HR outsourcing: The impact on HR's strategic role and remaining in-house HR function

C. Patel; Pawan S Budhwar; Alissa Witzemann; Anastasia A. Katou

doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.11.007

HR outsourcing: The impact on HR's strategic role and remaining in-house HR function

C. Patel, Pawan S Budhwar, Alissa Witzemann, Anastasia A. Katou

Work & Organisation

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Past research on HR outsourcing (HRO) has offered conflicting views about its impact on HR's strategic position. This study highlights the processes by which decisions to outsource HR are made, followed by the processes implemented post such decisions and their effect on the HR function. Using a case study approach and semi-structured interviews (N = 35) within a German subsidiary of a US MNC, we provide a framework of HR processes seeking to achieve standardization in terms of harmonization of HR activities across the subsidiary. The findings reveal that the effects of outsourcing on in-house HR showed a decrease in flexibility of the HR function, a slowdown in processing time of transactional HR as well as a decrease in satisfaction and work intensification for HR managers. Further, it remains questionable as to whether the function of HR was able to enhance its strategic position through outsourcing.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	397-406
Number of pages	10
Journal	Journal of Business Research
Volume	103
Early online date	21 Nov 2017
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.11.007
Publication status	Published - 1 Oct 2019

Bibliographical note

© 2017, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

Keywords

HR outsourcing
HR strategic role
MNCs
Standardization of HR

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10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.11.007

HR Outsourcing RR2 JBR (21 Oct 2017)
© 2017, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Accepted author manuscript, 93.5 KBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

Cite this

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abstract = "Past research on HR outsourcing (HRO) has offered conflicting views about its impact on HR's strategic position. This study highlights the processes by which decisions to outsource HR are made, followed by the processes implemented post such decisions and their effect on the HR function. Using a case study approach and semi-structured interviews (N = 35) within a German subsidiary of a US MNC, we provide a framework of HR processes seeking to achieve standardization in terms of harmonization of HR activities across the subsidiary. The findings reveal that the effects of outsourcing on in-house HR showed a decrease in flexibility of the HR function, a slowdown in processing time of transactional HR as well as a decrease in satisfaction and work intensification for HR managers. Further, it remains questionable as to whether the function of HR was able to enhance its strategic position through outsourcing.",

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HR outsourcing: The impact on HR's strategic role and remaining in-house HR function

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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