A critical discourse perspective on managers’ experiences of HRM

Content type

User Generated

Subject

Management

Type

Note

Uploaded By

ehaare

Pages

Rating

HR Management

by krakazyabryk

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/1746-

5648.htm

A critical discourse perspective

on managers’ experiences of HRM

A critical

discourse

perspective

Helen Francis

School of Management, Napier University, Edinburgh, UK

Abstract

Purpose – The discourse of human resource management (HRM) is increasingly dominated by a

normative, consensus-oriented perspective on managing the employment relationship. This paper aims

to explore the potential of critical discourse analysis (CDA) to provide new and different understandings

of HRM and processes of organisational change, and which highlights the creative role of language in

the shaping of organisation and management practice. Design/methodology/approach – A case study

analysis of managers’ experiences of introducing change in a large catering ï¬ﾁ rm is drawn upon to

highlight the inherent tensions in people management, which stem from the need for employers to

motivate and control labour in order to remain proï¬ﾁ table. This is illustrated in a change programme

aimed at increasing organisational efï¬ﾁ ciency and achieving a “results driven culture” that exhorted

managers to think and behave as “entrepreneurs” and to “comply” with stringent new rules on managing

their staff. Findings – It is concluded that conï¬‚ict and resistance is an inevitable feature of HRM-based

initiatives and that CDA offers a powerful lens for exploring this dynamic. Importantly, it provides a less

restrictive view of management decision making than that found in conventional understandings of HRM,

which tend to treat management as a more or less culturally uniï¬ﾁ ed body, and ignores the subjectivity

of managers. In contrast, the empirical evidence presented here provides an example of how the

deployment of CDA can provide rich insights into the dynamics of HRM-based change rooted in a

complex shifting network of alliances (and related discourses). Originality/value – Focus is placed on

how concepts, objects and subject positions are constituted through language and embedded in power

relations.

Keywords Case studies, Line management, Human resource management Paper type Research paper

What is in a name? An action oriented view of language

Since, the 1990s, research in the ï¬ﾁ eld of human resource management (HRM) has been dominated

by a concern with investigating the take-up and impact of particular conï¬ﾁ gurations of HRM practices

that seek “high commitment” and ï¬‚exibility (Legge, 2001). Largely drawing on survey-based designs,

analysts tend to treat the language of HRM as unproblematic (Keenoy, 1997, 1999); something that

represents an objective HRM “reality” that can be measured in some way and based on the assumption

that language is somehow separate from action. From this position HRM has been represented as

simply a more fashionable name for personnel management, and the rhetoric/reality distinction been

made to dismiss rhetoric as a form of language-use with little substance (Watson, 2004). Armstrong

(2000, p. 586), for example, dismisses the rhetoric and usage of the term HRM as “irrelevant” to

practitioners and concludes: “What’s in a name?” we say, “Does it matter a jot what we call it?”. “Isn’t it

more important to concentrate on what we do?” “How well does all this philosophical discourse help us?”

Dismissal of such labelling processes ignores signiï¬ﾁ cant new developments in social science that

take a particular interest in language and power (Boje et al., 2004;

Qualitative Research in Organizations

and Management: An International

Journal

Vol. 1 No. 2, 2006

pp. 65-82

q Emerald Group Publishing Limited

1746-5648

DOI 10.1108/17465640610686343

End of Preview - Want to read all 26 pages?

Access Now

Unformatted Attachment Preview

HR Management by krakazyabryk The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/1746-5648.htm A critical discourse perspective on managers' experiences of HRM A critical discourse perspective Helen Francis School of Management, Napier University, Edinburgh, UK 65 Abstract Purpose - The discourse of human resource management (HRM) is increasingly dominated by a normative, consensus-oriented perspective on managing the employment relationship. This paper aims to explore the potential of critical discourse analysis (CDA) to provide new and different understandings of HRM and processes of organisational change, and which highlights the creative role of language in the shaping of organisation and management practice. Design/methodology/approach - A case study analysis of managers' experiences of introducing change in a large catering ??rm is drawn upon to highlight the inherent tensions in people management, which stem from the need for employers to motivate and control labour in order to remain pro??table. This is illustrated in a change programme aimed at increasing organisational ef??ciency and achieving a "results driven culture" that exhorted managers to think and behave as "entrepreneurs" and to "comply" with stringent new rules on managing their staff. Findings - It is concluded that con?,ict and resistance is an inevitable feature of HRM-based initiatives and that CDA offers a powerful lens for exploring this dynamic. ...
Purchase document to see full attachment