Importance of the internet to human resource practitioners in Hong Kong
| Pages | 66-84 |
| Published date | 21 December 2007 |
| Date | 21 December 2007 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480810839978 |
| Author | Eric W.T. Ngai,Chuck C.H. Law,Simon C.H. Chan,Francis K.T. Wat |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
Importance of the internet to
human resource practitioners in
Hong Kong
Eric W.T. Ngai
Department of Management and Marketing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic
University, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Chuck C.H. Law
Department of Information Management, Chaoyang University of Technology,
Tai Chung County, Taiwan, and
Simon C.H. Chan and Francis K.T. Wat
Department of Management and Marketing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic
University, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the perceptions of the importance of
the internet to human resource management (HRM) and to understand the existing human resource
(HR) practices and needs of the internet to support HRM functions.
Design/methodology/approach – A structured questionnaire survey was used to collect data from
selected public companies quoted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Questionnaires were returned by
147 respondents and used for the analysis. The overall response rate was 29 percent, which was higher
than expected.
Findings – The findings indicated that the most frequently cited internet-supported HRM function in
the existing literature is recruitment and selection. The results showed that there are no significant
organization size differences or significant differences in internet connectivity as far as the perceived
importance of the internet to HR practitioners is concerned. Specifically, helping managers to stay
informed is the most important reason for adopting the internet for HR practitioners.
Originality/value – This study has proved that internet-based HR offers enormous opportunities to
improve organization performance. This paper introduces the reader to the potential use of the internet
to support HRM.
Keywords Human resourcemanagement, Internet, Intranets,Distance learning, Hong Kong
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The field of human resource management (HRM) can be characterized as having
encountered frequent and numerous innovations in technology. These include the
human resource information system (HRIS), electronic human resources (e-HR) and
virtual human resources (VHR). HRIS is used to gather and maintain the data that
describes the human resources (HR), transforming the data into information and then
reporting the information to users. E-HR offers great potential for a wide variety of
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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The authors are grateful for the constructive comments of the referee and Dr Stephen Swailes on
an earlier version of this paper. This research was supported in part by The Hong Kong
Polytechnic University under grant number A-PA3W.
PR
37,1
66
Received 24 February 2006
Revised 8 October 2006
Accepted 24 November 2006
Personnel Review
Vol. 37 No. 1, 2008
pp. 66-84
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/00483480810839978
uses including employee self-service, the production of reports, the sharing of
information and the administration of functions (Pass, 2002). VHR provides a
network-based structure built on partnerships and typically mediated by information
technology (IT) to help an organization acquire, develop and deploy intellectual capi tal
(Lepak and Snell, 1998). These three forms of technology innovation provide an
excellent opportunity to change the way HR works in organizations.
Traditionally, individuals in the field of HRM have obtained information about
innovations from sources such as newspapers, books, professional publications or
conferences. Today, a powerful new channel of information in the form of the internet
has been added to the traditional ones. A study conducted by the Gartner Group
suggests that companies that use technology effectively to manage the HR function
will have a tremendous advantage over those that do not (Greengard, 1999). The new
information channel makes huge volumes of information from many diverse sources
available to anyone with the necessary computer network access (Noe et al., 2003). In
an organizational context, the internet makes it possible for an organization to
automate HR processes. Various existing HR functions, applications or services can
virtually be transformed to Web-based ones. Ensher et al. (2002) studied the shift from
traditional HR to e-HR, drawing from literature and their interviews with a dozen HR
professionals.
Researchers have identified the importance of information technology to HRM but
have overlooked the application of HR functions (Cappelli, 2001; Feldman and Klaas,
2002; DeRouin et al., 2004; Gasco et al., 2004). Though Hoobler (2004) has pointed out
that the influence of the technological revolution on HRM seems to be lagging behind
in the research publication field, there have been few research studies investigating the
importance of the internet to HRM. To advance exploratory analysis of HRIS, this
paper aims to examine the perceptions of the importance of the internet to HRM in
Hong Kong. More specifically, the key objectives of this paper are to:
.review the applications of internet support for HRM through a comprehensive
literature search;
.understand the usage of the internet and the changes in organizations;
.investigate whether the importance of the internet to HR practitioners differs
according to organization size and internet connectivity; and
.seek to determine the reasons for the perceived importance of the internet to
HRM.
The paper is organized as follows. First, we provide a broad overview of the internet,
intranets and various internet applications used to support HRM. We then report the
hypotheses development and research methodology of the study. Next, the main
findings on the perceptions of the importance of the internet to HR practitioners in
Hong Kong are summarized. Finally, we present conclusions and offer suggestions for
future research on internet support for HRM.
Internet support for human resource management
Internet and intranets
The internet is the largest implemented network in the world, linking as it does
hundreds of thousands individual networks all over the world. As the use of the
internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) has been growing at a phenomenal rate, the
Importance of
the internet to
HR
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