Zabriskie & Huellmantel, 1989, McKee,1997). Transformational change and it’s effect on traditional HR roles has been studied by Lancourt and Savage, 1995. While recent work has highlighted the changing role of HR (Ulrich1997, Connors and Ulrich1996, Valkeavaara 1998, Sparrow & Marchington, 1998 Down, Mardis, Connolly & Johnson1997, O'Reilly1998), these have been neglected in India. The national HRD network and the Confederation of Indian Industries, (CII) have been giving HRD awards for organizations that have outstanding practices or at least distinguished themselves in this regard. An analysis of the HRD award -winning organizations does indicate that excellent performers in the Indian corporate sector do seem to have excellent practices. (Rao 1996). Researchers like Patnayyak, 1996, Rao and Abraham, 1986, Rao 1982, Monappa and Kamat 1980's have undertaken studies mostly about the HR Climate of the organizations or general acceptability of the HR/personnel function. Though attempts have been made to look at the HRD practices in India regarding its strategic status (Pareek 1997;Singh 1999; Kandula, 2001, Sharma and Sharma, 2002) yet the area remains largelyunexplored. Research study by Bhatnagar and Sharma( 2002), attempted to look at the conceptual strategic HR model of Ulrich(1997), and to the limited knowledge of the researcher no further attempt has been made to look at this model and it’s applicability in India. Given the above research gap it becomes imperative to investigate the strategic Human resource roles in India. Further there seems to be that the linkage between Strategic HR roles and learning is not very clear and the relationship needs further strengthening which this study proposes to pursue.
4.2.0 Background Variables:
4.2.1 Age & Education:
In general , research has yielded ambiguous results, with some studies indicating that demographics may have little or no effect (Shadur et al., 1995) and other research indicating that demographic variables are either significantly related to or are strong predictors of job satisfaction and commitment.(Fogarty, 1994). Hrebanik and Aluttoo (1972) found out that age was positively related to Organisational commitment. Analysis of differences across sexes revealed differences in commitment though females exhibited less of a propensity to change the organization they were employed at than their male counterparts. Regardless of occupation, younger people were employed to their organizations as older subjects, whose careers were more fully developed. Respondents planning to seek education advancement showed increased commitment compared to those who did not plan of education advancement.
Taormina (1999), states that it may be possible for managers to develop appropriate human resource strategies for improving satisfaction and commitment, if it is known that certain groups are not attaining high levels of these variables. This research study focuses on the role of HR, Demographic variables, and Organisational commitment to strengthen this research need
4.2.2 Gender:
Woodall (1996) raises an important question: Is HRM really Gender Blind? Excluding Research Monographs, over 15 academic text books have been published on HRM since 1989.Only one of them, the first edition of (Towers 1992) has included a separate chapter on women, and another (Dickens in Sisson 1994), contains a critical review of equal opportunities in employment in general. Several other texts on HRM do not even have an index reference to women. But there is a real need to address the women issues in HRM. (Woodall, 1996). Literature has found that women are more committed than men. Women managers’ intention to leave the organization was investigated through a set of workplace variables and affective responses (Rosin and Korabik, 1991). The results of the analysis indicated that women who felt that their expectations had not been met, who described their jobs as limited in leadership responsibility, variety, time flexibility and autonomy, and who cited office politics as potential factors in decision to leave , expressed low job satisfaction and Organisational commitment. The present study proposes to investigate the linkages of gender to organisational commitment, Strategic HR roles and organisational learning capability. .
4.2.3 Hierarchical level:
In most research studies hierarchical levels were found to be a significant background variable. Welsch and Lavan (1981) found that older employees had a higher level of Organisational commitment as also employees at higher hierarchical levels. McDonald’s (1992) study found that for both middle and first line managers controlling the subordinates was important, but Mintzberg (1973), did not support the thought that managerial jobs at different levels differed in any kind. In an Indian research study conducted on 143 managers, Das and Manimala (1993), found that roles of a manager across Organisational hierarchy reflect differences. Middle managers spent more time on the nurturing role and senior managers on information dissemination and social roles. Contradictions in the above research make it imperative to research this background variable. Many research studies have found the middle managers and top managers to be more committed than the junior managers. Morris and Sherman (1981) investigated a multivariate predictive model of Organisational commitment and focused on the role of the job level and Organisational differences. Vancouver and Schmitt (1991) on the other hand focused on Organisational commitment and goal congruence between hierarchical levels. The proposed study wishes to investigate these linkages further.
4.3.0 Organisational Variables:
4.3.1 Organisational life cycle stage
In a research study conducted by Budhwar (2000) contingent variables influencing HRM in India were found to be organisational life cycle stage. Research in HRM also shows significant influence of Organisational life cycle stages on HRM Policies and practices (See Hendry and Pettigrew, 1992). It would be addressing a research lacunae, if HR roles and their linkage with life cycle stage is empirically investigated, further Organisational commitment and Organisational Learning Capability linkages to Organisational life cycle stage would provide a richer perspective to this research.
4.3.2 Size:
Size of the organization (based on the total number of employees) is known to significantly influence HRM policies. (See Jackson et al 1989). Budhwar (2000) found Indian HRM to be influenced by size. For example, Small organizations (less than 499 employees) give less importance to communication through Unions or Work councils (Venkataratnam, 1995). Similarly, organizations having employees between 1000 to 5,999 are likely to communicate through suggestion boxes, attitude survey etc. This research suggests that if we look into the HR roles and the Size of the organization, we a re likely to find some significant relationship.
4.3.3. Organization’s financial performance:
Balfour and Wechsler (1991) used samples of organizations to establish the connection between commitment and Organisational performance. The results indicated that employees develop a sense of attachment to an organization mainly on the basis of whether they perceive it to be supportive of their values and a hospitable and socially satisfying place to work. This finding implies that employee commitment and attachment to the organization can be increased through efforts to improve the organization’s social environment and purposive-ness and does not require pay hikes. Although significant benefits may be gained from the efforts to increase employee commitment, enhanced productivity may not be one of them. The proposed study would be looking at these linkages. Further, the relationship between HR practices and business results is built on a simple premise that better deployment and use of HR practices should correlate with higher business performance. (Ulrich 1997). Pfeiffer (1994), on the basis of literature review concluded that employee participation and empowerment, and other variables like Training and performance contingent incentive compensation are widely believed to improve the performance of the organization. Huselid, Jackson and Schuler, (1997), found that organisational effectiveness was associated with capabilities and attributes of HR staff. This research study proposes to strengthen the link between Strategic HR roles and firm performance leading to competitive advantage, which has not been probed as yet.