Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677X.2016.1163945
Human resources in a draught: how managers construed the role and meaning of human resource management during the 2008 economic crisis in Slovenia
Ana Arzenšek
orcid.org/0000-0002-2487-3135
Kristijan Musek Lešnik
Abstract
An empirical study of interpretive schemas regarding human resource management (HRM) and its social responsibility of selected manufacturers in the automotive industry and of financial institutions
is presented. We were interested in how participants interpreted the
role of the HRM department during the economic crisis of 2008. It was assumed that HRM is subjected to increased accommodation processes during economic turbulence. Interpretive schemas regarding HRM of three selected manufacturers in the automotive
industry and of three financial institutions from Slovenia were studied.
Over a three-year period, 31 interviews with their management, HRM,
and union representatives were conducted. In addition, content
analysis of annual reports was made. The results have shown that
the current crisis has not yet been a factor of diminished roles and meaning of HRM. While the manufacturing companies are considerably homogeneous in their scope of adjustments to the crisis,
the financial companies considerably differ from each other regarding
their scope of activities and are going through schema change.
Factors, discovered in this study, add to the knowledge framework
of successful HRM change and explain levels of social responsibility
towards employees working in the companies.
Keywords
Interpretive schemas; human resource management (HRM); social responsibility; economic crisis; organisational change; Piaget’s model of equilibration; Slovenia
Hrčak ID:
171713
URI
Publication date:
22.12.2016.
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