The future of HR and information capability
| Published date | 12 February 2018 |
| Pages | 3-10 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/SHR-11-2017-0080 |
| Date | 12 February 2018 |
| Author | Wayne Brockbank,Dave Ulrich,David G. Kryscynski,Michael Ulrich |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Employee behaviour |
The future of HR and information
capability
Wayne Brockbank, Dave Ulrich, David G. Kryscynski and Michael Ulrich
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact that HR departments have on alternative
stakeholders when they focus on improving the organization’s informationcapability instead of focusing their
information agenda on human resource (HR) departmental activities.
Design/methodology/approach –The findings are based on the 2016 offeringof the HR Competency
study that is sponsoredby the Ross School of Business at the University of Michiganand the RBL Group.
The data set consists of over 36,000respondents from around the world. Data were gathered througha
360 methodologythat includes self-ratings and HR and non-HR associateratings.
Findings –The findingsshow that HR’s involvement in leveraging businessinformation has more impact
than any other HR departmentactivity on creating value for key external stakeholders. When controlling
for other HR activities, the analysisshows that 77.4 per cent of HR total impact on customer value and
55.6 per cent of shareholder value occurs through HR’s involvement in information management. This
impact occurs as HR departments contribute to identifying important external information (including
customer and competitiveinformation), importing important external information into the firm, analyzing
information through both quantitative and qualitative algorithms, disseminating key facts and findings
throughoutthe firm and ensuring the full utilization of information in decision making.The authors provide
examples of how HR departments in leading companies are contributing to each of these phases of
organizationinformation management.
Originality/value –These findings havepotentially important implications for how HR professionalsadd
value to their key stakeholders. It suggeststhat HR departments will add greater value to their firms as
they shift the focusof their information agenda from application to internalHR processes and practices to
creatingcompetitive advantage through organization-wideinformation managementcapability.
Keywords Competitive advantage, Information, HR strategy, HR value added,
Organizational capability
Paper type Research paper
On everybody’s list of major trends that are fundamentally transforming business is
the information agenda (Tapscott and Williams, 2008). This transformation is
happening at every level and at every scale from in-home marketing boutiques to
global multinationals. The proliferation of books, magazines and journal articles that
address the implications of informationis accelerating at an accelerating pace.
Considerable attention has been allocated to the management of human resource (HR)-
related information, often around HR analytics. Consulting firms, academics and individual
HR professionals have examined the basicapplications of HR data; for example, how many
employees do we have in different job categories and what are the present and future
pension fund obligations? These are important and useful applications of information for
improving HR practices. However, if we start from the assumption that HR’s ability to add
value to the organization is less about creating well-functioning HR practices, but rather to
create the organizational capabilities that are the foundation of high-performing institutions,
then a noticeable gap is evident. While HR has become increasingly sophisticated in
applying information logic and technology to itself, what is almost entirely absent is HR’s
Wayne Brockbank is based
at Ross School of Business,
University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Dave Ulrich is Professor at
Ross School of Business,
University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, Michigan, USA.
David G. Kryscynski is
based at Marriott School of
Business, Brigham Young
University, Provo, Utah,
USA. Michael Ulrich is
based at Huntsman School
of Business, Utah State
University, Logan, Utah,
USA.
DOI 10.1108/SHR-11-2017-0080 VOL. 17 NO. 1 2018, pp. 3-10, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1475-4398 jSTRATEGIC HR REVIEW jPAGE 3
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