Strategic alignment of IT and human resources management in manufacturing SMEs. Empirical test of a mediation model

Published date02 August 2019
Pages830-850
Date02 August 2019
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/ER-09-2018-0258
AuthorFrançois L'Écuyer,Louis Raymond,Bruno Fabi,Sylvestre Uwizeyemungu
Subject MatterHr & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law
Strategic alignment of IT and
human resources management
in manufacturing SMEs
Empirical test of a mediation model
François L'Écuyer
Université du Québec en Abitibi Temiscamingue, Rouyn-Noranda, Canada, and
Louis Raymond, Bruno Fabi and Sylvestre Uwizeyemungu
Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivieres, Canada
Abstract
Purpose Within the manufacturing sector, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face specific
challenges with regard to their strategic HRM capabilities. In this context, an emerging issue for both
researchers and practitioners regards HR information systems (HRIS), i.e. the deployment of strategic IT
capabilities to enable the firms high-performance work system (HPWS) capabilities and thus improve the
performance of its HR function. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue by using a capability-based
mediation perspective to study the strategic alignment of HR and IT.
Design/methodology/approach A survey study of 206 manufacturing SMEs was realized and the data
thus obtained was analyzed through structural equation modeling.
Findings Results confirm that the HRIS capabilities of SMEs influence the performance of the HR function
through their strategic alignment with the HPWS capabilities of these enterprises.
Practical implications The results suggest that the manufacturing SMEs most active in developing their
HRIS capabilities while developing their HPWS capabilities are most likely to develop a competitive
advantage through the improved performance of their HR function. This is especially important in a time
when firms of all sizes across the globe are waging a war for talent,and are enabled to do so by their
strategic use of IT.
Originality/value The results of the study constitute a valid basis for prediction and prescription with
regards to the strategic alignment of human and IT resources.
Keywords SME, Strategic alignment, HRIS capabilities, Strageic human resource management,
HR function performance
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
In the last two decades, manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been
facing multiple management challenges in the face of globalization, including the strategic
human resource management (SHRM) challenge (Lepak and Shaw, 2008; Mitchell, Obeidat and
Bray, 2013; Pascual Ivars and Comeche Martinez, 2015; Wu et al.,2015).Inthecontextofatalent
warlinked to an aging workforce and with the emergence of Web 2.0-based technology such as
social media, the need to recruit, retain and develop human resources (HR) requires these firms to
perform better in terms of SHRM (Huselid et al., 1997; Barney and Wright, 1998), and in
particular to deploy and use information technology (IT) for this purpose (Olivas-Luján et al.,
2007). Furthermore, the IT-enabled management of HR, through the deployment and use of
human resource information systems (HRIS) by firms, is meant to improve the performance of
their HR function (DeSanctis, 1986; Maier et al., 2013) and allow it to play a more strategic role in
the organization (Haines and Lafleur, 2008; Barrett and Oborn, 2013). We must thus question the
potential effect of HRIS technology adoption and assimilation on the HR functionscapacityto
improve its performance (Parry, 2011; Iqbal et al., 2018), and thus better meet the strategic needs
of manufacturing SMEs in this regard (Schalk et al., 2013). Noting that our research focus is on
the HR function as the unit of analysis, the term HRISis used throughout the paper rather than
Employee Relations: The
International Journal
Vol. 41 No. 5, 2019
pp. 830-850
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-09-2018-0258
Received 29 September 2018
Revised 1 March 2019
9 March 2019
Accepted 8 April 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0142-5455.htm
830
ER
41,5
the more generic e-HRM,given that HRIS technology is meant to enable this most important
functional area of the organization and HRIS applications are used by HR managers for SHRM
purposes (Bondarouk and Ruël, 2012; Johnson et al., 2016).
Given that HRIS research to-date has mainly pertained to large organizations with an
established HR function, it is necessary to adopt a different frame of reference that accounts
for the specificities of SMEs with regards to the strategic management of IT resources and
HR (Marler and Fisher, 2013). Moreover, the implementation of strategic or mission-critical
IT such as HRIS pose a great risk to these organizations (Poba-Nzaou and Raymond, 2011),
especially in terms of failing to meet SHRM objectives. A deeper understanding of the role
played by HRIS capabilities in enabling the HR function in these firms is also required, given
that HRIS research is relatively recent and consists mainly of conceptual or prescriptive
research aimed at developing frameworks and guidelines for large enterprises and public
organizations (Marler and Fisher, 2013). The relationship between HRIS and SHRM thus
remains to be further studied empirically in the specific context of SMEs, if one is to provide
a better explanation of their complementary effect on the performance of the HR function in
these firms. Such an analysis requires mobilizing both HRM and information systems (IS)
research findings in an interdisciplinary manner (Khatri et al., 2010). Now, given that IT-
related studies in both fields have generally been conducted in a disciplinary manner, the
performance effects of IT-HR complementarities have yet to be fully understood.
With the present study, we aim to contribute to the body of research on the joint effects
of IT and non-IT resources in general (Song et al., 2005; Jeffers et al., 2008; Chen, 2012), and of
IT capabilities and HR capabilities in particular (Carte and Chidambaram, 2004; Aral and
Weill, 2007). We do so by analyzing these effects from a resource and capability-based view
(CBV) ( Makadok, 2001), to answer the following research question:
RQ1. In what manner and to what extent do HRIS capabilities of manufacturing SMEs
contribute to the performance of their HR function?
By answering this research question in an interdisciplinary manner, and given the specific
management challenges faced by SMEs with regard to their HR function (Sels et al., 2006; Coder
et al., 2017), our study aims to contribute to both HRM and IS theory and practice in a number of
ways. First, we wish to answer the calls within the SHRM literature to further open the black
boxof the relationship between high-performance work systems (HPWS) and organizational
performance outcomes, that is, by focusing instead on an as-of-yet understudied intermediate
outcome, namely the performance of the HR function (Jiang et al., 2013; Karadas and Karatepe,
2019; Messersmith et al., 2011). Second, given the key role played by the HR function in
implementing the firms HR strategy and in developing its human capital, we aim to produce
results that allow us to appropriately describe and explain the joint strategic contribution of
HPWSandHRISintermsoftheHRfunctions performance (Becker and Huselid, 2006). Third,
focusing on the firms HPWS and HRIS capabilities and practices provides us with a more
practical approach to understand how effectively these firms deploy, combine and use their
strategic human capital and IT resources (Delery and Roumpi, 2017), and thus allows us to
provide HR and IT managers as well as other practitioners with recommendations that are more
precise and more relevant to the contextual specificities of manufacturing SMEs. Finally, in line
with our interdisciplinary approach and resource-based view (RBV) of the strategic alignment of
HPWS and HRIS, we wish to contribute to the further co-evolutionof the HRM and IS fields
(Johnson et al., 2016) by raising new, interesting and important questions for researchers in
both fields.
2. Conceptual framework
The conceptual framework of this study is primarily founded upon the RBV and especially upon
a CBV with the concepts of organizational resources and competences that pertain to both SHRM
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Strategic
alignment of
IT and HR
management

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