Ashlea Kellner

Health service accreditation reinforces a mindset of high-performance human resource management: lessons from an Australian study

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether an accreditation program facilitates healthcare organizations (HCOs) to evolve and maintain high-performance human resource management (HRM) systems. DESIGN Cross-sectional multimethod study. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS Healthcare organizations participating in the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards Evaluation and Quality Improvement Program (EQuIP 4) between 2007 and 2011. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Ratings across the EQuIP 4 HRM criteria, a clinical performance measure, surveyor reports (HRM information) and interview data (opinions and experiences regarding HRM and accreditation). RESULTS Healthcare organizations identified as high performing on accreditation HRM criteria seek excellence primarily because of internal motivations linked to best practice. Participation in an accreditation program is a secondary and less significant influence. Notwithstanding, the accreditation program provides the HCO opportunity for internal and external review and assessment of their performance; the accreditation activities are reflective learning and feedback events. CONCLUSIONS This study reveals that HCOs that pursue highly performing HRM systems use participation in an accreditation program as an opportunity. Their organizational mindset is to use the program as a tool by which to reflect and obtain feedback on their performance so to maintain or improve their management of staff and delivery of care.

‘We are very focused on the muffins’: Regulation of and compliance with industrial relations in franchises

The highly successful franchising approach contains features of both large and small firms. We develop a ‘diverse accountabilities’ model of franchise organisation of employment relations, acknowledging the limitations of agency theory in explaining differences between franchisors’ treatment of product and employment matters, particularly those associated with compliance with industrial legislation and awards. The model was broadly consistent with existing literature and our own multiple-case study of Australian food franchises. High rates of compliance with industrial relations (IR) standards were unlikely. The involvement of franchisors in franchisees’ IR activities appeared to vary substantially, but was always well below that provided in other human resource management (HRM) or product-related issues. Evaluation and monitoring of franchisee behaviour is often neglected, and instead the consequences of non-compliance, if discovered, are potentially serious for the franchisee. Our approach helps explain the treatment of IR in terms of financial benefits for franchisors of operating a business model with marketing and product management features – and to some extent HRM features – of a large business, but the IR characteristics of small businesses.

Decaf or double shot? The strength of franchisor control over HRM in coffee franchises

The franchise relationship presents a unique composition of autonomy and control. Franchisee autonomy is located somewhere between employed managers and independent business owners, while the franchisor regulates core processes such as marketing and product development. While heavy franchisor control over certain functions is customary and in fact integral to the franchise model, the delineation of HRM responsibilities in the franchise relationship is less clear. Using qualitative data from three Australian coffee chains, we examine the role of the corporate HR and the degree to which HRM activities are centralised, and develop a typology of franchisor HRM control. We find substantial variation between cases and demonstrate that it is the franchisors strategic decision to prioritise brand protection or liability avoidance that ultimately determines whether their control over HRM can be described as ‘decaf’ weak or ‘double shot’ strength.

Human resource management standardisation and adaptation in franchises

ABSTRACT Franchising is synonymous with standardisation and control, to achieve system-wide efficiencies and consistency in the brand image. Scholarly literature on human resource management (HRM) in this context has, to date, been relatively one-dimensional, discussing standardisation of HRM from the franchisor’s perspective with insufficient consideration of the role and experiences of franchisees. This article seeks to extend the concept of core and peripheral franchising components to HRM activities, presenting findings from a three-case study of Australian coffee franchises. The findings suggest reframing HRM in franchises as two separate but potentially overlapping systems managed by franchisor and franchisee, with core and peripheral elements that may or may not align. Subsequent outcomes of misalignment for the franchise relationship are considered, and resulting franchisee HRM behaviours are illustrated in a Franchisee HRM Response Matrix.

The message and the messenger: Identifying and communicating a high performance “HRM philosophy”

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop understanding of the “HRM process” as defined by Bowen and Ostroff (2004). The authors clarify the construct of “HRM philosophy” and suggest it is communicated to employees through “HRM messages”. Interrelationships between these concepts and other elements of the HRM-performance relationship are explored. The study identifies commonalities in the HRM philosophy and messages underscoring high-performing HRM systems, and highlights the function of a “messenger” in delivering messages to staff. Design/methodology/approach Case study of eight Australian hospitals with top performing HRM systems. Combines primary interview data with independent healthcare accreditor reports. Findings All cases share an HRM philosophy of achieving high-performance outcomes through the HRM system and employees are provided with messages about continuous improvement, best practice and innovation. The philosophy was instilled primarily by executive-level managers, whereby distinctiveness, consensus and consistency of communications were important characteristics. Research limitations/implications The research is limited by: omission of low or average performers; a single industry and country design; and exclusion of employee perspectives. Practical implications The findings reinforce the importance of identifying the HRM philosophy and its key communicators within the organisation, and ensuring it is aligned with strategy, climate and the HRM system, particularly during periods of organisational change. Originality/value The authors expand Bowen and Ostroff’s seminal work and develop the concepts of HRM philosophy and messages, offering the model to clarify key relationships. The findings underscore problems associated with a best practice approach that disregards HRM process elements essential for optimising performance.

‘The mission or the margin?’ A high-performance work system in a non-profit organisation

Abstract Competitive and economic pressures have encouraged many non-profit organisations (NPOs) to implement high-performance work systems (HPWS); however, the objectives of such systems can contradict a ‘values-based approach’ to managing people. In this article, we ask how these two approaches to human resource management (HRM) can coexist and still result in a ‘strong HRM system’ and climate. Our unique case is an Australian Catholic NPO that combines a private and public hospital under the banner of Mercy Healthcare; the former must generate a surplus to fund the budget shortfall of the latter. Eighty-three interviews are combined with a range of secondary data, outlining the crises that motivated the implementation of a HPWS in a NPO. We identify a modified HPWS tempered by a values-orientation, softening potentially conflicting elements of strategic HRM and complementing the organisation’s deeply rooted Catholic values. Despite some conflict between what interviewees term ‘the balance between the mission and the margin’, careful alignment of organisational values with the HPWS resulted in a stronger climate, positive employee outcomes, and a high-performing HRM system. This article informs our understanding of how HPWS can contribute to NPO performance, and addresses the call for research on HRM in NPOs, and in particular, values-based systems of HRM.

Learning to manage: development experiences of hospital frontline managers

In high performing human resource management (HRM) systems, much responsibility for managing employees and associated processes is typically devolved to frontline managers (FLMs). Research indicates that undeveloped FLM HRM ability can impact performance, particularly in health-care organisations. We present the incidence and characteristics of HRM-oriented learning and development programs for FLMs in hospitals with high performing systems of HRM, and experiences of FLMs directly participating in them. We combine data from 50 Australian hospital accreditation reports with interviews from eight ‘high performance HRM’ cases. We find: almost all high performers develop FLM HRM ability; development programs are extremely diverse between hospitals and succession planning is deficient. While primarily focused on understanding ability, the study contributes to the ability, motivation, opportunity framework, proposing a model and new interrelationships between these variables in the FLM context.

Managing the front-line manager

The foreman, the top sergeant of the factory floor, is facing a greater challenge – and probably greater frustrations – than ever before. The foreman, management’s first line of contact with labour, is caught up in a strange mix of declining powers but new-found importance. No longer master craftsman or shop room tyrant, the foreman is becoming a key figure in the new gospel of worker participation. But that is not all. Today’s foreman is also inundated in increasingly complicated manufacturing technology, bewildering regulations and demands by number-crunching superiors in the front office for more detailed reporting on production data. (Feder, 1981, section 3, p. 4: cited in Schlesinger and Klein, 1987) Published in the New York Times 30 years ago, this comment would be just as relevant today with ‘foreman’ replaced with ‘front-line manager’ (FLM); ‘factory’ changed to ‘call centre’, ‘hospital’, or any service sector employment; and ‘labour’ changed to ‘human resources’. There is consistent agreement that the person working in this role has always been crucial to organisational performance (Jacoby, 2004; Lowe, 1995; Renwick, 2003, 2004; Martins, 2007; Townsend et al., 2013). Throughout recent decades there has been a steady stream of research demonstrating organisations and, indeed, professions in some cases, evolving, restructuring and changing, although far too often the FLM has been a ‘research finding’ rather than a ‘research focus’.

Franchise Firms: Changing Employment Relations?

Modern franchises can be traced back to the turn of the 20th century when franchising began to emerge as the distribution model of choice in the automotive industry. Henry Ford lacked the required capital to establish company-owned chains to sell vehicles and so focussed his efforts on developing a network of dealers to both market and sell his product (Justis & Judd, 2003). This approach was so successful that it was replicated by other automotive businesses and is still a popular distribution model in the automotive industry. However, modern franchising began to develop more significantly in the mid 1950s, when Ray Croc and Colonel Harlan Sanders opened their iconic American franchises, McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken respectively. Into the 1960s a plethora of businesses followed suit, operating franchise systems that sold products and services as varied as clothing retail, lawn mowing, and convenience stores (Justis & Judd, 2003). Franchising is currently the world’s fastest growing form of retailing (Dant, 2008). Franchises are complex forms of organization and hold important implications for the future of employment relations (ER). Some of these implications are explored in this chapter.