The digital future of internal staffing: A vision for transformational electronic human resource management

• Published date: 01 October 2020
• Date: 01 October 2020
• Author: Philip Rogiers,Jan Leysen,Stijn Viaene
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/isaf.1481

RESEARCH ARTICLE

The digital future of internal staffing: A vision for

transformational electronic human resource management

Philip Rogiers

1

| Stijn Viaene

2

| Jan Leysen

3

1

KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

2

KU Leuven, Vlerick Business School, Leuven,

Belgium

3

Royal Military Academy, Brussels, Belgium

Correspondence

Philip Rogiers, KU Leuven, Naamsestraat

69, Leuven, 3000, Belgium.

Email: philip.rogiers@kuleuven.be

Summary

Through an international Delphi study, this article explores the new electronic human

resource management regimes that are expected to transform internal staffing. Our

focus is on three types of information systems: human resource management sys-

tems, job portals, and talent marketplaces. We explore the future potential of these

new systems and identify the key challenges for their implementation in govern-

ments, such as inadequate regulations and funding priorities, a lack of leadership and

strategic vision, together with rigid work policies and practices and a change-resistant

culture. Tied to this vision, we identify several areas of future inquiry that bridge the

divide between theory and practice.

KEYWORDS

Delphi method, government, information technology, internal staffing, transformational e-

HRM

1|INTRODUCTION

As digital technologies disrupt well-established work and employ-

ment patterns and provide for more fluid organizational structures

and working modes, theories about traditional internal career struc-

tures and experiences are no longer as relevant as they once were

(Ashford, Caza, & Reid, 2018; Bidwell, 2017; Cooper, 2014;

Davis, 2016; Padavic, 2005; Wirtky, Laumer, Eckhardt, &

Weitzel, 2016). Indeed, as Bidwell (2017: 295) argued, though solid

theories exist about the determinants of promotion and job mobil-

ity along structured career ladders, “we need a stronger under-

standing of the processes that have replaced [these career

ladders]”.

As a first step towards building this understanding, scholars

and practitioners have mused that electronic human resource man-

agement (e-HRM) could transform organizations' approaches to

internal staffing (e.g. Al Ariss, Cascio, & Paauwe, 2014; Bryan,

Joyce, & Weiss, 2006; Cappelli, 2008; O'Shea & Puente, 2017;

Schweyer, 2004; Wirtky et al., 2016), which we define as filling a

job by hiring a worker currently employed by the organization

(Keller, 2018). Yet, what we know very little about is how, exactly,

information systems (ISs) can bring forth this transformational shift

in organizations' internal labour markets, and how the resulting e-

HRM regimes can be actualized in the specific contexts in which

they are applied (Wirtky et al., 2016).

Governments, too, face the challenge of orchestrating their

internal labour markets (Mergel, 2016; Mergel, Yiwei, &

Bertot, 2018) and make effective use of ISs in this process

(Chiavenato, 2001; Hays, 2004; Mishra & Akman, 2010). This chal-

lenge is fuelled by phenomena such as the adoption of agile

approaches in governments as part of their process redesigns, pro-

ject management and software development, and the creation of

fast-reacting teams like the US Digital Service (Janssen & van der

Voort, 2016; Mergel, 2016, 2017). Structures and systems in gov-

ernments, however, have not kept pace with the dynamism of per-

sonnel needs (Hays, 2004; Ingraham, Selden, & Moynihan, 2000).

Though notable reform experiments have arisen in governments

across the board, their ambitions often bounce against the struc-

tural rigidities that uniquely characterize human resource manage-

ment (HRM) regimes in the government context (Hays, 2004). This

challenge is further aggravated by the lingering upgrade cycle of

legacy systems that support complex and outdated models of fore-

casting and succession planning—keeping transformational e-HRM

efforts at bay (Cappelli, 2008; Ingraham et al., 2000). Altogether,

Received: 22 February 2020 Revised: 2 July 2020 Accepted: 2 July 2020

DOI: 10.1002/isaf.1481

182 © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Intell Sys Acc Fin Mgmt. 2020;27:182–196.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/isaf