The outcomes of e-HRM: case studies in companies in Portugal

Universidade do Minho Escola de Economia e Gestão Cao Tran Truc Ngan The outcomes of e-HRM: Case studies in companies in Portugal julho de 2021 Cao Tran Truc Ngan UMinho | 2021 The outcomes of e-HRM: Case studies in companes in Portugal Universidade do Minho Escola de Economia e Gestão Cao Tran Truc Ngan The outcomes of e-HRM: Case studies in companies in Portugal Dissertação de Mestrado Gestão de Recursos Humanos Trabalho efetuado sob a orientação da Professora Ana Cristina de Almeida e Carvalho julho de 2021 ii DIREITOS DE AUTOR E CONDIÇÕES DE UTILIZAÇÃO DO TRABALHO POR TERCEIROS Este é um trabalho acadêmico que pode ser utilizado por terceiros desde que respeitadas as regras e boas práticas internacionalmente aceites, no que concerne aos direitos de autor e direitos conexos. Assim, o presente trabalho pode ser utilizado nos termos previstos na licença abaixo indicada. Caso o utilizador necessite de permissão para poder fazer um uso do trabalho em condições não previstas no licenciamento indicado, deverá contatar o autor, através do RepositóriUM da Universidade do Minho. Licença concedida aos utilizadores deste trabalho Atribuição CC BY NC ND https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is a long journey with many challenges since I started my master's degree in Portugal. I have received a great deal of support and encouragement to overcome these challenges and finish my research. First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Ana Carvalho, for her considerable support as well as invaluable guidance for my study. I would like to give my special thanks to my parents, Nghia and Suot, my younger sister, Giang, my younger brothers, Kiet and Nhan, my litter niece, An Vy, and my grandparents. They give me fully support and motivation to follow my path. I would like to thank Brother Quyen Nguyen as well. He inspires me in learning and helps me overcome challenges when I live in Portugal. I would like to thank my friends in the University of Minho, especially Andréa Simon, for their support for my study. My thanks to Mrs. Maria Conceição for her consideration and encouragement. Last but not least, I'm grateful for the unconditional support of DST Group, especially HR Director José Machado, Cachapuz, especially CEO Graça Coelho and the technological company. My sincere and deep gratitude to them. Life is a journey with challenges to overcome and lessons to learn. But above all, enjoy the experiences. This stage in my journey means a lot to me and opens a new horizon. I hope that I have strength for pursuing and achieving my goals. iv STATEMENT OF INTEGRITY I hereby declare having conducted this academic work with integrity. I confirm that I have not used plagiarism or any form of undue use of information or falsification of results along the process leading to its elaboration. I further declare that I have fully acknowledged the Code of Ethical Conduct of the University of Minho. v Resumo Objetivos: O objetivo deste estudo é proporcionar uma breve revisão que permita (a) melhorar a compreensão sobre a GRH eletrónica (e-GRH) com base na literatura existente sobre e-GRH, (b) explorar os resultados da e-GRH pela perspetiva da organização. Design/ Metodologia: Com base na literatura, foram conduzidos três estudos de caso em empresas em Portugal. As organizações de diferentes contextos foram selecionadas. Os dados foram recolhidos através de entrevistas semiestruturadas. A análise seguiu a comparação entre casos. Resultados: O estudo indica que a e-GRH foi introduzida nas organizações para melhorar a eficiência, a prestação de serviço e comunicação interna, reduzir custos, facilitar a gestão de pessoas, aumentar a orientação estratégica e padronizar políticas e processos. A utilização mais frequente de e-GRH nas empresas é na área da comunicação interna e tarefas administrativas. Os resultados da e-GRH são sobretudo relacionados com a melhoria na comunicação, ganhos de eficiência e melhoria do serviço prestado. A padronização é conseguida tal com pretendido; um resultado não planeado é o empowerment dos gestores. A orientação estratégica é considerada um resultado potencial da e-GRH. A e-GRH por si só não é suficiente para tornar o departamento de GRH mais estratégico. Os fatores que influenciam o sucesso da e-GRH são o apoio pela gestão de topo, a estrutura organizacional, as perceções dos empregados e a dimensão da empresa. Limitations/ Implications: A e-GRH é um apoio útil à gestão. Pode facilitar mas não substituir o humano na gestão de recursos humanos. A limitação principal deste estudo é a dificuldade em generalizar a partir da investigação restrita a tão poucos casos. Keywords: Gestão de Recursos Humanos Eletrónica (e-GRH), objetivos de e-GRH, resultados de e-GRH, fatores influenciadores do sucesso da adoção de e-GRH vi Abstract Purpose: The aim of this study is to provide a brief review to (a) enhance the understanding about electronic-HRM (e-HRM) upon the existing literature on e-HRM, and (b) to explore the outcomes of e-HRM from organizational perspective. Design/ Methodology: Based upon the literature, three case studies were conducted in companies in Portugal. Organizations were selected from a number of different contexts. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews. The analysis followed a cross-case comparison. Findings: The study indicates that E-HRM was introduced in organizations to improve efficiency, service delivery and internal communication, reduce cost, facilitate employee management, increase the strategic orientation and standardize policies and processes. The highest use of e-HRM in the companies is in the area of internal communication and administrative tasks. E-HRM outcomes are mainly related to communication improvement, efficiency gains and service delivery improvement. Standardization is achieved as intended; as unintended outcomes of e-HRM is enabling management empower. Strategic orientation is considered as a potential outcome of e-HRM. E-HRM alone is not sufficient to make the HRM department become more strategic. Factors influencing the success of e-HRM adoption are top management support, organizational structure, employee's perception and the size of the organization. Limitations/ Implications: E-HRM is a useful support to management. It can facilitate but it cannot substitute the human in human resource management. The main limitation of this study is the difficulty to form generalization from the research restricted to a few companies. Keywords: Electronic Human Resource Management (e-HRM), e-HRM goals, e-HRM outcomes, factors influencing the success of e-HRM adoption vii Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................................................................................. iii Resumo ........................................................................................................................................ v Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... vi 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 1 2. STATE-OF-THE-ART ON E-HRM RESEARCH ......................................................................... 4 2.1 Overview of the history and major evolution in e-HRM ................................................ 4 2.2. The concept of e-HRM ................................................................................................... 4 2.3. Types of E-HRM .............................................................................................................. 7 2.4. E-HRM goals and expected outcomes. ......................................................................... 9 2.5 E-HRM functions ........................................................................................................... 17 2.6. Critical Success Factors ............................................................................................. 21 3. METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................. 25 3.1 The research question .................................................................................................. 25 3.2 Research propositions .................................................................................................. 26 3.3 The case studies ........................................................................................................... 26 3.4 Case study techniques .................................................................................................. 27 4. RESULTS .............................................................................................................................. 29 4.1. DST Group .................................................................................................................... 30 4.2 Cachapuz....................................................................................................................... 36 4.3 Anonymous Technology Company ............................................................................... 39 5. Discussion............................................................................................................................ 44 6. Conclusions ......................................................................................................................... 49 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 51 APPENDIX 1: INTERVIEW SCRIPT RELATING E-HRM FUNCTIONS TO THE HR OFFICERS 55 viii APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW SCRIPT RELATING GOALS, OUTCOMES OF E-HRM USE AND INFLUENCE FACTORS TO THE HR DIRECTOR....................................................................... 57 APPENDIX 3: INTERVIEW SCRIPT TO LINE MANAGER ........................................................ 59 APPENDIX 4: INTERVIEW SCRIPT TO EMPLOYEE ................................................................ 60 7 “configurations of computer hardware, software and electronic networking resources that enable intended or actual HRM activities (e.g. policies, practices and services) through coordinating and controlling individual and group-level data capture and information creation and communication within and across organizational boundaries” (p.2). In other words, e-HRM is the planning, implementation and application of information technology for both networking and supporting actors to implement all types of HRM content aiming at creating value within and across organizations for targeted users (HR professionals, managers, employees, job applicants, HR consultants…). E-HRM is a system of interactive and communication that is enabled through HRIS (R. Johnson, K. Lukaszewski, & D. Stone, 2016). As a results, the e-HRM territory focuses on all integration mechanisms and all HRM content shared via IT that aim to make HRM processes distinctive and consistent, more efficient, high in quality and which create long-term opportunities within and across organizations for targeted users (Tanya Bondarouk & Brewster, 2016a). The aim of e-HRM is support the achievement of HRM by fulfilling all distinguished types that IT may serve HRM. 2.3. Types of E-HRM Human resource management (HRM) is concerned with all aspects of how people are employed and managed in organizations. It covers the activities of strategic HRM, human capital management, knowledge management, corporate social responsibility, organization development, resourcing (workforce planning, recruitment and selection and talent management), learning and development, performance and reward management, employee relations, employee well-being and the provision of employee services (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). Authors categorize HRM activities in different ways. For example, Wright and Dyer (2000) divide HR activities into three distinguish types: transactional, traditional, and transformational. Transactional activities involve day-to-day transactions that have to deal mostly with record keeping — for example, entering payroll information, tracking employee status changes, and the administration of employee benefits. Traditional activities involve HR programs such as planning, recruiting, selection, training, compensation, and performance management. These activities can have strategic value for the organization if their results or outcomes are consistent with the strategic goals of the organization. Transformational activities are those activities that add value to the organization — for example, cultural or organizational change, structural realignment, strategic redirection, and increasing innovation (Thite & Kavanagh, 2009). 8 In this dissertation, I will use the classification of HR activities proposed by Lepak and Snell (1998), namely operational HRM, relational HRM and transformational HRM. The first area, operational HRM, concerns the basic HR activities in the administrative area which are also called zero level or obligatory practices because these are usually considered essential for the existence of HR function, such as salary administration (payroll) and personnel data administration. The second area, relational HRM, concerns more advanced HRM activities that support basic business processes and inter-personal relationships which are a tool to manage the relationship between organizations and their employees (Bissola & Imperatori, 2013) such as recruiting and the selection of new personnel, training, performance management and appraisal, and rewards. The third area, transformational HRM, focuses on HRM activities with a strategic character to align employee attitudes and behavior with the organization’s strategy including activities regarding organizational change processes, strategic re-orientation, strategic competence management, and strategic knowledge management (Bissola & Imperatori, 2013; Iqbal, Ahmad, Raziq, & Borini, 2019; Lepak & Snell, 1998; Parry & Tyson, 2011; H. J. M. Ruël et al., 2004; Stefan Strohmeier, 2007). Within all types of HRM, choices can be made in terms of which HRM activities will be offered face-to-face or through the support of information technology (H. J. M. Ruël et al., 2004; Wright & Dyer, 2000). Bondarouk & Ruël (2009) make a clear distinction on these types of HR activities by comparing the possible solutions for HR practices: through face-to-face interaction or web-enabled functions. For operational-type HRM, the choice is between asking employees to keep their own personal data up-todate through an HR website or to have an administrative force in place to do this for them. For relational HRM, there is a choice between supporting recruitment and selection through a web-based application or using a paper-based approach (through advertisements, paper-based application forms and letters etc.). Finally, in terms of transformational HRM, it is possible to create a change-ready workforce through an integrated set of web-based tools that enables the workforce to develop in line with the company’s strategic choices or to use paper-based materials. With this line of reasoning, three types of e-HRM can be distinguished: operational e-HRM, relational e-HRM and transformational e-HRM. These three types of e-HRM are used in this study. Table 2 shows the classification of e-HRM practices in other researches. 9 Table 2: Classification of e-HRM practices Classification of e-HRM practices Source Operational e-HRM Relational e-HRM Transformational eHR (Lengnick-Hall & Moritz, 2003) Publishing information e.g., company policies and procedures, benefits, directories of services, current events Automation of transactional and workflow with different application programs. Managers and employees can access databases, update information, search for needed information, and make decisions. Transformation of HR function from its operational focus toward a strategy one: strategic partnering, centers of expertise, knowledge management (Martin & Reddington, 2010) Virtual HR information E-training, e-learning, internal/external recruitment and search of social networking sites, online-career development and performance management Knowledge management, organizational learning and international virtual communities of practice (through the use of social media technologies e.g., wikis, blogs, media sharing, discussion forums…) (Parry & Tyson, 2011) Web payroll and electronic attendance registers e-learning, e-recruitment and selection, eperformance management Strategic orientation, knowledge sharing (Bissola & Imperatori, 2013) Record keeping, Web-based payroll Online career management system, e-learning and training, web-based performance evaluation Knowledge management system, firm communities (Iqbal et al., 2019) Administrative HR tasks Practices supporting employees’ knowledge, skills, and relationships inside the organization Knowledge management, HR planning, and talent acquisition and management Accordingly, an organization has ways of implementing HR activities, such as traditional delivery of HR activities or using IT support known as e-HRM. In the next part, the motives that an organization chooses using IT to support HR as well as goals and expected outcomes of adopting of e-HRM are being examined. 2.4. E-HRM goals and expected outcomes In general, the motives of organizations making a step toward e-HRM can be seen as a result of the often increasing demands placed on the HR department as organizations continue to strive to achieve a 10 competitive advantage (Lepak & Snell, 1998). Lepak and Snell (1998) referred to the four pressures for HR department. The first pressure is of focusing on strategic questions with regards to development, planning and implementation of competency-based strategies by the HRM department. The study of 1050 companies by the Hackett Group (1998) shows that HR professionals typically devote less than a third of their time to the most crucial strategic HR initiatives (e.g., employee development, hiring the best people, training, career management, performance management). Their time is still consumed mainly with lower value-added, routine activities. The second pressure is the need for the HRM department to become flexible in terms of policy making and practices. Third is the pressure of cost as the department should work more efficiently and be aware of costs. The last pressure is the focus on improving service delivery towards management and employees. These pressures drive HR department to explore new approaches to support the achievement of HRM goals more generally (Lepak & Snell, 1998). E-HRM is considered as a choice for an approach to HRM. It is not a specific stage in the development of HRM but “a way of doing HRM” (H. J. M. Ruël et al., 2004). Every investment within an organization seeks for the benefits that make the organization better off. EHRM is one of the investment which is expected to deliver a set of benefits, such as cost reductions, efficiency gains, productivity improvements, information sharing and communications improvements (Lengnick-Hall & Moritz, 2003). With e-HRM, the HR department can create competitive advantage and align the functions more closely with business or corporate strategy (Martin & Reddington, 2010). First, e-HRM can reduce HR transaction costs and HD headcount by supplying HR information to employees on a virtual basis. Second, by leveraging the digital assets, organizations can re-use information flexibly at little or no marginal cost, for example by delivering e-training and e-learning to a large number of people across the globe. Third, e-HRM can facilitate more effective virtual customer service by increasing the reach and richness of two-way information and communications, for example, enabling internal/external recruitment and search of social networking sites, online career development and performance management, etc. Fourth, e-HRM can transform the traditional HR to provide strategic value to organization. This transformational impact is most obvious in the emerging use of the interactive nature of the world wide web in the form of so-called Web 2.0 social media technologies (e.g., wikis, blogs, media sharing, discussion forums, etc.) to enable knowledge management and organizational learning, reach out to the ‘V(irtual)-generation’, and further facilitate authentic employee voice (Martin & Reddington, 2010). Derived from organizational pressures and expected benefits of e-HRM, the goals of e-HRM adoption can be set up. Different researchers have discussed the goals that fundamentally drive the organization in the 11 decision to adopt e-HRM. The four pressures proposed by Lepak & Snell (1998) correspond with three types of goals for the adoption e-HRM mentioned by Ruël, Bondarouk and Looise (2004), namely improving the strategic orientation of HRM, cost reduction/efficiency gains; and client service improvement. In the 2002 e-HRM survey in the United States conducted by the consultancy firm of Watson Wyatt, the results show that companies' motives are in line with the three goals above, that is, improving the strategic role, reducing administrative HR work and improving employees’ satisfaction with HRM services. Ruël, Bondarouk and Looise (2004) add a fourth goal that is to incorporate the globalization of organizations. E-HRM can be used to globalize the organization with the associated HR policies and practices. Accordingly, four key e-HRM goals are identified: (1) Improving the strategic orientation of HRM; (2) Cost reduction/Efficiency gains; (3) Client service improvement; (4) Globalization or Standardization. The literature suggests that the various goals of e-HRM, and the different types of e-HRM, are expected to result in potential outcomes that include more efficient HRM processes, a higher level of service delivery and a better strategic contribution (S. Strohmeier, 2007). However, e-HRH outcomes can be both intended or unintended, and also positive or negative. Much of the existing literature has focused on the benefits of e-HRM adoption, but it is becoming gradually recognized that there are potentially negative consequences from e-HRH adoption for HR staff and their internal clients, especially if the issues connected with change management and technology acceptance are handled ineffectively (Martin & Reddington, 2010). Lepak & Snell (1998) argued that information technology might have influence on the operational, relational and transformational aspect of HR function. The four goals also map onto these three impacts of IT on the HR function. Therefore, this framework is used for discussing the goals and the degree of realization of these goals based on some researches about e-HRM. First, IT can have an operational impact by streamlining operations and alleviating much of the administrative burden that leads to cost reduction and productivity improvement by automating routine tasks and practices (Lepak & Snell, 1998). Cost reduction or efficiency gains is the primary goal when organizations initially consider an e-HRM investment and realized as an expected outcome of e-HRM use in many studies. E-HRM can reduce costs and save employees’ time by “allowing more transactions to occur with fewer fixed responses” (p.383) in processes such as payroll (Hendrickson, 2003). Ruel et al. (2004) in an explorative empirical study in five large companies on web-based HRM found that the most common outcomes of e-HRM were cost reduction and a reduction of the administrative burden, although these outcomes were not generally measured. Marler (2009) posited that e-HRM enhanced cost savings by automating and allowing the HR function to shift administrative activities to employees through use of self-service technologies, resulting in lower transactions costs, improving efficiency and reducing 12 headcount. Parry and Tyson (2011) found this improvement in nine out of ten case studies with a range of UK organizations which were intended to reduce costs through headcount reduction within HR functions (these reductions were relatively small), improving cost effectiveness, removing the use of paper or improvement in the speed of processes. Besides, the amount of time needed for transactions was reduced considerably thanks to the automation of processes and the direct entry of information by managers, namely the use of e-HRM for appraisals and compensation planning, salary reviews, bonus ratings and absence recording. However, Parry (2011) in a large-scale survey on more than 2000 companies across 12 countries found no evidence of cost savings due to reductions in HR headcount (Parry, 2011). Interestingly, in a case study in a governmental organization on Belgium, T.Bondarouk and Ruel (2013) found that the HR headcount had been reduced since the implementation of e-HRM. Therefore, they claimed more researches in order to understand fully the relationship between e-HRM adoption and the HR headcount. Regardless of the activities itself and their types, Strohmeier (2007) also considers functions such as elearning, e-recruitment and e-selection (these activities belong to relational e-HRM) to review efficiency and effectiveness outcomes of e-EHRM. The review shows that considerable cost savings from e-recruiting and e-selection are reported, due to reduced employee turnover, reduced staffing costs, and increased hiring efficiency (Buckley et al., 2004). E-learning is also able to save costs if used for larger groups of learners. In a review of the literature from 2003 to 2010, the period in which e-HRM research expanded extensively, (H. J. M. Ruël & Kaap, 2012), show that most of the literature focused on use value (efficiency, service quality, time spent) rather than cost reduction. Although organizations invest substantial amounts of money in e-HRM, they may not have tried to measured e-HRM outcomes in monetary terms as it is more difficult to quantify the intangible benefits to be derived from an e-HRM system. While it is possible to identify many relevant costs associated with implementing an e-HRM system (e.g., software, hardware, “wiring the work force”, that is, ensuring that everyone has access to the e-HRM system, personal computers, Internet connection…), it is more difficult to quantify the intangible benefits to be derived from an e-HRM system (Lengnick-Hall & Moritz, 2003). Ruël et al. (2004) already observed that determining an outcome such as cost reductions or return on investment due to e-HRM is very difficult for organizations. The return on investment therefore cannot be seen as quick, it will need several years to recoup the outgoings. Similarly, a research about e-HR adoption and the role of HRM in Greece (Panayotopoulou, Vakola, & Galanaki, 2007) reports the cost reduction has not been identified as an 13 intended goal in companies across Greece since adopting e-HRM was quite expensive. As a result, cost reduction is not likely to be a short-time outcome but a long-time one. The goal of efficiency gains when applying e-HRM is also mentioned in many recent researches. For example, an empirical research on factors influencing e-HRM implementation in two government ministries in Bangladesh revealed an example of benefits of e-HRM that motivates the decision makers to implement e-HRM. They consist of cost reduction, better HR support, ease access to data and information, fast delivery for services centralising the data, improving the knowledge of employees, clear legislations and rules, aligning the HR strategy with organisation strategy, etc...(Rahman, Mordi, & Nwagbara, 2018). A study on the use of e-HRM in organization in Serbia pointed out that e-HRM application increases the efficiency and effectiveness. The key advantages of e-HRM are the faster, more accurate and easier processing of information about employees, cost savings, the release of HR managers from administrative tasks (Berber, Đorđević, & Milanović, 2018). A research conducted in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) shows the results that all participating HR Managers speak positively of the impact of technology in HR processes mentioning the following advantages: "ease of documentation; speed; ease in communication across Emirates; use of teleconferencing; simplicity; greater organization; less paper work; increase in accessibility; ease in collecting comparative data; improved planning; improved performance; improved motivation." (p.173) (Fenech, Baguant, Ivanov, & Sciences, 2019). Second, the relational aspect of e-HRM concerns more advanced HRM activities that support basic business processes and inter-personal relationships which are as a tool to manage the relationship between organizations and their employees (Bissola & Imperatori, 2013). This results in HR service improvement which represents a crucial goal in the decision to adopt e-HRM as this is where the core distinctive feature of any HR department is defined. The recent overviews of the e-HRM literature show great expectations of an improvement in HRM service quality through the implementation of e-HRM (Tanya Bondarouk, 2015). In addition, as relational aspect focuses on inter-personal relationships, improving internal communication is another important goal for using e-HRM. Telecommunication technology such as local area networks, email, and social media… helps to overcome geographic barriers. As a result, e-communication has improved internal communication and collaboration among different departments, work groups, branches and individuals (Attaran, 2003; Fenech et al., 2019). The findings in a research in Greece (Panayotopoulou et al., 2007) show that the highest use of e-HRM is reported in the area of internal communication. This was anticipated, given the fact that the major reason for the presence of a company on the internet was communication (Panayotopoulou et al., 2007).E-HRM can have direct effect in achieving general improvement in service delivery by increasing the timeliness and 14 service levels with employees and managers, as well as outside partners (Lepak & Snell, 1998). Scholars claim that the use of e-HRM has the potential to help the HR function provide a better service to its internal customers, that is to line managers and employees, which is considered as the experiences provided by HR specialists for internal customers (Tanya Bondarouk, 2015). By providing line managers and employees with remote access to HR data bases and information, and increasing their ability to connect with other parts inside as well as outside of the organization, managers and employees can perform HR activities themselves (Lepak & Snell, 1998). Research has found evidence of e-HRM having a positive impact on HRM services through speeding up transaction processing, simplification of HR processes, decrease in information errors, improvement in the tracking and control of HR actions and the application of administrative HR activities, such as salary and personal data management, thus improving HR service delivery (Tanya Bondarouk, Ruël, & van der Heijden, 2009; Gardner, Lepak, & Bartol, 2003; LengnickHall & Moritz, 2003; H. Ruël & Bondarouk, 2014). In a study in a wide variety of firms, which focused on identifying the issues having a significant impact on the field of Human Resources, Wright and Dyer (2000) estimate that with the traditional delivery of HR, most HR departments spend approximately 65% to 75% of their time on transactional activities, 15% to 30% on traditional activities which are critical to the management of people, and 5% to 15% on transformational activities which are considered the highest value-added activities. Therefore, the major goal of implementing e-HRM is to leverage technology to allow for better, faster, and smarter HR solutions, that is HR service improvement. For example, information systems were run by the HR function but allowed employees to serve themselves by giving them access to make their benefit enrolment, changes, or claims online (Wright & Dyer, 2000). Parry and Tyson (2011) found that, among eight organizations which were intended to achieve this goal, seven provided evidence of success in what they call Service delivery by removing duplicate keying of data, more easy access to information and training materials and improved accuracy and availability of data for use in management decision making (line managers). Also, relational outcomes were detected in increasing management’s satisfaction and employee satisfaction with HR (Tanya Bondarouk, Parry, & Furtmueller, 2017; Lepak & Snell, 1998). E-HRM was reported as beneficial to employee satisfaction (Panayotopoulou et al., 2007; Voermans & Veldhoven, 2007). Besides having direct effects in achieving general improvements in service delivery, e-HRM also has indirect effects in order to improve the effectiveness of the HR function by empowering managers to perform HR tasks themselves, such as recruitment, performance management and updating information (Parry & Tyson, 2011). One case study reveals an extensive decentralization of executing HR activities by shifting responsibilities to line management and employees (Ruel, Bondarouk, & Looise, 2004). 15 However, the adoption of e-HRM does not always realize improved HRM services. In some studies it has been found to achieve less than expected (Tanya Bondarouk, 2015). In her review, Bondarouk (2015) cited some remaining issues of e-HRM, such as personnel departments still experience difficulties with adopting new technologies, e-HRM projects continue to report failures, e-HRM technology was primarily used to simply support routine administrative HR tasks. In brief, it did not improve HRM services (Tanya Bondarouk et al., 2017). Gardner, Lepak and Bartol (2003) discovered that, rather than freeing up the time of HR practitioners, the introduction of e-HRM simply led to an increase in IT related support activities that replaced administrative ones, without any improvement in HRM services. These findings suggest that HR professionals are expected to spend more time on various IT support activities, such as maintaining IT-based HR applications and dealing with glitches in these systems (Gardner et al., 2003). Another study found that the volume of calls to HR call center increased after the introduction of e-HRM, although this was expected to drop as people became more familiar with the system. Finally, e-HRM transformational aspect aims to sustain the alignment of employee mindsets with the organization’s strategy and to transform the HR department by improving its strategic orientation towards HRM (Bissola & Imperatori, 2013; Ruel et al., 2004). In this e-HRM literature, the term ‘making HR more strategic’ draws on Ulrich’s early model of SHRM which posits that the way to make HR more strategic is for the HR function to change from being primarily administrative to supporting or aligning with business strategy as a strategic business partner (Ulrich, 1997). Improving the strategic orientation of HRM is the most controversial goal of e-HRM which has attracted a lot of attention. This goal is expected to be realized as a result of reducing the transactional workload in HR department. Using technology can improve transactional activities and accomplish them automatically and more efficiently, in order that HR professional have more time to focus on strategic activities (Lepak & Snell, 1998; Wright & Dyer, 2000). Transformational outcomes were explained as a result of the increased availability of accurate and detailed information or of the additional time available to HR practitioners. The results from Parry's (2011) large-scale survey across 12 countries showed that e-HRM may help HR to increase its value by becoming more strategic. This suggests that organizations are using e-HRM in order to redeploy HR practitioners from transactional work to more strategic and value added activities (Parry, 2011). A survey in Greece of Panayotopoulou et al. (2007) shows that e-HRM facilitates the transformation of the HRM role into a more strategic one. According to HR experts, the adoption of e-HR practices has a beneficial impact on strategic goals of the organization such as company image, goal alignment and cost reduction (Panayotopoulou et al., 2007). In another study of Parry and Tyson (2011), four of the case study organizations had aimed to increase the strategic orientation of the HR function, although these organizations had not defined this 16 as the execution of business strategy. Much of the HR activity is in support of corporate strategies, for example by developing organizational capability, through better resourcing and learning systems, helping to clarify strategic choices through more accurate data on costs and performance, and by implementing strategy through effective processes and better organization. E-HRM has a part to play in all of this, as illustrated in the case studies described. However, the actual impact of e-HRM was less clear, although seven organizations described outcomes that could be described as increasing the strategic orientation of the HR function. "The introduction of e-HRM alone is not sufficient for an HR function to become ‘strategic’" (p.351). Similarly, the findings from an exploratory study on the strategic value of e-HRM in a governmental organization in Belgium reveal that e-HRM did not enable the HR professionals to become more strategic. This is in line with Marler's conceptual work (J. Marler, 2009) in which she proposed a model to examine how e-HRM fits into a strategic HR framework. The result shows that "relying on e-HRM alone to realize this transformation may be more myth than reality" (p.525). Some of the empirical findings show that e-HRM is mostly directed at cost reductions and efficiency increases in HR services, rather than at improving the strategic orientation of HRM (Gardner et al., 2003; H. Ruël & Bondarouk, 2014; H. J. M. Ruël et al., 2004; Ruta, 2005). Thereby, improving the strategic orientation can be considered as an unintended outcome of e-HRM’s introduction. Moreover, as IT has enabled people to communicate across geographic boundaries and share information which eliminated barriers of time and space, thereby it plays a crucial role in supporting virtual team and network organization (Lepak & Snell, 1998). In order that spatially separated actors can be networked and communicate, e-HRM seems to be a means to standardize the HR system and to overcome hurdles of different cultures and languages. In an empirical study in five large companies on web-based HRM, Ruel et al. (2004) suggested a fourth goal of e-HRM, namely to improve a company’s global orientation through standardization of HR policies and practices. The result shows that four of them chose to standardize and harmonize HR policies and practices as a precondition for becoming a global company and to create a sound basis for e-HRM. Ruel et al (2004) argue that the important e-HRM effect seems to be the strategic integration of HRM with the (revised) company strategy, structure and culture. In all cases e-HRM is mainly seen as an indispensable instrument to help to realize this integration by, on the one hand, centralizing and standardizing HR-policies and practices, and on the other hand, decentralizing their execution. Parry and Tyson (2011) argued that the goal of “globalization” can be called “standardization” since the policies should be standardized across units and departments of a company, not necessarily across geographical boundaries. Seven organizations out of ten (Parry & Tyson, 2011) suggested that the use of a common system had led to more consistent HR processes and allowed 23 level of IT skills supported e-HRM adoption and use (Panayotopoulou et al., 2007). Similarly, in a largescale survey with a sample of 2,336 organizations in different sectors across Europe, Strohmeier and Kabst (2009) assumed that the sector of an organization may reveal an effect on the adoption of e-HRM with an hypothesis based on companies with more clerical and stationary tasks (e.g., in banking sector in contrast with building construction) will more frequently adopt e-HRM. The result only found a partial evidence which says the sectorial differences in task structures significantly further or restrain e-HRM adoption. However, as they explained, the research was generally conducted on the whole organizations which may hide ‘segmented’ adoption (e-HRM for only a certain segment of employees). Then it requires more specific investigations. Organizational structure is also considered as a decisive factor for e-HRM adoption. Tanya Bondarouk, Schilling and Ruël (2016) highlighted the fact that the decision-making process in the branches of multinationals is strongly influenced by higher level managers from the headquarters, which does not allow for full autonomy in this regard (Tanya Bondarouk, Schilling, & Ruël, 2016). In addition, applying e-HRM concerns to management empowerment (Parry & Tyson, 2011). With e-HRM, HR responsibilities such as recruitment, training or employee evaluation, tend to be decentralised, placed in the hands of line managers (Ruel et al., 2004). The organizational structure with limited autonomy will not enable management empowerment in this sense. Capabilities and available resources are also presented as relevant in determining the e-HRM adoption in which they might delay in computerizing personnel departments due to budget limitation (Tanya Bondarouk et al., 2017). The low adoption of e-HRM is explained since IT adoption is quite expensive in Greece (Panayotopoulou et al., 2007) or as lack of financial resource in Malaysia (C. Hooi, 2007). The results of a research on the eHRM adoption in emerging countries shows that the availability of resource appeared to play a major role in the decision making process and further e-HRM adoption (Tanya Bondarouk et al., 2016) People factors include top management support, employee perception, employees’ IT skills and expertise (Tanya Bondarouk et al., 2017; Omran & Anan, 2018). In their research, Boundarouk et al. observed that the most important factors affecting adoption, as well as consequences of e-HRM, reside in the category ‘people factors’. Although technology and organizational factors were necessary prerequisites, people factors, and especially the employee perception within certain organizational cultures, were found to make the difference. Top management support has been identified as a key factor in the adoption and implementation of IT in many studies. In the research of e-HRM, (Tanya Bondarouk et al., 2016) found that top management support had a great impact on e-HRM adoption in emerging economies. As management makes strategic decisions, approve budgets, and make decisions about company realignment, top executives need to be convinced of an innovation’s benefits in order to agree to its 24 adoption. Since the adoption of an innovation such as e-HRM requires significant restructuring within a company, management’s willingness to initiate restructuring has been shown to be crucial (Tanya Bondarouk et al., 2016). In addition, a major problem during implementation is the resistance of users to change and the conflict between HR departments and other departments over the implementation and maintenance of the system. Hence, top management support is crucial to overcome possible internal resistance and handle any conflicts that may arise (Teo et al., 2007). Management commitment was also considered to be a key driver for HRIS adoption in the public sector as it represents a source of support and funding which are both critical for adoption and implementation to fit organizational requirements (Troshani et al., 2011). A large survey of companies located in 32 different countries shows that managers involved in making strategic decisions can determine the extent of an organization’s e-HRM capabilities (J. Marler & Parry, 2015). Employees’ perceptions, often assessed as user technology acceptance, appears and mindset to be a critical factor for a successful e-HRM adoption (Tanya Bondarouk et al., 2017; Omran & Anan, 2018; Panos & Bellou, 2016; Ziebell et al., 2019). Olivas-Lujan, Ramirez, and Zapata-Cantu (2007) investigated employees’ different mindsets toward e-HRM, finding that employees resisted accepting new systems if they thought it would increase their personal workload after adoption (Olivas-Luján, Ramirez, & Zapata-Cantu, 2007). Ruel (2004) posited that e-HRM adoption is not primarily technical, it is first and foremost a change in the mindsets and behaviours of HR personnel, line managers, and employees. Therefore, employees and line managers’ mindsets need to be changed: they have to realize and accept the usefulness of web-based HR tools. If they assume there is no real need for using e-HRM tools, they will not use them (Ruel et al., 2004). Employees’ IT skill and expertise is another significant factor influencing the success of e-HRM system. Bondarouk et al. (2016b) admitted the importance of knowledge and skills about technologies has positive Influence on its adoption. The availability of technical skills is shown to be a prerequisite for the adoption of e-HRM self-services, as skilled employees are more likely to autonomously handle IT-related tasks based on their previous experiences (Tanya Bondarouk et al., 2016). Indeed, IT skills and familiarization with them also facilitate e-HRM adoption. Therefore, IT training and communication should emphasize the benefits of employee participation and involvement in E-HR services. Human capability namely HR domain knowledge, technical IT skills and communication skills could be enhanced by training (Troshani et al., 2011). Training both HR professionals and employees who use the system typically plays a crucial role in successful e-HRM adoption. 25 3. METHODOLOGY In this chapter, the objectives and methodological options chosen to carry out this work are presented. The choice of a methodological research is based on the assumptions underlying the problem and aims to achieve the study objectives (Yin, 2018). In order to examine how e-HRM is applied in organizations and explore the outcomes of e-HRM from the organization’s perspective, a qualitative case study methodology is adopted. According to Creswell (2009), qualitative research is an approach for exploring and understanding the meaning individuals or groups ascribe to a social or human problem. The process of research involves emerging questions and procedures, data typically collected in the participant’s setting, data analysis inductively building from particulars to general themes, and the researcher making interpretations of the meaning of the data (Creswell, 2009). Qualitative case study is a research methodology that helps in exploration of a phenomenon within some particular context through various data sources, and it undertakes the exploration through variety of lenses in order to reveal multiple facets of the phenomenon (Baxter & Jack, 2010). Thus, the qualitative case study is assumed to be appropriate for this research. In case study research, five components of a research design are especially important: the research question, its propositions, its case(s), the logic linking the data to the propositions, and the criteria for interpreting the findings. The three first components lead to identifying the data that are to be collected. The last two components lead into anticipating the case study analysis, suggesting what is to be done after the data have been collected, that is, study’s specific techniques (Yin, 2018). These components are discussed below. 3.1 The research question In spite of the widespread use of e-HRM in organizations, there has been a surprising dearth of theory and research on the topics (Dianna Stone & Dulebohn, 2013). In particular, few scholars have examined empirically the achievement of the goals as an expected outcomes through the introduction of e-HRM (Parry & Tyson, 2011). Therefore, this study aims to fill up this gap. The central research question is: How do organizations apply e-HRM in the HR processes and to what extent are the initial goals of e-HRM realized as outcomes? From this basis, a number of sub-questions are formed: 1. What are the goals that the company try to achieve when they planned to apply e-HRM? 26 2. Which e-HRM functions are used in the companies? 3. Which functions are not covered by e-HRM and why? 4. What are the outcomes of using e-HRM? 5. Which factors influence the success of e-HRM? 3.2 Research propositions Research propositions direct attention to something that should be examined within the scope of study (Yin, 2018). In the previous chapter, a review of the literature based on scientific articles and books in the area of HRM as well as e-HRM was carried out with the intention of giving a clear picture of e-HRM. This is applied as research propositions for this study. 3.3 The case studies The third component deals with identifying the cases. The cases should reflect the phenomenon that is to be studied. However, the danger with case study is the isolation of the phenomenon from its broader context. Therefore, it is important to be as explicit as possible when determining the case (Ruel et al., 2004). According to Yin (2018), a multiple case study enables the researcher to explore differences within and between cases. The goal is to replicate findings across cases. Because comparisons will be drawn, it is imperative that the cases are chosen carefully so that the researcher can predict similar results across cases, or predict contrasting results based on a theory (Yin, 2018). For this reason, a multiple case study research is adopted and conducted in three companies in Portugal in order to examine interesting cases. Although it is not possible to be representative and generalizable to other contexts, it is expected to provide a view for the relevant issues. Organizations were selected from a number of different contexts in different industry sectors with various structures and cultures. The organizations are at different stages in e-HRM implementation with different e-HRM systems and experiences. The case studies were conducted between 2020 and 2021. These organizations were DST Group, Cachapuz and a technological company which preferred staying anonymous due to confidentiality. 27 3.4 Case study techniques In order to examine the multiple case study, a semi-structured interview was chosen in this study to collect data for its flexibility. In a semi-structured interview, the researcher has a list of question on specific topics to be covered as an interview guide, and all the questions will be asked and a similar wording will be used from interviewee to interviewee in other to guide to interviewees to focus on the objectives and the research questions. Questions may not follow on exactly in the way outlined and further questions may arise based on the response of interviewees. Thereby, the interviewee has a great deal of freedom in how to reply. Another reason for the choice of semi-structured interviews but unstructured ones is that with the semi-structured ones with a fairly clear focus, rather than a very general notion of wanting to do research on a topic in unstructured ones, the more specific issues can be addressed (Bryman & Bell, 2007). In this way, it allows the interviewees to provide information and personal perspectives more clearly and specifically. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with the HR Directors, HR professionals, the line managers and employees, as appropriate to the case. Four interview protocols were developed based upon the e-HRM literature to take account of the different roles of interviewees (see Appendix 1, 2, 3, 4). For HR Directors, the interview protocol contained a series of questions about the goals for e-HRM application, the outcomes that the company achieved through e-HRM implementation and factors that influence the successful of e-HRM. For HR professionals, a number of questions about the company and HR structure was asked. For line managers and employees with no management roles, the interviews aimed to understand their experience with e-HRM and the impact that e-HRM has had on them and on their perceptions of the HR function. A total number of interviews was 11 (in Table 3) Table 3: Number of interviews Company Number of interviews Participants DST Group 4 HR Director, HR officer, Planning and Controlling Manger, Business Analyst Cachapuz 4 HR Director, HR officer, Administrative and Financial Director, Marketing Executive 28 The technological company 3 HR officer, Director – Corporate Business, Special Project Manager The study was disturbed by the current context, that is, the Covid19 pandemic. Interviews were conducted in two ways. Some of them were held in person at the organizations. The others were hold via online meetings, such as Zoom or Google Team application. Interviews were not recorded, due to concerns about confidentiality. Detailed notes were taken during the interviews and checked with the interviewees for accuracy. The data collected through the interviews were analysed using a categorization process and pattern matching technique. Each case study is presented in turn. Besides, the responses to the questions in the interviews were categorized in line with the literature review. From this categorized data, the analysis followed a cross-case comparison. Conclusions are then drawn regarding the individual cases and across all three cases. This allowed me to identify the goals and outcomes emerging from the cases studies as well as factors that might influence the success of e-HRM implementation. The next chapter will be focused on the results of the data collection from three companies: DST group, Cachapuz, and an anonymous technological company. 29 4. RESULTS In this chapter, the results obtained from the semi-structured interviews are presented. The brief introduction of each company is gathered from their website. This chapter will highlight the fundamental aspects of the goals that driven to e-HRM adoption and HRM functions in each company as well as the outcomes of the e-HRM implementation. Each company is presented in turn. Case descriptions The overview of the companies is summarised in the Table 4. Table 4: Summary of the companies DST Group Cachapuz Technological company Business sector Engineering and Construction Weighing equipment and solutions. IT solutions Approximate number of employees 2000 60 150 Number of HR officer 14 3 1 Units of HR Department Recruiting, selection and reception; Admission and contract management; Assiduity; Training (professional qualification); International management; Internships; Wage processing; Balanced Scorecard and performance evaluation; Benefits, People and Culture 1 unit deals all the matters of HR department 1 unit deals all the matters of HR department. HR department plays a global role in HRM. 30 4.1. DST Group DST Group develops its main activity in the construction and public works industry and is now a reference amongst the national groups. DST group expanded its activity to several new business areas - environment, telecommunications, renewable energies and ventures, in which it intends to extend its national and international investments. DST group has promoted the expansion of its international activity to an increasingly wide range of countries, both in the demanding African geographies and in the developed and sophisticated European markets, also marking its presence in the American and Asian continents. With around 2000 employees and 60 enterprises, DST group considers Human Resource Management is one of their crucial concerns. The sharing of values with their employees fosters the alignment towards the construction and maintenance of a successful company. The implemented human resource management policy seeks to "invest in their employees, reinforcing the sense that the company is part of their career and life project, and thus ensuring their stability and the necessary comfort to fulfil the objectives planned for the future". As a result, their employees are becoming more qualified and DST group is also in a regular position as one of the best companies to work for in Portugal according to a study promoted by Exame Magazine. DST group has applied e-HRM for years to carry out HR activities including administrative support, communication, e-recruitment and e-selection and e-training. The primary goal of the e-HRM adoption is to facilitate HR activities and storage information for planning and management in the future. By introducing e-HRM, DST group aimed to achieve HR efficiency and strategic orientation. DST group introduced e-HRM to reduce the workload for HR department and make the HR tasks more agile and free the employees to innovative and strategic tasks. Thereby, the HR professionals would have more time for planning and strategic activities. The storage of information would allow the company have adequate data to make strategic decisions. The HM Director stated that: "We wanted to have the storage information about employees so that we can plan and manage for future action. [With e-HRM] it's easy to manage and we try to conciliate everything in the less platform possible. That's why we have e-HRM that we can do many things." "With e-HRM, we can spend more time in planning than doing." They considered the implement of e-HRM as an investment for efficiency gains. Therefore, they did not set a goal on return of the e-HRM investment. 31 "[The implementation of] e-HRM is an investment, not the cost, to reduce the time we spend doing things here. If we spend less time on daily tasks, we will have more time on focus on planning, innovation and to find new solutions for our employees." "We don't have a specific target for cost reduction." "If we have a support software, tasks become more agile which ends up freeing workers for innovative and strategic tasks." With the implement of e-HRM, DST group aimed to provide a better tool to line managers and employees in management and in daily work. The following quote illustrated this: "E-HRM is more dynamic. It helps managers facilitate the management activities with employees." The other important goal when implementing e-HRM in DST group is standardization. As a large group with around 2000 employees and 60 enterprises, DST group needs clear and consistent processes for the whole company. The adoption of e-HRM was driven by the need to harmonise and standardise HR policies and practices as the HRM Director emphasized: "Standardisation allows us to say the same language to everyone." Given these goals, DST group carried out the implement of E-HRM in their company in administrative tasks, recruitment and training. In the administrative area, SAP (System Application and Products in Data Processing) is implemented to cover all operational activities in the DST Group. The HR officer mentioned: "We use SAP for all the management in DST Group, from employee database, administrative tasks, compensation, benefits, 5S practices, sharing information to employees to caution accidents to employees…" "It is very useful and help us to save time in doing these tasks. We can have all the information in one place." In DST Group, SAP covers the following areas: Organizational Management (planning, managing information on department, tracking of positions in all department to maintains jobs and find vacancies if any); Personnel administration (recording employee database such as personnel Information, education, family, salary, employee cost calculator…); Time management (attendance check, time evaluation, personal work schedule, shifts, holidays, vacations…); payroll (processing the payment for the work done by employees: wages, taxes, social insurance agencies, banks…). SAP provides access to managers and employees in some session, such as personal information and time management. For 32 example, all the employees have access to the Time Care platform. The Time Care platform has been used for time management for some time. It appears very useful to manage employees in the current context in which the DST Group applies the new way of working - teleworking in turn. The employees use the Time Care application to check attendance and manage working time at home. It provides a record for managers that help them monitor their employees' work. SAP's implementation has brought outcomes as intended. DST Group has essential employee database for strategic planning. They have used them for future planning, training and staffing. The information is readily available for management. The HR Director commented: " It's very useful because we can concentrate much information." "We have many information that help us make strategic decision or we can use it in training employees or recruiting. It also allows us make a suitable staffing or promotion. DTS Group is a large company with about 2000 employees, therefore management represents a huge administrative task for HR department. The adoption of SAP gives HR the technological solutions that increase efficiency in its processes. It reduces burden of administrative for HR department. The quality of HR work is improved due to improved work flow. The accuracy of information is improved. There are less errors. The information is retrieved quickly when needed. It reduces the response time, thereby, improve the delivery of service. Besides, HR officers have more time for added value activities. The HR Director said: " With the software, we spend less time in carrying out the HR tasks. We can organise better information and manage people better." As a result, the HR department operates more effectively, assigning less time spent by people on nonvalue-added tasks, which they can spend instead on more innovative and strategic tasks. However, the company did not measure these benefits. Regarding communication, the company use email, Skype, Microsoft Team and the intranet. The Intranet was designed to improve internal communication and sharing of information with employees. Thereby, improve HR service delivery. It has the following contents: general information about the DST Group (events, news related to new customers/ works; notifications); messages from the DST Group President; Innovation topics; documents (internal norms, manuals, standards, work instruction, procedures, etc…); contacts of the DST group staff; benefits information (pharmacies, health insurance, gyms, etc…); canteen/restaurant menu to schedule the meals for the week. In addition, there is a remarkable session 39 " We almost duplicated the number of training action and the number of participations. We can discuss about our own problems and find out solutions. We started use e-training during the pandemic. We can participate without barrier of time and distance during the pandemic, without physical touch and dislocation. This is the best way to continue training our employees in the current context. " In addition, e-training shows its flexibility when the participants can choose the time and place to learn. The HR officer assumed: "We can do the training when it´s more convenient in terms of date and hour, and reconcile with workload." In spite of those outcomes, there are disadvantages as well. That is, the lack of interaction in training as the HR officer commented: "The main disadvantage is lack of Interaction. People have less participation in the training. Some of them get shyer and rather passive in training." Concerning performance appraisal, Cachapuz has not applied e--HRM yet. The company carries out the employee evaluation once per year. The CEO is responsible of the employee evaluation in person based on the characteristics of each position in consultation with the Directors of each department. This is the main reason that e-HRM has not been introduced in performance appraisal. 4.3 Anonymous Technology Company The anonymous technology company is one of the biggest Portuguese companies specialized in Information, Technology and Communication products and services, with branches in Lisbon and foreign markets. It stands out in the market for the design, production and implementation of software for vertical markets. It acts as a solution’s integrator and a global provider of IT solutions, such as technological infrastructures, telecommunications, management software (ERP), certified training, and consulting services. With a history of over 30 years, the company has always based its Human Resource Management policy on a genuine concern on its employees. With a team consisting of about 150 employees, the company considers people management is one of the most pressing and differentiating issues in organization. They are committed to developing actions and measures that improve motivation, personal and professional development and well-being of employees. Since 2011, the company has been included in the ranking of the 100 best companies to work for in Portugal. Although the technology company is a provider of IT solution in management, they do not apply e-HRM in all HR functions. They 40 implement e-HRM in administrative support and communication. One of the reasons is that in the technological company, HR Department plays a global role in human resource management. It means that HR Department works with Directors and Managers of each department in all processes relating to personnel management. Directors or managers are mainly responsible for managing employees in recruitment and selection, approve training need of employees, performance appraisal and compensation. For example, The HR department defines the processes on performance appraisal and the Directors make the employee evaluation instead of HR department. In administrative support, the company uses WinGRH software which is one of the products developed by the company. WinGRH is used for recording employee's data, processing payroll and others essential HR tasks. The goal is to facilitate HR tasks and enable the HR department to work more efficiently by eliminating paperwork, and saving time in processing and creating an essential HR database. The use of the software results as planned. The HR officer stated: "Our work is smoother, processing time reduces. We have an essential database for decision making. We can save time in order to focus on supporting Directors and Managers." In the subject of internal communication, the company uses Microsoft outlook, Team Microsoft, CRM - Customer Relation Management. The goal is aim to facilitate communication, and support daily work. These programs are installed in employees' mobile devices which enable the communication in time. Microsoft outlook is the main channel to communicate in the company. It is considered the best way as most employees work outside, for example: Sales and Services Departments. CRM is a platform to support all employees and managers in daily work. Employees can make a support request on the platform, for example: reserving meeting rooms or vehicles. It has all information about customers and potential customers, information about employees (e.g., their schedule, day-off, working hours, customer meeting agenda, and their using resource: rooms, vehicles...). It is a tool for Directors to manage and evaluate employees. Directors can check their employees’ daily work. The result is that the internal communication is getting faster, and the daily work is smoother. It also allows Directors and Managers to support and manage their employees efficiently. The following quotes of the line managers illustrates these: " It's helpful. It allows me to communicate with different chains and acquire information." I see advantages in the use of E-HRM tools that allow to systematize information, organize processes and collect information and indicators for future decisions, enable faster decision making." 41 "Intranet communication makes the communication process faster, as there is no need to wait for the availability of both parties to meet for all tasks, freeing the face-to-face moments for the most important tasks that need this interaction ." However, the e-communication causes an unintended consequence. That is, the quantity of information is overwhelming. This may harm employees' work-life balance, as the following quote by the line manager stated: " Maybe sometimes there's a lot of input and information. It doesn't allow you to be more productive. It is not easy to disconnect which can cause overwhelming. People have to be connected all the time. It is difficult to separate life and work ." In recruitment, the company mainly hires online recruitment websites. They advertise vacancies and receive CV through email. The selection is decided by the board administrative with the consultancy of Directors or Managers. In training and development, the company offers both online and offline training. In the beginning of each year, the HR Department collects the training needs and works with Directors and Managers to discuss the training plan. Then, the training plan is approved by the Board of Administration. The company holds the courses, mostly offline courses, during the year. There is a learning platform which is the responsibility of the Development Director instead of the HR Department. However, this is a new platform which still has limited use. The manager commented: "The leaning platform is somewhat limited to the development department and, until now, I have not had many experiences in this type of training. Most of the training has been in person." Relating to performance appraisal, the company has not used e-HRM. Directors or Managers evaluate their employees per month and per year. Each month, they choose the best person for a reward. At the end of the year, Directors or Managers evaluate employees based on some criteria which are different from departments. 42 Table 5: E-HRM in the companies HR Functions DST Group Cachapuz The technological company Administrative support - SAP is used for organizational management, personnel administration, time management and payroll. - Allow Managers and employees to access Time Management session to record absent, check attendance and manage working time. Primavera Software is used for organization management, personnel database, processing payroll. WinGRH Software is used for personnel database, processing payroll. Communication Intranet, email, Microsoft Team are used for internal communication and information sharing Sharepoint, email, Microsoft Team are used for internal communication. Microsoft outlook, Team Microsoft, CRM - Customer Relation Management are used for internal communication in which email is considered main channel. Recruitment and selection - E-recruitment and e-selection are applied by using company’s website, social media. - Use a platform for receiving CVs and screening candidates. - Use mainly Kelly Service for staffing. - Besides, use company’s website and social media to advertise the vacancies - Advertise vacancies in recruiting company website, post vacancies in the company’s website and social media. 43 and receive CVs through email and a selection is done manually. - Receive CV through e-mail and the selection is done manually. Training and development - E-learning is used for employee development and manage employee's training. - All the course are online - All the employees have access to elearning platform - Created Cachapuz Academy for employee development and sharing the technology and the Cachapuz knowhow to external stakeholders such as clients or partners - Hold both online and offline courses. - New E-learning platform with limited use; - Development Director is responsible for the platform, instead of HR department. Performance Appraisal - Not apply e-HRM in performance appraisal. - Directors or Managers are responsible for employee evaluation. - Not apply e-HRM in performance appraisal. - CEO is responsible of the employee evaluation. - Not apply e-HRM in performance appraisal. - Directors or Managers are responsible for employee evaluation. 44 5. DISCUSSION The results show that operational e-HRM (Lepak and Snell, 1998; Ruël, Bondarouk and Looise, 2004) is applied in all three companies with the implementation of e-HRM in administrative area. Different companies make use of different vendors for the software with varying intensity of use (Table 5). DST group uses SAP for organizational management, personnel administration, time management and payroll. In addition, SAP gives access for Managers and employees to record absences, check attendance and manage working time in Time Management session. Cachapuz uses Primavera software for organization management, personnel database, processing payroll. The technological company uses WINGRH software for personnel database and processing payroll. The varying intensity of use can result from the size of company. DST Group is a large company with around 2000 employees. The high intensity of SAP use allows them to simplify a huge amount of administrative tasks for HR department. Cachapuz and the technological company, with fewer employees (around 60 and 150 respectively), only adopt e-HRM in some core administrative tasks such as payroll processing and personnel database. Regarding e-HRM goals, and in line with previous research (Parry and Tyson, 2011), cost reduction and efficiency gains are the most common goals when planning to introduce e-HRM in administrative area, mentioned by all three companies. All three companies have realised this goal as an intended outcome. In DST Group, the adoption of SAP results in efficiency gains through saving time in processing, reducing the burden of administrative work, improving work flow, minimizing errors and improving the accuracy of data entry. In Cachapuz, the use of Primavera software streamlines the HR processes and reduces costs through eliminating errors, producing reliable information, significantly reducing time on processing wages and benefits and improving the overall speed of processes. In the technological company, the use of WinGRH software facilitates HR tasks and helps the HR department work more efficiently by reducing paperwork, saving processing time and creating an essential HR database. However, cost reductions was not measured in the companies. There was not a specific target for the cost reduction, in line with other studies (Parry, 2011; Ruel et al., 2004). Concerning relational e-HRM, the common use of e-HRM is reported in internal communication with email, Microsoft Team, intranet or internal platform. The communication and information sharing channel appears similar in the companies with the same goal, that is, better collaboration with other departments, communication improvement between managers and employees and more efficient in sharing information with employees, thereby, improve HR service delivery and facilitate the management for managers (T. Bondarouk & Ruël, 2013; Panayotopoulou et al., 2007; Parry & Tyson, 2011; Ruel et al., 2004). The goal is achieved as intended in all companies. However, both in DST Group and Cachapuz, 45 the outcome has a certain limitation in the production department because of the lack of personal computers. The communication with other departments and the sharing of information are the responsibility of the Director. The availability of personal computer is an important requisite for the success of e-HRM mentioned by Ruël, Bondarouk and Looise (2004). In recruitment, Cachapuz and the technological company use mainly outside services for recruitment alongside with posting vacancies on company's website and social media with the goal of advertising the open positions. DST Group makes use of e-HRM more intensively than the others because of their huge demand on recruitment. The goal is to improve efficiency of HR department and HR service (Parry & Tyson, 2011; Ruel et al., 2004). The use of e-HRM has impact on recruitment. DST Group has a large pool of potential candidates through using the company's official website and all the social media tools including Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, and online recruitment websites. By using the recruitment and selection platform, these processes are faster, satisfying the staffing needs. It saves time for both HR recruiters and managers considerably. HR service is improved thanks to the ability of satisfying the staffing demand of other departments with qualified employees timely. The adoption of e-HRM in recruitment has an unintended outcome, that is, company image enhancement. This finding coincides with other studies (Panayotopoulou et al., 2007; Parry & Tyson, 2011) and the study conducted by T. Bondaroul and Ruel (2013) showing the results of using e-HRM in contributing to the image of the HR department. Some shortcomings remain as well. E-recruitment hardly meets the demand for executive recruiting such as senior managers, directors, chief executive officers, or specific positions which require specific competency. Potential candidates for these positions usually come from IEFP (Instituito do Emprego e Formação Profissional - a governmental institution). The use of excel and outlook for a lot of manual work is another shortcoming that HR department try to fix in the near future. In training, e-HRM is used for employee development in the three companies with different level of use. The goal aims to improve HR service by providing customer-oriented service and cost savings (Lepak & Snell, 1998; Parry & Tyson, 2011; Ruel et al., 2004). In the technological company, the e-learning platform has limited use since the (IT) Development Director is responsible for the platform, instead of the HR department. Most of the training courses are conducted in person. In Cachapuz, Cachapuz Academy was launched for employee development and technology sharing of Cachapuz know-how to external stakeholders such as clients or partners. The Cachapuz Academy has initially resulted as intended. It has become a channel for employees to gain new skills, adopt new methodologies and share experiences. HR service is improved by creating a flexible and low-cost solution for employee development. However, the lack of interaction in training is a disadvantage of e-learning in Cachapuz. In 46 the case of DST Group, e-HRM is used with high intensity in employee development due to the considerable need of training for a large number of employees. DST Group makes use of e-learning, with the goals of employee development, HR service improvement and efficiency gains. These goals are realized as planned. The HR department operates more efficiently as e-training facilitates training management and reduces training costs. E-learning offers a flexible and useful channel for increasing employee’s competency, especially in the current context. Transformational e-HRM consists of activities that aim to transform the HR department by improving its strategic orientation toward HRM (Bissola & Imperatori, 2013). This appears in DST Group through organizational change processes, that is, standardization (Berber et al., 2018; Obeidat, 2016; Parry & Tyson, 2011; Ruel et al., 2004). In adopting e-HRM, the company aimed to maximize the strategic capabilities of the HR function through standardized and harmonized HR policies and practices across the company. The HR processes become more consistent and consensual, allowing the company to use the "same language" across the company with around 2000 employees and 60 enterprises. Standardization has enabled the company to communicate and be networked which eliminate misunderstanding and inconsistence. There is no evidence found in the case of Cachapuz and the technological company. Another goal mentioned in the implementation of e-HRM is strategic orientation (Lepak and Snell, 1998; Ruël, Bondarouk and Looise, 2004, Parry and Tyson, 2011, Bondarouk and Ruël, 2013), appearing in DST Group and Cachapuz. This goal is achieved in both companies. In Cachapuz, the systematic employee database servers in the strategic decision-making process of top management through the analysis of this information. In DST Group, the use of SAP frees up time for HR officers in order to focus on added value tasks such as planning HR, innovation or employee development. The essential employee database is used for strategic decision making such as future HR planning, training, staffing and allocation HR. In addition, with the self-service functionality in Time Management session, managers are empowered to manage their employees regarding management of employee working time. It is very useful for teleworking in the current context. However, consistent with other scholars (T. Bondarouk & Ruël, 2013; J. Marler, 2009; Parry & Tyson, 2011), e-HRM alone is not sufficient to make the HRM department become more strategic. For example, in order to use available employee data for strategic decision making processes, it requires many conditions. One of them is the capability of HR staff to analyze and interpret it properly. In addition, in the case of Cachapuz and DST Group, HRM department already plays a strategic role, aligning business strategy and goals with HRM goals and acting as a consultant to top managers. E-HRM appears as a mean to support the HRM department in their strategic role. In this 47 sense, with e-HRM, the HR function modified its daily operations in orderer to, not simply solving routine administrative tasks, but to support organizational strategies, such as developing human capital and employee competence to achieve organizational goals, HR policies design, developing HR practices for better organization, helping in strategic decision-making process through accurate data on expenses and employee performance. The HR function becomes more flexible and HR staff is proactive in order to adapt HR function quickly to meet organizational requirements and offer their consultancy and solutions for top managers. Through examining the e-HRM in the companies, factors that influence the successful e-HRM adoption are revealed. In our case studies, the size of the organization emerges as one of the crucial factors for the using e-HRM which is consistent with other researches (Tanya Bondarouk et al., 2017; Martins & Oliveira, 2012; Strohmeier & Kabst, 2009; Teo et al., 2007; Troshani et al., 2011). DST Group is a large company. They exploited e-HRM with a higher intensity of use, comparing to Cachapuz and the technological company. It is interesting that in this study, the business sectors of the organizations do not influence the decision to introduce e-HRM. This is not in line with other researches (Tanya Bondarouk et al., 2017; Panayotopoulou et al., 2007; Strohmeier & Kabst, 2009). In the case of the DST Group, they are engineering and construction company but the intensity of e-HRM use is higher than in the technological company which is a vendor of IT solutions in management. The most significant influence factors are that top management support and the organizational structure. In the case of the technological company, the main reason for not applying e-HRM more is that the HRM department plays a global role in human resource management and does not have full autonomy in terms of HRM. As the HR officer commented: "Our management is too dependent of the Board of administration. The departments and areas do not have autonomy in terms of Human Resources management." In DST Group and Cachapuz, the HR departments have complete support from top managers. The eHRM adoption decisions are made by top management. Through the e-HRM implementation, they focus on it to timely give the adjustment and support. In this regard, communication appears a supportive factor for the success of e-HRM implementation after the decision to implement the program had been made. This is in line with other studies (Tanya Bondarouk et al., 2016; Ruta, 2005). In the case of Cachapuz, this study is conducted before and after the Cachapuz Academy implementation. I observed that in order to get success, the company devised a communication campaign across the company. Before and after its implementation, Cachapuz consulted the contributions of Directors and heads of area about what they expected from an academy and, after that, restructured itself for the creation of the Cachapuz Academy. 48 Their communication campaign also involved all employees and clients through their website, email, conferences and social media such as Facebook, Instagram in order to promote the Cachapuz Academy and influence employees' perception and their usage behavior. Another influential factor for the success of e-HRM system is employee perceptions (Tanya Bondarouk et al., 2017; Panos & Bellou, 2016; Ruel et al., 2004; Ziebell et al., 2019), confirmed by the HR Director of DST Group and Cachapuz. The employees in the companies perceive the usefulness and necessity of eHRM and commit on using it in their daily work. In addition, they are trained fully when using the application. This facilitates the e-HRM use. The HR Director of Cachapuz said: "People involved must first be able to see the added value of using e-HRM. Thus, after everyone can understand the benefits that e-HRM brings, they will use it." It is true that e-HRM brings the benefits for HR department to operate more efficiently and effectively which may result in reduced headcount and require more qualified employees to master the system. The fear that the system will substitute for a person or the employees might be replaced by others more qualified is very real. Therefore, managers and employees need to be open-minded to leverage the chance in using e-HRM for their personal development as the HR Director of DST Group commented. "Managers and the employees have an open-mind to innovation doing things. They have to look at it as an opportunity, not a thread, because it [e-HRM] makes their work easier to do. They have to be openminded." E-HRM is shown that it brings many benefits to organizations. All the participant companies recommend using e-HRM in organizations. However, the role of the HRM department is also confirmed. E-HRM should be considered as a means to facilitate the HR function, not to substitute the interpersonal relation with employees. “Although E-HRM is important but HRM means “person”. So it still needs to communicate “in person” to understand employees and follow their expectation to support them both in work and personal life in order that they can develop with the organization.” - The HR Director of Cachapuz gave her view. “E-HRM is a support. It can facilitate but cannot substitute the human.” - The HR Director of DST Group emphasized. 55 APPENDIX 1: INTERVIEW SCRIPT RELATING E-HRM FUNCTIONS TO THE HR OFFICERS Interview questions for the content of e-HRM functions Main question: Which e-HRM functions are used in the company? Which functions are not covered by e-HRM? Why? Administrative tasks 1/ Do you use any software to deal with administrative tasks, e.g., recording employee database, payroll…? Which areas are applied? 2/ What are the goals and outcomes of the using? E-recruitment: 1/ What are the reasons for using e-recruitment? 2/ How do you use E-recruitment? Can you describe the process in detail, please? 3/ E-recruitment is applied for which position? 4/ Who use the e-recruitment? 5/ Do you find e-recruitment useful? In what way? 6/ Are there advantage/ disadvantage to e-recruitment? Can you name it? 7/ What are the benefits when using e-recruitment? E-selection: 1/ What are the reasons for using e-selection? 2/ How do you use E-selection? Can you describe the process in detail, please? 3/ ESelection is applied for which position? 4/ Who use the e-selection? 5/ Do you find e-selection useful? In what way? 6/ Are there advantage/ disadvantage to e-selection? Can you name it? 7/ What are the benefits when using e-selection? E-training: 56 1/ What are the reasons for using e-training? 2/ How do you use E-training? Can you describe the process in detail, please? 3/ E-training is applied for which area? 4/ Who use the e-training? 5/ Do you find e-training useful? In what way? 6/ Are there advantage/ disadvantage to e-training? Can you name it? 7/ What are the benefits when using e-training? E-performance management 1/ What are the reasons for using eperformance? 2/ How do you use E-performance? Can you describe the process in detail, please? 3/ E-performance is applied for which area? 4/ Who use the eperformance? 5/ Do you find eperformance useful? In what way? 6/ Are there advantage/ disadvantage to eperformance? Can you name it? 7/ What are the benefits when using e-performance? 57 APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW SCRIPT RELATING GOALS, OUTCOMES OF E-HRM USE AND INFLUENCE FACTORS TO THE HR DIRECTOR Goals and outcomes of using E-HRM Main question: 1/ What are the goals that the company try to achieve when planned to apply e-HRM? 2/ What are the outcomes of using e-HRM based on the goals? Are there any intended outcomes are not achieved? Are there any unintended outcomes are experienced? 3/ Does the company intend to apply E-HRM a certain function that has not applied yet in the near future? Why? 4/ Will you recommend E-HRM to other organizations? Why? Details Improving the strategic orientation of HRM 1/Was the adoption of e-HRM driven by the need of HR professionals spending more time on HR planning activities and strategic planning? In what way? 2/Whether HR professionals have available employee’s data to make strategic decisions? Cost Reduction/ Efficiency gain 1/Was the cost reduction a goal? Why? 2/ Which functions (HR practices) were target for cost reduction? 3/What were the targets for the reduction of HR transaction costs and how is it measured? 4/Were productivity improvements of HR professionals an e-HRM goal? Why? Client service improvement/ Facilitating management and employees 1/Was providing useful HR activities, for line managers and employees, through web-based-channels an e-HRM goal? 2/ Was there an e-HRM goal to improve service to line managers and employees by providing services through web-based channels? Standardization 58 1/Was the adoption of e-HRM technology driven by the need to standardise HR processes across HR functions? In what way? III/ E-HRM factor influence 1. In your opinion, which are the factors that contribute to the success of e-HRM? Organizational factors 1/ What is the organization size? 2/ How do the top management support to the implementation of e-HRM? 3/ Do employees and line managers commit on e-HRM? 4/ How do they react to its use? Technological factors 1/ Does the IT application fit on the organization? 2/ Is the IT application friendly and easy to use? 3/ Is the IT application contributing to the quality of HR activities? Fatores humanos – People factors 1/ Are the users trained? How? For how long? 2/ Do they think that it will help the organization? In what way? 3/ Do they look at it as an important tool to improve themselves professionally and to achieve more in the future? 59 APPENDIX 3: INTERVIEW SCRIPT TO LINE MANAGER Questions for line manager to get more understanding of their experience on using e-HRM 1/ What kind of HR activities are performed by you? How? 2/ What do you think of the involvement of line managers in human resource management? 3/ Do you see any advantages/disadvantages about the involvement of line managers in HR tasks? In what way? 4/ Do you see E-HRM useful for your work and for the company? In what way? 5/ Do you see any advantage/ disadvantage about using E-HRM 6/ Do you have any difficulties on using E-HRM? Why? Are you training before using it? How? 7/ Are there changes in the interaction between you, the HR department and your employees when using intranet in communication? In what way? 8/ What do you expect when using the e-HRM? 60 APPENDIX 4: INTERVIEW SCRIPT TO EMPLOYEE Questions for employees to get more understanding of their experience on using e-HRM 1/What kind of E-HRM activities are you using? How? 2/ Do you see E-HRM useful for your work and for the company? In what way? 3/ Do you see any advantage/ disadvantage about using E-HRM? 4/ Do you have any difficulties on using E-HRM? Why? Are you training before using it? How? 5/ Are there changes in the interaction between you, the HR department and the manager when using intranet in communication? In what way? 6/What do you expect when using the e-HRM?