Article Reflection

S P E C I A L I S S U E A R T I C L E

Sixty years of research on technology and human resource management: Looking back and looking forward

Sunghoon Kim1 | Ying Wang2 | Corine Boon3

1The University of Sydney Business School,

The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South

Wales, Australia

2School of Management and Economics,

Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China

3Amsterdam Business School, University of

Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Correspondence

Ying Wang, School of Management and

Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology,

No. 5, Zhongguancun South Street, Haidian

District, Beijing 100081, China.

Email: [email protected]

Abstract

Technology has changed the way we work and how companies manage their

employees. This article reviews 60 years of research on the relationship between

technology and human resource management, as represented in Human Resource

Management. Based on 154 articles, we identify recurring and evolving patterns of

research on technology across three time periods (separated by the advent of the

personal computer in 1977 and by the popularization of consumer internet services

in 1997), three perspectives on technology (tool, proxy, and ensemble view of tech-

nology), and three thematic streams (the impact of technology on jobs and organiza-

tions, the utilization of technology in HR activities, and the management of

technology workers). Drawing on patterns of research that emerged in the past, we

provide suggestions for future HR research on newly arriving technology.

K E YWORD S

Artificial intelligence, Human resource management, HR analytics, information systems,

technology

1 | INTRODUCTION

Technology has changed the ways in which we work and the ways in

which companies manage their employees (Cascio &

Montealegre, 2016; Forman, King, & Lyytinen, 2014; Parker, Van den

Broeck, & Holman, 2017). Researchers in the field of human resource

management (HRM) have extensively investigated the implications of

technological changes and thereby provided valuable insights to

human resource (HR) practitioners, managers, and policymakers on

how to navigate their new realities. This article celebrates 60 years of

research on the relationship between technologies and HRM as repre-

sented in Human Resource Management (Management of Personnel

Quarterly, until 1971). Since 1961, this field-leading journal has exten-

sively published on technology and its implications for HRM. We

review this accumulated knowledge and search for patterns of

research that can inform future HR studies on emergent technology.

We build on and contribute to the literature in several ways.

First, we trace the development of HRM research on technology

in general rather than focusing on a single technological artifact (i.e., a

socially recognized bundle of material and cultural properties that is

created to achieve practical goals) of one particular generation. Sev-

eral reviews have covered the topic of HRM and technology with a

focus on specific technological artifacts such as e-HR (Marler &

Fisher, 2013; Strohmeier, 2007), information technology (IT) (Stone,

Deadrick, Lukaszewski, & Johnson, 2015), HR analytics (King, 2016;

Marler & Boudreau, 2017), Big Data (Garcia-Arroyo & Osca, 2019),

and algorithmic work (Cheng & Hackett, 2019). These reviews are cer-

tainly helpful for researchers who wish to advance the knowledge on

a particular technological phenomenon. However, they are of limited

use for future researchers who are likely to grapple with the different

technological artifacts that are newly emerging in their time. In this

review, we cover research on a broad range of technological artifacts

that appeared over the last 60 years (e.g., from electronic data

processing [EDP] in the 1960s to HR Analytics in recent years) to

DOI: 10.1002/hrm.22049

Hum Resour Manage. 2021;60:229–247. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrm © 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC. 229

identify periodic and persistent approaches to examining the subject

of technology and thereby generate insights for future research.

Second, we recognize the divergence in the epistemology of tech-

nology; HR scholars have adopted varied approaches in conceptualiz-

ing the phenomenon of technology. In organizing and categorizing

papers across different epistemologies of technology, we draw from

the three-fold conceptualization of technology—the tool view, the

proxy view, and the ensemble view—proposed by Orlikowski and

Iacono (2001) that was shown to be relevant for HRM (Charlier,

Guay, & Zimmerman, 2016). We examine how the three technology

conceptualizations were reflected in HR research over the years,

thereby providing perspectives on what types of questions we could

ask on the subject in the future.

Third, we identify three thematic streams on technology—tech-

nology-induced changes in jobs and organizations, utilization of new

technology in HR activities, and technology workers—that researchers

have focused on in Human Resource Management to date. We summa-

rize how these major themes were reiterated as well as how they have

evolved over time by embracing diverse epistemological approaches

to technology. By identifying enduring features of the accumulated

knowledge in the journal, we intend not only to illuminate what HR

scholars have done in the past but also to shed some light on what

HR researchers could do going forward when they encounter new

technologies in the future.

This review is based on technology-related articles published in

Human Resource Management between 1961 and 2019. We selected

the papers in three steps. First, we manually examined all issues to

identify major concepts and terminologies used in articles on the sub-

ject of technology. Second, by using EBSCO Business Source Ulti-

mate, we conducted keyword searches on titles, abstracts, and body

texts. The keywords included a range of technology-related terms

identified in the first stage, such as analytics, artificial intelligence (AI),

automation, big data, computer, data processing, digital, e-HR, e-learn-

ing, electronic, engineering, information system, IT, internet, metrics,

online, scientist, service center, software, technician, web, and virtual.

We excluded articles if the technology words were mentioned only in

the method section or footnotes. This search yielded a total of

188 articles. Third, two authors independently assessed the relevance

of the selected papers and then resolved any disagreements through

discussions. The articles were finally marked as highly relevant

(n = 87), moderately relevant (n = 67), and irrelevant (n = 34). Papers

were considered moderately relevant when a technology was

addressed but not as the core topic of the study and irrelevant when

technology-related words were mentioned only in passing without

providing meaningful insights into them. We excluded irrelevant arti-

cles and considered only articles of high and moderate rele-

vance (n = 154).

This review comprises three sections. The first section offers a

historical overview across three periods, marked by the advent of per-

sonal computers and by the popularization of consumer internet ser-

vices, and illustrates how HR researchers have followed the

technology discourse of their generation. The second section exam-

ines how the concept of technology was theorized in HR research. It

shows that HR scholars have embraced three conceptualizations of

technology: the tool view, the proxy view, and the ensemble view.

The third section identifies major thematic streams that emerged from

our review across different periods and different technology concep-

tualizations. By building on observed patterns in HR research on tech-

nology, we provide suggestions for future research.

2 | A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF TECHNOLOGY

The 60 years covered in this review overlapped with the era when the

word “technology” entered public discourse in the English-speaking

world. Although this word began to appear in the 17th century, it was

rarely utilized until the end of World War II (see the word frequency

trend in Figure 1). The phenomenon and objects we currently associ-

ate with technology were expressed in other terms such as invention,

machine, engineering, or industrial science (Schatzberg, 2018). Since

the early 1960s, technology has been elevated as everyday terminol-

ogy that is often juxtaposed with “innovation” and “change”

(Schatzberg, 2018). The past 60 years can be somewhat arbitrarily

partitioned into three periods divided by two landmarks: the introduc-

tion of the personal computer (1977) and the explosive growth of

consumer internet services (1997). These two events occurred at the

defining moments of the “computing revolution” and the “Internet

revolution” that profoundly reshaped the global technology industry

and the lives of many workers (Gordon, 2012).

In the first period up to 1976, mainframe computers began to

receive public attention (Campbell-Kelly & Garcia-Swartz, 2015). In

1962, IBM launched a project to develop a new type of computer

(360 series) that laid the foundation for its success in the following

decades. In 1968, Intel was established, and in 1971, it offered its first

microchip. This is the period when HR managers began to realize the

need for using computing technologies in managing employees. The

establishment of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity

(EEO) commission in 1964 and subsequent EEO legislations forced

companies to improve their personnel data management procedures

(Dobbin & Sutton, 1998). This inspired large corporations to consider

adopting EDP technologies to streamline the handling of personnel

data. This was also the time when HR managers had to consider

retraining workers in response to the risk of job displacements caused

by automation. In January 1965, Newsweek estimated that automation

was eliminating 35,000 American jobs per week.

The second period (1977–1996) is characterized by the arrival of

personal computers in 1977 (Apple II, PET, and TRS-80, all in the same

year) and their explosive growth in subsequent years with the intro-

duction of the IBM PC (Campbell-Kelly & Garcia-Swartz, 2015). The

growing affordability of computers allowed the development of

sophisticated management information systems (MISs) that influenced

the development of human resource information systems (HRIS)

(Bhuiyan, Chowdhury, & Ferdous, 2014). Another critical development

in this period is the advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT) that

were featured in various technologies such as computer-aided design

230 KIM ET AL.

(CAD), total quality management (TQM), just-in-time system (JIT), and

flexible manufacturing system (FMS) (Dean Jr, Yoon, & Susman, 1992;

Finkelstein & Newman, 1984). These initiatives received much atten-

tion as a remedy for the declining American manufacturing sector and

posed challenges to HR managers (Dean Jr & Snell, 1996).

The third period (1997–2019) commenced with the unprece-

dented wave of large-scale investment in consumer Internet services

that led to a rapid growth in the American technology industry, as

exemplified by the founding of Yahoo (1995), Hotmail (1996; acquired

by Microsoft in 1997), and Google (1998). Social networking sites

appeared in 1997, and the concept of an Internet portal was intro-

duced in 1998 (Campbell-Kelly & Garcia-Swartz, 2015). In 1997,

handheld computing devices began to be called “smartphones” for the

first time. About a decade later, Apple launched its first iPhone in

2007 and Google introduced Android OS in 2008, opening up new

possibilities for people to communicate through the Internet. These

changes dramatically enhanced the utility of the Internet in work-

places. HR professionals now had to deal with the growing popularity

of virtual work arrangements. Many HR activities (such as recruitment

and training) incorporated Internet technologies. HRISs evolved into

new forms of data-driven HR activities under the banner of e-HR and

HR analytics. Overall, these technological developments across three

periods led to many notable changes in the workplace and provided

ample opportunities for scholars to examine the relationship between

HRM and technology.

Figure 2 shows the yearly percentage of technology-related arti-

cles to yearly total number of papers published in Human Resource

Management. The popularity of technology as a research topic has

fluctuated over the years with several local peaks, especially when the

journal published relevant special issues (e.g., organizational profes-

sionals in 1985, future of HR in 1997, e-HR in 2004, and IT profes-

sional in 2007). Despite the inherent challenges of dividing a

continuing history into distinct periods, the 60-year publication pat-

tern can be matched to the above-mentioned periodization marked by

the advent of the personal computer (1977) and the beginning of con-

sumer Internet services (1997). Between these landmark points, sig-

nificant waves of technology research were seen, suggesting that HR

scholars have actively followed the major changes in technological

environments with a time lag of a few years.

To better trace the evolution of research on technology and HRM

over time, we conducted text analyses on the full text of the articles

we identified. Table 1 shows the top 30 frequent words that appear in

each period, and Figure 3 shows word clouds generated from the text

analyses results. In the high-frequency word list, some words (such as

“job,” “changing,” “skills,” and “systems”) appeared consistently across

the three time periods, indicating some level of persistence in the

F IGURE 1 Word frequency by Google Ngram. At its highest, technology occupied 0.013% of total text searched

F IGURE 2 Percent of technology articles in Human Resource Management

KIM ET AL. 231

discourse on technology in HR scholarship. However, many differ-

ences were observed in the frequent word lists over time. In the first

period (1961–1976), “automation” was ranked highly with the words

“jobs” and “changing.” This reflects the public then worry about job

displacement by automation. In the second period (1977–1996), the

words “professional” and “career” joined the high-frequency list. This

reflects the increase in the number of organizational scientists/engi-

neers and the increasing attention paid to cross-organizational careers

in this period (Bird, 1994; Wolff, 2006). Other notable features are

the advancement of the word “computing” in the ranking and the new

TABLE 1 Top 30 most frequently appeared words

1961–1976 1977–1996 1997–2019

Word Count Word Count Word Count

Jobsa 957 Professionals 1,201 Employeesa 3,047

Changinga 560 Employeesa 946 Jobsa 2,633

Employeesa 465 Changinga 906 Technologya 1965

Companya 440 Companya 833 Systemsa 1900

Automation 387 Systemsa 823 Professionals 1,672

Programsa 362 Technologya 688 Knowledge 1,556

Personnel 347 Jobsa 644 HRM 1,554

Systemsa 317 Skillsa 437 Changinga 1,478

Laborers 303 Computinga 423 Companya 1,344

Skillsa 258 Strategy 405 Applications 1,302

Technologicala 256 Careers 382 Competing 1,137

Retraining 232 Labor 344 Experimenta 939

Manpower 217 Culture 341 Strategy 927

Engines 216 Retiring 277 Cultures 911

Unions 216 Contracts 267 Skillsa 902

Costsa 203 Engines 267 Web 900

Controla 176 Controla 266 Analytics 863

Unemployment 169 Programsa 263 Psychology 784

Machine 165 Costsa 242 Globally 739

Experimentsa 153 Executives 242 Capitalizing 736

Computera 144 Reward 233 Programsa 717

Appraisal 135 Personnel 222 Workforce 654

Enrichment 129 Experimentsa 218 Careers 636

Applicationsa 128 Hire 218 Controla 605

Plant 121 MIS 212 Motivational 592

White color 118 Manufacturing 204 Ability 571

Forecast 105 Knowledge(able) 192 Customizing 562

Society 104 Environment 189 Capabilities 561

EDP 101 Competitive 185 Competitive 527

Supervisor 101 Applicationsa 184 Costsa 518

aWords appeared across three periods.

F IGURE 3 Word cloud in three periods

232 KIM ET AL.

addition of the word “manufacturing.” This is understandable when

considering the fact that this was the time when personal computers

began to change the workplace dramatically (Gordon, 2012), and the

U.S. economy was attempting to boost its productivity by adopting

AMTs (Appelbaum & Batt, 1994). The third period (1997–2019) saw

the emergence of several new high-frequency words such as

“knowledge,” “web,” “analytics,” and “global.” These are in line with

the often-cited terminologies in the contemporary discussion of

emerging technologies, such as the second machine age

(e.g., Brynjolfsson & McAfee, 2014) or fourth industrial revolution

(Schwab, 2017).

The frequency patterns in the publication and the use of language

collectively show that HR scholars have engaged continuously with

the technology discourses of their times. However, these observa-

tions do not clarify how HR scholarship has conceptualized the phe-

nomenon of technology over the years. Technology theorists note

that the concept of technology is much more convoluted than it may

appear, and a researcher may come to note different aspects of reality

depending on how they understand the nature of technology

(e.g., Leonardi & Barley, 2010; Schatzberg, 2018). Therefore, it is

essential to move one step further and explore how HR researchers,

implicitly or explicitly, theorized technological artifacts in their studies.

3 | THEORIZATION OF TECHNOLOGY

During the last century, technology has received much attention

across many disciplines of social science. A significant development in

this scholarship is the realization that a technological artifact can be

examined from many different conceptual angles (Leonardi &

Barley, 2010). This realization comes with the emergence of research

on the formative role of technology in organizations

(e.g., Woodward, 1965). Traditionally, technology was viewed as dis-

crete entities that exist independently from the agency of the human

users of the technology. This “deterministic” view was challenged by

alternative perspectives that take into account cognitive, social, and

cultural dynamics around the technology that consider technological

artifacts as work-in-progress projects rather than predetermined sta-

ble objects (Fulk, 1993; Leonardi, 2008; Leonardi & Barley, 2010;

Orlikowski & Scott, 2008). Presumably, the HR literature on technol-

ogy has been under the influence of this increasing diversity of tech-

nology conceptualizations (e.g., Charlier et al., 2016; Liker, Haddad, &

Karlin, 1999; Marler & Fisher, 2013). We examined how this influence

is represented in the 60 years of technology articles in Human

Resource Management.

As for the diversity of technology conceptualizations, we draw

from Orlikowski and Iacono (2001) who proposed a seminal frame-

work of technology conceptualizations for social science research. In

reviewing IT-related articles, they identified five metacategories of

technology conceptualizations: tool, proxy, ensemble, computational,

and nominal views. Their typology was originally developed in the

context of another discipline (information systems research). None-

theless, its first three categories—tool, proxy, and ensemble views—

were shown to be highly relevant to HRM research (Charlier

et al., 2016). Furthermore, the typology itself is largely consistent with

those employed in other HR review articles (e.g., Marler &

Fisher, 2013). The three above-mentioned conceptualizations of tech-

nology, namely, tool, proxy, and ensemble views, are described in

detail later.

First, the tool view of technology corresponds to the traditional

understanding of technology. According to this view, technology is

equated with a stable and determined set of equipment, procedures,

and techniques that are purposefully designed to serve the benefit of

its owner. Its features, functionalities, and expected consequences are

assumed to be well-defined. Once adopted, the technology is sup-

posed to be under the control of the owner, and therefore, it would

produce intended outcomes. A complete transfer of technology

between individuals or organizations is deemed plausible. With this

view of technology, social scientists have depicted technology as a

driver of routine job displacement, a means to enhance organizational

productivity, a way to facilitate information processing, and a tool for

building social relations (Orlikowski & Iacono, 2001). In HRM scholar-

ship, the tool view of technology was expressed in studies where

researchers aimed to determine whether and how a technological arti-

fact, such as automated production systems or web-based recruiting,

leads to its intended outcomes (e.g., Cober, Brown, Keeping, &

Levy, 2004; Snell & Dean Jr, 1992). HR research with this view tends

to subscribe to a version of technological determinism in which new

HR-related technology is believed to produce theoretically deter-

mined outcomes for its adopting organizations (Marler & Fisher, 2013;

Strohmeier, 2009). Along this line of reasoning, technology workers

are also considered a productivity “tool” that can be secured by

implementing the right type of HR systems (Kennel, 1966; Major

et al., 2007; von Glinow, 1985).

Second, the proxy view of technology recognizes the importance of

users in the adoption and implementation of technological artifacts. It

considers technological artifacts as largely stable entities. However,

technology and its effects are understood to be under the influence

of users' cognitive and behavioral responses. This view is different

from the tool view as it acknowledges the human agency of technol-

ogy adopters. The users of technology are assumed to have efficacy

to accept or resist technological innovations. Therefore, the adoption

of technology does not guarantee its full acceptance or complete utili-

zation by the users. Studies in this stream tend to examine technologi-

cal artifacts through their measurable proxy representations captured

in variables such as user's perceptions, organizations' adoption deci-

sion, or organizational investment in a technology (Orlikowski &

Iacono, 2001). In HR research, the proxy view of technology is repre-

sented in studies that examined why some employees are more/less

resistant toward new technology and why some organizations find it

challenging to garner the benefits of adopting new technologies

(e.g., Ezzamel, Willmott, & Worthington, 2001). With the proxy view,

skills and knowledge (human capital) on technology can be taken as a

surrogate indicator of new technology. Therefore, the proxy view of

technology is particularly useful in studying the experiences of tech-

nology workers who embody new technology.

KIM ET AL. 233

Third, the ensemble view of technology recognizes the importance

of social contexts within which technological artifacts are formulated,

enacted, interpreted, and appropriated. It is different from the tool

view in the sense that technology is inseparably linked to the human

agency of developers and users. The ensemble view is also different

from the proxy view for its emphasis on the multiway interactions

among a technological artifact, technology users, and their surround-

ing organizational and institutional contexts. Therefore, it is in line

with the technology conceptualizations in sociotechnical system the-

ory (e.g., Leonardi, 2012; Rice, 1953; Trist, 1981) and actor-network

theory (e.g., Latour, 1987; Sage, Vitry, & Dainty, 2020). Orlikowski

and Iacono (2001) suggest that there are several variants in the

ensemble view of technology. One variant is the view that takes tech-

nology as a development project rather than a ready-to-use entity. It

highlights the work-in-progress nature of the technology that involves

dynamic interactions between humans and technological artifacts.

Another variant is the view that presumes technology as an embed-

ded part of a complex organizational system. In this perspective, the

value of technology can only be properly understood by taking into

account the intricate interactions between technological artifacts and

other organizational elements. The final variant of the ensemble view

takes technology as a production network and places it in broader

contexts in which organizations engage in the development and

enactment of technology.

With the ensemble view of technology, HRM scholars can under-

stand technology as a product of dynamic interactions between vari-

ous organizational and institutional actors. For instance, researchers

recognized the adoption of new HR technology as a “work-in-pro-

gress” project that involves intricate interactions among HR actors

(e.g., Shrivastava & Shaw, 2003). Studies recognized HR technology as

a part of larger organizational systems and practices (e.g., Farndale,

Paauwe, & Hoeksema, 2009). Scholars also made efforts to explicitly

contextualize HR issues into the broader technological environments

across organizational, industrial, and national boundaries (e.g., Francis,

Parkes, & Reddington, 2014; Wickramasinghe, 2010).

Orlikowski and Iacono (2001) argued that each conceptualization

of technology has its own distinct advantages and limitations; how-

ever, they placed special emphasis on the ensemble view that explic-

itly takes into account the social and cultural contexts around the use

of technological artifacts. In the next section, we examine how these

conceptualizations of technology were expressed in HRM research.

3.1 | Technology conceptualizations in HRM: An overview

How have HRM researchers understood and examined the concept of

technology? To answer this question, we categorized the 151 technol-

ogy articles (after excluding three special issue introductions)

according to the three technology conceptualizations presented ear-

lier. Following Orlikowski and Iacono (2001), we placed all articles into

only one of the three categories, although we acknowledge that some

articles appeared to subscribe to multiple conceptualizations. Two

authors independently coded all articles (initial agreement rate: 79%)

and reached a consensus through discussions. In total, 55 (36%) arti-

cles were categorized into the tool view; 44 (29%), into the proxy

view; and 52 (34%), into the ensemble view, suggesting that no one

particular conceptualization of technology prevailed in Human

Resource Management. To put this result into context, we checked

how technology was addressed in another HR specialty journal,

Human Resource Management Journal (from the first issue in 1990 until

2019). As shown in Figure 4, compared to Human Resource Manage-

ment Journal, Human Resource Management appears to be more bal-

anced in its embracing of technology conceptualizations.

When looking at the technology conceptualizations in the three

periods, Figure 5 shows that in the 1961–1976 time period, the tool

view of technology was more favored than the other approaches. How-

ever, its popularity has been dwindling over time. This trend is consis-

tent with what has been observed in other management disciplines

(Leonardi & Barley, 2010; Orlikowski & Iacono, 2001). Studies

adopting the proxy view have been steadily increasing over time, and

a large increase was seen in studies adopting the ensemble view

between the first and second time period. Over time, the frequencies

F IGURE 4 Comparison between HRM and HRMJ in their approaches to technology conceptualization

F IGURE 5 Number of articles with different technology conceptualization across three periods

234 KIM ET AL.

TABLE 2 Technology conceptualizations in 30 most cited papers

Technology conceptualization Authors, year, (citation) Technology artifacts Quotes regarding tech conceptualization

Tool view Information

processing

tool

Devanna & Tichy, 1990 (75) Information handling

capability

“Deployment of new information technologies to

provide flexible, real-time competency assessment

and feedback applications.” (Athey & Orth, 1999)Athey & Orth, 1999 (123) Information system

Productivity

enhancing

tool

Cober, Brown, & Levy, 2004 (76) Online recruiting “In addition to costs, many organizations are utilizing

electronic human resource (e-HR) systems in an effort

to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the HR

function.” (Bell, Lee, & Yeung, 2006)

“This study therefore aims to investigate the possible

influence of IT on the roles and effectiveness of the

HR function.” (Haines & Lafleur, 2008)

“teleworking can reduce work interruptions....

consequently, to experience more flow” (Peters, Poutsma, Van der Heijden, Bakker, & Bruijn, 2014)

Bell et al., 2006 (51) e-HR

Fisher, Wasserman, Wolf, &

Wears, 2008 (37)

Online training

Haines & Lafleur, 2008 (44) Information technology

Baum & Kabst, 2014 (37) Web-based recruiting

Peters et al., 2014 (36) Teleworking

Relationship

tool

Ulrich, Younger, Brockbank, &

Ulrich, 2013 (51)

Information technology “In addition, HR professionals need to use technology to

help people stay connected with one another” (Ulrich et al., 2013)

Proxy view Human capital Bailyn, 1985 (163) R&D “technical careers in the R&D lab should start lower on

strategic than on operational autonomy…” (Bailyn, 1985)

“IT professionals also serve as corporate repositories of

explicit and tacit knowledge regarding organizational

systems, as well as keepers of these systems for other

knowledge workers.” (Niederman, Sumner, & Maertz

Jr, 2007)

“IT professionals must balance the demands of multiple

stakeholders, often resulting in ambiguity about the

nature of their job responsibilities and expectations.” (Messersmith, 2007)

Niederman et al., 2007 (56) Information technology

Messersmith, 2007 (55) Information technology

Slaughter, Ang, &

Boh, 2007 (52)

Information technology

Adya, 2008 (73) Information technology

Perception Mirvis, Sales, & Hackett, 1991

(59)

Com-aided

manufacturing

“Our process model of employee reactions to IT systems

describes.” (Fisher & Howell, 2004)

“the perceived effectiveness, and therefore image, of the

ESC (Employee Services Center) has been negatively

affected by the problems of the online HRIS” (Cooke, 2006)

“minorities use and accept technology at lower rates

than whites” (Goldberg & Allen, 2008)

“this study also examines the perceived effectiveness of

Internet job hunting, problems encountered while

using the Web in job searches, and satisfaction with

on-line recruiting practices.” (Feldman & Klaas, 2002)

“HP implementation strategy planned to influence

employees' perception, thereby influencing their

usage behavior.” (Ruta, 2005)

Fisher & Howell, 2004 (46) Information system

Cooke, 2006 (70) HR shared service

Dineen, Noe, &

Wang, 2004 (36)

Web-based screening

Feldman & Klaas, 2002 (88) Web-based recruiting

Goldberg & Allen, 2008 (45) Web-based recruiting

Ruta, 2005 (71) HR portal

Williamson, King Jr, Lepak, &

Sarma, 2010 (53)

Web-based recruiting

DeRosa, Hantula, Kock, &

D'Arcy, 2004 (103)

Virtual team

Ensemble

view

Development

project

Shrivastava & Shaw, 2003 (78) HR technology “Treating installation of HR technology as a form of

innovation, we introduce a model that describes the

technology implementation process.” (Shrivastava &

Shaw, 2003)

Fenner & Renn, 2004 (52) TASW

Embedded

system

Rosen, Furst, & Blackburn,

2006 (89)

Virtual team “Integrated information systems offer established

databases and technology conduits that provide an

appropriate structural mechanism to replicate

practices” (Morris et al., 2009)

“a number of individual/task, organizational, and system

conditions that support successful information

systems for human resource management” (Haines &

Petit, 1997)

Morris et al., 2009 (47) Information system

Haines & Petit, 1997 (77) HRIS

Raghuram & Wiesenfeld, 2004

(78)

Virtual work

Production

network

Han, Chou, Chao, &

Wright, 2006 (50)

Technology

Intensive industry

“Continuing technological advancement moved the

Taiwanese economic structure from a labor-intensive

to a more technology- and/or capital-intensive

marketplace.”

KIM ET AL. 235

of the three views have roughly balanced with each other, suggesting

that HR scholars are open to more diverse perspectives on technology

than before.

Table 2 presents the 30 most cited relevant technology articles

we identified in Human Resource Management. Among the most cited

pieces, no one conceptualization dominated, although the proxy view

was somewhat more popular than the other views. This suggests that

all three technology conceptualizations can be employed to generate

high-impact HR research on technology. In the next section, we will

elaborate on how these technology conceptualizations were applied

to the major technology themes addressed in HR literature over the

years.

4 | MAJOR RESEARCH STREAMS

In addition to the text analysis that showed the general trends over

time in the research, we identified major research streams that cut

across the three periods. In determining the thematic streams, the

coauthors of this study independently reviewed the articles and then

TABLE 3 Major research streams adopting different views of technology

1. The impact of technology on jobs and organizations

2. The use of technology to support HR practices and HR decision making

3. Management of technology workers

1961–1976 Tool view: The effects of automation:

job displacement (e.g., Blum, 1964;

Hodgson, 1963)

Proxy view: Resistance, automation

anxiety (Lipstreu, 1966)

Ensemble view: Automation's impact on

job enrichment (Monczka &

Reif, 1973), position management

(Ingraham & Lutz, 1974), gender

dynamics (Neff, 1971), workforce

planning (e.g., Brain, 1968).

Tool view: Electronic Data Processing (EDP)

(Austin, 1965) and computer-assisted HR

planning (e.g., Bassett, 1973; Ingraham &

Lutz, 1974; Teach, Maticic, Arnheim,

Cooper, & Everitt, 1968) and their

benefits for organizations

Proxy view: Resistance to EDP

(e.g., Munson, 1962)

Ensemble view: Organizational challenges to

take full advantage of the potential of

EDP (Austin, 1965)

Tool view: implementing tailored HR

practices for corporate scientists:

performance management

(Henry, 1962), hiring

(Kassem, 1969).

Proxy view: Corporate scientists'

experiences at work

(e.g., Rico, 1962); Socially

constructed nature of skill shortage

and retraining (Douglass, 1963;

Foltman, 1962)

Ensemble view: technological

environment changes and skill

upgrading (e.g., Broadwell, 1965)

1977–1996 Tool view: The effects of automation on

organizational structure (e.g.,

Burke, 1997; Devanna & Tichy, 1990),

Proxy view: Responses to technology

adoption (Mirvis et al., 1991).

Ensemble view: Computer-aided design

& manufacturing (e.g., Kazanjian &

Drazin, 1986). Social complexity of IT

adoption (e.g., Passino Jr &

Severance, 1990).

Tool view: Computer-assisted HR (e.g.,

Greer, Jackson, & Fiorito, 1989; Roberts

& Biddle, 1994) and HR information

systems (HRIS) (e.g., Haines &

Petit, 1997) and their effects on

organizations.

Proxy view: Resistance to HRIS (Broderick &

Boudreau, 1991; Raelin, 1985)

Ensemble view: Contextual factors

influencing HRIS implementation (e.g.,

Passino Jr & Severance, 1990).

Organizational sensemaking on the effect

of information system (Cooper &

Quinn, 1993)

Tool view: tailoring HR practices for

autonomy seeking technical

personnel (von Glinow, 1985).

Proxy view: the need for autonomy of

R&D workers (Bailyn, 1985),

perceived skill obsolescence of tech

professionals (e.g., Pazy, 1990)

Ensemble view: Cross-national

differences and management of

technology workers (Gerpott &

Domsch, 1985), the effect of

regulatory systems on tech worker

salary (Mode, 1980).

1997–2019 Tool view: Virtual and distributed work:

virtual teams (e.g., Felin, Zenger, &

Tomsik, 2009)

Proxy view: Employee responses to IT

systems and virtual work (e.g.,

DeRosa et al., 2004; Fisher &

Howell, 2004)

Ensemble view: Interaction of virtual

teams with other HR practices and

with work/family domains

(e.g., Brandl & Neyer, 2009; Lobel,

Googins, & Bankert, 1999; Raghuram

& Wiesenfeld, 2004; Rosen

et al., 2006)

Tool view: E-HR: e-training & web-based

recruiting (Baird, Griffin, &

Henderson, 2003; Bell et al., 2006;

London & Hall, 2011), HR analytics (e.g.,

Kryscynski, Reeves, Stice-Lusvardi, Ulrich,

& Russell, 2018; Minbaeva, 2018)

Proxy view: User perceptions on e-recruiting

(e.g., Dineen et al., 2004; Williamson

et al., 2010), e-learning arrangement

(Charlier et al., 2016), HR analytics

(Wolfe, Wright, & Smart, 2006), HR

shared service (Cooke, 2006).

Ensemble view: Contextual determinant of

the effectiveness of e-HR (Dineen &

Williamson, 2012) and HR analytics

(Levenson, 2018; Minbaeva, 2018)

Tool view: tailoring HR practices to IT

professionals (e.g., Major

et al., 2007). firm specific skills IT

professionals (Slaughter

et al., 2007).

Proxy view: IT professionals' career

preference (Niederman et al., 2007),

work-life conflict

(Messersmith, 2007), minority

experiences in IT (Adya, 2008),

personal values of IT professionals

(Prasad, Enns, & Ferratt, 2007).

Ensemble view: The influence of the

(dynamic) context on IT

professional's competencies and

performance (e.g., Wingreen &

Blanton, 2007)

236 KIM ET AL.

reached an agreement on the three themes that ran through the

60-year history of research on HRM and technology: (a) the impact of

technology on jobs and organizations, (b) the use of technology to

support HR practices and HR decision-making, and (c) management of

technology workers. We discuss each of these themes across the

three periods and highlight how different technology conceptualiza-

tions were employed along the way. Table 3 presents an overview of

the different themes and technology views in the three periods.

4.1 | Impact of technology on jobs and organizations

The introduction of new technologies has a large impact on the work

that people do and on organizations. Technology may displace, alter

the nature of, or generate new jobs (Zuboff, 1988). Organizations may

adopt new technologies and accordingly change their organizational

structures and work processes. This theme did not newly emerge in

the 20th century. Serious scholarly attention has long been given to

the effect of technology on jobs and work organizations, as is exem-

plified by the intense debates on mechanization and automation dur-

ing the Industrial Revolution (Mokyr, Vickers, & Ziebarth, 2015).

However, the job-changing effect of technology received renewed

attention after World War II with the advent of digital computing

technology. In the following, we discuss how this theme was

addressed over time in Human Resource Management since its incep-

tion in 1961 and how three technology conceptualizations inspired

HR scholars to examine this subject from different angles.

4.1.1 | Effects of automation (1961–1976)

The impact of automation on the nature of work and organizations was

a major concern in the 1960s. In this period, researchers were particu-

larly interested in the possibility of job displacement caused by automa-

tion and how organizations should respond to this phenomenon.

Tool view

In the 1960s, automation was often considered a tool using which

organizations could achieve the same level of productivity with a

reduced number of workers (Blum, 1964). Several scholars studied the

adverse effects of this change, such as the loss of jobs, challenges in

equipping workers for higher-skilled jobs, and unhealthy tensions in

labor relations (e.g., Blum, 1966; Hodgson, 1963). Others (e.g.,

Rico, 1966) argued that automation might not necessarily be a job

destroyer. Although it displaced some jobs, it created new jobs; thus,

the net effect on employment could be positive rather than negative.

Proxy view

Employees' resistance to technological change was a long-held con-

cern for employers. Powell and Posner (1978) reviewed the status of

the research on resistance to automation in the workplace in the

period until 1976. Although most research focused on the resistance

to change and what HR could do to alleviate employees' concerns

(e.g., Munson, 1962), Powell and Posner (1978) highlighted through

their review that not everyone may be resistant to change; in fact,

many employees found ways to reap benefits from technological

advancements in the workplace.

Ensemble view

Research that adopted the ensemble view in this period focused on

how automation could impact other organizational developments. For

instance, job enrichment was undermined by automation (Monczka &

Reif, 1973), and gender differences in the workplace persisted despite

technological developments (Neff, 1971). Furthermore, the lifecycle

of job positions was decreasing, as a result of which planning systems

needed to be redeveloped into more dynamic systems that could

address the continuous change in skill requirements (e.g., Brain, 1968;

Ingraham & Lutz, 1974).

4.1.2 | Computer-aided manufacturing and IT (1977–1996)

In this period, the declining competitiveness of the manufacturing

industry was a primary concern in the United States. Along this line,

computer-enabled flexible manufacturing technology, or AMT,

received much attention as a potential method for boosting the pro-

ductivity of the manufacturing sector in the United States (Nemetz &

Fry, 1988; Piore & Sabel, 1986). The core argument was that the

U.S. manufacturing sector could be revived by moving away from the

Tayloristic mass production system and instead adopting the new

computer-aided production systems, thus allowing organizations to

meet diverse and rapidly changing customer needs (Hayes &

Jaikumar, 1988). Our review shows that toward the end of the

1977–1996 period, there was a shift in focus toward IT. IT led many

organizations into a vastly different business environment. HR

scholars have examined IT and its resulting organizational changes

from different angles.

Tool view

Studies adopting the tool view in this period mostly focused on how

automation could help the manufacturing sector to increase produc-

tivity and regain competitiveness (e.g., Sparrow & Pettigrew, 1987). In

the 1990s, studies started to focus more on IT and how information

could replace traditional sources of production, namely, land, labor,

and capital (Bass, 1994), and how this produces substantial changes in

the way in which companies do their business (e.g., Devanna &

Tichy, 1990). Research also focused on how developments in IT would

bring fundamental change to employment relations (e.g., Bass, 1994;

Kissler, 1994) by putting workers in a more central position and

addressing their needs.

Proxy view

In this period, employee responses to technology adoption and how

to effectively manage the introduction of new technologies were

KIM ET AL. 237

important research themes (e.g., Mirvis et al., 1991). Studies focused

not only on employees' perceptions of and reactions to technology

adoption but also HR's role in the response to these changes

(e.g., Mohrman & Lawler III, 1997).

Ensemble view

The diffusion of computerized manufacturing technologies and the

idea of flexible production systems stimulated discussions about how

to redesign work and organizations to facilitate such systems. Scholars

also sought to understand how successful global competitors were

handling technologies and how they organized their planning and HR

systems (e.g., Kazanjian & Drazin, 1986; Pucik, 1984). Scholars also

recognized that IT is embedded in complex social systems within and

across organizations. They emphasized the importance of organiza-

tional structure, HR practices, and leadership to support the success-

ful adoption of IT (e.g., Passino Jr & Severance, 1990).

Virtual and distributed work (1997–2019)

In the 1997–2019 period, the popularization of networking technol-

ogy made it possible for people to coordinate with each other across

geographical and organizational boundaries. This led to heightened

attention being given to the trend of virtual work arrangements and

the emergence of various forms of organizational disaggregation

(Felin et al., 2009).

Tool view

Communication technology enables workers to be continuously con-

nected to their tasks and colleagues—both within and beyond their

work hours and spaces (Diaz, Chiaburu, Zimmerman, &

Boswell, 2012). Studies that adopt the tool view found that telework

or virtual work can have positive effects on employees and organiza-

tions by, for example, increasing both employee satisfaction and pro-

ductivity (e.g., Khanna & New, 2008). Another phenomenon covered

in this period was the emergence of contract companies that provided

outsourcing services and temporary workers to client companies

(Fisher et al., 2008). Rapid technological changes encouraged compa-

nies to externalize their activities and even their core business activi-

ties (e.g., Nesheim, Olsen, & Kalleberg, 2007). Researchers also

examined the negative consequences of the increased use of technol-

ogy, such as repetitive strain injuries caused by computers in the

workplace (Richardson & Larsen, 1997).

Proxy view

In studies adopting the proxy view, researchers continued to study

employees' responses to the introduction of IT systems and how to

increase positive reactions (e.g., Fisher & Howell, 2004). Studies also

focused on employees' responses to virtual work. For example,

DeRosa et al. (2004) examined why people often found it challenging

to work in a virtual team owing to the perceived unnaturalness of

communication without face-to-face interaction. Another concern

was the organization's limited control over the use of technology, as

exemplified by nonwork Internet activities during work hours

(“cyberloafing”; e.g., K. Kim, Triana, Chung, & Oh, 2016).

Ensemble view

Studies recognized that the impact of virtual work would not be con-

fined to workplace experiences. Lobel et al. (1999) were concerned

about the effect of technology on work/life balance. They sensed that

technological development would popularize flexible work arrange-

ments and disaggregated forms of work that could carry a dark side; in

particular, work could infringe upon times and places that were tradi-

tionally devoted to nonwork activities. Fenner and Renn (2004) pro-

posed the concept of technology-assisted supplemental work (TASW)

to capture the phenomenon of extending the workday to the home by

using technology. They suggested that the performance of TASW is

determined by various organizational and individual factors as well as

by how employees view the usefulness of technology.

Scholars also examined how virtual team arrangements interact

with other HR practices. For example, the effectiveness of virtual

teams depends on training (e.g., Brandl & Neyer, 2009; Rosen

et al., 2006) and virtuality impacts how HR practices and other work-

related factors influences work/nonwork conflict (Raghuram &

Wiesenfeld, 2004).

4.1.3 | Summary: Impact of technology on jobs and organizations

Several trends are notable in research on the impact of technology on

jobs and organizations. In the tool view of technology, over time, new

technologies are increasingly seen as an opportunity rather than a threat.

Research in the early period depicted automation as a disruptive change

and tried to identify ways to mitigate its negativities through HR prac-

tices. Later, the focus shifted to understanding the positive potentials of

each new development and how to make the most of them. Develop-

ments in the proxy view show that while the focus in the first period was

on employee resistance to change, mostly from the perspective of organi-

zations, over time, there was a shift to addressing employees' needs, their

responses to technology adoption, and how to increase these positive

responses. The ensemble view shows a trend from examining contextual

factors within the organization, such as job design mechanisms, to con-

cerning factors beyond the organization, including broader contexts such

as sectors and countries on the one hand and work-family relationships

on the other hand.

4.2 | Use of technology to support HR practices and HR decision-making

Employers have searched for new ways to improve the efficiency and

effectiveness of people management by using new data processing

technologies. Rosenthal (2019) suggest that the history of data-driven

HRM is longer than it may seem by demonstrating how early 19th-

century American plantation owners utilized the advanced data manage-

ment techniques of their time to make the most of their slave workers.

During the 20th century, IT provided organizations with unprecedented

opportunities to try new ways to improve HR practices. Over the last

238 KIM ET AL.

60 years, HR researchers have followed the development of new HR

technologies from EDP to HR analytics and examined how these tech-

nologies were employed to support HR activities including record keep-

ing, work scheduling, workforce planning, recruiting, training,

performance management, and HR decision-making. In the following,

we discuss the developments over time in this theme.

4.2.1 | EDP and computer-assisted HR planning (1961–1976)

As early as the 1960s, studies provided insights into how digital tech-

nology began to reshape HR practices and HR decision-making. In this

line of research, EDP emerged as a significant topic. EDP was a civilian

application of computer systems that was developed during World War

II. The systems were powered by mainframe computers of the day, and

they allowed companies to store and process a large amount of person-

nel data. In this period, computer-assisted HR planning also gained

importance. The availability of computers powered by microprocessors

encouraged companies to search for ways to “rationalize” their HR

decisions by utilizing digitized data processing techniques.

Tool view

Studies that adopt the tool view focused on describing EDP systems and

on examining the benefits of such systems, for example, in terms of time-

liness and accuracy of data (e.g., Bueschel, 1966). Attention was also

given to computer-assisted HR planning, for example, by describing the

specific solutions companies use to predict required personnel

(e.g., Teach et al., 1968) or discussing possible benefits of such systems,

such as minimizing layoffs and labor costs (e.g., Bassett, 1973).

Proxy view

Research on the proxy view focused on resistance to the adoption of

EDP and automation. For example, Munson (1962) argued that the

challenge of innovation “is not that machines are resistant to change,

but that men are resistant to change” (p. 19). An in-depth understand-

ing was pursued regarding why employees resisted technological

innovations and how organizations could alleviate their concerns

(e.g., Foltman, 1962; Koch, 1974).

Ensemble view

Studies using the ensemble view focused on EDP as part of a larger

organizational system. Studies focused on the conditions under which

organizations can take full advantage of the potential of EDP, such as

by prioritizing computerization and reducing resistance from man-

agers (e.g., Austin, 1965).

4.2.2 | Computer-assisted HR and HRISs (1977–1996)

In 1977–1996, research on computer-assisted HR planning moved

forward and broadened to include other HR practices beyond

planning. In addition, there was a clear shift in focus from EDPs to

HRISs or related systems, such as MISs. This represented a transition

toward extensive, HR-focused information systems that stored more

specific HR data.

Tool view

Besides continuing research on computer-assisted HR planning

(e.g., Greer et al., 1989), studies started to examine the role of tech-

nology in a broader set of HR practices such as careers/promotion

(e.g., Roberts & Biddle, 1994) and internal labor markets (e.g., Sugalski,

Manzo, & Meadows, 1995). Most papers describe how specific orga-

nizations, or a group of (HR) managers, are approaching the use of

technology in specific HR practices. The first papers on HRIS as a tool

describe its use in companies and how HRIS can be improved.

Proxy view

Studies that adopted a proxy view examined how the introduction of

computer-assisted HR and HRIS was received within organizations,

both by employees (e.g., the resistance of highly educated profes-

sional workers; Raelin, 1985) and by HR decision-makers

(e.g., Broderick & Boudreau, 1991).

Ensemble view

Studies on computer-assisted HR that adopted the ensemble view

focused on adapting the new technology to the changes in the organi-

zational context (e.g., Greer et al., 1989). Several studies examined

contextual factors that affect the implementation and effectiveness of

HRIS in organizations. For example, Passino Jr and Severance (1990)

focused on the implementation of HRIS in global organizations, and

Cooper and Quinn (1993) distinguished types of organizational sen-

semaking on the role of MISs and discussed how these alternative

perspectives could reshape the effectiveness of the system.

4.2.3 | E-HR, HR shared services, and HR analytics (1997–2019)

In the last two decades, IT has become accessible to virtually all

employees. This allows organizations to introduce digitized HR deliv-

ery systems that involve not only highly trained HR personnel or IT

professionals but also average employees. Online-based recruiting

systems, self-service/shared-service HR platforms, and online-based

training initiatives were popularized under the banner of e-HR. This

period saw increased interest in making better use of accumulated HR

data in HRISs to make business decisions (e.g., Boudreau &

Ramstad, 1997; Wolfe et al., 2006); this represents the growing field

of HR metrics and HR analytics.

Tool view

In this period, research focused on the use of technology in a broad

range of HR practices (Bell et al., 2006). Recruitment and training

received the most attention. For example, studies examined the

effects of e-recruitment on organizations and employees

KIM ET AL. 239

(e.g., Buckley, Minette, Joy, & Michaels, 2004), differences between

online and offline recruitment (e.g., Baum & Kabst, 2014), competency

development (e.g., Athey & Orth, 1999), and the benefits of e-training

beyond traditional organizational boundaries, such as for employees

at outsourcing companies (e.g., Fisher et al., 2008). This period also

saw increasing attention being paid to HR analytics, with studies

explaining how and why HR analytics is useful (e.g., Wang &

Cotton, 2018).

Proxy view

Scholars noted that the success of e-HR is heavily influenced by user

perceptions. Several studies examined user perceptions of e-HR, such

as applicants' fairness perceptions of e-recruitment (e.g., Dineen

et al., 2004), diversity in online recruitment (e.g., Goldberg &

Allen, 2008), how recruitment websites are perceived by applicants

(Williamson et al., 2010), and how e-learning arrangements affect

employees' job embeddedness (Charlier et al., 2016).

Studies in this period also noted that changes in HR technology

did not always achieve their intended outcomes. For example, Wolfe

et al. (2006) examined what could make HR professionals resistant to

the adoption of HR analytics, and Cooke (2006) found that the adop-

tion of shared HR services may incur a substantial emotional and

financial cost that outweighs the intended benefits of a new system.

Ensemble view

Studies on the effectiveness of e-HR and HR analytics cannot be

properly understood without considering a broader set of organiza-

tional and contextual variables. For example, Dineen and

Williamson (2012) reported that the effectiveness of recruitment mes-

sages is shaped not only by the message itself but also by contextual

factors including labor supply, firms' general reputation, and other HR

practices. Other studies focused on the changing role of HR profes-

sionals that was needed to effectively implement e-HR, with a shift

from a more administrative role to a strategic partner and change

agent role (e.g., Haines & Lafleur, 2008).

Studies on HR analytics highlighted the importance of the context

within which HR analytics is adopted, such as organizational capabilities

(Minbaeva, 2018) and organizational design and culture (Levenson, 2018),

that impact the successful implementation of HR analytics.

4.2.4 | Summary: Use of technology to support HR practices and HR decision-making

Over the last 60 years, HR scholars have followed new technological

fads that were proposed to have the potential to fundamentally

change the way companies organize their HR activities. Although the

technological artifacts at hand evolved over time from EDP to HRIS to

e-HR to HR analytics, the questions raised revolved around similar

concerns. With the tool view, scholars were concerned about how to

ensure that new HR technologies deliver their promised benefits to

the organization. With the proxy view, researchers recognized the

agency of users of HR technology and tried to understand why the

adoption of technology does not necessarily guarantee its success. With

the ensemble view, studies put the new HR technology at hand in the

broader organizational and societal contexts. Over time, a change was

seen from more descriptive research on, for example, the nature of tech-

nology and the extent of resistance to it, to studies that identify why and

how HR technology is effective, why people show resistance, and how

HR technology interacts with the broader context.

4.3 | Management of technology workers

When organizations adopt new technologies, they need to hire people

with skills and knowledge of these new technologies (Kaplan &

Lerouge, 2007). Therefore, technological changes have engendered

new types of technology professionals. The constant evolution and

popularization of IT during the latter half of the 20th century stimu-

lated the rapid growth of technology workers, making them a sizable

group of employees in their own right. According to one estimate,

knowledge-intensive information workers accounted for 5% of total

employment in the United States in 1960, and this figure grew to 21%

in 2000 (Wolff, 2006).

The rise of technology workers has brought in HRM challenges

because they tend to be unlike other employees. Thanks to the pro-

fessional norms acquired through education and professional sociali-

zation, technology workers tend to seek autonomy, develop cross-

organizational careers, and be inclined to value their professional

identity over organizational identities (Rico, 1962). The demographics

of the technology profession have also became an HR concern in

relation to the substantial increase in skilled migrants and

persisting gender inequality (Kenny & Donnelly, 2020; Mahadevan &

Kilian-Yasin, 2017).

Over the last 60 years, Human Resource Management paid particu-

lar attention to two types of technology workers: (a) research scien-

tists, who were hired to conduct R&D activities, and (b) IT

professionals, who supervised various tasks concerning digital data

generation and processing. HR scholars tried to understand who these

highly educated professionals were, what challenges they faced, and

how to ensure their sustained contribution to profitable corporations.

4.3.1 | Technology workers as a new type of workforce (1961–1976)

In this period, major U.S. corporations set up their own R&D centers

in which many research scientists were employed. In this period, data

processing specialists were also in high demand as an increasing num-

ber of companies purchased newly developed mainframe computers

(Rico, 1962).

Tool view

Scholars examined how organizations can make the most of technol-

ogy workers by implementing tailored HR practices, such as staffing

and performance appraisal (e.g., Kennel, 1966; Machever, 1962).

240 KIM ET AL.

Proxy view

Several studies focused on IT professionals' experiences at work, such

as their lack of loyalty and organizational identity (Rico, 1962) and the

differences in work experiences between IT professionals and tradi-

tional workers. The socially constructed nature of skill shortage and

the value of retraining were also areas of concern (Douglass, 1963;

Foltman, 1962).

Ensemble view

Studies that adopt an ensemble view covered the dynamic environ-

ment in which IT professionals were working and how it creates chal-

lenges in keeping skills updated (e.g., Broadwell, 1965; Schmidt

Jr, 1968).

4.3.2 | Integration of technology workers into organizations (1977–1996)

In this period, computer technology engineers emerged as an influen-

tial workforce (Etzioni & Jargowsky, 1984). This period also saw con-

cerns in the United States about the shortage of science and

technology workers (Gover & Huray, 1998). Organizations wished to

attract and retain capable technology workers and convert them into

committed organizational members.

Tool view

Researchers made efforts to identify HR practices that are well-

tailored to autonomy-seeking technical personnel, such as strategic

reward systems (von Glinow, 1985). A related stream of research was

concerned with the ways in which organizations can satisfy the

changing needs of highly skilled workers and thereby ensure that they

remain productive (Kochan, Smith, Wells, & Rebitzer, 1994;

Loveman & Gabarro, 1991).

Proxy view

Research adopting the proxy view focused on the different needs and

characteristics of technology workers compared to traditional

workers. R&D workers' need for autonomy and participation in

decision-making was an important topic in this period (Bailyn, 1985;

Burke, Richley, & DeAngelis, 1985). Studies also focused on the

increased number of technology workers in management positions,

with these workers having different priorities and values than tradi-

tional managers (Devanna & Warren, 1983) and being particularly

suitable for managing technology employees (Hill & Collins-Eaglin,-

1985). Another important concern was how technology professionals

make sense of their skill obsolescence (Pazy, 1990).

Ensemble view

Research adopting the ensemble view focused on differences

between countries in technology workers' relationship with their man-

agers (Gerpott & Domsch, 1985) as well as the regulatory systems

that affect how technology workers are rewarded (Mode, 1980).

4.3.3 | Managing IT professionals (1997–2019)

Over the last 20 years, organizations have increasingly relied on IT

workers to “maintain and improve productivity in a world of complex

and interconnected systems” (Kaplan & Lerouge, 2007, p. 325). Tech-

nology workers received much attention with the notion of “IT profes-

sionals.” Human Resource Management devoted a special issue (Fall

2007) to better understand this critical group of employees in the

information era.

Tool view

Similar to earlier periods, research focused on how to effectively man-

age IT professionals by emphasizing the need for practices specifically

tailored for this group (e.g., Major et al., 2007). Attention was also

given to (firm-specific) skills IT professionals develop over their tenure

(Slaughter et al., 2007).

Proxy view

IT professionals' needs and experiences at work gained more impor-

tance in this time period. Studies examined IT professionals' voluntary

turnover patterns and their need to constantly seek new opportuni-

ties despite being satisfied in their current job (Niederman, Sumner, &

Maertz Jr., 2007), stress as a result of skill updating (Tsai, Compeau, &

Haggerty, 2007), work-life conflict (Messersmith, 2007), minority

experiences in IT (Adya, 2008), and different types of personal value

profiles based on needs for job security, achievement, and flexibility

(Prasad et al., 2007).

Ensemble view

Studies adopting the ensemble view emphasize that IT professionals'

competencies and performance are influenced by the context they

work in (e.g., Wingreen & Blanton, 2007), with environmental dynam-

ics being an important factor.

4.3.4 | Summary: Management of technology workers

Research on technology workers appears to have a natural affinity

with the proxy view and the ensemble view as it deals with people

with human agency and acknowledges the broader social context in

which workers are situated. However, some studies used the tool

view of technology in the sense that they treat technology workers as

a productivity-enhancing tool and focus on how organizations can

ensure that technology workers deploy their skills and knowledge in

the interests of their employer. This research stream has evolved over

time in several aspects while maintaining key research concerns. First,

the main research subject has been highly educated technology

workers; however, their profile has changed from corporate scientists

to IT professionals. Second, technology workers' career progression

has been a central concern over the years. Earlier studies tended to

highlight the role of professional identity in this phenomenon,

KIM ET AL. 241

whereas later studies placed more emphasis on changes in the labor

market for technology workers. Furthermore, earlier studies consid-

ered technology workers to be more difficult to manage because they

were so different from other types of workers. Later studies still

focused on identifying differences but took a more positive approach

by focusing on how technology workers can be managed most effec-

tively and how their needs can be addressed.

5 | FUTURE RESEARCH

Over the last 60 years, HR scholars have built up an excellent body of

knowledge on the relationship between technology and HRM. They

have carefully observed the new technological developments of their

time, conducted research using the best available methodological

approaches, and offered practically relevant insights. Thanks to the

collective efforts of scholars, substantial progress has been made in

understanding how technologies have changed the world of work by

inspiring the adoption of new HR initiatives and bringing up new

types of human capital. However, technology evolves continuously.

New technologies will undoubtedly keep emerging, and researchers

will continuously set out to critically assess their impacts on HRM.

Then, what types of research questions could upcoming technologies

raise? Furthermore, what can we learn from the research on past

technologies?

Our review indicates that HR researchers have investigated tech-

nologies across three major themes—labor-saving technology, HR data

processing technology, and technology workers—and three

approaches to technology—tool, proxy, and ensemble views. Although

future HR researchers will be handling the unprecedented technologi-

cal artifacts of their generation, they can be inspired by how prior

research has examined old technological artifacts. Table 4 presents a

set of generic research questions that could guide future HR

researchers who would like to explore the HR implications of the new

technological artifacts of their times. This table does not intend to

provide a comprehensive list of research questions to be asked about

future technologies. Instead, it aims to help future researchers to

identify questions with which they can initiate a systematic investiga-

tion on the relationship between technology and HRM.

We illustrate our points with a specific example of a currently

emerging technology artifact: AI. As was done with prior technological

artifacts, HR scholars can examine AI technology from many different

angles. First, one can consider AI a modern-day example of a job dis-

placing or job enabling technology that impacts jobs and organizations.

As a job displacing/enabling technology, HR researchers may embrace

the tool view of technology and focus on how AI could enhance a firm's

competitiveness by changing the workforce structure and adjusting

the strategic value of human capital. They could adopt the proxy view

of technology and examine why some employees are more or less posi-

tive toward this technology. Alternatively, they could follow the

ensemble view of technology and investigate how AI technology inter-

acts with other elements of organizational systems, including strategic

HR systems, as well as the organizational environment. Our review

shows that in examining these questions, it is important to look at

TABLE 4 Example questions for future research

Impact of technology on jobs and

organizations

Use of technology to support HR

practices and HR decision-making Management of technology workers

Tool view of

technology

How does new technology enhance the

firm's competitive advantage?

How does a new labor-saving

technology artifact make some

positions obsolete while other jobs

emergent? How does it reshape

organizational structure?

How does new HR data technology

enhance the quality of HR decisions

and/or the efficiency of HR delivery?

How does new HR data technology

displace HR positions or generate

new HR jobs?

How does a new type of technology

workers contribute to the success

of an organization?

How can organizations systematically

hire, motivate, retrain, reward, and

retain high-quality technology

workers?

Proxy view of

technology

Why are some employees more

resistant to new labor-saving

technology?

What drives the diffusion of a

technology artifact within and across

the company?

Why do some employees react

differently than others to new HR

data technology?

How does HR data technology change

the status and the role of HR

professionals?

How do new technology workers

formulate their professional and

organizational identity?

What drives the satisfaction and

commitment of new technology

workers in various life domains?

Ensemble view

of technology

How does a new technology interact

with other internal and external

elements of an organization?

How does an organization facilitate or

delay the development of new

technology?

How do cross-national differences

shape the outcome of new labor-

replacing technology?

How does new HR data technology

affect the relationship between

diverse HR actors (CEO, line

managers, and regulators)?

How do organizations' internal dynamics

shape the outcomes of new HR data

technology?

How do external contexts (national,

industrial, and regional environment)

influence the adoption and use of

new HR data technology.

How do new technology workers

effectively work together with

other organizational members?

How do new technology workers

elevate the status of the

profession?

How do the demographic, social, and

cultural backgrounds of technology

workers affect their workplace

experiences?

242 KIM ET AL.

both the threats and the opportunities of the new technology, to not

only focus on employee resistance but also to address the needs of

employees, and to consider how technology adoption is affected by

factors both within and beyond the organization.

Second, AI can be characterized as a new HR data processing tech-

nology. An increasing number of organizations are adopting

AI-powered HR analytics solutions. HR researchers could trace the

impact of AI technology on HRM by taking the tool view of technology.

For instance, one can investigate whether and how AI-based HR prac-

tices (such as selection and performance management) enhance the

effectiveness of recruiting outcomes. By studying the consequences

of AI-based HR practices, HR researchers can examine not only the

potential enhancement but also the potential perils of using AI in

HR. Future research can also discuss how AI technology displaces

some decision-making tasks traditionally held by highly trained HR

professionals. The proxy view of technology could also be helpful for

future research. For example, one could examine how using AI in HR

changes the status and perceived role of HR professionals. The ensem-

ble view of technology may also inform future HR researchers. For

instance, a study could examine how social and legal environments

shape the effectiveness of AI-based recruiting techniques and how

AI-based HR decision-making processes could go for or against a

firm's effort to promote diversity and inclusion. These questions also

reflect a more in-depth examination of how and why HR technologies

impact organizations and employees as identified over time in our

review.

Third, AI could be considered a skill that belongs to new technology

workers. The wide availability and acceptance of AI technology and big

data analytics have driven the emergence of data science as a new

profession. A data scientist is considered one of the most attractive

jobs of the 21st century, and the demand for data scientists has been

soaring in recent years (Davenport & Patil, 2012). However, much is

unknown about this emerging group of new technology workers

(Meyer, 2019). The emergence of data scientists could be analogous

to previous upsurges in new technology workers, such as research sci-

entists in the 1960s and IT professionals in the 1980s. As prior

researchers have done, HR researchers can examine data scientists

from different angles. For instance, researchers can focus on the

productivity-enhancing role of data scientists (tool view of technology)

and examine how an organization can attract and retain high-

performing data scientists and keep them motivated to serve

the interests of the company. Researchers can also take a social

constructionist approach (proxy view) and examine how data scientists

formulate their professional and organizational identities and how

this identity affects their workplace experiences (Wilson &

Daugherty, 2019). The ensemble view of technology can also be helpful

in studying data scientists. For instance, researchers can recognize the

cross-functional nature of the data science job and examine how a

positive collaboration can be ensured between data scientists and

other organizational members. Studies can also examine the implica-

tions of social and cultural contexts in shaping the status of data sci-

entists, particularly those with marginalized social identities. In line

with our review, these questions reflect the trend toward more

attention on the unique identity and needs of technology workers and

the contributions they can make to organizations.

We do not know what types of technologies will emerge in the

future. However, HR scholars may turn to established wisdom in the

literature to identify what to look for in newly arriving technologies.

For each new technological artifact, HR researchers can develop inter-

esting research questions either by considering the technology as a

productivity-enhancing mechanism (tool view), a socially constructed

reality (proxy view), or a part of a complex system that is shaped by

various aspects of organizational, social, and legal environments

(ensemble view).

Finally, we encourage future HR research on technology to pay

special attention to the context-sensitive nature of the relationship

between technology and HRM. The human experience of a new tech-

nological artifact is not homogeneous across different societies. For

instance, the experience of digital technology in newly industrialized

Asian countries is substantially different from that in Western high-

income countries (S. Kim & Frenkel, 2019). Recognizing the diversity

in technology experiences across different social, economic, and cul-

tural contexts may open up new opportunities for future HR

researchers, especially when they take the proxy or ensemble view to

investigate technological innovation.

6 | CONCLUSION

HRM researchers have diligently followed the development of tech-

nology over the last 60 years, from EDP systems to big data analytics.

Although researchers addressed the distinctive technological artifacts

of their own times, they wrestled with recurring questions that tran-

scend generations, such as how organizations can respond to the

changing nature of jobs, how technology could reshape HR functions,

and how companies can better manage newly emerging professionals

who embody the technology. Across different time periods, the litera-

ture on HRM and technology has been constantly enriched by diverse

perspectives on the concept of technology through the tool view,

proxy view, or ensemble view.

The history suggests that we will continue to find ourselves in

new technological environments and that researchers will continue

making efforts to understand the implications of new technologies for

HRM. A lesson from our review is that HR researchers may not need

to reinvent the wheel when they examine newly emerging technol-

ogy. The ways in which HR researchers have addressed previous tech-

nologies may still provide future researchers with fresh insights with

which they can investigate emerging technologies.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the

corresponding author upon reasonable request.

ORCID

Sunghoon Kim https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4374-9332

Ying Wang https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1850-9393

KIM ET AL. 243

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES

Sunghoon Kim is an Associate Professor in the Discipline of Work

and Organizational Studies at the University of Sydney Business

School. He received his PhD from Cornell University. His research

focuses on strategic human resource management, international

human resource management, compensation, and comparative

employment relations. Sunghoon is currently serving as an Associ-

ate Editor of Human Resource Management and on the editorial

boards of International Journal of Human Resource Management,

Journal of Industrial Relations, Asia Pacific Journal of Management,

Management and Organization Review, and Asia Pacific Journal of

Human Resources.

Ying Wang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Organi-

zation and Human Resource Management (HRM) at School of

Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology,

China. She has published in International Journal of Human

Resource Management and other outlets, focusing on HRM pro-

cess approach. Her recent research interests include the role of

technology in HRM, particularly in the context of emerging

economies.

Corine Boon is an Associate Professor of Human Resource Man-

agement at the University of Amsterdam Business School, the

Netherlands. Her research focuses primarily on strategic HRM,

people analytics, and person-environment fit. Her research has

been published in journals, such as Journal of Management, Human

Relations, Human Resource Management, Human Resource Manage-

ment Journal, and International Journal of Human Resource Manage-

ment. Corine is an Associate Editor of Human Resource

Management and currently serves on the editorial boards of Jour-

nal of Management, Human Resource Management Review, and

Human Resource Management Journal.

How to cite this article: Kim S, Wang Y, Boon C. Sixty years of

research on technology and human resource management:

Looking back and looking forward. Hum Resour Manage. 2021;

60:229–247. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.22049

KIM ET AL. 247

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