| New Funding and Research Projects
Is brave new HR just hype? How does digitalization influence people management in Finnish companies? Is “the brave new HR” just hype, or will we see fundamental changes in people management practices? These are the key questions in the new research project by Professor Adam Smale and Associate Professor Jennie Sumelius. The four-year project will be a joint research project with Aalto University School of Business. Academy of Finland has granted funding for the project. University of Vaasa’s part of the funding will be 280 000 euros. Recent technological developments are reshaping the way in which firms conduct business, organize and structure activities, and manage their resources – including the most valuable one, people. This “digital disruption” and the new ways of working challenges managers and human resource (HR) professionals to rethink the way in which they manage people. “While there has been much emphasis on the technological development itself, we do not know nearly enough about how digitalization will influence the way in which human resource management (HRM) is done in firms, and what are the facilitators of and barriers to this process”, says Jennie Sumelius who is the operative project leader. In order to learn more about how managers’ and HR professionals’ mindsets about ‘what is important’ and ‘what facilitates performance’
change over time as a result of the increased digitalization of HR the researchers will conduct a longitudinal qualitative interview study with Finnish HR managers. What are the outcomes of digitalization, and to what extent are the intended benefits of digital initiatives realized? “We need to ensure that Finnish firms and academics lead rather than follow the digital disruption also in the realm of people management. This is urgently needed: According to Deloitte’s recent report, 81 percent of Finnish employers consider themselves not ready for digitalizing their operations, and the lack of technological and dataanalytical capabilities has become the most important concern of Finnish HR professionals going forward”, says Sumelius.
2/2016
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