HRM-related journals included in this study
Journal | snip | cite | sjr | Number of papers included |
---|---|---|---|---|
Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources | 1.17 | 1.58 | 0.60 | 429 |
Human Resource Development International | 1.06 | 1.72 | 0.45 | 796 |
Human Resource Management Journal | 1.54 | 3.75 | 1.39 | 510 |
Human Resource Management Review | 1.98 | 4.97 | 1.66 | 713 |
Human Resource Management | 1.95 | 4.28 | 1.89 | 859 |
International Journal of Human Resource Management | 1.28 | 2.71 | 0.96 | 2,703 |
Journal of Human Capital | 1.79 | 2.10 | 2.52 | 185 |
Journal of Human Resources | 6.65 | 8.27 | 12.36 | 663 |
Trends in HRM research in the years 2000–2020
Activity of long-lasting and emerging trends in recent years
Avg. papers per year in 2016–2020 | Activity in recent years | ||
---|---|---|---|
Decrease | Stable | Increase | |
More than 50 | |||
26–50 | |||
1–25 |
Adali , T. , Trussell , H.J. , Hansen , L.K. and Calhoun , V.D. ( 2018 ), “ The dangers of following trends in research: sparsity and other examples of hammers in search of Nails ”, Proceedings of the IEEE , Vol. 106 No. 6 , pp. 1014 - 1018 , doi: 10.1109/JPROC.2018.2823428 .
Aguinis , H. and Lengnick-Hall , M.L. ( 2012 ), “ Assessing the value of human resource certification: a call for evidence-based human resource management ”, Human Resource Management Review , Vol. 22 No. 4 , pp. 281 - 284 , doi: 10.1016/j.hrmr.2012.06.015 .
Alcaraz , K.I. , Eddens , K.S. , Blase , J.L. , Diver , W.R. , Patel , A.V. , Teras , L.R. , Stevens , V.L. , Jacobs , E.J. and Gapstur , S.M. ( 2019 ), “ Social Isolation and Mortality in US Black and White Men and Women ”, American Journal of Epidemiology , Vol. 188 No. 1 , pp. 102 - 109 , doi: 10.1093/aje/kwy231 .
Ashbaugh , S. and Miranda , R. ( 2002 ), “ Technology for human resources management: seven questions and answers ”, Public Personnel Management , Vol. 31 No. 1 , pp. 7 - 20 , doi: 10.1177/009102600203100102 .
Baghdadli , A. , Pascal , C. , Grisi , S. and Aussilloux , C. ( 2003 ), “ Risk factors for self-injurious behaviours among 222 young children with autistic disorders ”, doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2788.2003.00507.x (accessed 23 October 2003) .
Blake , C. ( 2010 ), “ Beyond genes, proteins, and abstracts: identifying scientific claims from full-text biomedical articles ”, Journal of Biomedical Informatics , Vol. 43 No. 2 , pp. 173 - 189 , doi: 10.1016/j.jbi.2009.11.001 .
Boon , C. , Den Hartog , D.N. and Lepak , D.P. ( 2019 ), “ A systematic review of human resource management systems and their measurement ”, Journal of Management , Vol. 45 No. 6 , pp. 2498 - 2537 , doi: 10.1177/0149206318818718 .
Bourdieu , P. ( 1975 ), “ The specificity of the scientific field and the social conditions of the progress of reason ”, Social Science Information , Vol. 14 No. 6 , doi: 10.1177/053901847501400602 .
Boxall , P. , Purcell , J. and Wright , P.M. ( 2009 ), “ Human resource management ”, Boxall , P. , Purcell , J. and Wright , P.M. (Eds), Oxford University Press , Vol. 1 , doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199547029.003.0001 .
Braga , B.M. , de Camargo Oliva , E. , de Miranda Kubo , E.K. , McKenna , S. , Richardson , J. and Wales , T. ( 2021 ), “ An institutional approach to ethical human resource management practice: comparing Brazil, Colombia and the UK ”, Journal of Business Ethics , Vol. 169 No. 4 , doi: 10.1007/s10551-019-04257-x .
Capobianco-Uriarte , M.D.L.M. , Casado-Belmonte , M.D.P. , Marín-Carrillo , G.M. and Terán-Yépez , E. ( 2019 ), “ A bibliometric analysis of international competitiveness (1983-2017) ”, Sustainability , Vol. 11 No. 7 , p. 1877 , doi: 10.3390/su11071877 .
Chae , C. , Yim , J.-H. , Lee , J. , Jo , S.J. and Oh , J.R. ( 2020 ), “ The bibliometric keywords Network analysis of human resource management research trends: the case of human resource management journals in South Korea ”, Sustainability , Vol. 12 No. 14 , p. 5700 , doi: 10.3390/su12145700 .
Choi , J.N. , Sung , S.Y. and Zhang , Z. ( 2017 ), “ Workforce diversity in manufacturing companies and organizational performance: the role of status-relatedness and internal processes ”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management , Vol. 28 No. 19 , pp. 2738 - 2761 , doi: 10.1080/09585192.2016.1138315 .
Cong , Y. , Chan , Y.B. and Ragan , M.A. ( 2016 ), “ A novel alignment-free method for detection of lateral genetic transfer based on TF-IDF ”, Scientific Reports , Vol. 6 , p. 30308 , doi: 10.1038/srep30308 .
Cooke , F.L. , Wood , G. , Wang , M. and Veen , A. ( 2019 ), “ How far has international HRM travelled? A systematic review of literature on multinational corporations (2000-2014) ”, Human Resource Management Review , Vol. 29 No. 1 , pp. 59 - 75 , doi: 10.1016/j.hrmr.2018.05.001 .
Cooper , E.A. , Phelps , A.D. and Rogers , S.E. ( 2020 ), “ Research in nonprofit human resource management from 2015 to 2018 ”, Employee Relations: The International Journal , Vol. 42 No. 5 , pp. 1055 - 1100 , doi: 10.1108/ER-04-2019-0166 .
DuBois , C.L.Z. and Dubois , D.A. ( 2012 ), “ Strategic HRM as social design for environmental sustainability in organization ”, Human Resource Management , Vol. 51 No. 6 , pp. 799 - 826 , doi: 10.1002/hrm.21504 .
Dubravska , M. and Solankova , E. ( 2015 ), “ Recent trends in human resources management in selected industry in Slovakia and the Czech republic ”, Procedia Economics and Finance , Vol. 26 , pp. 1014 - 1019 , doi: 10.1016/S2212-5671(15)00924-7 .
Dumont , J. , Shen , J. and Deng , X. ( 2017 ), “ Effects of green HRM practices on employee workplace green behavior: the role of psychological green climate and employee green values ”, Human Resource Management , Vol. 56 No. 4 , pp. 613 - 627 , doi: 10.1002/hrm.21792 .
Ehnert , I. ( 2009 ), Sustainable Human Resources Management: A Conceptual and Exploratory Analysis from a Paradox , Physica-Verlag HD .
Fernandez-Alles , M. and Ramos-Rodríguez , A. ( 2009 ), “ Intellectual structure of human resources management research: a bibliometric analysis of the journal Human Resource Management , 1985-2005 ”, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology , Vol. 60 No. 1 , pp. 161 - 175 , doi: 10.1002/asi.20947 .
García-Lillo , F. , Úbeda-García , M. and Marco-Lajara , B. ( 2017 ), “ The intellectual structure of human resource management research: a bibliometric study of the international journal of human resource management, 2000-2012 ”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management , Vol. 28 No. 13 , pp. 1786 - 1815 , doi: 10.1080/09585192.2015.1128461 .
Garza , A.S. and Morgeson , F.P. ( 2012 ), “ Exploring the link between organizational values and human resource certification ”, Human Resource Management Review , Vol. 22 No. 4 , pp. 271 - 278 , doi: 10.1016/j.hrmr.2012.06.011 .
Gerhart , B. and Fang , M. ( 2005 ), “ National culture and human resource management: assumptions and evidence ”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management , Vol. 16 No. 6 , pp. 971 - 986 , doi: 10.1080/09585190500120772 .
Gould , J.A. , Kulik , C.T. and Sardeshmukh , S.R. ( 2018 ), “ Trickle-down effect: the impact of female board members on executive gender diversity ”, Human Resource Management , Vol. 57 No. 4 , pp. 931 - 945 , doi: 10.1002/hrm.21907 .
Greiling , D. ( 2011 ), “ Demographic change as a challenge to human resources development ”, in The University as a Business? , VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften , pp. 65 - 89 , doi: 10.1007/978-3-531-93195-1_6 .
Gu , Y. ( 2004 ), “ Global knowledge management research: a bibliometric analysis ”, Scientometrics , Vol. 61 No. 2 , pp. 171 - 190 , doi: 10.1023/B:SCIE.0000041647.01086.f4 .
Iellatchitch , A. , Mayrhofer , W. and Meyer , M. ( 2003 ), “ Career fields: a small step towards a grand career theory? ”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management , Vol. 14 No. 5 , pp. 728 - 750 , doi: 10.1080/0958519032000080776 .
Kobayashi , V.B. , Mol , S.T. , Berkers , H.A. , Kismihók , G. and Den Hartog , D.N. ( 2018 ), “ Text mining in organizational research ”, Organizational Research Methods , Vol. 21 No. 3 , pp. 733 - 765 , doi: 10.1177/1094428117722619 .
Kooij , D.T.A.M. , Jansen , P.G.W. , Dikkers , J.S.E. and de Lange , A.H. ( 2014 ), “ Managing aging workers: a mixed methods study on bundles of HR practices for aging workers ”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management , Vol. 25 No. 15 , pp. 2192 - 2212 , doi: 10.1080/09585192.2013.872169 .
Lengnick-Hall , M.L. and Aguinis , H. ( 2012 ), “ What is the value of human resource certification? A multi-level framework for research ”, Human Resource Management Review , Vol. 22 No. 4 , pp. 246 - 257 , doi: 10.1016/j.hrmr.2011.03.001 .
Li , J. , Chu , C.W.L. , Lam , K.C.K. and Liao , S. ( 2011 ), “ Age diversity and firm performance in an emerging economy: implications for cross-cultural human resource management ”, Human Resource Management , Vol. 50 No. 2 , pp. 247 - 270 , doi: 10.1002/hrm.20416 .
Madera , J.M. , Dawson , M. , Guchait , P. and Belarmino , A.M. ( 2017 ), “ Strategic human resources management research in hospitality and tourism ”, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management , Vol. 29 No. 1 , pp. 48 - 67 , doi: 10.1108/IJCHM-02-2016-0051 .
Markoulli , M.P. , Lee , C.I.S.G. , Byington , E. and Felps , W.A. ( 2017 ), “ Mapping human resource management: reviewing the field and charting future directions ”, Human Resource Management Review , Vol. 27 No. 3 , pp. 367 - 396 , doi: 10.1016/j.hrmr.2016.10.001 .
McInnes , L. , Healy , J. and Astels , S. ( 2017 ), “ hdbscan: hierarchical density based clustering ”, The Journal of Open Source Software , Vol. 2 No. 11 , p. 205 , doi: 10.21105/joss.00205 .
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Published by Carmen Troy at January 6th, 2023 , Revised On April 16, 2024
Human resource management studies stated that employees should be hired, retained and managed. It is an extensive field that requires an in-depth understanding of the underlying factors and concepts.
As a human resource management student, you will study many different concepts, frameworks, and theories related to employee management. However, before your graduation, you will be required to submit a dissertation on a human resource management research topic of your choice.
Even though several topics and concepts are yet to explore in the field of human resource management, you will want to make sure that your proposed topic has sufficient literature to support and justify the content of a theoretical framework , or else you might struggle with data collection .
This article provides you with a comprehensive list of HRM topics that are relevant to your field and identifies some interesting literature gaps.
Choosing from our list of topics will certainly improve your chances of submitting an outstanding dissertation. So, go ahead and choose an HRM dissertation topic of your interest. We can even customize these topics based on your project needs.
PhD qualified writers of our team have developed the proposed topics, so you can trust to use these topics for drafting your dissertation.
Note –
You may also want to start your dissertation by requesting a brief research proposal from our writers on any of these topics, which includes an introduction to the topic, research question , aim and objectives , literature review along with the proposed methodology of research to be conducted. Let us know if you need any help in getting started.
Check our dissertation examples to get an idea of how to structure your dissertation .
Review the full list of dissertation topics for here.
Topic 1: how human resources departments achieve equal employment opportunities.
Research Aim: The research will aim to investigate how HR departments achieve equal employment opportunity in organizations. EEO, or Equal Employment Opportunity, is the notion everybody has an equal chance to pursue a job on the basis of merit, regardless of skin color, gender, or gender identity. It is the duty of HR department to give every employee and equal right in the organization. The research will examine how HR department keep the organization environment friendly by controlling equal employment opportunities.
Research Aim: The research will aim to find the impact of motivating strategies on employee performance. Employee motivation plays a huge part on performance. Employee engagement cannot be substituted by anything else in order for any organisation to run efficiently and without interruption. It is critical that a company and its employees not only have a strong connection with the top management, but also have a good and healthy relationship with their colleagues. The study will also make recommendations on what further might be done to obtain optimal results utilising motivating methods for the benefit of both the company and the individual.
Research Aim: The research will aim to review recent available literature on employee turnover in order to determine organizational conflicts as antecedents of employee turnover in the UK food sector in order to close gaps in the literature and present a broader range of turnover factors and understanding of employee motivational factors in their job decision.
Research Aim: The research will aim to inspect the benefit of competitive advantage at Zara through the involvement of artificial intelligence in their HRM. AI assists the human resources department in identifying their personnel’ skill sets and recommending a training programme based on their work positions. It combines all of the data and assists the HR staff in making succinct decisions about what training to do in which sector to boost abilities. The study will also explain the importance of AI in organizations and organizations success. It will also look into strategies and policies Zara used to achieve competitive advantage.
Research Aim: The research aims to examine the role of HR in creating a respected working environment and sustainable revenue growth. The study will identify current misunderstandings and disparities in understanding of topics such as sustainable development, corporate social responsibility, and the link between strategic human resource management and sustainable HRM through a comprehensive literature review. It will also identify and recognise the challenges that sustainable HRM encounters in reality, with a particular emphasis on the prevalent strategic HRM schema and the misunderstanding of corporate social responsibility.
The role of managers during the pandemic.
Research Aim: In this study, the Human resource management techniques which HR managers will adopt for performing their operations during the COVID -19 will be discussed.
Research Aim: This study will focus on how the employees are trained during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Research Aim: This study will discuss how the economic crisis will disturb the payroll and how the managers will work.
Research Aim: In this study, HR will design policies on how HR will manage when there is a gap between employees working. How will the ill patients be provided with support by companies through HR?
Research Aim: This study will highlight how well the employees support the decisions of the HR policymakers during the pandemic.
Topic 1: effect of employee engagement on customer loyalty in the service-based industry.
Research Aim: Employees engagement means that employees are passionate and committed to their work. In the service industry, where employees’ performance can greatly influence the quality of service, it is worth exploring employee engagement in customer loyalty in the service-based industry. Therefore, in this study, survey-based research will be conducted to identify employee engagement in customer loyalty.
Research Aim: Nowadays, companies hire freelancers and contractual workers, unlike permanent payroll employees. Various cost benefits can be obtained by hiring such a workforce. However, such a workforce may not have the required skills to do a job as effectively as a trained staff would have done. Thus, the present study focuses on identifying the impact of a contingent workforce on its performance in the IT industry.
Research Aim: The wellness of employees at the workplace is necessary for their mental health and work performance. This study will identify the factors that can increase employees’ mental health issues at the workplace based on survey-based of employees and managers of service-based industries.
Research Aim: to achieve organizational objectives and milestones, leaders and business owners have realized the importance of training and developing their workforce to align with the organizational objectives. This research aims to analyze the importance and impact of employee training and development on the organization’s sustainability during economic downturns.
Research Aim: With the advent of technology, firms have revolutionized their business operations. Under this revolution, many organizations have adopted different techniques and methods to recruit talented employees. Therefore, this research intends to determine how online digital platforms have helped organizations find employees more efficiently and effectively.
Research Aim: Employee turnover rate has always been a major concern for many organizations regardless of their size and nature. A valuable and talented employee is usually hard to find and retain. However, it has been found out that different factors motivate an employee to search for a new job. Keeping this phenomenon in mind, the current research will be analyzing the factors that directly impact the employee’s personal decision to leave employment.
Research Aim: In today’s modern era, the workplace environment has been transformed drastically from a strict and conventional style to a more flexible one. Therefore, this research aims to critically analyze the concept of workplace flexibility and how it impacts employee and organizational performance.
Research Aim: Job satisfaction and employee motivation are regarded as the most important element of HR practices. The main aim of HR policies is to satisfy, retain, and motivate employees. Therefore, this research aims to conduct a comparative analysis of the employee’s job satisfaction and motivational factors in public versus private organizations.
Research Aim: This research is highly useful in the current context of COVID-19. Organisations all around the world are getting impacted by the COVID-19 and are closed at the moment. The current study will focus on using different virtual employee management practices that companies can use in the current context of COVID-19. These practices will be beneficial for organizations in almost all business sectors.
Research Aim: The aim of this research will be the benefits of using the transformational leadership style by Morrisons’ leaders to improve organizational creativity. This study will research how leaders can get the advantage of a transformational leadership style for increasing creativity at the organization.
Research Aim: This study will aim to study different green HRM practices and their role in improving IKEA’s corporate image and reputation. It will be researched how companies can improve their corporate image by focusing on green HRM practices and processes. The findings will be beneficial for the management, customers as well as employees.
Research Aim: It will be researched in this study how Subway and other companies in this industry can involve the workers in the decision-making process to improve employee productivity. It will be studied that employee productivity is increased by involving the employees in the decision-making process. The findings will be useful in designing useful HR practices by Subway.
Research Aim: The main objective of this study is to evaluate the decision-making difficulties and issues faced by HR managers of companies with a flat organizational structure. This study will also investigate the benefits and challenges related to the flat organizational structures used by companies. A case study approach will be used.
Research Aim: To carry out this study, an innovative company named Toyota Motors will be selected. The main objective for carrying out this study will be to analyze how the organizational capability and innovation at Toyota Motors are improved due to workforce diversity. The main emphasis will be on studying the workforce diversity present at Toyota Motors and its significance in improving innovation and organizational capability. The success factors of Toyota Motors for HR will be studied.
Research Aim: The contemporary business world moves towards digitalization due to technological advancements. This research will study the different impacts of digitalization in changing various HRM practices at Aviva. Different HRM practices used by Aviva before and after the digitalization era will be discussed, and the changes will be analyzed. This study will show how digitalization has changed HRM practices in the contemporary business world.
Research Aim: It will be studied in this research that how employee satisfaction at British Airways is influenced by employee learning and development opportunities. Different employee learning and development opportunities at BA will be studied, along with their impact on workforce satisfaction.
Research Aim: This study’s main objective is to analyse whether Shell can retain its employees by recognizing their contributions or not. Different strategies used by Shell for recognizing employee contributions will be studied that lead towards motivating the employees, which ultimately impact the retention of workers.
Research Aim: Green HR practices is a newly emerged concept in HRM. The study will aim to research the impact of green HR practices on employee engagement and retention. It will be studied how companies can improve employee engagement and retention by focusing on green HR practices.
Research Aim: This study will be focusing on the productivity of female workers. It will be studied how female workers’ productivity is increased by providing daycare facilities for their children. The impact on the satisfaction level of female employees due to the daycare facility will also be explored.
Research Aim: For this study, the researcher will focus on the concept of artificial intelligence and use it in the HR context. It will be studied that either the HR practices at Zara can be enhanced by implementing AI. The benefits and implications of implementing AI in the HR context will also be part of this study.
Research Aim: The contemporary business world has become highly advanced due to technological capabilities. The concept of e-leadership has emerged due to advancements in technology. The purpose of this study will be to analyse the impact of e-leadership in improving the productivity and motivation level of the workforce.
Research Aim: This study will study the importance of effective HR planning for the strategic alliance process. It will be studied how HR management can mould the HR practices and focus on effective HR planning to make the strategic alliance process successful.
Research Aim: The main focus of this research will be studying Microsoft’s teamwork. It will be further analyzed how Microsoft’s teamwork is influenced by the personality traits possessed by different team members. Different types of personality traits will be studied in this research that impacts teamwork positively and negatively.
Research Aim: This study will aim to review different types of career growth opportunities offered by HBSC Holdings to its employees. Moreover, it will also be studied how employee loyalty is improved due to various career growth opportunities. The findings of this study will be beneficial for the banking sector.
Research Aim: The study’s main objective will be to analyse companies’ changes in their HR practices for international branches. How and why the HR practices are adapted by HR management for improving the organisational performance at the company’s branch, which is located outside the country. For this, the DHL case study will be selected, and it will be assessed how and why DHL has used adapted HR practices across different countries.
All organisational activities aimed at improving the productivity and performance of groups and individuals can be classified as HRM’s learning and development function elements. Learning and development encompass three pivotal activities, including education, training, and development.
As such, the training activities help to evaluate an employee based on his existing job responsibilities. Educational activities include those focusing on jobs that an employee can expect to carry out in the future.
Finally, the development activities are those that the employer may partake in the future. If you’re interested in exploring this human resource topic in-depth, we have some interesting dissertation topics for you:
Research Aim: This research will discuss the importance of appreciative inquiry and its impact on organisational learning and development culture with a specific focus on ExxonMobil.
Research Aim: This research will discuss how organisational competency development and organisational learning activities are correlated.
Research Aim: This research will examine how organisational learning and knowledge management helped British Telecom sustain their firm performance.
Research Aim: This dissertation will evaluate the different ways of achieving the learning and development of human resources in the UK’s public sector.
Research Aim: This research will focus on how SMEs utilize HR learning and developmental activities to improve their employees’ performance.
Research Aim: This research will focus on whether or not lack of learning and development in an organization leads to employee turnover,
Research Aim: This dissertation will explore how companies can gain a strategic advantage over their competitors through employee training.
Research Aim: The main aim of this research will be to determine the impact of different pieces of training and learnings on employees’ productivity.
Research Aim: This study aims to research a new concept in human resource management, named HR analytics and metrics. Moreover, their impact on improving organizational performance will also be studied. This study will be beneficial for Tesco in using HR analytics and metrics in different HR practices that can lead to improved organizational performance.
ResearchProspect writers can send several custom topic ideas to your email address. Once you have chosen a topic that suits your needs and interests, you can order for our dissertation outline service , which will include a brief introduction to the topic, research questions , literature review , methodology , expected results , and conclusion . The dissertation outline will enable you to review the quality of our work before placing the order for our full dissertation writing service !
A performance review, also known as a career development discussion, performance evaluation and employee appraisal, can be defined as a method to evaluate an employee based on their job performance, mainly for appraisals. This might be an interesting area to focus your dissertation on. Here are some interesting topics in this area of HRM:
Research Aim: This research will understand the relationship between employee motivation and employee performance review. Large and diversified businesses will be the main focus of this study.
Research Aim: This research will analyse the impact of performance appraisal on employer satisfaction and how it optimises business results.
Research Aim: This research will analyse the efficacy of performance appraisal concerning employees, with a specific focus on Tesco.
Research Aim: This dissertation will explore whether employees report satisfaction and fairness when performance appraisal is conducted.
Research Aim: This research will study the human resource department of a large oil and gas company and will investigate how “performance review” and appraisals are conducted.
Research Aim: This research will study in-depth whether job satisfaction and performance appraisals are interconnected or not.
Research Aim: This research will talk about the spinal pay reward system and evaluate its effectiveness in the public sector.
Research Aim: This research will investigate how performance management helps companies improve their employees’ performance.
Research Aim: This research will talk about the different ways through which HR performance review helps in improving employee engagement. The UK banking industry will be in focus in this study.
Research Aim: This research will investigate how organisations utilize performance reviews as a tool to improve employee retention and productivity.
Employees need objectives and goals to remain focused. The quality of work may significantly drop if they are not constantly motivated by their employers.
Business organizations employ various employee motivation methods and techniques to keep their employees motivated. Thus, this is an interesting topic to explore for your final year dissertation. Here are some HRM dissertation topics related to employee motivation.
Research Aim: This research will discuss the different motivation factors organisations should use to develop future leaders. In addition to this, the role of motivation throughout HRM will be discussed.
Research Aim: This research will understand the relationship between motivation and employee satisfaction and the different motivation techniques companies can employ to increase employee satisfaction.
Research Aim: This study will discuss the role of employee motivation concerning employee performance, i.e. whether it enhances performance or not.
Research Aim: This dissertation will talk about motivation in large and diversified organisations and how these companies ensure that their employees are motivated at all times.
Research Aim: This research will focus on the different motivational techniques and programs that impact employee performance.
Research Aim: This research will discuss the role of motivation in decreasing employee turnover with a specific focus on British airways.
Research Aim: This research will talk about motivation and performance rewards and will assess whether the two are interrelated and directly related.
Research Aim: This study will assess employee motivation programs’ impact on employee productivity, i.e. if it increases or decreases.
Research Aim: This research will analyze employee motivation’s role to help companies retain employees.
Research Aim: This research will discuss and compare traditional and contemporary motivation theories implemented by companies.
Research Aim: This study will aim to analyse different strategies of employee empowerment carried out by British Petroleum and their impact on workers’ motivation and satisfaction. The research will be studied that either different employee empowerment strategies improve employee motivation and satisfaction. The findings will be beneficial for companies working in the petroleum sector.
Research Aim: In this research, different modes of communication used by organisations will be studied and especially the impact of open communication in improving employee engagement at Zara will be analyzed. The importance of open communication for different organisations in the fashion and retail sectors will be discussed. Moreover, different communication strategies that can help improve employee engagement at Zara will be discussed based on past literature, theories, and framework.
All processes and activities to consistently meet organisational goals and objectives can be considered the HR performance management mechanism elements. Different organisations employ different performance management strategies to gain a competitive advantage. To explore this area of human resources, here are some intriguing topics for you:
Research Aim: This research will talk about companies’ various performance management techniques to retain employees.
Research Aim: This research will discuss how performance management helps employees improve their skills and abilities and how it ultimately helps companies.
Research Aim: This research will explore how organisations use different performance management techniques to manage employees and their performance. A specific focus of this study will be Google Incorporation.
Research Aim: This study will conduct a qualitative study to understand the different performance management systems for improving employee performance.
Research Aim: This research will understand performance management in profit-oriented companies regarding how their human resource department ensures optimal performance.
Research Aim: This research will explore its vital features and performance management framework.
Research Aim: This research will explore whether environment uncertainties and strategies play a role in employee and business performance.
Research Aim: This research will explore the UK’s retail industry’s performance management efficacy.
Research Aim: This research will investigate performance management in the educational setting.
Research Aim: This research will analyse whether wages should be adjusted and capped concerning performance management with a focus on its effects.
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Strategic human resource management is tying the human resource management objective to the company’s goals and objectives. This helps companies in innovating and staying ahead of their competitors by gaining a competitive advantage.
Being a relatively new concept, there are various aspects of strategic HRM that are left to be explored. Here are some interesting strategic HRM dissertation topics for you:
Research Aim: This research will study the role and efficacy of the communication processes and employees’ involvement in order to improve employees’ commitment towards organisational goals.
Research Aim: This dissertation will discuss the various SHRM theories and how it is implemented. A UK-based call center will be focused on this study.
Research Aim: This research will compare the different SHRM techniques and policies implemented by German and Japanese automobile companies.
Research Aim: This research will understand the resource-based view of strategic human resources quality management systems.
Research Aim: This research will discuss and evaluate the different strategic HRM strategies employed by small and medium-sized enterprises in the UK.
Research Aim: This study will analyse whether organisational performance and strategic human resource management are interconnected by assessing small scale businesses in the UK.
Research Aim: This research will analyse strategic human resource management in Singapore by undertaking a qualitative method.
Research Aim: This research will understand the organisational support program in order to enhance employee work outcome and their behaviour.
Research Aim: This research will talk about the relationship between the different SHRM components for SMEs in the UK in order to gain a competitive advantage.
Research Aim: This research will explore the relationship between organisational performance and strategic human resource management and how it helps companies achieve their objectives.
The human resource theory framework consists of a soft and hard approach to human resources management. Various theories cover the different aspects of the soft and hard human resource approach.
Exploring this area of HRM will help in understanding more about the soft and hard HRM approaches. Here are some dissertation topics in this area that you can choose from.
Research Aim: This research will discuss various human resource theories and approaches and provide a comparative analysis.
Research Aim: This research will discuss the various human resource systems as practised by multinational companies operating in the UK.
Research Aim: This research will discuss the importance of human resources in understanding and addressing worker’s concerns.
Research Aim: This research will discuss a unique aspect of human resource management, i.e. whether it harms the company’s performance or not.
Research Aim: This study will analyze human resources’ role in solving employee issues and assess whether it is the only option for employees.
Research Aim: This research will aim to understand the role and contribution of the human resource department in companies’ success.
Research Aim: This research will discuss an interesting topic, i.e. the most predominant HRM strategies organisations implement.
Research Aim: This study will discuss human resources’ role as a shared service in the organisation.
Research Aim: This study will critically analyze supervisors’ role in implementing human resource practices in an organization.
Research Aim: This research will focus on how employees are fired at organizations and whether human resources follow the ethics of firing or not.
Organisational culture, also known as organisational climate, is defined as the process by which an organisation’s culture can be quantified. The properties of the work environment that are either considered positive or negative by the employees (and that may influence their behaviour) are the most important components of the organisational culture framework.
Studying this aspect of human resources will help you gain an in-depth knowledge of the role of culture in human resource management. Here are some interesting dissertation topics in this area:
Research Aim: This research will understand the role of leadership and culture in human resource management and how it helps companies manage their systems.
Research Aim: There are certain human resource practices that are standardized throughout the world. This research will investigate the differences between such standard policies with respect to culture. Multinationals operating in the European Union will be focused.
Research Aim: This research will study the role of cross-cultural human resource management in the success of companies.
Research Aim: A lot of companies do not encourage cross-cultural human resources in the workplace. This research will analyse how cross-cultural competencies help startups grow and succeed.
Research Aim: This research will aim to understand the role of organisational culture on human resource policies and practices. The main focus of this study will be at Cambridge University.
Research Aim: This research will assess the relationship between different cultures and human resource practices with respect to organisational commitment.
Research Aim: This study will conduct an investigation related to the work values of employees based on their various cultural differences. It will then be concluded what this means for the managers.
Research Aim: This research will discuss an interesting topic as to how managers should manage organisational cultural change without harming productivity.
Research Aim: This research will discuss whether or not it is feasible for organisations to hire employees when the company is undergoing a cultural change.
Research Aim: This research will discuss whether companies should hire to lead change in the organisation, i.e. whether hiring should be done for this specific purpose, and what this new hiring means for the company in terms of profitability.
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The changing corporate world has provoked organisations to develop and implement diversity management systems as part of their human resource management system. Although relatively new, diversity management is an important research area of human resource management that brings challenges and learning to employees.
With many areas unexplored and literature gaps in this subject, there are some extremely interesting dissertation topics you can select for your final year project. Some of them are listed here:
Research Aim: This research will discuss the differences between the two concepts, diversity and discrimination and their impact on organisations.
Research Aim: This study will discuss how the human resource department can manage diversity. The study will be conducted in an international setting.
Research Aim: This research will explore managing diversity in the public sector and how these companies can be successful even through diversity.
Research Aim: As much as a human resource helps companies manage diversity, how will companies manage diversity in their main HR department. This research will answer this exact question.
Research Aim: This research will focus on the tools available to human resources in managing diversity, and how they change it to opportunities and overcome diversity-related challenges.
Research Aim: This research will first investigate the exclusion and inequality challenges that organisations face and how human resources overcome these challenges.
Research Aim: This research will discuss HR’s role in managing cultural differences and diversity in organisations.
Research Aim: This research will talk about HR’s role in eliminating diversity-related discrimination from organisations, and whether it will be successful in doing so or not.
Research Aim: This research will discuss and analyse the role of HR and companies in ensuring manager’s learning and development for diversity.
Research Aim: This research will investigate the role of HR in training employees and staff to deal with, manage and coexist with diverse employees.
As a human resource management student looking to get good grades, it is essential to develop new ideas and experiment with existing human resource management theories – i.e., to add value and interest to your research topic.
Human resource management is vast and interrelated to many other academic disciplines like management , operations management , project management , business , international business , MBA and more. That is why it is imperative to create a human resource management dissertation topic that is articular, sound, and actually solves a practical problem that may be rampant in the field.
We can’t stress how important it is to develop a logical research topic based on your entire research. There are several significant downfalls to getting your topic wrong; your supervisor may not be interested in working on it, the topic has no academic creditability, the research may not make logical sense, there is a possibility that the study is not viable.
This impacts your time and efforts in writing your dissertation , as you may end up in the cycle of rejection at the initial stage of the dissertation. That is why we recommend reviewing existing research to develop a topic, taking advice from your supervisor, and even asking for help in this particular stage of your dissertation.
While developing a research topic, keeping our advice in mind will allow you to pick one of the best human resource management dissertation topics that fulfil your requirement of writing a research paper and add to the body of knowledge.
Therefore, it is recommended that when finalizing your dissertation topic, you read recently published literature to identify gaps in the research that you may help fill.
Remember- dissertation topics need to be unique, solve an identified problem, be logical, and be practically implemented. Please look at some of our sample human resource management dissertation topics to get an idea for your own dissertation.
A well-structured dissertation can help students to achieve a high overall academic grade.
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1 School of Health Policy and Management, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100730 China
2 College of Medical and Health Science, Asia University, Taichung, 41354 Taiwan
3 Department of Education, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100730 China
4 Department of Innovative Medical Research, Hospital Management Institute, Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital, Beijing, 100853 China
5 Affiliation Program of Data Analytics and Business Computing, Stern School of Business, New York University, New York, 10012 United States of America
6 Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, 518055 China
Associated data.
All data and materials generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article.
Human resource management (HRM) in healthcare is an important component in relation to the quality and efficiency of healthcare delivery. However, a comprehensive overview is lacking to assess and track the current status and trends of HRM research in healthcare. This study aims to describe the current situation and global trends in HRM research in healthcare as well as to indicate the frontiers and future directions of research. The research methodology is based on bibliometric mapping using scientific visualization software (VOSviewer). The data were collected from the Web of Science(WoS) core citation database. After applying the search criteria, we retrieved 833 publications, which have steadily increased over the last 30 years. In addition, 93 countries and regions have published relevant research. The United States and Australia have made significant contributions in this area. Current research articles focus on topics clustered into performance, hospital/COVID-19, job satisfaction, human resource management, occupational/mental health, and quality of care. The most frequently co-occurring keywords are human resource management, job satisfaction, nurses, hospitals, health services, quality of care, COVID-19, and nursing. There is limited research on compensation management and employee relations management, so the current HRM research field still has not been able to present a complete and systematic roadmap. We propose that our colleagues should consider focusing on these research gaps in the future.
Among the many management elements, people are the most dynamic and active element, and they are an important asset in organizations [ 1 ]. The term “human resources” was first coined by the academic Peter F. Drucker in 1954 [ 2 ]. The key function of human resources management (HRM) is to “put the right people in the right jobs at the right time” [ 2 ]. HRM refers to the planned allocation of human resources in accordance with the requirements of organizational development through a series of processes, such as recruitment, training, use, assessment, motivation, and adjustment of employees, to mobilize their motivation, bring into play their potential and create value for the organization [ 1 ]. Ensuring the achievement of the organization’s strategic objectives, HRM activities mainly include human resource strategy formulation, staff recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management, compensation management, staff mobility management, staff relationship management, staff safety and health management, etc. Similarly, modern healthcare management has human resources as the core. The HRM level in hospitals is related to the quality and efficiency of medical services provided by hospitals, which is also the core of internal hospital management and the focus of health macro management [ 3 ].
The World Health Organization (WHO) states that health systems can only work with the help of health workers, and that improving the coverage of health services and realizing the right to the highest standard of health depends on the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of health workers [ 4 ]. In response to evolving characteristics in socio-economic development and the human resource market, healthcare system personnel reforms are evident in three key areas: first, decentralization and flexible employment practices grant hospital managers greater decision-making autonomy concerning priorities and access to medical resources. However, they also impose quantitative and functional constraints on physicians' working hours, career planning, and medical payment systems. Second, a focal point is the rational allocation of technical staff to achieve efficiency while controlling labor costs. Finally, hospital organization change and restructuring are prevalent. Many European countries have unionized hospital employees, limiting the ability to establish independent incentives and rewards. In contrast, U.S. hospital employees often do not belong to specific organizations, leading cost control efforts to revolve around adjusting the allocation of technical staff and employee numbers to reduce labor expenses [ 5 – 7 ].
The current global trend in the number of publications on HRM in healthcare is rising. However, there are currently several problems in HRM research. The following issues mainly exist: (1) the expertise and professionalism of HRM managers are limited. (2) Theoretical methods and technical applications are weak. (3) Insufficient regulation of regulations, systems and procedures. (4) Management is mainly at the level of operational work, and functions are too fragmented [ 8 , 9 ]. Although hospitals worldwide generally recognize the importance of HRM, they do not pay sufficient attention to it. The management of human resources is also stuck in the previous understanding that its work is carried out only by transferring positions in hospitals, promoting and reducing the salary of employees and a series of other operations [ 10 ]. Most senior management in hospitals have comprehensive medical knowledge; some are experts in a particular field. Still, they lack expertise in HRM, which makes them work in a transactional way in HRM. There is also currently a general health workforce imbalance in countries worldwide. The lack of well-being of healthcare workers is particularly problematic in foreign healthcare institutions [ 11 ], and to reduce costs, some organizations have reduced staffing levels. In turn, because of lower quality of service, the morale of healthcare providers often suffers. Patient satisfaction may decline [ 12 ]. In the process of data gathering, we found that the literature related to HRM in healthcare is still under-reported and that the research topics are scattered, and there is still a lack of generalization and summary of these literatures [ 13 ]. There is no systematic theoretical support in the current research, which defines the perspective that researchers should take when analyzing and interpreting the data to be collected, leading to biased interpretations of the results, and does not allow other researchers to combine the findings with existing research knowledge and then apply them to practice [ 14 ]. Second, data collection was not rigorous, and the downloading strategy was not appropriate to achieve completeness and accuracy of data. There is also a lack of information and incomplete use of features in the presentation of knowledge maps and visualization results [ 15 ].
Therefore, the aims of this study are the following; first, we provide a new way of viewing the field of healthcare HRM and its associations by examining co-occurrence data. Second, we relate our evolutionary analysis to a comprehensive future research agenda which may generate a new research agenda in healthcare hospital HRM. This review, therefore, focuses on illuminating the research frontiers and future roadmap for healthcare HRM research [ 16 , 17 ].
This study provides a bibliometric analysis of the HRM research literature in health care over a 30-year period to describe the landscape and trajectory of change in the research field. The methodology used for this overview is based on bibliometric mapping [ 18 , 19 ], a visualization technique that quantitatively displays the landscape and dynamic aspects of the knowledge domain [ 20 ]. Data were collected from the Web of Science (WoS) core citation database. Two Java-based scientific visualization software packages (CiteSpace and VOSviewer), developed by Chaomei Chen and Van Eck and Waltman, were used to analyze the data [ 18 , 21 ].
The data for this study were retrieved from the Web of Science on 28 September 2022. Web of Science was chosen as the search engine, because it is the most widely accepted and commonly used database for analyzing scientific publications [ 22 ]. The keywords “human resource management” and “healthcare organization” were used as search topics. First, to get a complete picture of HRM research, we searched all the literature from 1977 to the date of the search.
Eight hundred thirty-three publications on HRM in healthcare organizations were identified (Fig. 1 ). We excluded publications before 1990, because the two documents before 1990 did not include complete information. In addition, articles, review articles, and early access articles were included in the study. To minimize language bias, we excluded literature published in languages other than English. Each publication in WoS contains detailed information, including the year of publication, author, author’s address, title, abstract, source journal, subject category, references, etc. A detailed description of the contents of the database preceded the bibliographic analysis. For example, some authors presented their names in different spellings when submitting articles, so reviewing and integrating the data in detail was necessary. A total of 718 publications were included and exported to VOSviewer and CiteSpace software to analyze the following topics: global publishing trends, countries, journals, authors, research orientations, institutions, and quality of publications.
Research flow chart of the bibliometric analysis
VOSviewer is a software tool for building and visualizing bibliometric networks. It was developed by Van Eck and Waltman [ 21 ]. In VOSviewer, metric networks can be visualized and analyzed for factors, including journals, researchers, or individual publications. They can be constructed based on citations, bibliographic couplings, co-citations, or co-authorship relationships [ 21 ].
Number of global trends.
After applying the search criteria, we retrieved a total of 718 articles. Figure 2 a shows the increase in articles from 1 in 1977 to 108 in 2021. To predict future trends, a linear regression model was used to create a time curve for the number of publications throughout the year, and the model fit curve for the growth trend is shown in Fig. 2 b. The trend in the number of publications fitted the time curve well at R 2 = 0.8802. The R-squared value is a measure of how well the trend line fits. This value reflects the degree of fit between the estimated value of the trend line and the corresponding actual data; the better the fit, the more reliable the trend line is [ 23 , 24 ]. Based on the model’s trends, it is also predicted that the number of articles on HRM in healthcare will increase to approximately 300 by 2030, an almost threefold increase compared to 2021.
a Total number of publications related to HRM research. The bars indicate the number of publications per year. b Model fitting curves of global publication trends. c Top 10 countries of total publications. d Distribution world map of HRM research
Figure 2 c, d shows the number of publications and the world distribution of the top 10 countries in total publication numbers. The USA contributed the most publications (172, 24.2%), followed by Australia (86, 12.0%), the UK (83, 11.6%), and China (78, 10.9%).
The USA had the highest total number of citations of all included publications (5195) (Table (Table1), 1 ), while the UK ranked second (2661), followed by Australia (1960) and the Netherlands (1271). The detailed rankings and numbers are shown in Fig. 3 a and Table Table1 1 .
Contributions in publications of countries
Country | Publications | Sum of the Times Cited | Average Citations per Item | H-index |
---|---|---|---|---|
USA | 172 | 5195 | 30.2 | 36 |
UNITED KINGDOM | 83 | 2661 | 32.06 | 27 |
AUSTRALIA | 86 | 1960 | 22.79 | 23 |
NETHERLANDS | 60 | 1271 | 21.18 | 21 |
CANADA | 46 | 1248 | 27.13 | 22 |
CHINA | 78 | 997 | 12.78 | 19 |
BELGIUM | 19 | 936 | 49.26 | 12 |
TAIWAN | 36 | 795 | 22.08 | 15 |
GERMANY | 31 | 596 | 19.23 | 11 |
IRAN | 27 | 277 | 10.26 | 9 |
a Top 10 countries of average citations for each article. b Average number of citations. c Top 10 countries of the H-index
Belgium had the highest average number of citations (49.26), followed by the UK (32.06), the USA (30.2), and Canada (27.13), as shown in Fig. 3 b.
Total citations and the h-index reflect the quality of a country’s publications and academic impact[ 25 ]. Figure 3 c shows the ranking of the h-index, where the top country is the USA (h-index = 36), followed by the UK (h-index = 27), Australia (h-index = 23), and Canada (h-index = 22).
Table Table2 2 shows the top 10 journals for publications on HRM in healthcare, with 54 articles published in “International Journal of Human Resource Management”, 44 articles published in “BMJ Open”, 30 articles published in “Journal of Nursing Management”, and 24 articles in “BMC Health Services Research”.
Top 10 journals of publications related to HRM research
Publications | Times | Percentage( = 718) |
---|---|---|
International Journal Of Human Resource Management | 54 | 7.521 |
Bmj Open | 44 | 6.128 |
Journal Of Nursing Management | 30 | 4.178 |
Bmc Health Services Research | 24 | 3.343 |
Journal Of Advanced Nursing | 18 | 2.507 |
Health Care Management Review | 16 | 2.228 |
Human Resources For Health | 16 | 2.228 |
Human Resource Management | 14 | 1.95 |
Plos One | 14 | 1.95 |
Human Resource Management Journal | 11 | 1.532 |
Table Table3 3 shows the top 10 most published authors with 96 articles/reviews in the last decade, representing 13.4% of all literature in the field. Timothy Bartram from Australia has published 19 papers, followed by Sandra Leggat from Australia, Stanton P from the USA, and Townsend K from the UK with 13, 11, and 10 papers, respectively. All researchers listed as authors were included in this term for analysis, regardless of their relative contribution to the study. Notably, we have included all authors in this analysis regardless of their relative contribution to the study.
Top 20 authors of publications
Author | Publications | Sum of the Times Cited | Average Citations per Item | h-index |
---|---|---|---|---|
Bartram T | 19 | 722 | 38 | 12 |
Leggat SG | 13 | 488 | 37.54 | 9 |
Stanton P | 11 | 510 | 46.36 | 8 |
Townsend K | 10 | 210 | 21 | 8 |
Wilkinson A | 10 | 210 | 21 | 8 |
Van Rhenen W | 8 | 138 | 17.25 | 5 |
Paauwe J | 7 | 258 | 36.86 | 4 |
Boselie P | 6 | 338 | 56.33 | 6 |
Kellner A | 6 | 87 | 14.5 | 6 |
Marchal B | 6 | 163 | 27.17 | 6 |
Figure 4 a shows the top 10 research orientations of the 100 research orientations. The most common research orientations were management (193 articles), nursing (107 articles), health policy services (105 articles), and health care sciences services (201 articles).
a Top 10 research orientations and the number of publications in each orientation. b Top 20 institutions with the most publications
Figure 4 shows the top 20 institutions with the most published papers. La Trobe University has the highest number of articles with 24, followed by the University of London (23) and Griffith University (18).
In the keyword mapping on HRM research in healthcare, the size of the nodes represents the frequency, while the line between the nodes reflects the co-occurrence relationship. A total of 1914 keywords were included, and 59 met the criteria. All keywords were grouped into six clusters: performance (light blue cluster), job satisfaction (red cluster), quality of care (blue cluster), human resource management (brown cluster), occupational/mental health (purple cluster), and hospital/COVID-19 (green cluster) (Fig. 5 ).
Co-occurrence analysis of HRM research in healthcare
The most prominent themes in HRM research in healthcare are as below. In the “Performance” cluster, the keywords which have the greatest co-occurrence strength were “performance”, “systematic review”, “decentralization health system” and “motivation”. The main keywords in the “Job Satisfaction” cluster are “job satisfaction”, “organizational commitment”, “transformational leadership” and “turn over”. In the “Quality of care” cluster, the keywords that stand out are “quality of care”, “patient safety”, “high-performance work system”, “quality management” and “patient satisfaction”. In the “Human resource management” cluster, the prominent keywords include “human resource management”, “health policy”, “public health”, and “education and training”. In the “Occupational/Mental Health” cluster, the prominent keywords are “Occupational health”, “mental health”, “well-being” and “burnout”. The main keywords in the “Hospital/COVID-19” cluster were “hospitals”, “COVID-19” “workforce” and “qualitative research”.
Our study of HMR research in healthcare illustrates current and global trends in publications, contributing countries, institutions, and research orientations. The field of HMR research has evolved over the past three decades. However, as this study shows, the number of publications steadily increases yearly, with 93 countries or regions publishing in the field, suggesting that research focusing on HMR research and providing in-depth knowledge will likely increase.
We find that most publishing countries are developed countries, but developing countries are catching up. The total citation rate and the h-index reflect the quality and scholarly impact of a country’s publications [ 25 ]. According to our study, the US ranks first among other countries in total publications, citations, and h-index, making the most substantial contribution to global HRM research. The UK and Canada also contribute significantly, with impressive total citation frequencies and h-index, especially the UK, which ranks second in average citation frequency. However, some countries, such as Belgium, Canada and Australia, also play an important role, given their high average citation frequency. In developing countries, HRM research has also served as a guide for hospitals to improve the quality of care. The study will serve as a reference for developing countries to learn from the experience of developed countries as their economic development gradually catches up with that of developed countries.
The impact and prestige of the journals can be seen in the number of articles published in the field and the influential journals in healthcare HRM research, including the BMC Health Services Research, the Journal of Nursing Management, the International Journal of Human Resource Management, the Health Care Management Review, and the Journal of Health Organisation and Management. These high-quality journals are thus the main source of information for researchers in this field on the latest developments in HRM in healthcare.
The study shows that almost all of the top 20 institutions come from the top five countries with the most publications, with the majority coming from the US, Australia and the Netherlands, reflecting the great academic influence of these three countries in the field of HRM in healthcare. These institutions play an important role in raising the academic performance of a country. Furthermore, the top 20 authors represent research leaders who are likely to impact the future direction of research significantly. Therefore, more attention should be paid to their work to stay abreast of the latest developments in the field.
Keywords play a crucial role in research papers as they contain vital information [ 26 ]. A systematic analysis of keywords within a specific research domain offers valuable insights into trends and focal points across various research areas [ 27 ]. Moreover, co-occurrence analysis relies on the number of joint publications to evaluate relationships among the identified keyword domains. As a result, it serves as an effective method for predicting future trends and focal points within the research areas of interest. These findings are expected to inspire more researchers to contribute to the future of HRM research in healthcare [ 28 ].
In this study, a total of six research domains were eventually summarized. Performance, Hospital/COVID-19, Job Satisfaction, Human resource management, Occupational/Mental Health, and Quality of care. By visualizing the analysis results, we can easily further clarify future trends. As the co-occurrence diagram shows, the keywords “Organizational culture”, “Patient safety”, “Nursing”, “Leadership”, “Quality of care” and “Hospitals” are highlighted as larger icons, so that investment and demand for quality research are necessary for the context of these six research directions.
This study found that the visual clustering results and the keywords that emerged from the clusters were closely related to the HRM module s described in “Human Resources Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage” by Noe. R . [ 29 ]. The modules have been cited in HRM research and are used as textbooks in universities [ 30 – 33 ]. Some of the keywords in each cluster correspond to human resource planning, performance management, recruitment and staffing, and training and development, respectively. The explanation of the HRM modules is described in the next paragraph. However, there are no explicit keywords in the modules related to employee relations management and compensation management results. This may be due to the private nature of the compensation structure in healthcare organizations during data collection, making it unavailable.
Human Resource Plan (HRP) stands for the implementation of the HR development strategy of the enterprise and the accomplishment of the enterprise’s goals, according to the changes in the internal and external environment and conditions of the enterprise, through the analysis and estimation of the future needs and supply of human resources and the use of scientific methods for organizational design, as well as the acquisition, allocation, utilization and maintenance of HR and other aspects of functional planning. HRP ensures that the organization has a balance of HR supply and demand at a needed time and in a required position, and achieves a reasonable allocation of HR and other resources to effectively motivate and develop of employees [ 34 ].
Decentralization health system, organizational culture/structure are high-frequency words in the clustering results related to “human resource management”. It is important to assess the extent to which decentralization can be used as a policy tool to improve national health systems. For policymakers and managers, based on relevant literature and research as well as country experience analysis, the experience of decentralization in relation to the organization and management of healthcare services is considered a forward-looking and pioneering concept capable of achieving optimal allocation of HR and other resources, in addition to the need to focus more on ex-ante and ex-post incentive development to deliver a 1 + 1 > 2 HRM effect [ 35 ]. HRP is the starting point and basis for all specific HRM activities. It directly affects the efficiency of the overall HRM of the enterprise. It is, therefore, taken as the primary job requirement for HR managers [ 36 ]. Organizational culture/structure significantly impacts the healthcare sector, such as excellence in healthcare delivery, ethical values, engagement, professionalism, cost of care, commitment to quality and strategic thinking, which are key cultural determinants of high-quality care delivery [ 37 ]. Therefore, as with other for-profit organizations, healthcare organizations must ensure that their organizational structure functions effectively to achieve their strategic goals. The organization formulates and implements HRM, an important task to achieve the development strategy goals.
Recruitment and staffing are the first steps in hospital HRM activities. Under the guidance of the organization’s human resources development plan, potential staff who meet the development conditions are attracted. Through the scientific selection of outstanding personnel, a platform with guaranteed treatment and development prospects is provided to ensure that the team of the healthcare organization is built solidly and meets the development needs. From the findings of this study, the keywords “workforce” and “workload” appear as high-frequency keywords in the co-occurrence analysis. Still, keywords related to traditional staff recruitment (e.g., analysis of recruitment needs, job analysis, competency analysis, recruitment procedures, and strategies) do not appear often. Recruitment and staffing are the prerequisites of human resources work. They bring a new dynamic source to healthcare organizations while complementing staff, making the organization full of vitality and vigor, facilitating organizational innovation and management innovation and helping improve the healthcare organization’s competitive advantage [ 38 ]. Recruitment and staffing, as a part of HR, directly impact the successful running of daily activities.
Human resource training is an important component of quality and safety in the health care system. The keyword “education and training” shows a high frequency of co-occurrence in the clustering results of analysis, corresponding to the module “training and education”. However, it is connected to the keywords “human resource management” and “health policy”, and is in the same cluster with” public health”, “health care management”, and the distance between the lines and dots indicate that these topics are closely related, proving the importance of education and training in the HRM of health systems. Healthcare organizations (especially for non-professionals and caregivers) can improve the performance of their employees by enhancing their capabilities, knowledge and potential through learning and training, so that they can maximize their qualifications to match the demands of their work and advance their performance [ 39 , 40 ].
Performance management, the core of the six modules, is also featured in the clustering results. Although this is an important focus for HR professionals, few studies have explored the link between HRM and health sector performance [ 6 ], the results show “performance” and “motivation”. The effectiveness of performance management is an important component of HRM, which effectively improves the quality of care in healthcare organizations/institutions [ 6 ]. Focusing on the effectiveness of performance management is considered to be crucial. First, as an integral part of HRM within an organization, it can help the organization meet its goals. Second, ineffective approaches can lead to negative attitudes among employees (including clinicians, nursing staff, administrators, etc.) and adversely affect performance due to decreased satisfaction among employees and patients. Third, given the increasing quality and cost reduction pressures on healthcare organizations, conducting further research on performance management and effectiveness is critical [ 41 ]. However, it is clear from our results that healthcare organizations have recognized the importance of performance management and are pursuing “high performance”. Although the topic of performance management in HRM in healthcare is one of the research priorities, the number is lacking and more discussion on performance management should be suggested for future research.
Compensation is an important tool to motivate employees to work hard and to motivate them to work hard. The results of the database's bibliographic analysis show that no keywords directly involved compensation. This indicates that “compensation management” has not been considered a hot topic or a research issue over 30 years of available literature. To clarify the content of this module, we further searched the database of 718 articles with keywords, such as compensation, remuneration, salary, etc., and found that only 35 of them mentioned or discussed compensation, and some years (e.g., 2018, 2009) even had no relevant literature being published. However, issues such as fairness of compensation management and employee compensation satisfaction are still important issues of concern to business management academics [ 42 , 43 ]. The actual situation is that it is difficult to conduct research on compensation management. Most organizations keep their employees’ compensation confidential, and when conducting research, HR managers avoid talking about their employees’ compensation or leave it vague, rendering it impossible for researchers to conduct further research.
Employee compensation is one factor that has the greatest impact on organizational performance. In the future, organizations should be encouraged to scientifically structure their compensation management and empower academic research to establish and implement fair compensation management systems based on empirical research while maintaining the privacy and security of organizational information.
The connotation of employee relations management involves organizational culture and employee relations, as well as the coordination of the relationship between employers and employees. Healthcare organizations have complex structures with employees with varying skills, tasks or responsibilities, and such conflicts are often managed through the communication skills of administrative staff [ 44 ]. Although the keywords related to “employee relations management” did not occur in this study's analysis results, the six HRM modules are closely related. Therefore, this does not mean that no description of employee relations management was completely absent in the retrieved articles. It is clear that there is currently a lack of research on employee relations management in the healthcare field. Still, with the continuous development of the healthcare industry, it faces multiple challenges. If employee relations are not handled properly, healthcare organizations with social responsibility will face great public pressure, which will even affect the quality of healthcare services and performance, so it is especially important to strengthen the research on employee relations management.
This study inevitably has some limitations, the first of which arises from using quantitative methods to review documents in the field of HRM. The review relied on an analysis of the bibliographic data associated with the documents rather than a review of the research findings. The impact of the study was, therefore, limited to the general direction of developments in the field, rather than a synthesis of research findings. As a result, we may have missed some publications due to database bias. Second, most of the publications identified were in English and some articles relevant to other languages have not been included. Third, Since HRM exists in a wide range of industries and research areas, although researchers have set the screening criteria as detailed as possible, there may still be some literature that has not been detected.
This study describes the current state and global trends in HRM research in healthcare. The United States has made significant contributions in this field, establishing itself as a global leader. It is foreseeable that more and more publications will be published in the coming years, which indicates that HRM research in healthcare is booming. The analysis results of this study echoed the modules of HRM. It can be seen that in the current HRM research, many topics have been of interest. However, the focus and hotspots of the research are scattered, and there is presently no systematic research on the content of HRM in healthcare.
The authors thank the Editor-in-Chief and the referees for their helpful comments which help to improve our manuscript significantly.
BW, ZH and LLconceived of the presented idea. BW, developed the theory. BW, YH, RW, KC and XQ collected the data and discussed the results. BW and YH encouraged XQ to investigate the hospital management field and supervised the findings of this work. All authors discussed the results and contributed to the final manuscript.
This research was supported by Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, China (Grant number: 2021-RC630-001).
Declarations.
There are no human or animal studies in this manuscript, and no potentially identifiable human images or data are presented in this study.
Not applicable.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
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In recent studies, researchers agree that there is a substantial gap between research and practice in the field of human resource management (HRM). The literature exploring the causes and consequences of this gap does not represent a finely structured discourse; it has focused on analysing the gap from the practitioner side, and it is based on opinions and theoretical discussions rather than on empirical evidence. In this paper, we try to shed some light on this so-called “valley of death”. We attempt to identify the causes underlying the disconnect between academics and professionals in our field by drawing on empirical qualitative evidence obtained from interviews with 15 expert academics in the field of HRM. Thus, the approach presented in our work differs from that of the prior literature in that it is focused not on the opinions of individual authors but on the personal experiences of a larger expert sample composed of independent, experienced scholars in the area. Based on in-depth semi-structured interviews, we analyse the factors explaining why academics are not always willing to focus their research on professional needs or orientate their research outputs to the practitioner community.
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This study has benefited from financing from the Research Project ECO2014-56580-R of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitively, and the Research Projects P12-SEJ-1810 from the Andalusia Government (Spain) and PR2016-018 (Research Projects University of Cadiz).
The authors appear in alphabetical order and have contributed equitably to this work.
Department of Business Management, University of Cádiz, Cádiz, Spain
Jesús de Frutos-Belizón, Fernando Martín-Alcázar & Gonzalo Sánchez-Gardey
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Researcher | Affiliation | Research topics in Elsevier’s Scopus database (sampling criteria I) | Publication records (sampling criteria IV) | Top collaborating international institutions (sampling criteria III) | Projects and/or experience with practitioner community |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Antonio G. Leal | Department of Management and Marketing (University of Sevilla) | Open innovation; Innovation; Organizational ambidexterity; Bullying; Workplace; Horizontal violence; Organizational learning; Intellectual capital; Disclosure | 36 publications 989 citations - : 16 | NOVA University Lisbon (Portugal), University of Twente (Netherlands), Lancaster University (UK), Polytechnic Institute of Leiria (Portugal), Universidad de Los Lagos (Chile) | Contracts and Grants with multiples companies and entities as |
Brian Harney | DCU Business School (Dublin City University) | Human resource management; High performance work systems; Resource practices; Small and medium-sized enterprises; Job insecurity; Employment; Perceived employability | 18 publications 225 citations - : 6 | Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (Malaysia); University of Manchester (UK); University of Otago (New Zeland); Carnegie Mellon University (US); University of Ljubljana (Slovenia); University of Warsaw (Poland); Northumbria University (UK) | Deputy Director (SMEs) of the (Ireland) (2010-2015) Experience in strategy and HR consulting and is a member of the executive education team at DCU (Dublin City University) where he has delivered onto programmes for clients such as and the |
Chris Brewster | International Business and Strategy Department (University of Reading) | Expatriates; Cultural intelligence; International assignment; Institutions; Capitalism; Human resource management; High performance work systems | 191 publications 5209 citations - : 39 | Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration (Austria); Griffith University Queensland (Australia); Nelson Mandela University (South Africa); University of Vaasa (Finland); University of Pecs (Hungary) | Mostly academic research profile |
David Collings | DCU Business School (Dublin City University) | Talent management; Talent; Expatriates; Cultural intelligence; International assignment; Subsidiaries; Multinational corporations; Multinational enterprises; Human resource management; High performance work systems; Resource practices | 89 publications 2816 citations - : 25 | University of Sheffield (UK); University of Warwick (UK); Queen’s University Belfast (UK); Reykjavík University (Iceland); Bahcesehir University (Turkey); California Lutheran University (US) | He has consulted with a number of leading global organisations in talent management and global staffing. His speaking and consulting engagements include the or Named by (magazine targets HR practitioners) as one of the Most Influential International Thinkers in the field of HRM five times (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018) |
David Guest | Department of Organizational Psychology (King’s College London) | Human resource management; High performance work systems; Resource practices; Psychological contract; Contracts; Psychological contracts; Career; Boundaryless career; Employment; Perceived employability | 100 publications 7500 citations - : 40 | KU Leuven (Belgium); Mälardalen University (Sweden); Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (Switzerland); University of Coimbra (Portugal); Tilburg University (Netherland) | Experience as behavioural science adviser to (UK) Contracts of special relevance with companies, entities and/or administrations as (RPS), (UK government), (CIPD) (professional association for human resource management professionals), (Joint undertaking by the three Swedish confederations of employees (trade unions)—LO, TCO, SACO—and the National Institute for Working Life) Managing Director of the (UK) Member of the Board of the (UK) Voted by managers as one of the leading “HR Thinkers” of the past decade (2015 and 2018 Results) ( ) |
Jaap Paauwe | Department of Human Resource Studies (Tilburg University) | Human resource management; High performance work systems; Resource practices; Expatriates; Cultural intelligence; International assignment; Talent management; Shared services | 74 publications 3317 citations - : 29 | Pennsylvania State University (US); University of Cambridge (UK); Ohio State University (US); Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration (Austria); University of South Carolina (US) | Professional experience in Group Technical Installation (GTI)/SHV Holdings. Project, assigned by the , in order to achieve HR functional excellence. Numerous contacts with the business community, giving inputs to strategy meetings, management team meetings and one on one conversations with CHRO’s about the strategic challenges they are facing Founder of the People (PMC) (Human Resource Studies institute for partnerships between industry and academia.) Member of the jury of the for selecting companies/organizations with the best HRM policies and practices |
John Hollenbeck | Management Department (Michigan State University) | Teams; Virtual teams; Team cognition; Negotiation; Conflict; Negotiation outcomes; Diversity; Teams; Diverse teams | 96 publications 7406 Citations - : 42 | University of Amsterdam (Netherlands); University of Groningen (Netherlands); China–Europe International Business School (China) | Contracts and Grants with multiples companies and entities ( Director of the + |
Jordi Trullén | Department of People Management and Organisation (Ramón Lluch University) | Human resource management; High performance work systems; Resource practices; Mergers and acquisitions; Integration; Post-merger integration; Employers; Recruitment; Employer Brand | 20 publications 189 citations - : 9 | University of Twente (Netherlands); Universidade Federal do Paraná (Brazil); Florida International University (US); NOVA University Lisbon (Portugal) | Mostly academic research profile |
José Luis Galán | Department of Management and Marketing (University of Sevilla) | Open innovation; Innovation; Organizational ambidexterity; Anxiety; Anxiety Disorders; Self-focused attention; Corporate social responsibility; Total quality management | 34 publications 912 citations - : 11 | University of Minnesota (US); Universidad Santiago de Cali (Colombia); Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (US) | Membership of the Board of Directors of companies with relevance as for example (2009-2013), (2003-2010), o Projects and studies to companies through university contracts with entities such as (Cátedra Santander), (Andalucía Government), o (Andalucía Government) |
Mireia Valverde | Business Management Department (Rovira i Virgili University) | Human resource management; High performance work systems; Resource practices; Call center; Aesthetic labour; Sales; Waiting time; Brands; Consumption practices | 42 publications 473 citations - : 13 | Cornell University (US); University of Twente (Netherlands); University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany); University of Limerick (Ireland) | Mostly academic research profile |
Neal Schmitt | Department of Psychology (Michigan State University) | Judgment; Personality; Aptitude; Personnel training; Abusive supervision; Behavior; Workplace deviance; Test; Psychometrics; Differential ítem | 189 publications 11015 citations - : 49 | Singapore Management University (Singapore); Indian School of Business (India); University of South Australia (Australia) | President of SIOP ( ) (1989–1990) Experience as editor of (Scientific journal focused on the publication of data or theoretical synthesis that advances understanding of psychological phenomena and human behavior that have practical implications) Senior Vice President of Research and Development in consultant |
Paul Sparrow | Department of Management Science (Lancaster University) | Talent management; Talent; Human resource management; High performance work systems; Resource practices; Work; Family Conflict; Work-family enrichment; Expatriates; Cultural intelligence; International assignment | 125 publications 2868 citations - : 28 | National University of Ireland (Ireland); University Institute of Lisbon (Portugal); Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherland); Pace University (US) | Practitioner experience as consultant ( ) Director of (2006–2016) Voted by managers as one of the leading “HR Thinkers” of the past decade (2016 and 2018 Results) ( ) |
Ramón Valle | Department of Management and Marketing (Pablo de Olavide University) | Industry; Personnel; Job dissatisfaction; Human resource management; High performance work systems; Resource practices; Corporate governance; Boards; Corporate boards | 47 publications 926 citations - : 18 | Jönköping University (Sweden); Syracuse University (US); Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Netherlands) | Mostly academic research profile |
Shimon L. Dolan | Department of People Management and Organisation (Ramón Lluch University) | Work engagement; Expatriates; Cultural intelligence; International assignment; Human resource management; High performance work systems; Resource practices; Violence; Workplace; Patient aggression | 34 publications 526 citations - : 12 | University of Haifa (Israel); Universidad del Pacífico (Peru); Universidad de la República (Uruguay); Universidad ESAN (Peru); York University Toronto (Canada); University of Minnesota (US) | President and CEO of the consulting Multiple Consulting projects completed with companies such as: Certification-coaching of executives in collaboration with the ICF (International Coaching Federation). President and founder of **** Author of multiple practitioner-oriented and informative publications ( , , , , |
Susan Jackson | Department of Human Resource Management (Rutgers University) | Diversity; Teams; Diverse teams; Industry; Environmental management systems; Environmental practices; Human resource management; High performance work systems; Resource practices | 104 publications 14090 citations - : 36 | Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China); Cardiff University (UK); University of Manchester (UK) | Mostly academic research profile |
According to your research experience, do you consider that research is individual or collective? What individuals or agents do you collaborate with in the development of your research projects?
Could you say that you have a stable research group? Do you have stable relationships with agents outside the group?
Could you briefly describe how work is normally organized in the research projects in which you participate?
Do you engage with professional partners in the development of research? How was this experience? What difficulties and benefits did you find in these collaborations?
Normally, what motivates your choice of research topics?
Could you specify the different steps of the research processes conducted in your group?
Which of them do you think are more important?
Do you think your research is relevant to the professional community?
Have you ever carried out a research project collaboratively with the professional community?
Do you consider that research in our field must be produced only for academics? Is it considered possible or viable to produce research jointly with the professional community?
How much time would you say that the whole process takes, from the time you have a stimulus to research until the time an output is generated?
What specific steps of the process do you feel are more time-consuming?
Do you usually change your research ideas and initial impressions after contrasting them with the rest of the members of your research team? Do you also do this with non-academic agents?
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Could you say that the group has established routines to develop research activities?
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What do you think are the skills, knowledge or experience necessary to carry out a successful academic career? How would you describe a successful researcher in terms of knowledge, skills and experience?
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What are the criteria used to select the specific means through which research results are disseminated? To what extent do you make use of non-academic or professional channels?
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de Frutos-Belizón, J., Martín-Alcázar, F. & Sánchez-Gardey, G. The research–practice gap in the field of HRM: a qualitative study from the academic side of the gap. Rev Manag Sci 15 , 1465–1515 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11846-020-00397-x
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Received : 27 June 2017
Accepted : 01 June 2020
Published : 15 June 2020
Issue Date : August 2021
DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11846-020-00397-x
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In addition to personnel issues such as recruitment and training, there are several areas of human resources research that HR teams often partake in as well. Investigations help human resource staff improve HR procedures and processes, and this, in turn, helps to ensure that companies run smoothly. While there are many topics that HR teams may examine, five of the most common (and highly important) areas are discussed below.
Related Resource: 10 Most Affordable Online PhD in Human Resources
One very important and common area of human resource exploration is job satisfaction. Employees perform their best when they are satisfied with their jobs. They are also more likely to be loyal to their employers if they enjoy their work. But just what makes employees satisfied with their positions? Exploring this query can help HR teams determine what employees need and want while on the clock. When exploring this area, human resource personnel may choose to conduct interviews individually or in groups. They may also examine similar businesses to determine what keeps other companies’ staff members happy and satisfied.
Another area that is commonly explored by human resource professionals is cultural diversity. Not only are work environments becoming highly diverse, but with globalization, there is a need to understand persons of different cultures overseas as well. As an article published on the website known as Small Business Chron explains, understanding and managing cultural diversity is especially important for companies that operate in other countries. Exploration in this area often involves determining effective cultural sensitivity training programs for the workplace.
Examining the procedures involved in eliminating discrimination among protected class employees is also a common area of exploration for HR departments. Typical things that are explored in this area include whether or not there have been discrimination suits filed against the company, how these problems have been handled, and whether or not solutions have been effective. Examining standard procedures and comparing them with effective procedures used by similar companies can help HR teams in this area as well. Since discrimination suits can pose serious consequences to businesses, this topic is highly important for companies both large and small.
Because appropriate compensation plans are among the many factors that can help to keep employees satisfied, this is another very common area of exploration for human resource personnel. Researching compensation plans typically involves examining job descriptions and comparing them with the going rate for such roles. It may also involve adjusting job descriptions, comparing salaries to that of similar roles in similar companies, adjusting compensation, and researching benefit plans by interviewing employees about what types of benefits they would like or need.
One of the most important jobs of any HR professional is to locate new talent that will benefit the company. Because of this, recruiting strategies is yet another common area of human resource exploration. HR teams must explore various options for locating top talent. They accomplish this by examining the company’s needs and the available pool of local job candidates. They must determine how they can reach this pool of persons, what platforms they should use to advertise open positions, and what would attract the best talent possible.
Human resource teams are responsible for much more than simply recruiting and training new staff members. They are also often responsible for researching various areas of interest that will benefit the company as a whole. Although there are many areas of human resources research, the five areas described above are some of the most common.
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Human Resource Management (HRM) is the strategic approach to the effective management of people in an organization, ensuring they contribute to the business’s success. It involves overseeing various aspects of employment, such as recruitment, training, performance management, and employee relations, to maximize employee performance and achieve organizational objectives.
Introduction to HRM Final Year Project Topics
Choosing a final year project topic in HRM is crucial as it allows students to delve deep into specific areas of interest within the field. Here are several potential research areas and topics for HRM final year projects:
1. Recruitment and Selection Strategies
Exploring innovative recruitment and selection strategies can be an intriguing topic. This could involve studying the effectiveness of various recruitment methods, such as social media recruiting, employee referrals, or campus recruitment, and assessing their impact on the quality of hires and organizational performance.
2. Employee Training and Development Programs
Investigating the design and implementation of employee training and development programs can be a fruitful area of research. Topics may include evaluating the effectiveness of training methods, assessing the impact of training on employee performance and retention, or exploring ways to align training programs with organizational goals.
3. Performance Management Systems
Analyzing performance management systems within organizations offers ample opportunities for research. Projects may focus on assessing the effectiveness of performance appraisal methods, exploring the role of feedback and coaching in performance improvement, or examining the link between performance management and employee engagement.
4. Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace
Studying diversity and inclusion initiatives can be both timely and relevant. Research topics may include analyzing the impact of diversity on organizational performance, assessing the effectiveness of diversity training programs, or investigating strategies to create an inclusive work environment that fosters innovation and collaboration.
5. Employee Engagement and Motivation
Exploring factors that influence employee engagement and motivation can provide valuable insights for organizations. Research topics may include examining the role of leadership in fostering employee engagement, assessing the impact of rewards and recognition programs on motivation, or investigating the link between employee engagement and organizational culture.
6. Work-Life Balance and Wellbeing Programs
With an increasing focus on employee wellbeing, researching work-life balance and wellbeing programs can be particularly meaningful. Topics may include evaluating the effectiveness of flexible work arrangements, assessing the impact of wellness initiatives on employee health and productivity, or exploring the role of organizational culture in supporting work-life balance.
These suggested HRM final year project topics offer a diverse range of research opportunities for students interested in exploring different aspects of human resource management. By selecting a topic aligned with their interests and career aspirations, students can develop valuable skills and contribute to the body of knowledge in the field of HRM. Additionally, conducting research in these areas can provide insights that organizations can use to enhance their HR practices and create a more engaged and productive workforce
While the list of HR responsibilities is a broad and continues to expand, the function as it is today is is built around these 7 key pillars.
The role of HR has evolved from being predominantly admin-focused to being an integral strategic partner of the business .
In light of this evolution, here I’ll examine the role of HR and the 7 key HR pillars that the function is built upon.
The HR department is responsible for a number of processes, such as recruitment and talent development, that help organizations achieve their goals through people and, increasingly, AI.
In practice, this means working closely with the business to help define goals, identify the actions and activities needed to meet goals, identify key metrics, and align talent to be successful.
Human resource professionals are also responsible for ensuring organizations remain compliant with labor laws in their respective territories.
In light of the above, HR departments’ activities are centered around these 7 core pillars.
Talent needs are constantly evolving and the goal of workforce planning is to ensure that an organization has the talent in place to achieve its goals.
During the workforce planning process, human resources will work with business leaders to identify talent needs and then develop strategies to meet them.
This will inform talent management strategies such as recruitment and learning and development.
A key pillar, recruitment covers helping the organization attract, find, assess, and onboard the talent needed to meet strategic goals.
Recruitment activities include:
HR will manage the recruitment process from start to finish, collaborating with hiring managers and sometimes external professionals.
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While dipping into the market is sometimes necessary, it’s often more beneficial to develop talent in-house.
Learning and development (L&D) covers activities such as:
The effectiveness of the L&D strategy can be assessed through their impact on business outcomes such as revenue, cost, and risk as well as changes in behavior and skills gained.
Closely tied to learning and development is performance management. This covers activities such as the somewhat dreaded annual performance review.
However, as Eric Grant points out in his excellent article, organizations should aspire to continuous performance management i.e. a system of ongoing, regular feedback that’s instructive, constructive, and celebratory.
Operationally, continuous performance management is characterized by more frequent performance reviews , regular check-ins, and a shift to shorter, more dynamic goals.
Remuneration is important for attracting and retaining the right talent. HR teams help organizations provide the right mix of monetary and non-monetary rewards to attract, retain, and motivate talent.
Compensation management activities include:
The marmite of HR. Some professionals love it, others not so much.
Employee relations (ER) means balancing the wants and needs of the employer with those of the employees, both collectively as well as individually.
A human resources department adept at ER will foster a positive employment experience while protecting the company by maintaining compliance.
Needless to say, when people are involved, things can get jammy.
As Jessica Cieslinsky covers in her great article on improving employee relations , the secret to good employee relations is having systems and processes such as regular performance reviews and regular, transparent communication.
Last but not least we have compliance. It’s not sexy, but it’s vital to the success of an organization.
HR compliance refers to an organization’s adherence to the laws, regulations, policies, and procedures that govern employment practices, the physical workplace, and the treatment of employees.
This covers various areas, including hiring practices, employee classifications, compensation and benefits, workplace safety, organizational policies , employee records management, and labor relations.
Compliance is important for several reasons, the most obvious being legal compliance, but also employee well-being and reputation as well.
If you do enough research, you'll be able to find an HR system that offers modules to support all 7 core pillars of HR. If you can't find one solution, integrating different HR systems you already have can provide you with a customized approach using software your people are already familiar with.
For further support on all things HR, join our supportive community of HR and business leaders sharing knowledge and best practices to help you grow in your career and make greater impact in your organization.
How to choose payroll software: 10 things to look out for, what is global payroll complete guide 2024.
Human Resource Management & Development
GW is to proud to be among the select group of universities that hold membership in the Association of American Universities (AAU ), which represents institutions that are “on the leading edge of innovation, scholarship, and solutions that contribute to scientific progress, economic development, security, and well-being.”
Because research is integral to the university’s mission, HRMD will continue to prioritize efforts that support our viability as a Research 1-university . Resources provided on this page are geared to research stakeholders including but not limited to applicants, existing GW research staff, administrators supporting research interests, Principal Investigators/Research Deans and others.
For information on careers at GW we encourage you to explore the following resources available on our website:
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Office of the Vice Provost for Research - GW's Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR) works alongside our talented faculty to support cutting-edge research and scholarship across all stages of the research lifecycle. OVPR leads a number of initiatives and programs with the strategic aim of growing research capacity and boosting the impact of GW-led discovery and innovation.
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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, colleges that offer human resources major.
I'm a junior in high school, and I've become quite interested in the field of Human Resources. Which colleges offer an HR major and have reputable programs?
There are several colleges that offer reputable Human Resources programs. Here's a list of a few notable institutions with strong Human Resources programs:
1. Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) - Offers an HR Management concentration within their undergraduate business program.
2. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - Offers a bachelor's degree in Human Resource Development through their School of Education.
3. Michigan State University - Offers a bachelor's degree in Human Resource Management through their Eli Broad College of Business.
4. Cornell University - Offers an emphasis in HR within their undergraduate Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) program.
5. Rutgers University - Offers a bachelor's degree in Human Resource Management through their School of Management and Labor Relations.
6. University of Minnesota - Offers a bachelor's degree in Human Resources and Industrial Relations through their Carlson School of Management.
Each of these institutions has strong programs, and the type of HR program may vary due to differences in focus (for example, some might center on business, while others might emphasize education or labor relations). It's important to research each college's program on their website to see which aligns best with your specific interests and goals.
Additionally, consider factors such as location, campus culture, and additional resources when choosing a college. It is also recommended to visit any institutions you're considering and talk to students or professors to get a better understanding of their Human Resources programs. Good luck!
CollegeVine’s Q&A seeks to offer informed perspectives on commonly asked admissions questions. Every answer is refined and validated by our team of admissions experts to ensure it resonates with trusted knowledge in the field.
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Strategic human resource management (SHRM) research increasingly focuses on the performance effects of human resource (HR) systems rather than individual HR practices (Combs, Liu, Hall, & Ketchen, 2006).Researchers tend to agree that the focus should be on systems because employees are simultaneously exposed to an interrelated set of HR practices rather than single practices one at a time, and ...
1.2 Equal Employment Opportunity HR Research Topics. 1.3 Career Development HR Research Topics. 1.4 Research Topics on Recruitment and Selection. 1.5 HR Risk Management Topics. 1.6 Workplace Safety HR Topics. 1.7 Trending HR Topics. Human Resources is one of the most popular and essential topics for the business minded.
However, research by Summer Jackson shows how hiring managers' fears of seeming transactional can ultimately undermine their diversity goals. New research on human resources from HBS faculty on issues including organizational design, compensation, incentive plans, hiring practices, and recruitment.
Human Resource Management and the Range of Research Paper Topics. Human Resource Management (HRM) is an interdisciplinary field that integrates aspects of management, psychology, sociology, economics, and legal studies. It is the art and science of managing people within an organization to maximize their performance, well-being, and alignment ...
The SHRM Voice of Work Research Panel is a diverse group of HR professionals who represent U.S. organizations and the HR profession by serving as the voice of all things work, workers and the ...
This book integrates the most relevant contemporary research ideas within the field and practice of Human Resource Management (HRM) and Organizational Behavior (OB) into a cohesive research discussion, with the aim of synthesizing and advancing research perspectives.
Human Resource Management is the leading journal for human resource management studies. Internationally recognised, this HRM journal covers micro to multi-level topics. Abstract Human resource leaders are experimenting with new approaches to organizing and utilizing workers that are not limited to the traditional boundaries of the firm, but ...
Leadership Magazine Article. Claudio Fernández-Aráoz. Hitting the hiring bull's-eye is one of an executive's most important—and most difficult—responsibilities. Ten common mistakes can ...
The Human Resource Management Journal has published several research papers exploring various aspects of HR in contexts of change and turmoil from a number of perspectives. This virtual special issue on HRM in times of turmoil brings together a collection of papers which, when viewed together can help shed light on some of the challenges and ...
Jayashree Mahesh ([email protected]) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Management, Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS Pilani).She is Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Certified Practitioner and Accredited Belbin Trainer. Her research interest is in the areas of Mindfulness and Employee Well-being, Innovative Pedagogies for Student Engagement, Leadership and Futuristic ...
The purpose of the study was to detect trends in human resource management (HRM) research presented in journals during the 2000-2020 timeframe. The research question is: How are the interests of researchers changing in the field of HRM and which topics have gained popularity in recent years?,The approach adopted in this study was designed to ...
Human Resource Development Review (HRDR) began in March 2002, starting with Holton's (2002) editorial, The Mandate for Theory in Human Resource Development.As of this writing, HRDR is one of leading journals in organizational research fields.HRDR became a Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) journal in July 2014, thanks to the tremendous efforts of the former editor, Jamie Callahan, and the ...
Topic 3:An examination of knowledge management and organisational learning for sustained firm performance. A case study of British Telecom. Topic 4:Investigating learning and development of human resources in the public sector in the UK. Topic 32:The importance of HR learning and development activities for SMEs.
Human resource management (HRM) in healthcare is an important component in relation to the quality and efficiency of healthcare delivery. ... The United States and Australia have made significant contributions in this area. Current research articles focus on topics clustered into performance, hospital/COVID-19, job satisfaction, human resource ...
Human Resource (HR) practices are an integral part of an organization's management strategy that focuses on. effectively managing the organization's workforce. HR practices enco mpass a wide range ...
Human resource management is organizing, coordinating, and managing an organization's current employees to carry out an organization's mission, vision, and goals. This includes recruiting, hiring, training, compensating, retaining, and motivating employees. HRM staff also develops and enforces policies and procedures that help ensure employee ...
In this fourth annual review issue published by The International Journal of Human Resource Management (IJHRM), we are delighted to present five articles that cover some of the important areas in people management in contemporary work settings. Our review articles cover topics that are less well-researched, compared with some popular themes, as ...
In recent studies, researchers agree that there is a substantial gap between research and practice in the field of human resource management (HRM). The literature exploring the causes and consequences of this gap does not represent a finely structured discourse; it has focused on analysing the gap from the practitioner side, and it is based on opinions and theoretical discussions rather than ...
Popular answers (1) Pedro Miguel Alves Ribeiro Correia. University of Coimbra. -Relation between HRM and gender (both recruiters and recruitees) -Necessity of HRM adaptation to different ...
To help HR leaders better manage and lead during these times, Gartner conducted an annual survey of more than 800 HR leaders and identified the top 5 priorities for HR in 2023. Top of the list is leader and manager effectiveness, but many HR leaders will also prioritize change management, employee experience, recruiting and future of work.
Human Resource: Areas of Investigation. Job Satisfaction. Cultural Diversity. Protected Class Employees. Compensation Plans. Recruiting Strategies. In addition to personnel issues such as recruitment and training, there are several areas of human resources research that HR teams often partake in as well. Investigations help human resource staff ...
Here are several potential research areas and topics for HRM final year projects: 1. Recruitment and Selection Strategies. Exploring innovative recruitment and selection strategies can be an intriguing topic. This could involve studying the effectiveness of various recruitment methods, such as social media recruiting, employee referrals, or ...
Here are eight of the functional areas that a human resources team can focus on: Recruiting and staffing employees. Employee benefits. Employee compensation. Employee and labor relations. Human resources compliance. Organizational structure. Human resources information and payroll. Employee training and development.
This covers various areas, including hiring practices, employee classifications, compensation and benefits, workplace safety, organizational policies, employee records management, and labor relations. Compliance is important for several reasons, the most obvious being legal compliance, but also employee well-being and reputation as well.
GW is to proud to be among the select group of universities that hold membership in the Association of American Universities (AAU), which represents institutions that are "on the leading edge of innovation, scholarship, and solutions that contribute to scientific progress, economic development, security, and well-being." Because research is integral to the university's mission, HRMD will ...
There are several colleges that offer reputable Human Resources programs. Here's a list of a few notable institutions with strong Human Resources programs: 1. Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) - Offers an HR Management concentration within their undergraduate business program. 2. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - Offers a bachelor's degree in Human Resource ...