Current Challenges of Human Resources Managers: What they Wish, Want, and Work on

📌 Key facts

• Mission: Explore the current challenges faced by Human Resources (HR) managers and delve into their wishes, wants, and areas they are actively working on. This research aims to shed light on the pain points experienced by HR managers, understand the underlying factors that hinder their effectiveness, and identify innovative approaches to address these challenges. By conducting in-depth research, we strive to provide valuable insights that can help HR managers navigate their complex roles and contribute to the development of effective HR strategies.

• When: Start anytime. Applications are open!
• How to apply: Send us an e-mail (at the end of this page) with your CV, a grade report, a short motivation and your suggested approach (proposed plan and questions, potential data, and methods, possible outcomes with a tentative outline).

Contents

• 💡 Background
• 🦾Who We Are
• 🎯 Goals
• 🧠 Topics of Interest
• 🎓 Profile
• 📚 Further Reading
• 📄 Requirements to any Work
• 📬 How to Apply

💡 Background

The role of HR managers is critical in today's dynamic business environment. They play a pivotal role in attracting and retaining top talent, fostering employee engagement, ensuring compliance with labor laws, and driving organizational success through effective people management. However, HR managers face numerous challenges in fulfilling these responsibilities, such as evolving workforce demographics, technological advancements, changing labor regulations, and increasing demands for strategic HR initiatives. Despite the significance of these challenges, there is a need for empirical research to comprehensively understand the current pain points faced by HR managers.

🦾Who We Are

The Chair for Strategy and Organization is focused on research with impact. This means we do not want to repeat old ideas and base our research solely on the research people did 10 years ago. Instead, we currently research topics that will shape the future. Topics such as Agile Organizations and Digital Disruption, Blockchain Technology, Creativity and Innovation, Digital Transformation and Business Model Innovation, Diversity, Education: Education Technology and Performance Management, HRTech, Leadership, and Teams.. We are always early in noticing trends, technologies, strategies, and organizations that shape the future, which has its ups and downs.

This thesis will be co-supervised Isabell Welpe and Bernd Storm.

🎯 Goals

1. Understand the key challenges and pain points experienced by HR managers in various industries and organizational contexts. Through in-depth interviews and surveys, gain insights into the specific obstacles they encounter and the underlying factors that contribute to these challenges.
2. Identify the areas HR managers wish to improve and the initiatives they are actively working on. Explore their aspirations, goals, and strategies to enhance HR practices and overcome the identified challenges.
3. Investigate innovative approaches and best practices in HR management that can address the identified pain points and drive positive change. Explore how technological advancements, data analytics, automation, and other emerging trends can be leveraged to enhance HR effectiveness, efficiency, and strategic decision-making.
4. Provide actionable recommendations and insights to HR managers and organizations on strategies, tools, and practices that can help them overcome the current challenges in HR management. Foster a culture of continuous improvement and innovation within the HR function.

By achieving these goals, this research aims to contribute to the field of HR management by providing valuable knowledge and insights that can empower HR managers to navigate the complexities of their roles, drive meaningful change, and create a positive impact within their organizations.

🧠 Topics of Interest

• Identify the challenges and pain points specifically faced by HR managers in big corporations and develop strategies to address them effectively.
• Identify specific areas within HR consulting where the adoption of technology-driven solutions can lead to enhanced client value creation in the context of big corporations.
• Conduct qualitative research and interviews to gain valuable insights into the experiences and perspectives of HR managers in big corporations, facilitating a comprehensive understanding of their unique challenges and needs.
• Focus on common challenges by HR Managers such as:
• Managing a diverse and multicultural workforce, including addressing issues of cultural differences, language barriers, and inclusion.
• Balancing the needs and expectations of employees with the strategic goals and objectives of the organization.
• Navigating complex labor laws and regulations, ensuring compliance and mitigating legal risks.
• Addressing employee retention and turnover challenges, developing strategies to attract and retain top talent in a competitive market.
• Managing organizational change and transformation, including workforce restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, and technological advancements.
• Developing and implementing effective performance management systems to assess and enhance employee productivity and development.
• Managing conflicts and resolving employee disputes in a fair and impartial manner.
• Promoting employee engagement and fostering a positive work culture to boost morale and motivation.
• Designing and implementing effective employee development and training programs to enhance skills and competencies.
• Addressing mental health and well-being concerns in the workplace, promoting work-life balance and creating a supportive environment.
• Managing compensation and benefits programs to attract, motivate, and retain employees while ensuring cost-effectiveness for the organization.
• Adapting to rapid technological advancements and leveraging HR technology solutions for streamlined processes and improved efficiency.
• Promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and addressing unconscious bias in recruitment, promotion, and talent management.
• Nurturing leadership development and succession planning to ensure a pipeline of capable leaders for future organizational needs.
• Managing remote and distributed teams, including effective communication, collaboration, and performance management in virtual work environments.

🎓 Profile

• Proficiency in conducting interviews
• Enrolled in a Bachelor’s or Master's program related to Business Administration/Management/Consulting
• Fluent in English (additional proficiency in German is a plus)
• Reliable, self-driven, and motivated
• Demonstrated interest in HR and HR practices
• Passion for learning and conducting impactful research

📚 Further Reading

1. Shipton, H., Budhwar, P., Sparrow, P., & Brown, A. (2017). Human resource management, innovation and performance: Looking across levels. Human Resource Management Journal, 27(2), 246-263.
2. Ulrich, D., & Dulebohn, J. H. (2015). Are we there yet? What's next for HR? Human Resource Management Review, 25(2), 188-204.
3. Brewster, C., Houldsworth, E., Sparrow, P., & Vernon, G. (2016). International human resource management. Kogan Page Publishers.
4. Marler, J. H., & Fisher, S. L. (2013). An evidence-based review of e-HRM and strategic human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 23(1), 18-36.
5. Lawler III, E. E., & Boudreau, J. W. (2015). Global trends in human resource management: A twenty-year analysis. Stanford University Press.
6. Harris, H., Murphy, J., & Vaisman, M. (2016). Analyzing the Analyzers: An Introspective Survey of Data Scientists and Their Work. O'Reilly Media.
7. Brougham, D., & Haar, J. (2017). Smart Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Algorithms (STARA): Employees' perceptions of our future workplace. Journal of Management & Organization, 24(2), 239-257.
8. Ferrucci, D. (2012). Introduction to" This is Watson". IBM Journal of Research and Development, 56(3.4), 1-1.
9. Marler, J. H., & Boudreau, J. W. (2017). An evidence-based review of HR Analytics. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 28(1), 3-26.

📄 Requirements to any Work

We do not want your research to gather dust in some corner of bookshelf but make it accessible to the world. Thus, we warmly encourage you to create some or all of the following:

• Infograph - visually represent some of your work
• Slide Deck - prepare a slide deck on your overall topic with relevant, interesting and impactful findings
• MVP- Develop a prototype with us

📬 How to Apply

If you are interested, please contact Isabell Welpe and Bernd Storm by submitting your CV, a grade report, a short motivation and your suggested research approach.

We are looking forward to hearing from you!

👉 Bernd: bernd@bitsandpretzels.com

👉 Isabell: welpe@tum.de