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- Boglind, Anders, 1944, et al.
(författare)
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HR transformation and shared services: Adoption and adaptation in Swedish organisations
- 2011
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Ingår i: Personnel Review. ; 40:5, s. 570-588
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose – This paper seeks to compare Ulrich's model of HR transformation/shared service organisation (the “three-legged stool”) with the empirical evidence from the research. The aim of the paper is to describe the journey from theory to practice of HR transformation in organisations as they adopt and adapt the model. Design/methodology/approach – An institutional frame of reference is used for case studies of seven Swedish organisations. The respondents in the 192 interviews are HR professionals, line managers and other stakeholders. Findings – All seven of the organisations adopted the HR transformation as a standard blueprint. Management consultants played a leading role in this process. HR service centres were established, the local HR staffs were reduced radically, and the remaining role, the HR business partners, took on lesser importance. During the adaptation process a variety of solutions resulted, some of which were innovations. Research limitations/implications – Because of the small sample size, the generalisability of the results is somewhat limited. Practical implications – The results may useful to both researchers and practitioners, whether they are involved in the study or in the re-organisation of HR. It is not easy to imitate a theoretical model or a “best practice” model without taking the translation process into consideration. Originality/value – Previous studies have not examined how HR transformation/shared service travels in different organisations using this number of interviews in in-depth research. These results show that achieving the desirable HR organisation depends on the translation and interpretations of the concepts in the local context
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| 2. |
- Boglind, Anders, 1944, et al.
(författare)
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HR Transformation in the Swedish context – global concepts, local adaptations
- 2009
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Ingår i: the Dutch HRM Conference, VU University, Amsterdam, 13-14 November 2009.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The globalization of the market for management ideologies means that same ideas are offered everywhere. This goes for ideas about management in general as well as for subsections like human resource management. What happens when a “global” HRM concept hits the ground? To what extent is it adapted to the local context? The basis for our discussion is data from an on-going research project where we describe and compare the way the concept and practice of HR Transformation has been adopted and adapted in seven big Swedish organisations. One main finding is that the complexity of the original ideas is reduced, resulting in a standard HRT concept, which is adopted by all of our organisations, irrespective of their business. When implemented the standard blueprint is adapted and the result is a variety of solutions, more or less related to the institutional context, national and corporate. Both the direction of the adaptations and the prospect for sustainability depends on the fit between the HRT and the institutional context. Some parts, like the centralized and system-supported shared service go well together with other dominating trends. Others, like the Business Partner role has less institutional support and may be difficult to sustain. In most cases the value adding aspect of HR Transformation gets a secondary role, and the capacity to cut costs and increase management control takes the upper hand. The practice of benchmarking and the urge for following “best practice” contributes to this process. Duplication of consultantsʼ recipes and imitation of companies considered to be role models has in most cases been the input to the adaption process. On the other hand, a few of the companies we have studied have been able to make their HRT journey to an integral part of their continued working methods. Where the HRT eventually lands is an open question. Neither theories nor recipes are objects; rather they are subjects that change when they are used. Further research including data from other countries may help us to a better answer.
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