Introduction
Technological advances have been credited for most of the new trends in the contemporary economy, including employment relations. People’s daily lives have been affected by innovations where tasks are either re-invented or reassigned from humans to machines. Around the workplace, similar changes have been reported where worker relations are becoming more technology-driven. For example, the concept of E-HRM has emerged, which entails the planning, implementing, and applying modern information technologies (IT) for such functions as networking and supporting the performance of human resource management (HRM) activities. Another trend shaping modern workplaces is the rise of the gig economy, which can be described as a labor market characterized by short-term contracts, often comprising freelancers. The focus of this paper is to critically explore the statement that the developments in technology are changing how we work, which necessitates new ways of managing the employment relationship.
Position
The position argued in this paper is that new technologies have revolutionized contemporary workplaces, and organizations should take advantage of the benefits and opportunities availed by the innovations. To support this argument, the benefits and opportunities of the gig economy and E-RHM will be explored using examples and case studies. However, any disruptions and their effects will also be outlined as and if applicable in the context of workplace relationships. Additionally, an overview of employment relationships kickstarts the critical evaluation, after which the changes caused by the two technologies will be examined.
Employment relationship
Modern corporations strive to sustain good management-employee relationships, which is critical for the firms’ positive growth. According to Das et al. (2020), employment relationships can be described as a special interpersonal relationship whose origins date back to the 20th century. The concept mainly entails how the internal relations between an organization and its employees, often focusing on human behavior. There are five elements of employment relations, as discussed by (Budd & Bhave, 2019): employees, employers, states, and contracts. An employee is an individual who sells labor and is often conceptualized as a behavioral or economic being. The employers are purchasers of the labor offered by workers and often comprise organizations of different types. States comprise the government, whole role in employment management is majorly regulatory. Markets comprise buyers and sellers of labor in capitalist societies where each of these parties seeks to maximize the rewards. Lastly, contracts are the documentations that capture the purchase and sale of labor in the market.
The employment relationship is managed by the HRM function, sometimes through an employment relationship management (ERM) role. According to Harney et al. (2018), the concerns for ERM in HRM emerged during the industrial revolution, when attention was turned to employee and management issues. However, the tendency towards these practices was solidified through the scientific method spreadhead Frederick Taylor, who is effectively regarded as the father of modern management. The primary objective of the ERM is to ensure that the workers are happy and satisfied with their jobs. The HR managers are often in charge of the ERM activities, which include building cross-functional teams, encouraging social interactions, and equipping workers with the necessary communication tools (Dutta, 202). From a scientific management perspective, improving the welfare of the workers makes them more productive, which then benefits the employer. ERM should address all issues and conflicts in the employer-employee relationship for the ERM efforts to be fruitful.
ERM faces multiple challenges, especially for modern HR managers who operate in a rapidly changing environment. For example, the labor market is widening to encompass full-time and part-time workers, as well as contractors (Rothschild, 2021). The HRM function has to have a clear view of who works for the company and how each of these categories can be aligned with the corporate purpose. The changes in the labor market force companies to change their approaches to ERM. Additionally, employment relationship management experiences a situation where employees hardly trust the HR staff (Segal, 2021). In such situations, the employees may not respond as expected towards the ERM activities, which hinders their success. ERM has also been conceptualized using different theories and models that define paradigm-level perspectives. Unitarism versus pluralism. For unitarists, the perspective held is that interests are shared among the members. On the contrary, pluralism is founded on the belief that a firm comprises divergent groups with a distinct legitimate set of interests Kaufman et al. (2021). Therefore, the HRM function has to decide which approach works best for the organization based on the composition of its workforce.
E-HRM
The widespread use of IT in organizations means that all organizational functions have to adapt accordingly. The origins of E-HRM go back to the 1990s with the emergence of e-commerce, which resulted in the emergence of the E-HRM concept (Berber et al., 2018). By definition, E-HRM entails the use of HRM information systems to improve HRM performance. As explained earlier, HRM is largely responsible for ERM activities, which raises the question of how the information systems help improve both the ERM and HRM outcomes. Much of the current literature seeks to answer this question by examining how E-HRM links to HRM outcomes. Trust between the employees and the HRM staff was described earlier as one of the key challenges facing ERM. In a study by Iqbal et al. (2019), the social exchange theory is used to explore the role of impersonal trust in the relationship between E-HRM and productivity. The findings indicate that technology in HRM improves both productivity and organizational trust.
The findings of the above study may have hinted at the possibility of e-HRM improving trust between the employee and employer. However, even more questions may arise regarding how the relationship works and what the antecedents are. One of the hypotheses explored by Al-Harazneh (2021) highlights that E-HRM has a direct positive effect on the HRM system’s effectiveness at the philosophical level. The explanation offered for this argument is that the worker-management policy criteria are made more transparent, which helps improve employees’ perception of fairness. If the employees feel fairly treated, they begin to trust the HRM department. Additionally, the information systems used in HRM tend to improve communication, including a greater exchange of information related to the company’s HR policy. Therefore, the antecedents to the trust and E-HRM relationship include transparency and knowledge sharing, as well as improved awareness of the corporate policy.
In addition to building trust, it can be argued that deploying E-HRM improves overall employee engagement within a company since the information systems increase the connectivity between line managers, top managers, HR staff, and employees (Al-Harazneh, 2021). The social exchange theory, leader-member exchange, and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology have been used to explain this position. In essence, the success of the employees depends on several corporate factors, which include support from top management. With the EHRM systems, line managers can solicit the support they need to help the workers with their jobs. Therefore, the E-HRM systems not only improve the trust between workers and management but also ensure that the increased connectivity increases vertical feedback and management support. In this case, the E-HRM systems play a critical role in supporting corporate objectives by aligning the interests of the leaders with those of the workers.
The current literature on E-HRM can be critiqued for focusing almost exclusively on the effects of this technology on corporate outcomes. For example, Iqbal et al. (2019) express that E-HRM improves HR service quality and employee productivity. However, it can be argued that employee productivity is the intended outcome of the ERM efforts using the scientific management perspective. The links between E-HRM and ERM are not clearly drawn, which means that inferences will have to be made from the available literature. Therefore, the knowledge of ERM activities and issues can help figure out how the information systems impact ERM. Similar to the issue of trust explained above, ERM requires the implementation of effective communication tools and the development of teams. As an information system, it can be argued that the first outcome of the E-HRM implementation will be better channels of communication between the workers and the management. Regarding team building, improved connectivity means more cooperation and feedback, which allows teams to function effectively.
Therefore, the E-HRM systems can be considered enablers to the ERM efforts within an organization. Overall, E-HRM can be conceptualized as the use of information systems to help improve the performance of HRM functions. ER is managed by the HR staff, which means that the HRM function also incorporates and integrates ERM activities in the E-HRM. With this conceptualization, it follows that IT applications help resolve most of the ERM challenges. Relationships are built and maintained when the parties involved have a fruitful interaction characterized by effective and seamless communication and feedback between them. The E-HRM improves communication and engagement across all corporate levels, which helps boost ER activities.
Technology Apps and the Gig Economy
Technology apps and the gig economy can be viewed differently from the E-HRM since the impacts on the ERM functions are varied. While the E-HRM is seen as an enabler to the ERM, the technology apps and the gig economy could be conceptualized as posing a challenge to the ERM since they may require companies to rethink their entire ER policies, approaches, and practices. According to Wood and Lehdonvirta (2021), gig economy workers tend to perceive themselves as self-employed freelancers. However, they continue to be part of the traditional or regular employment that has to be managed effectively. If the company perceives freelancers as part of the normal workforce, the ERM activities are extended to them to improve performance outcomes. However, antagonism appears in these arrangements due to the conflicts created by the gig economy. For instance, disagreements over fees, worker voices, and competition may emerge, which tend to negate the overall HRM activities, including the ERM efforts. The main argument is that companies could be forced to adopt new approaches altogether for all the workers in the gig economy.
The challenges posed by the technology apps and the gig economy could be beyond a company’s control, which means that the organization is forced to adapt and adjust to the trends. For example, technology apps help workers to work remotely, which means that a firm has little room to inspect the quality of work while it is in progress. Therefore, the quality could be checked upon delivery or accomplishment, at which stage the workers will be expected to be paid. The question that HRM managers have to ask themselves is how to extend quality policies to a group of workers who are loosely attached to the company (Wood et al., 2019). Additionally, businesses tend to take advantage of the competition to offer lower pay than regular employees. The workers may respond in a similar manner and offer lower quality than what they would offer for better-paying companies. As freelancers seek to maximize their income, they may encounter such difficulties as sleep deprivation, long work hours, exhaustion, and irregular work hours. All these are elements that could be detrimental to both the performance and quality outcomes.
Even with these dangers posed by app work in the gig economy, new possibilities for ERM are presented through the concept of algorithmic management. This term has been used by scholars to imply the automation of HRM functions and duties that were traditionally undertaken by humans. Therefore, HRM managers do not have to be actively involved in managing remote workers in the gig economy. At this stage, the challenges posed by the gig economy can be eased by designing the algorithms to meet the necessary specs desired by the technology apps. The algorithms may manage workloads, task assignments, quality checks, and time management (Meijerink & Keegan, 2019). However, these aspects are not the most important components of ERM, which might still require the input of a human manager.
This argument may not hold for long since algorithmic management is also seen as a tool for managing ER activities. It all depends on the perceptions of the workers and how they perceive their relationship with the firm. For example, those who see the relationship as purely transactional may not need further and deeper connections. According to Duggan et al. (2020), some freelancers tend to feel that digital platforms offer them a more relational sense. In such cases, the HRM should ensure that the algorithms do not fully replace the interpersonal relationships between the firm and the gig worker. As long as there is a contractual arrangement, the HR staff has to extend ER activities to the gig economy.
Conclusion
The essay has offered a critical analysis of how changes in technology necessitate new ways of managing employee relationships. Two technologies have been used, E-HRM and apps and the gig economy. The E-HRM has been conceptualized as an enabler of ERM, considering its role in building and facilitating corporate communication. On the contrary, work apps and the gig economy present a challenge to ERM efforts due to the conflicts of interest arising between freelancers and management. However, algorithmic management has offered a potential solution that allows HR staff to extend ER activities to remote workers.
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