Toward Multi-Stakeholder Value: Virtual Human Resource Management

Hung-Yue Suen, Hsin-Lu Chang
2017 Sustainability  
Some large organizations have used online virtual worlds (e.g., Second Life) in human resources (HR) in recent years, but few studies have explored how the values are generated by this technology and what factors have an impact on the performance of this technology. In this article we identify the delivery of HR functions in virtual worlds as virtual human resource management (v-HRM). In principle, v-HRM is an integrated HR strategy that enhances the management of human capital and increases
more » ... visibility of human capital to worldwide stakeholders through the establishment of an online virtual world. By introducing the features of v-HRM and summarizing the initiatives of v-HRM based on IBM experiences, we propose a model that examines the multi-stakeholder value of v-HRM. A qualitative study was employed to explore the impact of v-HRM on four types of stakeholder values through the insights from social shaping of technology approach. The case analysis results also show four types of v-HRM value facilitators. This model acknowledges how and what to implement with respect to v-HRM, and thus can be used to guide future research on v-HRM. in terms of business planning and personnel capabilities but also allow company employees to manage their own personnel information [5] . During the 1990s, electronic human resource management (e-HRM) emerged due to the growth of corporate intranets. In contrast to HRIS, e-HRM extends beyond traditional HR-related administrative functions to provide a web-based HR channel for the entire organization. In fact, e-HRM is an umbrella term that covers all of the possible integration mechanisms and content of HR and IT [6], such as HR portals, talent profile mapping, e-learning, and human capital dashboards. The primary goal of e-HRM is to support decision-making and to provide self-service capabilities for internal corporate stakeholders, including employees and line managers [7] . Thus, HR has become a business partner that helps align business functions with HR-related policies and practices. This evolution constitutes the second wave of the HR transformation. However, alterations in HR functions are expected to continue. In the late 1990s, Fortune magazine published a story about "blowing up the HR function"; this story indicated that HR was not considered to be a department that adds strategic value to a firm [8] . As business partners, HR departments can deliver immediate HR services, management decision support, and human capital metrics, but they cannot deliver business results [9] . Therefore, HR is expected to cease being a passive business partner and instead becomes a proactive business driver that seeks solutions that involve and influence the perspectives of external stakeholders (i.e., investors and customers) and thereby directly impact business results [10] . Although the management of external stakeholders is traditionally the domain of sales, marketing, and public relations, the expansion of HR into this new territory can allow these departments to follow a top-down process to derive service strategies that are driven by outcome measures. For example, by connecting with customers, HR can ensure that a firm's talent acquisition, development, reward, and retention programs all function to encourage the skills that are required for customer satisfaction. Connections with investors can allow a firm's intangible assets, including its quality of leadership and human capital, to be observed in a manner that is not evident from its financial reports; thus, these connections can provide investors with confidence in a firm's future earnings [11] and corporate social responsibility [12] . Therefore, the shift of HR departments from passive business partners to active business drivers is projected to be the third wave of HR transformation. Notwithstanding the global economy has forced many HR departments to operate with limited budgets, raising questions about how HR value can be most efficiently delivered for both internal and external stakeholders [13] . Many organizations are turning to Web 2.0 and social networking sites to promote and deliver information to their target audiences [14] . The most interactive way of sharing this information involves virtual worlds that provide three-dimensional (3D) graphics, self-determined gameplay, user-created content, and lifelike human interactions [15] ; these traits differentiate virtual worlds from other social media and render these virtual worlds particularly interesting for corporate purposes [16] . We identify the delivery of HR functions in virtual worlds as virtual human resource management (v-HRM). In principle, v-HRM is an integrated HR strategy that enhances the management of human capital and increases the visibility of human capital to worldwide stakeholders through the establishment of an online virtual world. These online virtual worlds allow companies to conduct recruitment centers, job fairs, new employee onboarding, orientation, corporate universities, outdoor training, and networking in an internet-based, simulated environment that represents the real world. The strength of v-HRM is that it enables HR professionals to interact with stakeholders in real time via personalized avatars and to demonstrate HR practices in a 3D virtual environment, and therefore to shape and co-produce HR practices by engaging different stakeholders The IT profile of HR transformations is illustrated in Figure 1 . HRIS comprises the technology and processes to automate HR administrative activities. It focuses on the HR staffs' requirements. E-HRM uses information technology as a medium to support HR, employee and management in executing HR activities and self-services. The target group of e-HRM is not the HR staff but the internal stakeholders outside the HR department: the employees and management. V-HRM adopts virtual
doi:10.3390/su9122177 fatcat:aa4n3qalu5di3amddsf3qf67sq