Track five
Human Resource Management and Employment Relations in Turbulent Times
Industrial relations currently face a combination of contextual challenges and uncertainties, ranging from de-globalisation and global value chain disruptions, technological innovation to climate change, and international migration and its impact on rising inequality around the world. At the same time, public policies at national and international levels push companies to contribute to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda and the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. This has an impact on labour markets, industrial relations actors, and human resource management (HRM) policies and practices.
HRM practices are essential for helping organisations meet contextual challenges and for attracting, retaining, and developing talent. They also play a crucial role in ensuring decent, sustainable work and fair labour standards, advancing gender equality, and promoting diverse and inclusive workplaces. This track encourages research addressing the following questions, among others.
- How are current challenges, such as global value chain disruptions, climate change, immigration, and the pandemic impacting HRM and employment relations? What are the implications of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the ILO’s Decent Work agenda for HRM and employment relations?
- How are new forms of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) initiatives affecting HRM practices and policies? How can HRM promote equitable engagement and connect diverse groups in organisations?
- What are the institutional, social, and cultural sources of variation in HRM practices across different countries? Are we seeing more convergence or divergence in HRM practices across national contexts? How do national education and training systems, legal systems, and labor market and industrial relations institutions influence HRM policies?
- How are new developments in HR practices in the areas of work design, HR planning, recruitment and selection, performance management, training and development, and health and safety shaping worker perceptions, attitudes, and experiences? What are the causes and consequences of recent trends such as “quiet quitting” and the “Great Resignation”? How does the organisational context influence employee voice, and whose voice is unheard, and why?
- How have HRM practices been transformed by the adoption of HR and talent analytics, and what are the consequences of this transformation? What are the key ethical and legal issues related to the type of HR data collected and used? What challenges do organisations face when adopting and using novel HRM tools and practices?