Razón humana 4 elementos de la materia.

Earlier, in practice HRIS were used to support transaction processing and to maintain management control in HRM. Later, HRIS and technology improved decision making and supported competitiveness. Technical demands and better understanding of the opinions of both managers and HR professionals have brought practical and scientific research of HRIS closer to each other. (Haines & Petit 1997, Ball 2001.) Still, a good example of the incomplete HRIS research is that no specific studies exist to categorize what information systems are or are not regarded as HRIS. Kavanagh et al. (1990: 17–19) argue that HRIS consist of electronic data processing (EDP), management information systems (MIS) and decision support systems (DSS) in addition to the specific HR systems. DeSanctis wrote in 1986 that the new software technology in general made the development of HRIS possible. She argued that the HR information system was designed to serve compensation, benefits and equal employment opportunities and to support managerial activities and routine reporting. Her conclusion was that the HR information system was part of MIS. (DeSanctis 1986.)

Development of WWW necessitated designing e-HRM along with the development of HRIS. Ruël et al. (2004) commenced a scientific discussion of e- HRM in Europe. European Academic Workshops on e-HRM have been carried out as well as International Workshops on HRIS in conjunction with International Conference of Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS). Still e-HRM is a novel research subject in IS and HRM and it will take some time to find its terms of reference. In addition, Ruël et al. (2004) argued that HRIS and e-HRM have fundamental differences. HRIS are constructed for HR departments and its users are mainly HR staff, whereas e-HRM is for people outside the HR department: employees and management. This means that HRIS support HR activities and e- HRM serves employee activities.

Ruël et al. (2004: 365) state that “the difference between HRIS and e-HRM

can be identified as the switch from the automation of HR services towards technological support of information on HR services”. Nevertheless, it can be

claimed that HRIS serve both HRM and employee tasks, which may be implemented electronically. In other words, the differences between HRIS and e- HRM are the system design and technical solutions. Technical choices, which are made when designing and implementing systems, may differ, but the content comes from the activities of HR staff, managers and leaders to both of the systems. As the matter of fact, an e-HRM can be regarded as a HR information system of one kind. In addition, it can be claimed that the user interface is ordinarily the only visible difference for users. Both HRIS and e-HRM are created for and serve the whole organization (HR staff, employees and management), and technically there is a database of employee knowledge behind the systems. Ruël et al. (2004: 365) give support for this statement saying that “technically speaking

it can be said that e-HR (electronic human resource) is the technical unlocking of HRIS for all employees of an organization”. However, if HRIS and e-HRM are

seen as two different IS and if the development work of HRIS is taken into account, how these two systems can be connected so that they serve the whole organization.

Kossek et al. (1994) stated that the role of HRIS in an organization had become clearer but more research was needed. There were only a few studies on HRIS in the 1990s but in the new millennium research has increased and developed. Still, according to the literature not many scientifically improved articles or papers on HRIS exist so far, neither do any scientific books. Scientific articles are mostly studies on opinions or experiences of HRIS and its use. Semi- scientific papers can be interviews, stories of experiences or advertisements of

HRIS designers, producers or suppliers. These papers give a view to the state of the discourse in practice. HRIS handbooks were written by Kavanagh et al. (1990) and Walker (1993). Kavanagh et al. (1990) focus more on the IS side of HRIS. The book analyzes the system itself and what should be noticed before implementation. It also introduces HRIS applications. Walker’s (1993) book gives a more technical and process-oriented viewpoint to the development and implementation of HRIS. The message concentrates on effectiveness, i.e. what the system can offer to the strategic HRM and to the whole organization in the future. Both publications are referenced in the thesis, although the handbooks do not have a distinct academic background. Two earlier publications are also available. In 1982 Walker wrote a book titled ‘HRIS Development, A Project Team Guide to Building an Effective Personnel Information System’. It was a concrete, step-by- step guide to develop a HR information system for an organization. Its goal was to provide guidelines for installing a computer-based personnel system that works for the organization. The book gave information about preparation and needs analysis, design and installation, as well as viewpoints on corporate perspectives and profitability. (Walker 1982.) Cascio & Awad (1981) published a book called ‘Human Resource Management: An Information Systems Approach’. Their focus of HRIS based on various activities of HRM, such as staffing, evaluation, environmental and legal factors, job analysis and design, recruitment, selection and placement (Cascio & Awad 1981). In addition to the research papers, only these four books are available on HRIS at the moment.

Some HRIS models have been constructed using HRM and HRIS literacy. For example, Mayfield, Mayfield & Lunce (2003) developed a model to improve HRIS. The components (called also factors) of the model and their activities are presented in table 3, which is a quotation of table 1 made by Mayfield et al. (2003: 147). Mayfield et al. (2003) studied over five-hundred relevant articles and identified seven primary components of a HRIS model. The components of their model are strategic integration, personnel development, communication and integration, records and compliance, HR analysis, KM, and forecasting and planning. In the article they described the model where these seven components were linked to each other and also to other activities of an organization. It gives a good picture of the many issues that HRIS is linked to.

Table 3. “HRIS functions and major activities” (Mayfield et al. 2003: 147).

Factors Major Activities

Strategic Integration Used to aid top management in making long term HR planning.

Personnel Development Used to enhance worker’s skills and abilities. Also includes quality of

work life enhancements.

Communication and Integration Inter-organizational communication support and coordination of

disparate organizational activities including change.

Records and Compliance Used to manage organizational information and ensure

governmental compliance.

Human Resource Analysis An ongoing means of gathering and diagnosing human resource

needs.

Knowledge Management Facilitates development and information retention of beneficial

human resource practices.

Forecasting and Planning Used in long range planning to assess future organizational HR

needs.

Organizational Vision Drives and integrates the HRIS factors to positive organizational

outcomes.

Salminen, Saranen & Saranen (2003) carried out a qualitative research in ICT organizations. They published a research report which described HRM in the ICT field as well as the state and the development needs of HRM in software companies. The survey used a framework which is depicted in table 4. The authors interviewed professionals in 40 small and middle-size ICT companies. They tried to collect as many common and distinguishing factors as possible of software business and HRM. The framework divides HR strategy into five main tasks, which influence HRM and HRIS (presented vertically on the two right- hand columns). The tasks are HR acquisition, HR orientation, HR development, HR administration and HR motivation (Salminen et al. 2003: 18). The report concludes that at that moment the most common business measure was profitability rather than expansion. Fast changes in the business environment meant fewer methods in business itself. The planning schedule shortened to quarters, even to months. Consequently, fewer plans were made for human resources than earlier because of the uncertainty of the permanence of operations. (Salminen et al. 2003.)

Table 4. Framework used in the research of Salminen et al. (2003: 18).

Business plan of a company Human resource strategy

HR acquisition Need for new employees

Job descriptions Recruiting channels

Evaluation and selection of applicants Aptitude and other tests

Employment contract issues

Human resource management Human resource information syst em s HR orientation Tutoring Initiation plans Initiation materials Supervision of work

HR development Creating know-how profiles for job description s

Mapping know-how of HR Career planning Development discussions Job appraisal Training Mentoring

Developing collaboration of different units in organization

HR administration Occupational health care

Payroll administration HR services and benefits

Collective labor agreements and employment issues Job satisfaction Internal information HR budgeting Parting interviews Outplacement HR motivation Rewarding Benefits Giving feedback Spurring

The most central processes in HRM were recruiting, orientation and development. It was important to get the right people for the work and to familiarize them with productive work as soon as possible. HRIS were also a part of the framework. People who were responsible for HRM believed that the importance of HRIS would grow significantly in the future. In bigger companies the growth was critical. The number of employees was already high and set limits to the use of an

information system for HRM to be able to improve the effectiveness of business. (Salminen et al. 2003.)

In the new millennium several technically-realized systems have been developed to support different functions of HRM. There is a huge variety of IS and electronic systems on the market. On the one hand, there are large HR systems such as SAP (Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte) which supports enterprise resource planning (ERP) in organizations. On the other hand, there are small web-based systems, even excel tables, which support some detailed part of HRM in organizations. In general, current HRM actions determine the needs and the choices of IS and technology. In addition, the challenge to implement and to use HRIS remains in the role of HRM in organizations. Visions, missions, strategies and business processes focus on performance, activities and core tasks which are regarded as profitable elements. Employees, technology and software are investments and acquisitions for an employer. Benefits of HRIS should be measured or at least clarified in HR strategy for investigation. Therefore, it is highly important to prove that HR investments and resources support the core business processes and objectives. Weatherly (2005: A1) points this out in her article saying that “from the HR perspective, strategically using the information

assets of the organization means that HR business processes, organizational support systems and HR information technology are aligned to continuously capture, maintain and utilize key strategic information assets (i.e., knowledge and judgments) to improve business performance”.

The research of HRIS is in its early stage. It is fragmented in several areas of the activities of HRM and the solutions of IS. As stated earlier, in this thesis the development of HRIS is challenged by studying its role in the activities of good leadership. It is a new research area of HRIS. This research is supported by the idea that the relevant employee data for HRIS comes from the activities of leadership work. Therefore it is important to study leadership as a concept, leaders’ activities as well as their opinions of and attitudes towards HRIS. The next section introduces and determines the concept of leadership in the research context.