RESEARCH UPDATE JANE BRYSON
HRM Research – what’s going on?
T
he Academic branch of HRNZ is a ‘virtual branch’, designed to complement and contribute to the geographic branches by:
Through the Human Resources magazine, we hope to let you know about research nationally and internationally that is of relevance to HRM. In this update we begin by providing a small selection of current research at some New Zealand universities.
University and AUT to examine the meaning of a living wage. The principal investigators are Professors Jim Arrowsmith and Jane Parker (Massey Business School), Professors Stuart Carr, Darrin Hodgetts and Dr Siatu Alefaio (Massey School of Psychology) and Professor Jarrod Haar (AUT Department of Management). The project, supported by the government’s Marsden Fund, explores employer and employee perspectives across a range of sectors and organisations. It is longitudinal, tracking intentions and effects over three years from early 2018. Also, the research team is integrated into an international network of living wage researchers through Massey’s Project GLOW. Early results suggest that employers are becoming more strategic around pay, linking it to job redesign and upskilling within a context of tight labour markets. The employee research, based on a nationally-representative survey of low-paid workers, also indicates that addressing low pay can improve worker motivation at work as well as reducing stress and improving well-being.
The HRNZ Research Team of the year for 2019 brings together HR and psychology experts from Massey
Professor Jarrod Haar (AUT) is currently involved in a number of specific HR studies. Notably, he
i) strengthening the engagement between HR academics and HR practitioners, in order to advance relevant HRM research, on the one hand, and evidence-based HRM practice and policy advice, on the other; ii) fostering the academic-practitioner dialogue on HRM education and, thus, enhancing the ways in which education in HRM serves professional development; iii) building closer links between students of HRM and HRNZ; iv) fostering dialogue between HRM academics on ongoing HRM education, teaching, and research.
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HUMAN RESOURCES
WINTER 2019
conducted the quantitative survey evidence behind the four-day work week at Perpetual Guardian. The evidence clearly shows that a fourday work week (but paid five-days) can have major benefits for both employer and employees. Jarrod has also looked into the links between employee work-life balance and performance to provide strong empirical evidence behind these linkages. His recent studies have found consistently that work-life balance appears to mainly work as a building block where it helps other attitudes shape performance. Jarrod has also been investigating the role of high-performance work systems (HPWS) in New Zealand and the way they influence employee well-being as well as creativity behaviours. The latter has been in association with the National Science Challenge Science for Technological Innovation, to understand the influence of HPWS on employee retention of top talent, firm performance, and the creativity of managers. Overall, New Zealand firms that provide stronger bundles of HR practices outperform those who do not. Similarly, managers and employees who perceive these practices more valuably also report positive outcomes.
