1

The Use of Technology-Enabled Human Capital Tools in the Practices of

Hiring, Developing, Managing, and Retaining Talent:

Experiences of Top Management of Large Multinational in Hong Kong

A thesis presented by

Yat Ngok Rocky Tung

to The School of Education

In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education

in the field of

Organizational

College of Professional Studies Northeastern University Boston, Massachusetts April 2020

2

Abstract

Effective and efficient human capital management has been a key attribute contributing to the success of companies. Given the significant technological improvements, company executives have been presented with more, and arguably better, options for enhancing their human capital management efficiency. For employers in Hong Kong, lingering tight labor market conditions as well as rising Chinese demand for Hong Kong’s talent have led to fiercer competition for employees. The primary purpose of this study was to explore the adoption experience of (HR) technology in multibillion-dollar multinational companies (MNCs) with significant operations in Hong Kong. Using the diffusion of innovations theory, this case study answered the following central research question: How do top managers of large multinational corporations in Hong Kong use emerging human resource technologies to hire, manage, develop, and retain employees? This study found that constant and effective communications with both internal and external stakeholders, the presence of a technology-welcoming environment, and the ability to consolidate data inputs from different sources and systems are key elements of the successful incorporation of technologies in companies. Implications for practice and areas for future research are discussed.

Keywords: Hong Kong, human capital management, generation, advanced technology, multinational companies 3

Acknowledgments

The decision to begin doctoral study at Northeastern University was probably the best decision I have made as an adult, considering the strong sense of fulfillment I have gained from all challenges overcome. I owe this gift – the sense of fulfillment – to many individuals in my life who have demonstrated support, encouragement, and kindness along the way.

Foremost, my heartfelt gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Kelly Conn, for her continuous guidance, encouragement, and support of my study. I cannot ever give her enough credit for her patience and motivation along the process. I must also thank other members of my dissertation committee, Dr. Corliss Thompson and Dr. Ringo Chan, for their constructive suggestions.

I am indebted to the three inspirational executives featured in my study. This thesis was only possible with their candid feedback and sharing of histories and perspectives.

I must not omit my sister and treasured friends – Flossie, Jeffrey, Stanley, Adam,

Thomas, Cedric, Keith, and Derrick – for keeping me company when I was down and when I needed a hand. Without you, I could not have maintained a positive attitude. You are the best.

As my biggest source of strength, my family is of extreme importance in the pursuit of my study. I must thank my gorgeous wife, Shelley, and my wonderful children, Audric and

Haley, who have given me much motivation to complete this thesis as soon as practicable. Haley and Audric: Now that I am finally putting this project to bed, I look forward to spending more quality time with you before seeing you off as college students in just a few years’ time.

Most importantly, I thank my parents, my ultimate role models, for instilling an unflinching appreciation for education in me. Baba & Mama: Thank you for giving me unconditional love and guidance since Day 1. Notwithstanding all the time taken away from family commitments in the last few years, I hope I have made you proud. 4

Table of Contents

Abstract 2 Acknowledgements 3

Chapter 1: Introduction 7 Statement of the Problem 7 The Topic 7 Research Problem. 7 Justification for the Research Problem. 8 Deficiencies in the Evidence 16 Relating the Discussion to Audiences 17 Significance of Research Problem 17 Research Questions 18 Positionality Statement 18 Theoretical Framework: Diffusion of Innovations Theory 23 Conclusion 27

Chapter 2: Literature Review 29 The War for Talent 29 Human Capital Management 31 Summary 39 The Effect of Technological Advances on Human Capital Analytics and Management 39 Channels of Technologies Influencing Human Capital Analytics 41 Progress of HR-related Technology Advancement and Adoption 42 Factors Driving Adoption of Human Capital Analytics and Management Technology 46 Factors Driving Future Technological Development 49 Summary 53 Cost of Employee Turnover and Measures to Prevent It 54 Costs of Employee Turnover 55 Parameters and Channels to Predict Employee Turnover 59 Work behavior of Generations Y and Z 62 Summary 65 Labor Market Dynamics in Hong Kong 66 Conclusion 68

Chapter 3: Research Design 70 Purpose Statement 70 Qualitative Research Approach 70 Research Tradition 73 Implementation of Case Study Approach: Data Collection and Analysis 75 Data Collection 76 Data Analysis 79 Participants 80 Sampling Procedures 81 Protection of Human Subjects 81 Ethical Considerations 82 5

Trustworthiness 83 Dependability 85 Limitations 85 Conclusion 86

Chapter 4: Findings and Analysis 88 Case 1: Executive A 91 Attitude toward Technology 92 Technology Adoption Procedures 93 Human Capital Management Practices 95 Adoption of HR Technologies: A Successful Case 98 Adoption of HR Technologies: A Less Successful Experience 99 Listening to Workers 100 Generation Y and Z Employees 101 Summary 103 Case 2: Executive X 103 Attitude toward Technology 104 Technology Adoption Procedures 107 Human Capital Management Practices 108 Adoption of HR Technologies: A Successful Case 111 Adoption of HR Technologies: A Less Successful Experience 113 Listening to Workers 114 Generation Y and Z Employees 115 Summary 117 Case 3: Executive Y 118 Attitude toward Technology 119 Technology Adoption Procedures 121 Human Capital Management Practices 122 Adoption of HR Technologies: A Successful Case 125 Adoption of HR Technologies: A Less Successful Experience 126 Listening to Workers 127 Generation Y and Z Employees 129 Summary 130 Conclusion 131

Chapter 5: Discussion of Research Findings 134 Discussion of Key Findings from the Interviews 134 Adoption of Technologies in Companies 135 Technology Adoption Procedures 136 Use of Technologies in Human Capital Management Practices 136 Perceptions of the New Generations of Workers 137 Discussion of Findings in Relation to the Theoretical Framework 138 The Attributes of Successful Innovation Adoption 138 Networks and Peer-to-peer Communications 139 Different Needs of Various User Segments 140 Discussion of Findings in Relation to the Literature Review 140 6

Importance of Talent 140 Technology Adoption in Large Corporations 141 Emphasis on Data Quality 142 Attitude Toward Employee Retention 142 Limitations and Recommendations for Further Study 143 Implications for Practice 144 Adoption of Technologies in Companies 144 Technology Adoption Procedures 145 Use of Technologies in Human Capital Management Practices 145 Perceptions of the New Generations of Workers 145 Reflection 146 Improvement of Skill 146 Improvement of Research Subject Framing 147 Concluding Statements 147

References 150

Appendix A: General Participant Letter 169 Appendix B: Unsigned Informed Consent 171 Appendix C: Interview Questions 175

7

Chapter 1: Introduction

Statement of the Problem

The Topic

The primary purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of top managers with the adoption of human resources (HR) technology, specifically the experiences of managers who work for multibillion-dollar multinational companies (MNCs) with significant operations in

Hong Kong that hire, manage, develop, and retain employees. This was accomplished through a comprehensive review of peer-reviewed academic journals and journals and interviews with top executives and directors of HR departments. The study emphasized exploring whether and how these companies use technologically advanced tools in their human capital management practices. Insights and recommendations derived from this study are of interest to other management practitioners responsible for company operations in Hong Kong and other locations, given Hong Kong’s standing as an international financial and commercial center. This study is also of high relevance to Hong Kong’s policymakers, because its labor market has remained tight and the business sector in Hong Kong has been experiencing a sustained level of voluntary employee turnover, leading to loss of operational efficiency and operating profits.

Research Problem

Technological advances, led by improved internet accessibility and more affordable transportation for travelers, goods, and services, has enhanced connectivity, brought the world closer, and transformed the global employment landscape. According to Leopold et al. (2018), authors of the World Economic Forum’s The Future of Jobs 2018, reassignment of work between humans and algorithms or machines has been underway. At the closed-door Manpower

Conference organized by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce (HKGCC) in October 8

2015, Ralph Haupter, in his capacity as (CEO) and chairman of Microsoft

Greater China –he was later promoted to president of Microsoft Asia Pacific – suggested that in the digital era, corporations are facing fiercer competition from their peers at home and abroad

(HKGCC, 2015). Haupter argued that these companies would be competing against each other not only for customers but also for valuable human resources in various geographic locations.

While the availability of talent permits companies to use their competitive advantage and thrive, it also leads to a war for talent (Chambers et al., 1998). Wellins et al. (n.d.) suggested that as competition for talent intensifies, companies will need to deploy appropriate human capital management strategies to gain an edge over their peers. Andrianova et al. (2018) argued that technology could enhance the flow of data related to human capital and, therefore, should be instrumental to the deployment of more efficient human capital management strategies. The experiences of top managers (e.g., managing directors, CEOs, HR directors) of MNCs with using technology-enabled human capital management tools in their practice of hiring, developing, managing, and retaining talent are unclear. This study was, therefore, designed to answer these questions by focusing on large multinational corporations that have established a significant presence in Hong Kong, a leading international financial center in Asia.

Justification for the Research Problem

Effective and efficient human capital management has been a key factor in the success of companies (Bhalla et al., 2018; Michaels et al., 2001; Samuel & Chipunza, 2009). Significant technological improvements have presented company executives with more, and arguably better, options for enhancing their human capital management efficiency (Anderson et al., 2015; Ho,

2017; MichaelPage, 2017; Pettey, 2017; Segal et al., 2014; Teng, 2007; Wellins et al., n.d.). For employers in Hong Kong, lingering tight labor market conditions and rising Chinese demand for 9 talent available in Hong Kong have led to fiercer competition for employees (Atsmon et al.,

2012; Cieri & Bardoel, 2009; Leopold et al., 2018). Meanwhile, members of Generations Y and

Z tend to be less committed to the same employer over time (Gallup, 2016; Reuters, 2018).

Therefore, this study is useful for informing readers about whether and how technology can help employers hire, manage, develop, and retain these employees more effectively.

Importance of Human Capital Management and Costs of Employee Turnover

Talent has often been considered as one of the most, if not the most, important asset of companies. Samuel and Chipunza (2009), for instance, believed that the effectiveness of a company’s workforce determines the success of the company. According to Michaels et al.

(2001), successful leaders, such as celebrated movie director Steven Spielberg and renowned management gurus Jack Welch and Wayne Callaway, all spent a significant portion of their time recruiting, developing, and retaining talented individuals. Porter and Nohri (2018) shared, “A

CEO who doesn’t spend enough time with colleagues will seem insular and out of touch, whereas one who spends too much time in direct decision making will risk being seen as a micromanager and erode employees’ initiative,” indicating the need for top managers to strike a balance between being too distant from their employees and too hands-on. Bhalla et al. (2018) found that one of the key elements distinguishing the best CEOs from others is that they recognize the importance of talent and see people as the driver of their company agendas.

Chambers et al. (1998) predicted that there would be a war for talent, given an intensifying shortage of talent in the labor market, and asserted that this would lead to much more mobility among employees with global business acumen (Accenture, 2018; Beechler &

Woodward, 2009; Laumer et al., 2010; Pettigrew & Srinivasan, 2012; Wellins et al., n.d.). It was, 10 therefore, asserted that companies would need to develop, deploy, and execute effective human capital management strategies to remain competitive employers.

Firms that could hire, develop, manage, and retain employees effectively would be at the forefront of winning the war for talent. Such firms would also be more likely to remain globally competitive through the development, deployment, and execution of effective human capital management strategies. In addition to attracting and hiring the right talent, human capital management would enable companies to make systematic and coherent decisions related to the development and well-being of employees, thereby upholding and enhancing employees’ ability and development. Given foreseeable and fair procedures for personal and career development, employees would become more engaged with the company.

In particular, it is important for companies to retain top talent and reduce the overall employee turnover rate, which would strengthen operational performance. Price (1977) defined employee turnover as “the ratio of the employees of an who left in a particular period of time with the average number of employees in that organization during the same period of time” (p. 15). Tracey and Hinkin (2008) argued that when employees left a company for another one, the company would have to replace the lost talent, a process that would involve additional costs. They thus suggested that companies with a high employee turnover rate could face higher risk of poor performance over time.

While both involuntary and voluntary turnover involve departure of employees from a company, the two concepts differ significantly. As its name suggests, involuntary employee turnover describes the process when an employer ends an employment relationship while the affected employee was committed to the employment (Jagun, 2015). In many cases, affected employees leave the company because of poor performance, company downsizing, inappropriate 11 action at work, and other reasons. In contrast, voluntary employee turnover describes the process when an employee leaves a company for such reasons as monetary compensation, immaterial benefits, and psychological satisfaction. If the employee had been a positive contributor during their employment, companies would be harmed by their departure. This explains why corporate consultants and company management from around the world have been vocalizing the need to adopt a human capital strategy and be proactive about reducing voluntary turnover.

Successful employee retention programs that keep turnover low are vital to corporations of different sizes and sectors. According to Frank et al. (2004), employee retention is the “effort by an employer to keep desirable workers in order to meet the business objectives” (p. 13).

Hassan et al. (2011) defined employee retention as “keeping right people on right jobs for every organization” (p. 3) and suggested that companies considered retaining employees to be a vital strategy for financial success. In other words, an effective employee retention program that reduces employee turnover is critical to the success of such firms, partly because of the monetary and intangible costs associated with hiring and training new employees (Allen et al., 2010).

Technological Advancement and Effective Human Capital Management

While voluntary employee turnover is often characterized as a key challenge for companies, many consider technological advances to be a solution. While social media has been a popular tool for companies to reach out to their existing or potential customers, companies have become more active in using social media to manage and retain employees. According to

Ho (2017), companies have been increasingly using such media as Google Analytics, Facebook,

Instagram and LinkedIn to track employee behaviors and preferences, which in turn boosts employees’ engagement levels. MichaelPage (2017) revealed that companies like Google have been using gamification as a new way to assess potential hires’ strategic thinking and 12 personalities and found that top leaders’ sharing of personal experiences would be highly relevant and important for attracting and retaining millennial employees.

Segal et al. (2014) suggested that the proliferation of data has enabled companies to engage in more complex analysis of human capital, giving them “extraordinary superpowers” to deploy efficient and effective human resources allocation (p.1). At the same time, defining the relevance of certain datapoints has not been easy. According to Pettey (2017), data leaders driving changes in need to develop an information strategy capable of simultaneously improving business performance and mitigating potential risks. Segal et al.

(2014) emphasized that companies should focus on developing data strategies that would permit them to collect data using nonsensitive sources, while empowering employees and helping create happy and humane workplaces. This process could include and involve data intended for public access and identifiable information made publicly available with consent of the subject.

Although many companies still make subjective human resources decisions in practice, research suggests that , enabled by technologies, could lead to improved operational performance (Anderson et al., 2015; Teng, 2007; United States of Personnel

Management, n.d.; Wellins et al., n.d.). Given the many evolving trends, thorough understanding of organizational goals and ambitions would help create value through optimizing the allocation of talent and the services of the human resources function (Accenture, 2018; Barriere et al.,

2018; Chambers et al., 1998). A more robust human capital management framework could be developed and deployed by using technological advances and the proliferation of data points.

Companies Based in Hong Kong Facing Fierce Talent Challenges

According to Bris and Cabolis (2018) of the Institute for

(IMD), the quality of human capital available in Hong Kong has remained highly competitive. 13

IMD suggested that Hong Kong has remained attractive to highly skilled professionals from overseas, which has allowed the city to remain a key top-tier talent hub in the region. With the increasing demand for goods and services in Hong Kong, workers with proven skills and experience in various sectors are in high demand. Hong Kong’s labor market has been at full employment for a prolonged period; its unemployment rate hovered around 3% as of the completion of the first draft of this research. According to the Hong Kong Institute of Human

Resource Management (HKIHRM), the weighted average staff turnover rate stood at 12.7% during the first half of 2019 and has been above 20% on an annual basis in recent years.

According to the Hong Kong Census and Bureau’s projection, the tight labor market situation could intensify over the medium- and long-term, in part because of the ageing population. As a result, certain highly affected industries, such as medical science, elderly care, and nursing, will be facing dire shortages.

Despite some regional (e.g., the Asian financial crisis between 1997 and 1999, SARS in

2003) and global (e.g., the global financial crisis between 2008 and 2010) economic events, in Hong Kong have seen stable growth in the past few decades, thanks largely to the rise of the Chinese economy, which has led to cross-boundary competition for Hong Kong-based talent. As the Chinese economy took off over the past two decades and became more open to international competition, the demand for top talent has skyrocketed in Mainland China. The competition for skilled employees in China has been acute and fierce, with Atsmon et al. (2012) noting that Chinese firms with a multinational setting have encountered a high turnover rate, approximately five times greater than the global average. They suggested that this was because of the tendency of local talent with global exposure aspiring for more senior positions. 14

For these reasons, Chinese firms try to attract the talent they need from abroad. Indeed,

Leopold et al. (2018) found that talent availability has been commonly cited by eight out of 10 industries as the primary factor determining job location decisions. Cieri and Bardoel (2009) observed that, given the shortage of talent available domestically, attracting and retaining skilled employees was a priority for companies with a presence in China. Given its proximity to the market, talent available in Hong Kong –a part of China but operating under a different system from Mainland China – is seen as a quick fix to the talent shortage issue. Given the domestic and cross-boundary challenges, the demand for talent in Hong Kong should remain high, barring unforeseen circumstances. Policymakers will need to address these issues, which will determine whether the city will remain a competitive and leading international financial and commercial center.

The Challenge of Mobilizing Workers of the New Generations

When discussing the challenges corporate management faces, some speakers at the 2015

HKGCC CEO Manpower Conference highlighted that younger generations of workers tend to leave their jobs after a short period of service. Gallup (2016) showed that roughly one fifth of millennials move to a new role annually, costing the U.S. economy over $30 billion per year.

This finding was supported by Millennial Branding and Beyond.com (2013), which found that some six in 10 millennial employees leave a company within 3 years. In an interview with

Reuters (2018), John Jersin, vice president of at LinkedIn, shared that

“young people are changing jobs much more often today, but what’s really surprising is that…they are over three times more often in changing jobs than older generations.” Given the projected generational differences and the fact that the younger generation of workers will 15 become the core of the global workforce, this study was designed with a focus on the work behavior of the new generations of workers.

Although reasons for higher turnover among younger workers vary, difference in desire is often considered a key attribute. For instance, in an interview with Reuters (2018), Andrew

Chamberlain, chief economist and director of research at Glassdoor, claimed that younger workers – with particular reference to Generation Z, people born after 1997 – pay more attention than previous generations to their personal values as a source of job satisfaction. He said:

Gen[eration] Z seems to be very socially conscious and socially motivated, [and]

employers are trying to pitch the community aspects of workplace more. Working in

teams, working time off to engage with the community and do public service – I think

that is definitely going to escalate as Gen Z workers are trying to find a way to balance

out their personal values and earn income and have a career. (Reuters, 2018, 0:28)

He added that while the new generation of employees has a strong desire to learn, their focus is on “micro-learnings,” often with short, video-based, bite-sized training sessions that could provide them with handy knowledge about specific tasks. Chamberlain also suggested that

Generation Z employees expect a higher degree of transparency and willingness to discuss their frank opinions of the firm and their personal information such as salary levels and compensation.

In an interview with Reuters (2018), Natasha Stough, Americas director of campus recruiting at Ernst & Young, suggested that fresh graduates identified as Generation Z showed a tendency to desire more flexibility and more feedback – not only year-end reviews, but frequent appraisals, regular touch points, and face-to-face feedback mechanisms. According to Gallup

(2016), millennial employees could be considered as checked out: they tend to lack energy or passion about their jobs. With hundreds of thousands of new graduates entering the workforce 16 every year, the consulting firm suggested that companies need to synergize groups with cultural and age differences to be successful at attracting and retaining them.

Gallup (2016) asserted that managing millennial employees requires a different strategy than previous generations. For instance, compared to the previous generation, millennial employees put more weight on job purposes than on pay. Gallup also found that millennials tended to consider development opportunities more important than job satisfaction. They would also prefer ongoing conversations about their ability or work performance to an annual review and focus on developing their strengths rather than fixing their weaknesses. Because of these differences and the fact that millennials have been moving up the ranks, the consulting firm advised corporate executives to adopt evolving management strategies.

Deficiencies in the Evidence

This research identified the need for more research on how emerging HR technologies have been adopted by companies to hire, manage, develop, and retain talent. While the adoption of emerging HR technologies has appeared to be increasing, the literature review found that the use of such technologies has been inadequate. Therefore, this research was designed to highlight how relevant technologies could be used for such purposes. Little research has focused on the

Hong Kong market, despite its status as one of the leading international financial and business centers. This topic is important because the demand for top talent is expected to grow even more rapidly going forward, both domestically and across different markets, which has direct and indirect implications for labor market dynamics in Hong Kong. This research contributes to the existing literature by filling this gap.

17

Relating the Discussion to Audiences

The primary audience for this research is top and senior corporate managers and human capital management professionals, all of whom handle issues of hiring, developing, managing and retaining talent for their companies. Top management team members and CEOs might find the findings from this study helpful to their decision-making processes relating to compensation packages and fringe benefits, market positioning, local and international expansion strategies, hiring strategies, and other circumstances. For other human resources professionals in different companies, experiences of successful or unsuccessful adoption of emerging human resources technologies by sizable international firms might be relevant and could contribute to their work.

This research is also of high significance and relevance to other parties, including employees and shareholders at companies with operations in, but not limited to, Hong Kong.

Salient points from the cases in this study allow employees to learn more about their perceived values and contributions to the company. Employees may also benefit from getting acquainted with new human capital management technologies that could be adopted by their employers and thereby understanding how they might be assessed. This study could also be useful for other shareholders and stakeholders, who could understand how firms have been adopting new technologies in human capital management practices, and, where appropriate, steering these companies in certain directions.

Significance of Research Problem

While the findings of this study are not intended to be generalized, the interviewed managers’ experiences could serve as references for firms in various business sectors in any location, so the significance of the study would at least be two-fold. First, according to Flyvbjerg

(2006), depending on which cases are chosen to be illustrated and how they are chosen, 18 takeaways from these cases could be used as referents for other situations. Therefore, the experience of the firms whose managers were interviewed might indicate the conditions that businesses, especially MNCs, in Hong Kong have been facing; as such, some suggested solutions might be adopted by peers. In particular, these cases would benefit organizations because they would be able to find out about recent technological advances in human capital management related to hiring, managing, developing and retaining talent more efficiently. They could thereby improve operational efficiency by lowering the cost of frequent replacement of new employees and improving their training. Second, this study might add value to the existing literature in the area of employee turnover and retention in Hong Kong, a leading financial and commercial center, because similar studies were not readily found through the literature review process.

Research Questions

The central research question for this study was: How do top managers of large multinational corporations in Hong Kong use emerging human resource technologies to hire, manage, develop, and retain employees?

The subquestion for this study was: How, if at all, are technology-infused human resource strategies different for millennials and Generation Z employees than for baby boomers and Generation X employees?

Positionality Statement

I have been a researcher in both for-profit and not-for-profit settings since I graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2006 and the University of Hong Kong in 2010. I have served a range of companies of different natures, including a global professional body in the field of , the largest business association in Hong Kong, a French-headquartered 19 company, a Chinese investment bank, a Taiwanese retail bank, a hotel and casino in Las Vegas, and a Hong Kong-based economic think tank.

At the time of this study, I am working for the Financial Services Development Council

(FSDC) of Hong Kong. Established in 2013 by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

(HKSAR) government, according to its website, the FSDC has been “a high-level, cross-sectoral advisory body to engage the industry in formulating proposals to promote the further development of Hong Kong’s financial services industry and to map out the strategic direction for the development.” Since September 2018, the FSDC has been incorporated as a legal entity

(a company limited by guarantee) so it would be equipped with the optimal mix of resources and flexibility to carry out its main functions of conducting research, promoting the Hong Kong , and developing the city’s human capital.

I joined the FSDC in April 2019 as the head of policy research of the executive arm of

FSDC, whose work is directed by a that includes a nonexecutive chairman and the secretary for financial services and the treasury of the HKSAR government, an ex-officio director. Despite the affiliation and frequent interactions with the HKSAR government, according to a background brief prepared by the Legislative Council Secretariat (2016), the

FSDC is not responsible for policy execution or other regulatory functions. The government has iterated that this would remain the case despite a change in legal status; this view was restated in an updated background brief prepared by the Legislative Council Secretariat (2019).

The policy research function within my purview has been the key deliverable of FSDC, with the team representing the largest team size in the office. While “the research work of FSDC has been taken up by FSDC members on a pro bono or part-time basis” (Legislative Council

Secretariat, 2019, p.2), the recent incorporation of the FSDC has given the secretariat more 20 flexibility and resources to conduct research and surveys that gauge the views of different market participants. Therefore, my current work capacity provides me with extensive interaction with top leaders in the financial services industry in Hong Kong.

Briscoe (2005) referred to positionality as the authors’ identity in relation to academic discourse, which would have impact on the understanding and interpretation of different events.

Contributing factors to one’s positionality include background, experience, social status, gender, and ethnicity. Fine (1994) found that researchers have significant impact on qualitative and interpersonal research, which should not be neglected by researchers and readers. Machi and

McEvoy (2009) suggested that the background of researchers could lead to certain biases and opinions in qualitative studies, which might have explicit or implicit influences on the work.

Liebling (2011) opined that such influences were caused by the fact that, as researchers conducted qualitative research, they would have to carry out the role of primary instruments as interviewers and observers. Sharpe (2016) suggested that researcher reflexivity, the

“acknowledgement and scrutiny of the researcher’s own positionality and interrogation of its effects at all stages of the research process,” would influence how a piece of research is directed.

In this case, my professional background and experience are the key determinants of my positionality. This study was primarily qualitative and the topic was not directly related to my daily work. Machi and McEvoy (2009) pointed out that, as a result of an author’s background, some biases could be difficult to avoid but research could still be rather objective if the researcher were aware of these blind spots. Therefore, by taking a deeper look into the researcher’s personal background and experience, they believed that potential biases could be identified and avoided. As this research was carried out, I attempted to address and eliminate relevant potential concerns of its readers. My current work focuses on the financial services 21 sector, in which none of the interviewees were working, so ambiguity and personal bias were avoided as much as practicable.

Although some might ask whether economic researchers have adequate qualitative research skills, the job of an applied economic and policy researcher requires dealing with different stakeholders. These stakeholders include, but are not limited to, internal and external clients ranging from government officials and regulators, business and professional practitioners, academics, and supervisors and subordinates. The experience of interaction with such stakeholders has ensured that I can interpret the qualitative data obtained in the research process.

At the same time, instead of deriving research conclusions purely using quantitative methods, many applied economic and policy researchers draw insights from qualitative data.

Throughout my career, much of my published work involved survey data, either primary

(collected and prepared by the professional organization I belonged to) or secondary (prepared and published by a third party, such as a market research institution or the government). During my tenure with the French-headquartered insurance firm, two of the key studies involved surveying over 2,000 financial professionals based in various markets in the Asia-Pacific

(APAC) region on an annual basis (Tung, 2014, 2015). In a more recent publication with the global professional body in the field of finance, in addition to launching a survey circulated among some 28,000 members in the APAC region (with about a 1.6% response rate), I interviewed seven senior government and stock exchange officials, as well as senior executives in asset owners and managers, who are experts in the subject matter (Leung & Tung, 2018).

Given this professional experience, together with my formal training at Northeastern University and the guidance of its faculty, this study was academically rigorous. 22

A key component of this study focused on whether and how companies were managing employees considered as belonging to Generations Y and Z. I belong to one of these groups and have daily interaction with the other group, which might have some influence on the study. On one hand, as a senior team member at the current and previous employers, I was aware that it would be a challenge for many companies to retain their Generation Y and Z employees. On the other hand, as a professional born in the early 1980s who has taken up seven jobs in sizable organizations since graduation from college, this could have given me a prior conclusion that frequent employee turnover among members of Generation Y was regular. This belief could have been strengthened by my first-hand experience, as then-potential employers were convinced by and accepted that my decisions to leave the previous employers were based on rationality.

This experience could suggest that employers were tolerant of candidates with a jumpy career track record. To address the issue, I completed quite a comprehensive and balanced literature review on the characteristics of Generation Y and Z employees. My opinions were also diluted as the study became more informed through interaction with the interviewees and their responses.

Another key component – and arguably the most unique perspective – of this study was the use of HR technologies by multibillion-dollar MNCs. Such data would sometimes be considered sensitive or even proprietary and, therefore, might not be commonly shared by corporations with external parties. To that end, my strong ties with top and senior business executives through my work experience and alumni network contributed positively to the process. That said, despite my best attempts to meet and stay close to business executives of different backgrounds, there could be certain limitation to the networks. For instance, given my professional experience, many of these top executives were in the field of finance or affiliated with the business association I had worked for. Meanwhile, by tapping my alumni network, there 23 could have been a gender imbalance in the pool of interviewees, given that I spent 13 years in a

Catholic school in Hong Kong before studying in the U.S. Nonetheless, because I worked closely with my advisor on the sample of interviewees and the research process did not begin until the

Institutional Review Board approved the scope of research, potential bias was avoided, mitigated or addressed. None of the interviewees attended the same school as I did, and none of the interviewees were in the field of finance, where I was working.

Theoretical Framework: Diffusion of Innovations Theory

Rogers (2003) has often been referred to as one of the most recognized scholars in the field of innovation diffusion and adoption, through his work on the diffusion of innovations theory (LaMorte, 2018; Sahin, 2005; Simpson & Clifton, 2017). The diffusion of innovations theory attempts to elucidate how innovations are adopted in a group of people or society

(LaMorte, 2018; Simpson & Clifton, 2017). Rogers (2003) identified the four key elements of an innovation as the perception of innovations, communication channels, time, and social systems.

As a long-standing theoretical framework, the diffusion of innovations theory makes three distinct contributions in the area of social change: (a) defining the attributes of successful innovation adoption, (b) highlighting the significance of networks and peer-to-peer communications, and (c) comprehending different needs of various user segments.

Defining innovation as “an idea, practice or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption” (p. 12), Rogers (2003) asserted that an individual’s perception of its newness would be the key factor affecting one’s reaction to it. Rogers further explained that such a perception could be “expressed in terms of knowledge, persuasion, or a decision to adopt” (p. 12). This was supported by Straub (2009), who believed that “contextual, 24 cognitive and affective factors” were predictors of behavioral change that would be taken into account in relation to innovation adoption (p. 627).

Communication channels are key to the spillover and adoption of such innovations.

Rogers (2003) defined communication as “a process in which participants create and share information with one another in order to reach a mutual understanding” (p. 5) and believed the adoption of new ideas would be channeled through interactions among people within and across different networks via connection to mass media and interpersonal communications. Considering that “diffusion is a very social process that involves interpersonal communication relationships”

(Rogers, 2003, p. 19), it was recognized that personal interactions are the more powerful of the two communication channels.

Rogers believed that innovations are adopted by individuals within a society at different times. Considering that there appeared to be a time sequence to innovation adoption, these adopters of innovations could be classified into different categories. To Rogers, adopters with unique sets of characteristics and roles were important agents throughout the innovation adoption process; he hypothesized that innovations would diffuse throughout society through these agents.

Innovations were initiated by “innovators,” who would only account for 2.5% of the population.

“Early adopters” would represent the next 13.5% of adopters. Another set of key agents would be what Rogers defined as the “early majority,” who would represent the next 34% of the general population. Later majority (34%) and laggards (16%) would make up the rest of the population.

Different agents of change have varying impacts on the behavior of innovation adoption.

Rogers (2003) considered that, subject to different conditions, the likelihood of innovation adoption would vary within a given culture. In other words, adopters in different categories 25 would have different characteristics than adopters in other categories. It would thus be important to employ appropriate strategies when promoting innovations to different target audiences.

Infante et al. (1997) suggested that the presence of change agents, who could influence the decisions of opinion leaders, was important in the innovation adoption process. Given that most change agents would set near-term objectives to facilitate and encourage innovation adoptions, the change agents’ ability to clearly identify the categories to which these individuals belong to is significant.

Through studying innovations in family planning, Rogers (2003) found that incentive availability would affect the process of diffusion in three ways: (a) “incentives increase the rate of adoption;” (b) “incentives lead to adoption of an innovation by individuals different from those who would otherwise adopt;” and (c) “although incentives increase the quantity of adopters of an innovation, the quality of such adoption decisions may be relatively low” (p. 238).

Focusing on performance in the retail industry, Powell and Dent-Micallef (1997) found that, while the presence of information technologies alone would not lead to sustainable performance advantages, firms adapting to technological advances would capture sustainable advantages through leveraging their intangible assets, optimizing human resources, and enhanced utilization of other business resources (e.g., strengthening business relationships). Straub (2009) found that the adoption of technology was a developmental process involving complex social relations, whereby the technology perceptions of individuals would have influence over the adoption. Therefore, contextual concerns, together with cognitive and emotional issues, should be properly addressed for successful facilitation of technological adoption.

As described by Rogers (2003), the decision-making process of innovation adoption was

“an information-seeking and information-processing activity, where an individual is motivated to 26 reduce uncertainty about the advantages and disadvantages of an innovation” (p. 172). This involves five stages: (a) knowledge, (b) persuasion, (c) decision, (d) implementation, and (e) confirmation. These stages typically follow each other in a time-ordered manner.

Some limitations of the diffusion of innovations theory have been acknowledged by researchers (Isleem, 2003; LaMorte, 2018). For instance, Fichman (2000) argued that Rogers’s theory “does not – nor does it aim to – apply equally well to all kinds of innovations in all adoption contexts” (p. 3). LaMorte (2018) argued that evidence supportive of the theory was sector specific, and it therefore might not be applicable to other sectors (e.g., public health).

Isleem (2003) pinpointed that despite the popularity of Rogers’s theory as a framework for many researchers, few had dug into its application to instructional computer usage.

There are other criticisms of Rogers’s theory. For instance, Eveland and Tornatzky

(1990) wrote that “problems arise when the diffusion model is applied in situations where its basic assumptions are not met- that is to say, virtually every case involving complex, advanced technology” (p. 123). Fichman (2000) considered that Rogers’s work, as well as similar research, primarily focused on simple innovation-adoption decisions made by individuals, and would therefore be less applicable to the more complex decision-making process of technology adoption and in organizational settings. Strang and Macy (2001) considered Rogers’s work to be a conventional diffusion study, which emphasized the take-up of certain practices but paid little attention to subsequent decline in usage. While noting that Rogers identified cost effectiveness as a key function of innovation spread, they suggested that this and similar studies “fail to consider the explanatory limits of standard accounts” (p. 154). Tingling and Parent (2002) posited that firms would try to replicate what their peers have done through the adoption of mimetic 27 isomorphism, “even if they believe the copied choices to be inferior or suboptimal,” in order to reduce the uncertainty of adopting innovations that could fail (p. 114).

Despite these limitations, diffusion of innovations theory is considered a cornerstone of innovation adoption (Dooley, 1999; LaMorte, 2018; Sahin, 2006; Stuart, 2000). For instance,

Sahin (2006) highlighted that a variety of research in different disciplines has adopted Rogers’s diffusion of innovations theory as a framework. LaMorte considered the application of the theory to have been successful “in many fields including communication, agriculture, public health, criminal justice, social work, and marketing.” It was also applicable to expediting the adoption of important public health programs aimed at changing social systems’ behaviors (LaMorte, 2018).

Other scholars, such as Dooley (1999) and Stuart (2000), suggested that communications, , political science, education, and public health have also adopted Rogers’s theory as a framework for technology adoption and diffusion.

Alter (1976) suggested that managers were often found to be only familiar with a few systems and that “highly innovative systems – the very ones management should find most useful – run a high risk of never being implemented” (p.2) Felicio (2013) supported such findings, citing the prominence of the upper echelon theory, which emphasizes that acuities and values of managers would affect the choice of business strategy.

Conclusion

The issue of effective human capital management has been pertinent in Hong Kong, where the demand for skilled talent has been fierce. The fierce competition is partly because of the limited supply of skilled talent, the strong appetite for local talent from domestic and external markets, and high voluntary employee turnover. Meanwhile, as new generations of employees demonstrate higher mobility and lesser commitment to an employer over a long period, 28 developing effective human capital management strategies are of interest to corporate managers.

The Hong Kong business community has expressed immense interest in effective talent strategies and is consistently asking the HKSAR government to loosen regulations that prohibit the importation of labor. Although technological advances have been identified as an effective solution to human capital management, it is not clear whether companies have been executing such strategies (e.g., adopting new technologies) to address such issues.

In light of these observations, the problem of practice for this research was to study senior corporate executives’ experience with technology adoption in human capital management, with a specific focus on technologies’ impact on hiring, development, retention, and turnover in large MNCs in Hong Kong. This research was also designed to study the attitude – in terms of importance – of such senior executives toward human capital management among young generations of workers.

29

Chapter 2: Literature Review

As described in Chapter 1, the war for talent has been fierce in Hong Kong. Businesses in

Hong Kong have been facing a shortage of skilled talent, in part because of the low unemployment rate, largely around 3% for much of the time since 2010. Nevertheless, little has been reported or written about how firms in Hong Kong adopt human capital management and analytics amid technological advances to combat relevant challenges.

This qualitative study was designed to understand how some of the top management (e.g., managing director, CEO, human resources director) at MNCs with a major presence in Hong

Kong use technology-enabled human capital management tools as they hire, develop, manage, and retain talent. A focus on employees categorized as Generations Y and Z was also explored.

This chapter reviews the literature on issues relevant to the rise of technology and its impact on company strategies for human capital management and analytics. This chapter starts with a review of what the war for talent is and what it means to businesses. This is followed by an overview of how effective human capital management and analytics contribute to company performance, including a subsection about the influence of technological advances on the effectiveness of human capital analytics and management. Next, it examines what employee turnover means to companies, with subsections that cover some parameters companies refer to as early signs of potential turnover, some behaviors of millennials, and some proactive measures to address turnover issues. The final part of this chapter reviews labor market dynamics in Hong

Kong and the perceived importance of human capital among companies in Hong Kong.

The War for Talent

Known as the creator of the “war for talent” concept, Chambers et al. (1998) predicted that there would be an intensifying shortage of talent in the labor market (Accenture, 2018; 30

Beechler & Woodward, 2009; Laumer et al., 2010; Pettigrew & Srinivasan, 2012; Wellins et al., n.d.). Chambers et al. asserted that persons with global business acumen who were sophisticated and technology savvy would be increasingly in demand as firms of different scales would be targeting talented employees with similar qualities. This higher demand would lead to much higher job mobility among such employees. They also found that “executive talent has been the most undermanaged corporate asset for the past two decades,” leading to direct and indirect losses of such talent and, thus, opportunities for organizations (Chambers et al., 1998, p. 2).

Citing Facebook’s shift toward a mobile-based revenue model, Barton et al. (2018) suggested that successful companies and their transformation would ride on having established and identified a pool of talent before getting deep into the process. Given that members of

Generations Y and Z would take up more senior positions in companies going forward, it is important to study their preferences and behaviors at work.

Farndale et al. (2010) pointed out that corporate human capital managers are generally facing, among other challenges, rising global competition for talent and relatively low preparedness to move to frontier markets. According to Accenture (2018), organizations have been facing competition from peers on a global scale and thus have to manage their firms while facing a scarcity of top human capital and an evolving demand for skills and employee expectations. The study suggested that amid the war for talent, organizations need to manage a wide spectrum of employees with different backgrounds, locations, and commitment levels, requiring human capital managers to remain agile. This argument was supported by Pettigrew and Srinivasan (2012), who asserted that companies should integrate local and global talent, thereby making them interchangeable. Because the fierce competition for talent with proven 31 management skills in emerging markets has been driving wages higher, they argued that wages in emerging markets could even be higher than those in developed markets.

The war for talent, or competition for skilled employees, appears to be more acute in large emerging markets such as China and India. For instance, Atsmon et al. (2012) suggested that senior managers working in China for multinational firms tended to have a turnover rate of

30-40%, approximately five times the global average, because local talent with global exposure tended to aspire for more senior positions. Cieri and Bardoel (2009) attributed the shortage of skilled talent in China to the explosive demand for labor that has resulted from the takeoff of its economy. This makes attracting and retaining skilled employees a priority for companies with presence in the country. Farndale et al. (2010) suggested that for MNCs to operate effectively in emerging markets such as China and India, they need to seek “highly skilled, highly flexible, mobile employees who can deliver the desired results” (p. 166). While rapid development in

China has provided ample opportunities for expatriates from Hong Kong and overseas, Kwok

(2012) suggested that there was a rising trend of localization in Mainland China (e.g., increased hiring of local staff with expertise), with the key underlying reason being the large wage gap between the local workforce and expatriates.

Human Capital Management

The rising competition for talent drives companies to deploy better human capital management strategies and executions. For instance, Pandita and Ray (2018) considered talent management as a multistage process involving “talent planning, talent acquisition, talent development, talent deployment, talent retention and talent evaluation” (p. 3).

Noting that employee benefits and salaries tend to account for one third of companies’ revenues, Wellins et al. (n.d.) believed that talent management was of high importance to 32 company operations and that the scarcity of talent was intensifying across all seniority levels and functions, despite the fact that such pressure might appear to be less during economic downturns.

Building on Chambers et al.’s (1998) analysis, Laumer et al. (2010) found that the war for talent can intensify as a result of demographic changes related to the aging population and fewer people entering the work force, among other causes. Because these trends can hardly be prevented or influenced by HR professionals, firms can only find ways to adjust and mitigate potential risks. With that in mind, HR managers see staff retention and building a positive employer branding as the most challenging factors facing companies.

Amid the potential challenges caused by employee attrition, Dewhurst et al. (2012) proposed that companies should enhance their attractiveness as employers to the local workforce through offering more opportunities to locals – such as boosting board diversity and offering top jobs in a region to talent with a strong background or origin in the region. This would build a stronger corporate image and talent strategy in local markets. They also suggested that local highflying talents may appreciate the opportunity to be exposed to international opportunities, including long- and short-term expatriate opportunities. However, questions about how this goal could be achieved remain largely unanswered.

Positive Influence of Effective Human Capital Analytics and Management

While many companies still make subjective human resources decisions, research findings tend to support the conclusion that effective talent management can lead to improved operational performance (Anderson et al., 2015; Teng, 2007; The United States Office of

Personnel Management [USOPM], n.d., Wellins et al., n.d.). For instance, USOPM (n.d.), mandated to provide support to U.S. federal agencies on human resources matters, asserted: 33

Organizational leaders need analytics that will help them identify the most powerful

predictors of performance—predictive analytics. They need to understand the causes for

performance improvements or declines to identify what actions they can take to improve

future effectiveness. They also need leading indicators that will help them foresee

changes, patterns, and trends that will affect the organization’s future performance so

they can address those changes in a timely way. (p. 1)

Bassi and McMurrer (2009) argued that companies often rely on guesswork and gut-feel as talent strategies and suggested that such non-data-driven approaches would lead to company failures.

According to Anderson et al. (2015), although it is generally agreed that the availability of employee data collected via different platforms allows companies to adopt predictive analysis – and thereby reduce attrition and hire more suitable employees – certain aspects of human capital management remain highly subjective. For instance, even though online platforms such as

StubHub and LinkedIn collect and provide indicators for potential and existing employers, they argue that aspects such as sense of passion and cultural fit are difficult to predict.

Teng (2007) pointed out that companies showing high talent management efficiency show generally higher earnings (15%) than their peer companies. In addition, Wellins et al. (n.d.) showed that talent management was increasingly found to be delivering superior performance for organizations. They also noted that employees are generally more loyal to their professions than to their organizations, implying that companies might see challenges with retaining employees.

Meanwhile, inefficient talent management can lead to various costs for employers, because attrition has a strong negative relationship with company profits (Simons & Hinkin, 2001).

Empirical studies suggest that companies with effective human capital practices tend to deliver – or be perceived to be delivering – better performance than their peers. Pandita and Ray 34

(2018) believed that effective talent management was among the most effective tools for helping employees remain engaged and committed to their job, driving employees to stay with the organization over the longer-term.

Increasingly, the value of effective human capital management and allocation has become better recognized by employers. According to Andrianova et al. (2018), a survey conducted by

McKinsey Global Institute in November 2017 revealed that participants believed that organizations that adopted effective talent management agenda tend to deliver better performance than other industry players. They found that listed companies with well-designed talent management programs are more likely to outperform their peers in shareholder returns.

Andrianova et al. (2018) also found that 17% of respondents suggested that their companies had swift allocation of human capital, a high degree of HR involvement in nurturing constructive employee experiences, and an HR team that was strategically minded. These respondents were 2.5 times more likely to consider their organization’s human capital management program as effective. Meanwhile, these respondents also reported higher overall performance and total returns to shareholders on average.

According to Barriere et al. (2018), companies considered to be allocating talent quickly were “2.2 times more likely to outperform their competitors on total returns to shareholders

(TRS) than were slow talent reallocators.” A similar pattern was also found by Andrianova et al.

(2018), who shared that listed companies who could allocate human capital quickly were 1.5 times more likely to deliver better shareholder total returns.

Roles of Top Management and Human Capital Managers in the War for Talent

A thorough understanding of an organization’s goals and ambitions by top management and human capital managers is fundamental to creating value through the optimization of talent 35 and the demand for HR services (Accenture, 2018; Barriere et al., 2018; Chambers et al., 1998).

Chambers et al. (1998) foresaw that companies adopting a talent-first mindset would acquire talent externally, which could lead to the departure of employees who could not deliver the expected level of performance. Accenture’s (2018) Future of HR asserted that human resources leaders not only need to understand the needs of their business and align the expectations of management and other employees, but also to drive their workforce to outperform their peers (p.

6). Relatedly, Barton et al. (2018) claimed that the alignment of top managers – especially among those who influence HR and financial decisions – would be key to success. Assuming that there were alignments across HR and finance functions in a company, they suggested that chief executives could then focus on recruiting, developing, and deploying important human capital, as well as on ensuring that talent would be truly integral to every major strategic decision across the organization. Using the breakup of McGraw-Hill into two separate companies and the subsequent rapid expansion of their market value (S&P for the listed company, with the education and media arm being privately owned) as an example, they argued that the support of the CEO, as well as seamless interaction and cooperation between the

(CFO) and chief human resources officer, would be instrumental to the success of a company.

Barriere et al. (2018) argued that, with the underlying value of the key roles understood by top management (e.g., CEOs, CFOs, chief human resources officers), the employment processes for such roles would become more efficient. At the same time, being able to identify the key skills required for different capacities would drive team managers and potential leaders to retool and be more adaptive to future job requirements.

Laumer et al. (2010) suggested that alignment among the HR department and other units would allow the overall corporate strategy to be synchronized. Barton et al. (2018) suggested that 36 gaining support from the board of directors is crucial to the success of a shift to a talent-oriented approach. They recommended that a talent and rewards committee should be set up; such a committee would be tasked with oversight of all talent-related matters and ensuring that the company’s talent would no longer be an afterthought.

Challenges to More Effective Human Capital Management

Among other key challenges, human capital management has arguably not drawn the attention it deserves (Chambers et al., 1998; Charan et al., 2018; Michaels et al., 2001).

Chambers et al. (1998) found that while companies pay much attention to and spend abundant resources on financial , the same could not be said for human capital. While the benefits of adopting effective human capital analytics are clear, company management might not be entirely devoted to the process. Supporting such arguments, Michaels et al. (2001) illustrated that even though 72% of survey respondents “strongly agreed” that winning the war for talent would be crucial for their companies, only 9% of them believed existing practices would lead to a better pool of talent for their companies (p. 9).

Noting that the function of human capital management has been considered less important than finance, Charan et al. (2018) argued that most top executives have not yet made enough effort to identify and engage with top performers in their companies. This is despite their recognition of the importance of human capital as a key factor driving competitive advantage for companies. As experienced management consultants, they suggested that interactions with top decisionmakers show that talent has become more important to the triumph of an organization.

Some ideas have been offered for attaining higher human capital management efficiency.

Chambers et al. (1998) proposed that regular discussions be held among key managers when

“candid, probing, and action-oriented” reviews of employees at different levels occur (p. 3). 37

Barriere et al. (2018) suggested that leaders be required to consider reallocating talent as a top priority, just like reallocating financial capital, and that it should be a continuous process – contrary to considering it as an annual practice. An assiduous and frequent assessment (e.g., monthly) should be set up among top managers, while ad hoc meetings should also be set up if attrition risks arose in an important role.

Line managers, too, might be incentivized to deliver higher quality talent management for the company. For instance, Chambers et al. (1998) pointed out that at Monsanto, a leading agricultural company, half of the executive’s bonus package was tied to the executive’s people management performance, while First USA required staff seeking promotion to demonstrate the ability to recruit talented new employees.

These researchers admitted that there was no single ideal approach to effective human capital management, but they agreed that certain practices have clear influence on the efficiency of human capital management, which influences company performance (Accenture, 2018;

Andrianova et al., 2018; Dhingra et al., 2018). These practices include swift allocation of human capital, involving HR personnel in nurturing constructive employee experience, and establishing a strategically minded HR team.

According to Andrianova et al. (2018), in order to deliver rapid allocation of talent, the deployment of labor should be based on skills required for the job, high involvement of the executive team, and cross-functional team involvement. They found that organizations that deployed talent based on needed skills were 7.4 times more likely to provide rapid allocation of talent than those that did not adopt that practice. They also found that companies with active involvement of the executive team and cross-functional teams were 3.4 and 2.4 times more likely to have rapid talent allocation, respectively. 38

Instead of adopting a unilateral approach where employers (e.g., the HR team) react to the findings of employee engagement surveys, researchers advocate for focusing more attention on the overall employee experience. Considering it a directional change toward “human centered interaction,” where employees are at the center of driving organizational performance, Dhingra et al. (2018) opined that companies should consider adopting an approach that “ignites employees with enthusiasm and empowers them to create experiences they desire.”

Andrianova et al. (2018) found that, while only slightly more than one third (37%) of employees think their HR department would contribute to better employee experiences, those who thought so were 2.7 times more likely to report that the company’s talent management program was effective and 1.3 times more likely to share that the company was outperforming.

Dhingra et al. (2018) reported that the leading consulting firm McKinsey & Company was designing its working environment to provide employees with good overall experiences, both when they were hired as employees and after they left the company as alumni. The firm believed that because former employees of McKinsey often become clients, extending a warm welcome to these alumni would create value for the firm. Among other attributes, they asserted that regular and meaningful recognition by supervisors, as well as empowerment of and trust in employees, could contribute to a desirable employee experience.

Technology can enhance the flow of data regarding human capital and, therefore, should be useful for human capital management. For HR professionals to deliver efficient human capital management, researchers have considered it necessary to have a holistic understanding of the company’s value, core strategies, goals, and priorities. Accenture (2018) asserted that HR professionals should offer data-driven insights and plausible strategies for delivering stronger business performance. Considering the HR teams that have a thorough understanding of the 39 companies to be strategy-minded, Andrianova et al. (2018) suggested that organizations having such teams would be 2.5 times more likely to effectively manage talent and 1.4 times more likely to report outperformance.

Summary

The war for talent is a battlefield for companies competing for success. Companies face intensifying competition for talent across the global landscape, as talent has become a key factor driving the success and efficacious transformation of these companies. In light of this importance, enhanced human capital management strategies and execution are needed.

The Effect of Technological Advances on Human Capital Analytics and Management

Technological advances have been considered conducive to enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of human capital management (Anderson et al., 2015; Bersin, 2017; Hainstock,

2017; Laumer et al., 2010; LaValle et al., 2010; The Office of Personnel Management, n.d.).

LaValle et al. (2010) revealed that companies with top performance were significantly (three times) more likely to use analytics; the likelihood of these firms to consider their analytics practice as the competitive differentiator was double that of firms seen as less competitive.

Bersin (2017) believed that the operation and management of companies was being reinvented on the back of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, predictive software, pulse surveys, and cognitive bots. Similarly, Schroeck et al. (2013) found that 63% of respondents said that using information and analytics had produced a competitive advantage for their organizations – an increase of 25 percentage points from a similar study conducted in 2010. This could explain why large firms and governments agencies, such as U.S. government agencies

(The Office of Personnel Management, n.d.), revealed that they have been integrating some popular technologies into employee development programs with the aim of strengthening the 40 efficiency of employee development. Meanwhile, Hainstock (2017) suggested that, in lieu of losing employees via attrition after heavy investment in their hiring and development, companies should adopt emerging technologies to improve flexibility and communication and lower employee stress levels, which would help improve talent retention.

Charan et al. (2018) argued that, during a time of expedited technology adoption, companies should adapt and change business strategies from time to time instead of being rigid and sticking to a preset plan. Talent strategies also should to be adaptive to the evolving demand for labor. It was believed that HR functions in a business should cater to business needs. With the abundance of data, they suggested that appropriate technologies have enabled HR professionals to analyze needs and evolving trends amid the changing environment.

Bell and Kozlowski (2007) suggested that various external factors – including globalization and the rising demand for work-life balance driven by different generations’ values– has led to the proliferation of technology-oriented HR solutions. Accenture (2018) identified technology as the single most important factor that could disrupt current dynamics and create new possibilities for the human resources function and for organizations in general.

Michaels et al. (2001) predicted that, with the proliferation of information, “the importance of hard assets – machines, factories, and capital – would decline relative to the importance of intangible assets such as proprietary networks, brands, intellectual capital, and talent” (p. 3). Labor was also expected to skyrocket against this backdrop.

Suggesting that human capital analytics could help optimize human capital strategies and improve , Bassi and McMurrer (2009) described human capital analytics as:

The process for using quantitative methods to transform data relating to individuals and

groups of people (such as their attributes, skills, development, costs, productivity) into 41

actionable that can help to drive and improve an organization’s most

important outcomes. (p. 2)

By adopting human capital analytics, companies could identify relationships among factors that had been ignored, which would enable them to have corresponding measures for different challenges and goals. In short, the literature suggests that technological advances lead to more efficient human capital management practices, which in turn improve company operations.

Channels of Technologies Influencing Human Capital Analytics

Largely through the provision of better data collection and analytical processes, many believe technology enables better analytics that facilitate more efficient and effective human capital management (Accenture, 2018; Bassi & McMurrer, 2006; Bennett, 2018; Bennett &

McWhorter, 2017; Burgess & Russell, 2003; Hainstock, 2017; Laumer et al., 2010; Michaels et al., 2001; The Office of Personnel Management, n.d.). Bassi and McMurrer (2006) highlighted that, as the use of computers became more common and average processing speeds skyrocketed, the efficiency of work and businesses improved significantly and the spectrum of goods and services offered broadened. They argued that the labor market could become globalized not by requiring the labor force to move from one country to another but by firms downsizing in developed markets and offshoring part of the operations to economies where wages were lower.

The commercialization of technologies such as fifth generation (5G), intranet, Bluetooth, and cameras on mobile devices has enhanced the efficiency of data collection and analysis for companies in this interconnected age, giving rise to big data analytics and artificial intelligence.

Bennett (2018) pointed out that the internet of people and things and services, enabled by the proliferation of internet-enabled services and connected electronic devices, has been transforming the workplace in different ways. The USOPM has shared a similar view, describing 42 how technology advances have transformed the office environment and changed how humans interact with each other. Based on these observations, technology has been considered the disruptor bringing changes to business practices, and, at the same time, enabling HR professionals to respond to changes and adjust to the evolving business environment.

Judd et al. (2018) observed that, while employee surveys remained relevant to companies soliciting feedback from their employees, it has become more common for firms to adopt machine learning enabled by algorithms that could analyze big data – such as time required for email response, the frequency of employees updating resumes, and relationships with colleagues outside their own team – to measure employee engagement and turnover intention.

Progress of HR-related Technology Advancement and Adoption

Different ambient factors have led to continuous technological advancement in the field of human capital management (Bell & Kozlowski, 2007; Bennett & McWhorter, 2017; Vardi,

2014). Bersin (2017) established a timeline showing the key technologies adopted in four major phases. That human resources expert believed that the construction of recording systems was a key goal for vendors in the 1970s and 1980s, giving way to the integration of HR into firms’ enterprise resources planning system via the adoption of “on-premise HR software” such as

PeopleSoft and SAP (p. 3). The second phase of technology adoption, according to Bersin, happened between the 1990s and the early 2000s, when practitioners considered supporting recruitment, training and learning, and as key priorities. Bersin considered the third phase of HR software adoption to have begun sometime around 2010, as companies started moving part of the systems to the cloud, replacing the previous recording and engagement systems. The fourth phase of HR technology adoption – which has been ongoing – is useful for enhancing the productivity of employees through enabling teams and networks to 43 collaborate more efficiently. Citing the massive amount of investment that had already been injected by venture capitalist and private equity investors in HR technologies, Bersin believed that the consumer market for such products should expand rapidly over the next few years.

Enabled by technological advances, the tracking and collection of data has become more accessible, giving rise to more sophisticated analysis of both internal and external customers.

Analytics involves the process of finding meaning from data, and researchers and executives alike are empowered by the proliferation of data as a result of technological advances. Gartner, a research and advisory firm with presence in over 100 countries, defined advanced analytics as

“the autonomous or semi-autonomous examination of data or content using sophisticated techniques and tools, typically beyond those of traditional business intelligence (BI), to discover deeper insights, make predictions, or generate recommendations” (Gartner, n.d.). Rose et al.

(2017) pointed out that traditional business intelligence solutions rely mostly on performance indicators and data extracted from other , such as dashboards and other warehouses; in contrast, they defined advanced analytics as those that utilize algorithms by adopting “machine learning, artificial intelligence, natural language processing and other computer science disciplines” (Rose et al., 2017, p. 340).

Human capital analytics, as the term suggests, analyzes the human capital in an organization, with the aim of informing executives about the organization’s strategy. According to Accenture (n.d.), human capital analytics provides executives with crucial insights about their employees and their preferences, suggesting what could lead to using them more effectively to contribute to the organization. Bersin (2017) defined human capital analytics as “the use of employee data to help optimize business and management decisions” and considered it conducive to talent acquisition and profitability. According to Bassi and McMurrer (2009): 44

Human capital analytics is the process for using quantitative methods to transform data

relating to individuals and groups of people (such as their attributes, skills, development,

costs, productivity) into actionable business intelligence that can help to drive and

improve an organization’s most important outcomes (p. 2).

It was suggested that by analyzing trends in human capital with rigor, organizations could predict and make informed decisions to drive overall business results.

Technology has reached quite an advanced level: A chatbot was identified as a Russian teenage boy by a third of a judging panel in 2014, leading to a vigorous debate that we have come to a time when machines could pass the Turing test (Vardi, 2014). Bennett and McWhorter

(2017) illustrated that a broad-based adoption of technologies, including artificial intelligence and robotics, would influence how learning occurred among workers in organizations, both formally and informally. For Entelo (n.d.) – which focused on delivering recruiting automation services through the optimization of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and predictive analytics throughout the hiring process – such technologies enabled firms to automate certain tasks during the recruiting process and to boost the productivity of recruiters, lower the costs of hiring, and strengthen the talent level of companies. Companies such as hiQ Labs (n.d.) use information about employees obtained from public sources, while signal and noise would be extracted using data science techniques to identify workers who were indicating a high risk of attrition within 3 months from the company.

The U.S. government asserted that tools including, but not limited to, web-conferencing, social networks, podcast, blogs and microblogs, integrated collaborative environment (e.g.,

Sharepoint and Google Apps), media sharing, mobile learning, and virtual work would help “cut training costs, reduce carbon footprint, and increase continual learning outside the classroom” 45

(The Office of Personnel Management, n.d.). Indeed, Burgess and Russell (2003) found that using technological advances to distribute training sessions to workers would be a solution for workers who are remote from the office. They believed that the flexibility of allowing these staff members to handle the training provided by the company anywhere and anytime would be appreciated. Such an argument was also supported by Hainstock (2017), who found that technology could provide more flexibility and career opportunities to employees and would incentivize employees to stay with a company.

Bennett (2009) defined virtual human resources development (VHRD) as the “media-rich and culturally relevant Web environment that strategically improves expertise, performance, innovation, and community building through formal and informal learning” (p. 365). Bennett

(2009) contended that, through the enhanced alignment of learning objectives and performance outcomes within organizations, VHRD could substantially improve human capital development.

Along the same lines, Laumer et al. (2010) identified through a Delphi study that technologies, especially the adoption of the internet, have adjusted the management of human capital. Given evolving patterns of worker behavior, especially among those born after 1980 who spend more time on online social media using mobile devices, they suggested that companies should invest in relevant information platforms to build stronger employer image and recruit potential employees.

Laumer et al. (2010) identified a set of emerging trends that human capital management professionals should plan for. Among these, it was found that “overcoming bandwidth bottlenecks and prohibitive data transmission costs, Wi-Fi, new mobile technologies and flat fee data plans for mobile devices have enabled uninterrupted connectivity over multiple devices”

(Laumer et al., 2010, p. 242). Against this background, because information about potential 46 candidates could be retrieved more easily, they believed that recruiting would be simplified, while companies could also amplify their brand-building campaigns and provide work-related training programs online.

LaValle et al. (2011) identified a trend where top-performing organizations were five times more likely to adopt analytics than firms with low performance. They found that top- performing organizations illustrate a pattern that uses analytics in decisions along a wide spectrum of importance, demonstrating twice the likelihood to direct future company strategies as well as day-to-day organization operations.

Factors Driving Adoption of Human Capital Analytics and Management Technology

Technology development thrives on fierce competition, and innovative firms face restructuring from time to time. Barton et al. (2018) illustrated that, even though Facebook’s

Mark Zuckerberg was right to identify mobile devices as the new engine of growth, it was the structure and culture of the company, which was built on providing autonomy and flexibility to staff, that enabled the company to be agile. They also showed that the Chinese manufacturer

Haier, which utilized and rode on microenterprises consisting of 10 to 20 staffers, has been utilizing similar strategies to succeed.

Meanwhile, even though some literature highlights concerns with data quality, LaValle et al. (2011) suggested that only one in five executives considered it one of the top three issues about analytics. Among executives, they found that “lack of understanding of how to use analytics to improve the business” and “lack of management bandwidth due to competing priorities” were bigger concerns, as shown by two fifths and one third of the executives in the study, respectively (p. 25). 47

Bassi and McMurrer (2016) suggested that, when adopted properly, analytics can incentivize companies to not adopt an overly generalized strategy but rather have solutions tailored for their firms. While companies have plentiful data collected through different channels,

“actionable, analytics-enhanced insights that can provide guidance for optimizing the allocation of tight budgets” could be lacking (p. 42). Information gathering should be driven by 180-degree or 360-degree surveys, which tap into the intelligence of the workforce and work with leaders closely to (re)design such surveys and assessments. After the survey, companies should be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the leadership competencies that are relevant to soft

(engagement) and hard (employee turnover, absenteeism, sales, profit) outcomes, and thus be able to develop strategies for optimal investment in leadership development. They noted that, because top leaders tend to accept the norm as the answer and advice as the exception, the value of investment in analytics would often be questioned and advice to change would often be rejected.

The demand for human capital analytics has been changing rapidly. Accenture (2018) argued that human capital managers have been increasingly tasked to more effectively leverage the data they possess to build and develop an agile and attentive workforce. Enabled by such analytics and the use of modeling and big data analytics, organizations could “understand the workforce in greater depth, find out what is happening and why it is happening, and determine the best way to move forward” (Accenture, 2018, p.11).

An example would be what Google has done to identify candidates demonstrating a high degree of “Googleyness” (Anderson et al., 2015; Baer, 2015; Bassi & McMurrer, 2009). Bassi and McMurrer (2009) showed that Google, a firm known to be driven by its innovative capability supported by data analytics, had begun conducting extensive qualitative analysis on 48 long-time employees – whom the company would regard as key contributors to its success – in

2006. Through the use of data collected from such surveys, certain employee traits associated with better work performance were identified, and the company utilized the findings from such analysis in their hiring process, enabling it to focus on candidates who demonstrated such characteristics.

Meanwhile, other metrics would also be considered as Google attempted to come up with a more cohesive human capital management strategy via comprehensive data analysis.

According to Morrison (2009), the company tracks and studies employee appraisals, as well as history of their promotion and salary, in order to identify employees with higher attrition risks.

Through constructing and undertaking such data-driven analyses, Google identified employees they would otherwise lose, and approached them before they decided to leave the company.

Despite the fact that emerging technologies enable companies to collect data more easily and systemically than before, how to use and maximize the value of such data has remained a question for many executives. For companies with data analytics experience, the analytics team should at least understand the needs of the business (Barton & Court, 2012; Davenport, Harris, &

Morison, 2010; Marchand & Peppard, 2013; Mazzei et al., 2016; Vidgen et al., 2017).

LaValle et al. (2010) introduced a model covering six major key identifiers (motive, functional proficiency, business challenges, key obstacles, data management, and analytics in action) designed to gauge the three levels of analytics maturity of organizations: aspirational, experienced, and transformed. According to them, aspirational organizations were the most focused on cost-cutting and were generally lacking the human capital, procedures in place, and other tools to effectively deliver analytic insights; therefore, they would be the least likely to fulfill any analytical goals. Experienced organizations would have gained some experience from 49 the aspirational phase, and they were, therefore, relatively more equipped to recalibrate their organization through analytics. Transformed companies were the most effective in adopting data analytics and at a stage where they would emphasize delivering profitability for customers; these transformed companies would also continuously explore investment opportunities in niche analytics to further expand their competitive advantages.

Adopting analytics can be more of a challenge to organizations that are at the beginning or early stage of adopting new technologies for analytics purposes (LaValle et al., 2010, 2011).

LaValle et al. (2011) proposed that leaders of aspirational organizations at the initial stage of adopting analytics in their business operation must put effort into assembling key staff, preparing the needed resources, and getting agreement and sponsorship for an analytics project that could address key identified business challenges. They suggested that organizations that were experienced in adopting analytics – but not fully transformed into using analytics in all aspects of work –maintain focus on key identified issues and have that focus agreed to by all employees.

This would facilitate enterprise-wide without compromising the demands of different departments. Thus, it would help the organization slowly move toward becoming a transformed organization.

Factors Driving Future Technological Development

Big Data Analytics

Among other tools enabled by technology advances, big data analytics is often considered an enabler of better analytics. In general, big data analytics involves a massive volume of data (Accenture, 2018; Bersin, 2017; Rose et al., 2017; Schroeck et al., 2013).

Without a strict definition, big data has been used to describe “huge quantities of data, social media analytics, next generation data management capabilities, real-time data, and much more” 50

(Schroeck et al., 2013, p.1). Such perceptions were in line with their findings, which were that there was no clear consensus about the definition of “big data” among business executives.

While a clear consensus about the definition is lacking, big data analytics involves a lot of data and sophisticated analytical processes (Rose et al., 2017; Schroeck et al., 2013). Rose et al. (2017) shared that companies of different sizes and resource constraints could utilize descriptive analytics; however, even companies that are more mature in terms of data analytics could still face challenges using more advanced analytics techniques, such as data mining (p.

344). They found that prescriptive analytics could apply insights derived from predictive analytics to derive different sets of scenarios and assimilate potential consequences – a form of advanced analytics.

On top of the demand for algorithm-oriented analytical frameworks, involving machine learning and other mathematical and statistical capabilities, Schroeck et al. (2013) believed that advanced analytics would require articulating the dimensions of big data (p. 4). The four key dimensions identified were volume (a large volume of data), variety (different forms of data such as text vs. video, structured vs. unstructured), velocity (the ability to analyze streaming data), and veracity (ensuring dependability and predictability could be managed despite imprecise data).

According to Accenture (2018), analytical tools benefit from the increased amount of data available, and it thus would be sensible for human capital management systems to extract data from different databases used for human resources functions. Notwithstanding the usefulness of such data, the research also showed that, in order to deliver more insightful findings in areas such as employee engagement and retention, an organization would benefit from the availability of data from both other internal departments and external sources, which would be where big data analytics could be relevant. 51

Bersin (2017) asserted that the rise of big data adoption is beneficial to human capital management analytics. For instance, the supply of data points from various sources allows companies to track key reasons for attrition, such as employee burnout and lack of productivity improvement. This would be enabled by the expanded use of tools such as pulse surveys, fitness or wellbeing devices, and organizational network analysis for performance management being carried out on a continuous basis.

Accenture (2018) found that, while traditional databases might not be capturing a range of information that would be useful for relevant human resources analytics, big data systems extracting data from email exchanges, social media, and other permissible unstructured forms would boost the usefulness of human capital analytics.

Schroeck et al. (2013) found that companies were practical and would approach the adoption of data and technologies in business operation through a step-by-step process. While a respectable portion of businesses (28%) have implemented various aspects of big data analytics, most respondents were at the initial stages – either the knowledge-building phase (24%) or mapping out a blueprint of big data adoption (47%). To the authors, such results illustrated that executives are pragmatic about the hype surrounding the concept (p. 6).

Big data analytics are largely used to understand customer behavior (Schroeck et al.,

2013). Schroeck et al. (2013) found that a large portion of organizations (49%) shared that the key use of big data solutions was to understand customer behavior and preferences, which would help them deliver better customer-centric outcomes. This was followed by operational optimization (18%), risk (15%), new business models (14%) and employee collaboration (4%).

Boundaries and Risks of Technologies in Human Capital Management 52

Although technologies can equip companies with more and better data, Anderson et al.

(2015) shared that there were two sides to this coin. On the one hand, data gives employers better and easier access to predictive analysis; at the same time, some key aspects of human capital management have remained highly subjective. According to Anderson of Glassdoor, it has developed a tool that would be useful for predicting employee attrition using signs – such as the frequency of visiting the employee center and activities on LinkedIn – that could nudge employers before the event and help prevent it from happening.

The metrics utilized in HR analytics are not static. While Baer (2015) reported that

Google uses a comprehensive scorecard to gauge the “Googleyness” of a candidate, Esber shared that the company periodically adjusts the weighting of those metrics (Anderson et al., 2015).

After noting that where the employees went to school and their test scores did not correlate with their success at the company, Google stopped using those metrics as screening criteria in the hiring process, demonstrating the need to focus on more relevant metrics in data analysis.

Although technological advances can help human capital management professionals, solely relying on technology might not be the best solution for many HR-related issues. For instance, in terms of training, Bell and Kozlowski (2007) pointed out that “most learning technologies possess only minimal interactivity and communication capabilities,” so trainees who received training in a technology-enabled environment often have minimal contact with each other. This could be counterproductive because interactivity would either strengthen or be required for learning and training activities (Bell & Kozlowski, 2007, p. 34).

Besides being restrained by resources, other research has revealed obstacles to advanced analytics in organizations (Accenture, 2018; LaValle et al., 2010, 2011). LaValle et al. (2010) found that senior executives identified “lack of understanding of how to use analytics to improve 53 the business” and “lack of management bandwidth” as the major hurdles that prevented companies from driving competitive advantage through utilizing big data analysis. While executives appeared to be fully supportive of adopting analytics, LaValle et al. (2011) believed that insights derived from analytics must “be closely linked to business strategy, easy for end- users to understand and embedded into organizational processes” in order to have their intended influence (LaValle, 2011, p. 23).

There are obstacles for all firms in utilizing human capital analytics (Accenture, 2018;

Rose et al., 2017). Accenture (2018) found that only 13% of HR officers agreed that they had been given the required tools and analytics to function at the positions, which could be partly related to resource constraints. Indeed, Rose et al. (2017) asserted that, while larger and international firms would benefit from using advanced analytics – presumably because they are perceived to have access to more resources – adopting in-depth analysis of human capital still presents a challenge to others (p. 340). They also found that because of the rigorous nature of the analytical frameworks involved in advanced and complex mathematical models, relevant analytics could be challenging even for key decisionmakers and professionals in the field.

Moreover, the requirements for advanced hardware, as well as for professionals who can operate such systems, could also be a hurdle for many firms.

Summary

Technological advances could lead to improved human capital analytics and management by enabling better data collection and analytical processes. From using on-premise HR software in the 1970s, to the simple adoption and integration of human capital factors into firms’ resources planning systems in the 1990s, to the emergence of cloud computing in the 2010s, to more recently giving teams and networks the ability to make collaboration more efficient, 54 technological advances have been beneficial to the development of human capital management functions. Some hurdles remain in the technology adoption journey, including the availability of resources and data, the understanding of data, and management bandwidth.

Cost of Employee Turnover and Measures to Prevent It

Hiring and retaining the right talent has been very important to companies, because losing such talent can hurt organizations directly and indirectly, financially and nonmaterially

(Anderson et al., 2015; Booth & Hammer, 2007; Cieri & Bardoel, 2009; MGMA, 2015;

Nagadevara et al., 2008; Pfeffer, 1995; Yee et al., 2010). Pfeffer (1995) argued that human resources and their management is instrumental for companies to gain competitive advantage over others, while other factors such as economies of scale and patents could become less important for companies’ competitive advantage because of their high replicability. It was, therefore, suggested that management companies should invest in hiring, developing, and retaining the right talent, which can enable smooth operation and deliver goods and services to customers with predictable quality.

One issue could be that, even though employees are often said to be the most valuable assets of companies, companies do not often clearly understand who created value within the firms (Barriere et al., 2018; Barton et al., 2018;). For instance, Barton et al. (2018) flagged that

70% of senior executives were wrong about which people created value for their companies; such blind spots were observed to be common in many organizations. According to Barriere et al. (2018), the key people generating values for companies – either as enablers or value creators

– were often not directly reporting to the CEOs. They estimated that about 60% and 30% of these value creators were two and “three or more” ranks under the CEOs, respectively. However, they 55 found that companies tended to assume that the key value-creating positions – those critical to company performance – were at the highest seniority rather than lower in the hierarchy.

Wellins et al. (n.d.) asserted that companies should emphasize their top performers and have a development plan to groom their successors, even during times of economic uncertainty.

In short, for companies to have an effective talent strategy, Charan et al. (2018) called for focusing on identifying and nurturing a group of top talent and thoroughly understanding their qualities and needs. Besides growing talent internally, companies should design an acquisition strategy to source, attract, and assimilate talent externally, which would allow companies to react and anticipate future trends. Charan et al. (2018), using examples of fast retailing, pointed out that performance-based compensation and career opportunities, which together deemphasize hierarchy and shift toward meritocracy, should be encouraged because they would inject positivity into the talented group.

Costs of Employee Turnover

Flynn (2005) postulated that when employers were perceived as devoted to forging a stronger tie with employees, those employees would demonstrate – as a form of reciprocity – a higher level of loyalty and higher quality of work. Participants in Cieri and Bardoel (2009) generally suggested that while work-life balance has not been a highlighted policy direction, they believed that company policies that emphasize that area would help attract and retain talent.

Making reference to social exchange theory, Yee et al. (2010) observed that, with employees showing a higher degree of loyalty to companies, companies would benefit from better service quality. This would lead to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty, and thereby positively influence the firms’ profitability. They found that factors showing significant 56 relationships included employee-customer contact time, service/product market competitiveness, and the cost to customers of switching to another service provider (p. 116).

Indeed, hiring the right talent was already a major cost center for companies worldwide, while reducing employee turnover was found to have financial implications for companies in various sectors. For instance, according to Anderson et al. (2015), recruitment was an industry with $19 billion at stake. This trend also partly illustrated that companies were losing an ample amount of money by not retaining talent. MGMA (2015) suggested that key tangible costs involved in attrition include distraction costs (colleagues taking on the work of departed staff), recruitment costs, productivity costs, loss of institutional knowledge, and costs related to onboarding new staff. Simons and Hinkin (2001) developed a model and found that it would make financial sense for companies in the hotel industry to invest in operating systems that would help gauge and reduce the employee turnover rate because the turnover of a single employee was found to be costly: the turnover of a typical employee at a typical hotel would cost

$5,000 (p. 68).

Nagadevara et al. (2008) asserted that, even though human capital was not the only factor creating or driving values for organizations, organizations could use their unique human resources to derive competitive advantage. Studying the behavior of current and former employees of an information technology company in India, they examined factors that could be related to eventual turnover. There was an established relationship between age (the IT sector in

India tended to hire many young graduates who could have unrealistic expectations of employers or the nature of the job), marital status (when partners got married, it was likely that one would move to another city for the spouse), and employee turnover. They also found that lateness and absenteeism could indicate employees at risk of attrition. 57

Through investigating a major retailer in the UK, Booth and Hammer (2007) suggested that employee turnover was a function of both organizational and environmental factors. They found that environmental factors – such as the job market – and organizational factors – such as company values, supervisory style, development, and career opportunities – play key roles in employee turnover.

Interestingly, Laumer et al. (2010) identified “retention” as an internal challenge – that is, a challenge that HR executives would have to face in response to external trends – among companies of different sizes. They found that retention was the top internal challenge for Fortune

1000 organizations, subject matter experts in Germany, and information technology companies in Germany.

Chambers et al. (1998) argued that the high attrition of early- and middle-ranked employees could be attributed to paying too little attention to these younger employees who have demonstrated long-term potential for the companies’ future. They hinted that human capital management professionals should have the capability, and perhaps the responsibility, to mitigate attrition risks among high performers. Kahn (1990) found that there was a positive relationship between employers’ attention to employees and the engagement of such employees; suggesting that employees who gain a feeling of assurance through their interactions with employers would be more engaged with the company, and vice versa.

Research reminds us to be mindful of the difference between voluntary and involuntary turnover, as the latter is beneficial to companies (Hong et al., 2007; Simons & Hinkin, 2001;

Wanous et al., 1979). Wanous et al. (1979) investigated the arrival and departure of newly hired workers and separated the departures into two categories: voluntary and involuntary. They found that “the perceived availability of alternative sources of employment” could be a key factor 58 affecting voluntary turnover and added that overall labor market conditions would be an important element to consider (p .660).

Hong et al. (2007) suggested that employers should pursue a thorough understanding of the damage caused by the attrition of high performers and the benefits of the departure of poor performers. They therefore suggested that a model predicting voluntary turnover would be useful for human capital managers (p. 810).

Sometimes employees must leave a company involuntarily. According to Bassie and

McMurrer (2006), downsizing of firms – a situation when companies reduce their workforce – could largely be a result of a prolonged period of weak demand for products or services or of firms trying to achieve higher production efficiency. Poor performance by certain workers hurts morale at companies, which can also lead to attrition (Anderson et al., 2015; Chambers et al.,

1998; Christian et al., 2011). Robie, StubHub’s global head of human resources, hinted that, partly because of poor hiring in previous years, employee engagement with the company had deteriorated while attrition rose (Anderson et al., 2015). Chambers et al. (1998) supported such rhetoric, as they found that poor performers hurt the morale of workers and drive high performers away if they keep hanging on to superior positions. They found that dealing with poor performers could strengthen morale in an organization, even though it might appear difficult to undertake and thus is not commonly used. Christian et al. (2011) found that engaged employees are enthusiastic, energetic, and motivated, which leads to better job performance and higher levels of productivity and creativity. This established that a high level of employee engagement would be beneficial to both employees and companies.

59

Parameters and Channels to Predict Employee Turnover

In order to establish a thorough understanding of employee turnover, it is necessary to understand the factors that could help motivate employees to deliver better performances and stay in the organizations (Bersin, 2017; McGregor, 1960; Tseng, 2010;).

In one of his best-known works, McGregor (1960) argued against the original thought that workers are inherently unmotivated and lazy. The argument is that there are two distinctive types of managers, labeled as Theory X and Theory Y. According to McGregor, Theory X managers assume workers are inherently unmotivated and lazy and therefore need to be commanded and controlled. On the other hand, Theory Y managers assume workers are not inherently lazy or unmotivated but rather they are capable of demonstrating self- and contributing to the company voluntarily. Theory Y suggests that the goals and objectives of the organization and its employees could be synchronized in management practices. My research has largely adopted Theory Y, suggesting that managers might incentivize workers to deliver stronger performance for the benefit of the organizations.

Tseng (2010) related one of the most widely accepted motivation theories, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, to employee needs. Using Kaliprasad’s 2006 study and Ramlall’s

2004 work as examples, Tseng suggested that the theory would impact employee behavior at work, which could, in turn, help keep employees satisfied and improve retention. For instance, with a more incentivizing and fair pay system, employees would become more motivated.

According to Tseng and others who have studied Maslow’s theory (Bobic & Davis, 2003;

Udechukwu, 2009; Ugah & Arua, 2011), five basic needs have been identified. According to

Stone (2005), these include “physiological (basic wage), safety (job security), social (friendly supervisor), esteem (recognition from supervisor and colleagues) and self-actualization 60

(challenging work and participation in decision making)” (Tseng, 2010, p.43). Citing the work of

Kaliprasad and Ramlall, Tseng suggested that higher order needs – for instance, self-esteem – would have stronger long-term impacts on physiological needs, while the lower needs would be more relevant to the survival of human beings. This belief was largely aligned with what others have found. According to Bobic and Davis (2003), McGregor, who elaborated on Maslow’s work, suggested that the lower level needs (food and security) must be met before employees – or humans in general – would look for satisfaction of the higher order needs (self-actualization).

Nevertheless, the level or degree of satisfaction could only be vaguely and broadly defined; it would be subject to differences in various cultures and locations. Bobic and Davis suggested that the perception of “reasonable satisfaction” could be influenced by differences across cultures

(2003, p. 242).

Kahn (1990) believed that three key elements of a job have substantial influence over employee engagement: the meaningfulness of a job, the organizational and social security from a job, and the availability of variety or distractions in a job. The meaningfulness of a job is related to the psychological feeling of “worthwhile, useful, and valuable – as though they made a difference and were not taken for granted,” which would incentivize or disincentivize employees to engage (p. 704). Psychological safety refers to the nature of a job that would make employees work “without fear of negative consequences to self-image, status, or career” (p. 708). In order to ensure that employees feel safe, organizations should ensure that employees feel that the work situation is predictable and consistent. They were advised to promote collaborative, open, and trusting interpersonal relationships, use a supportive and clarifying , and clearly establish and norms. Organizations should also care about aspects 61 of psychological availability –emotional and physical energy, the feeling of (in)security at work, and nonwork life – among employees, which could influence employees’ performance at work.

Other less commonly cited parameters were also said to be useful for predicting employee turnover. Dansereau et al. (1975) defined leader-member exchange as a pattern in which leaders establish dyadic relationships with those who follow. Liu et al. (2013) proved that there was a significant and positive relationship between leader-member exchange and employees’ turnover intention, with the impact channeled through organizational identification

(employees who get more attention would be less likely to leave). They emphasized that if a culturally specific human capital was adopted, which would focus more on the group than on specific individuals, it would help moderate the relationship between leadership style and employee turnover. King and Tang (2018) found in their study of casino workers in Macao that female workers tended to favor financial reward as a retention tool more than men did. Meanwhile, age (young working adults) and life cycle (recently married) also contributed to their conclusion that financial incentives would be a more important metric for employees deciding whether to stay or leave. Hong et al. (2007) pinpointed that, while age, gender, race, and organizational commitment could all be relevant to employee turnover, race stood out as a key variable for their Taiwan-based sample.

While showing that there were other ways to gauge employee engagement, Judd et al.

(2018) suggested that annual surveys continue to be used. They also found that employees are influenced and more aware of engaging with the company if they receive an engagement survey from employers. In addition, referring to an experience at Facebook, they found that employees who responded to annual surveys demonstrated a significantly greater likelihood to leave the company within half a year after the time of the survey. 62

Smyth and Edkins (2007) believed that employees with growth potential are visible to management given their distinct motivation and sense of purpose. While organizations could benefit from the contributions of such highly motivated employees, management and the company must set aside attention for them to foster strong emotional bonding.

Work Behavior of Generations Y and Z

While there are slight variations in the definition of Generations X, Y, and Z, these deviations are small. Laumer et al. (2010) established that people born in the 1980s are regarded as millennials. For Kwok (2012), the exact definition of millennials or Generation Y appears to be loose. It is quite common that such terminologies are used to describe the “demographic cohort born between the late 1970s and the late 1990s” (p. 231). More generally, Kwok believed that “Generation Y commonly refers to the offspring of the Baby Boomers.”

Noting that the workforce consists of people from different generations, research studies generally reveal that the hiring, management, and retention of millennials could emerge as a key area of concern, given that it generally involves intergenerational management where non-

Generation Y managers oversee Generation Y employees. Twenge and Campbell (2008) found that the upbringing of different generations appeared to have a varying degree of influence on psychological traits, which would in turn have different impacts on the workplace. As a result, managers of human capital for different companies can benefit from understanding the motivation of different generations of employees, which would help with the delivery of more effective human capital allocation, including recruitment, management, and retention.

In an attempt to study what motivates Generation Y workers and how they can be engaged effectively, Kerslake (2005) asserted that Generation Y employees are determined achievers who are willing to make temporary sacrifices for long-term career success. As the 63 attributes and beliefs of Generation Y differ from those of previous generations, such as

Generation X and baby boomers, their aspirations should be understood thoroughly so effective managerial strategies can be established and deployed.

Kwok (2012) focused on work patterns and how the physical mobility of Generation Y, or millennials, would influence them. Kwok found that people in Generation Y in general enjoy geographical mobility and have strong opinions, while job security is not a key priority for them.

Studying undergraduate students who have worked in the hospitality industry in the UK,

Maxwell et al. (2010) underlined that Generation Y workers born between 1977 and 1994 put great emphasis on their career success and stressed achieving promotion, which they perceived as being as important as being well-paid. As a whole, they found that Generation Y workers are stimulated by challenging tasks. It was also found that employers that offer a clear path to career progression, one emphasizing equality, would be appreciated by these workers, especially female

Generation Y workers. They found that these workers’ career aspirations grew even stronger over time, which in part explains why Generation Y workers are seen as strong, demanding, self- centered, and career focused.

Prasad, vice president of engineering at LinkedIn, suggested that companies in Silicon

Valley often have a compensation system that caters to a “four-year turnaround cycle” – the estimated timeframe when millennials would be moving from a job to another – as an attempt to retain the sought-after talent (Anderson et al., 2015). Prasad suggested that millennials appear to be more forthcoming as to what they can offer customers and employers (Anderson et al., 2015).

These traits also indicate their turnover intention if their demands are not satisfied. Specifically, millennials in technology companies appear to demonstrate care for the community, both locally and internationally. StubHub’s Robie, for instance, shared that millennials working for the 64 company showed immense interest in how the company was connected to the community, while

Glassdoor’s Anderson shared that the same feeling was found there (Anderson et al., 2015). Such sentiment among millennials aligned with the findings of Laumer (2009), who asserted that providing more opportunities for community building would be an effective tool to retain such scarce talent.

According to Fry and Parker (2018), members of Generation Z in the U.S. have become more educated than people from previous generations. For instance, citing U.S. Census Bureau data, researchers from the Pew Research Center found that 80% of Generation Z members aged

18 to 20 had completed high school as of 2017, compared to 76% and 78% of Generation Y and

X members. In general, those in Generation Z were also more likely to be enrolling in college, with 59% of 18- to 20-year-old high school graduates in college, compared to 53% of millennials and 44% of Generation X members at similar ages.

Robie of StubHub believed that the next generation of talent appears to be a transient population who would develop strong expertise but want to “have a wide variety of experiences”

(Anderson et al., 2015). According to Francis and Hoefel (2018):

Members of Gen Z—loosely, people born from 1995 to 2010— are true digital natives:

from youth, they have been exposed to the internet, to social networks, and to mobile

systems. That context has produced a hypercognitive generation very comfortable with

collecting and cross-referencing many sources of information and with integrating virtual

and offline experiences. (p. 2)

Increased exposure to information could contribute to a high rate of turnover among the younger generations. According to a Quest case study (n.d.), the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation estimated that 43% of baby boomers will be leaving their current employer over the next year, 65 while 52% of Generation X members and 70% of Generation Y members will do the same.

Because members of Generation Z have only recently have begun participating in the job market, a trend has not been established yet. Given that workers from various generations have displayed different characteristics, together with the fact that Generation Z workers are increasingly taking part in the workforce, it is helpful for employers to understand their demands. There might also be a need to provide different human capital management solutions for employers so shocks to company operation could be minimized when certain employees leave the companies, potentially more abruptly and frequently.

Summary

While companies tend to consider talent as a top attribute, many of them have not clearly understood who the value creators are. Technological advances can help companies address such issues, thereby benefiting them directly and indirectly, financially and nonfinancially. It has been found that there is a positive relationship between employee loyalty and company profitability, in part because voluntary employee turnover imposes costs. As such, leading indicators of turnover

– such as leader-member exchange, lateness, absenteeism, age, and life-cycle – should be monitored to keep track of employees’ intentions to leave a job. At the same time, employers should communicate with employees about different aspects of a job – such as meaningfulness, organizational and social security, and the availability of variety – to ensure that company values would be understood thoroughly. With the emergence of persons in Generations Y and Z as the core of the workforce, differences in work behaviors and demands between them and their predecessors might have implications for company strategies going forward. 66

Labor Market Dynamics in Hong Kong

Employee turnover has been a pertinent issue affecting companies of different sizes in

Hong Kong. According to HKIHRM (2019), the weighted average staff turnover rate stood at

12.7% during the first half of 2019 and has been above 20% percent on an annual basis in recent years. Despite economic uncertainty that could be weakening hiring sentiment, surveyed employers showed that their hiring intention over the near term will remain intact, leading to a still-high vacancy rate. In short, HKIHRM’s survey suggests that companies could lose one of five employees on average every year.

Despite a desire to provide more transparency in companies’ human resources strategies,

Chan and Burgess (2010a, 2010b) suggested that public domains, such as company websites and annual , tend to have little coverage of aspects related to the human capital of companies listed in Hong Kong. They found that companies have neither shown the initiative to volunteer information beyond statutory requirements nor injected strategic elements into HR functions.

Compared to other developed markets, Chan and Burgess (2010a) asserted that the reporting of HR matters in Hong Kong was relatively underdeveloped. Pointing to the fact that it was rare for HR managers to be considered key members of company management, they believed this was in part because of the lack of a high strategic position for human capital management in companies, who would employ an indifferent attitude toward HR management.

Focusing on the career of academics in Hong Kong, Kwok (2012) suggested that, compared to peers in Mainland China, there was a higher level of difficulty for “Generation Y

[in Hong Kong] to achieve dramatic upward mobility” (p. 245), as members of Generation Y in

Hong Kong have been facing fiercer challenges from overseas talent or competitors from

Mainland China. Kwok thus suggested that members of Generation Y from Hong Kong consider 67 growing their careers in Mainland China. On the other hand, as Generation Y in Mainland China has become more competitive in terms of education level and salaries, “Generation Y from Hong

Kong or overseas will lose their jobs and their roles are only as transitional people during the transitional period” (Kwok, 2012, p. 245). Kwok suggested that organizations operating locally have been offering no additional protection or assistance to local Generation Y due to institutional interests. While the local members of Generation Y in Hong Kong are open to careers with decent prospects, such opportunities are largely limited to areas with higher educational requirements, including advanced technology or professional training.

Referring to growing consumer demand in Hong Kong, Fernandez (2017) suggested that companies such as Avon and Uniqlo invest in advanced human capital management technologies, which should help retailers gain a competitive edge. However, it has remained unclear whether human capital is of high importance to companies in Hong Kong. Investigating the importance of human capital to Hong Kong listed companies, Chan and Burgess (2012) found that HR-related issues were often considered “threats and challenges” instead of being perceived as “assets or as a source of competitive advantage” to companies listed on the Hong

Kong Stock Exchange (p. 18).

Employers and employees in different industries may view the issue differently. Cieri and

Bardoel (2009) showed that, according to a participant belonging to a Hong Kong-based financial service firm, the culture of Hong Kong (e.g., the belief that there is “a responsibility to work” and “to bring in the money”) has led to workers and employers putting less emphasis on work-life balance. As a result, they believed that the development of a reward and benefit system that fit the local culture would be important. Lam and Zhang (2003) focused on the fast food industry in Hong Kong, finding that unmet expectations of job scopes, training and development 68 received, compensation scales, and fairness toward new employees have led to low levels of job satisfaction and thus organizational commitment. Coupled with the fact that part-time jobs comprised many jobs in the sector, high employee turnover was likely.

In summary, data related to employee turnover appears to be lacking in Hong Kong. That said, employee turnover was generally perceived as a pertinent issue affecting companies of different sizes in Hong Kong; some sectors were affected more severely than others in part because of the dire shortage of labor in those industries. It was also found in some studies that employee satisfaction has tended to be low in Hong Kong and that employees would generally place less importance on work-life balance, perhaps because of the local culture.

Conclusion

The war for talent is agreed to be a battlefield for companies competing for success. In light of this, enhanced human capital management strategies and execution are needed, which could be strengthened by ongoing technological advances. Enhanced capability of human capital analytics and management has been achieved through enabling better data collection and analytical processes.

In this regard, the adoption of advanced HR analytics and management tools could help companies understand and identify the value creators within organizations, thereby benefiting firms directly and indirectly, financially and nonfinancially. This is even more important as, with the emergence of Generations Y and Z as the core of the workforce, differences in work behaviors and demands between them and their predecessors might have implications for company strategies.

As a leading international commercial and financial center, employee turnover has been a pertinent issue for companies in Hong Kong. Unlike some other developed markets, employee 69 satisfaction tends to be low in Hong Kong and employees generally place less importance on work-life balance. Companies facing challenges with voluntary employee turnover might need to adopt a strategy that caters to the local market.

During the literature review process, I found only a handful case studies related to Hong

Kong’s labor market, and studies covering in-depth discussions with top executives in multibillion-dollar MNC firms also were lacking. Therefore, I considered that the unique nature of this study would make it interesting to academics, business executives, and policymakers. 70

Chapter 3: Research Design

This dissertation was designed to study how large MNCs use emerging HR technologies to hire, manage, develop, and retain employees and, from there, to explore what benefits they see in such technologies. Noting that millennials and Generation Z employees were said to have a higher intention or likelihood to leave their jobs than baby boomers and Generation X employees, this dissertation was also designed to study how the adoption of emerging HR technologies could help companies mitigate the risks associated with employee turnover.

Purpose Statement

The purpose of this case study was to understand the phenomenon of HR technology adoption at large MNCs in Hong Kong that hire, manage, develop, and retain employees. The topic was exploratory in nature, and it was expected to involve rounds of in-person interviews to extract valuable insights from top executives or HR directors – or the alternates they recommend.

At the beginning of the research, it was assumed that such HR technologies had been adopted in some form but not implemented as a key tool. The utilization of such technologies was expected to increase as relevant data became more prolific and the value of using them became clearer.

The other purpose of this study was to examine a problem of practice involving the and decision-making process of HR technology adoption in multibillion- dollar corporations. Knowledge generated from the research and data gathering process makes a positive contribution to the academic literature.

Qualitative Research Approach

Qualitative inquiry was appropriate for this study, given its stress on a holistic treatment of the researched phenomena (Silverman, 2000). Stake (2010) suggested that qualitative inquiry has led social science research from its traditional emphasis on explaining causal relationships to 71 personal interpretation of phenomena. The epistemology of qualitative research is existential and constructivist, and the contextual elements of qualitative research involve a range of contexts, including historical, economic, political, social, cultural, and personal factors. Ponterotto (2005) detailed four research paradigms: positivism, postpositivism, constructivism-interpretivism, and critical–ideological. These paradigms can be distinguished based on their respective features, such as their philosophical anchors.

Ponterotto described positivism as a research method involving the discovery of descriptions and explanations of facts (i.e., theory verification). This research methodology is often used in the natural sciences and in other disciplines that explore causality and correlation of events. This might explain why studies adopting a positivist methodology often involve statistical analyses of quantifiable observations. Collins (2010) noted:

As a philosophy, positivism is in accordance with the empiricist view that knowledge

stems from human experience. It has an atomistic, ontological view of the world as

comprising discrete, observable elements and events that interact in an observable,

determined and regular manner. (p. 38).

In studies adopting a positivist approach, researchers are confined to data collection and the objective interpretation of such data. Positivist research has been widely used; as Yau (2019) observed, “much of our current education system focuses on this type of understanding, wherein one (allegedly) ‘correct’ answer is of paramount importance” (p. 37).

Although similar to positivism, the postpositivist research paradigm considers that there are limitations to how well an individual can thoroughly understand and digest facts. While objective realities are believed to exist, postpositivism considers that reality is imperfectly apprehensible and believes it is reasonable for different individuals to perceive their own form 72 objective reality. Another area of distinction from positivism was that it would not involve theory falsification, which, in a nutshell, describes the identification of events and occurrences that might challenge and disprove theories.

The third major type of research paradigm in qualitative research is constructivism- interpretivism, which acknowledges that “multiple, apprehendable, and equally valid realities” might coexist (Ponterotto, 2005, p. 129). This research paradigm builds on the consideration that the reality of an event is interpreted, constructed, and formed largely from the individual perceptive, instead of being built around an objective and knowable truth (Hansen, 2004).

Referring to Schwandt (2000), Ponterotto also found it noteworthy that constructivism- interpretivism holds that, while meaning can be hidden, it is the role of the researcher to reveal such meaning; this can be done through reflection during the process of interaction and dialogues between researcher and participants. This revealing research process is conducive to the goal of studying lived experience, or social phenomena, which is emphasized by constructivism.

Critical-ideological theory, as its name suggests, is both critical and ideological in nature and has a tendency to challenge the status quo (Kincheloe & McLaren, 1994, 2000). Instead of focusing on understanding certain social phenomena, critical-ideological theory casts critiques on the structure perceived to be dominant, while, at the same time, also stressing ideals.

Specifically, it promotes the liberation or emancipation of certain groups. By adopting this paradigm, researchers are heavily influenced, or even led, by their value-based goals.

Ponterotto (2005) pointed out that “strong qualitative research can emanate from multiple paradigms, each valid in its own right, and each with its own criteria for conducting and evaluating research” (p. 132). While these different research paradigms carry varying credentials, expectations, and applicability to circumstances, it has been commonly agreed that these 73 paradigms not only coexist but also that research usually spans across different paradigms; that is, research often does not conform to only one single paradigm (Merriam, 1991; Yau, 2019). In this regard, understanding these paradigms helps researchers not only adopt or adapt any one specific paradigm to the research process, but it also allows researchers to acknowledge their differences, which permits them to apply the respective paradigms appropriately. For this thesis, a qualitative approach utilizing the constructivism-interpretivism paradigm was adopted to appropriately address the problem of practice.

Research Tradition

My plan was to deliver a nonexperimental, qualitative, multiple case study, also known as a collective case study (Stake, 1995), because this research studied the natural experiences of top leaders in their respective companies (Riva, 2012). In academia, and especially in the fields of policy research, business and law studies, the case study approach has been recognized as an instrumental research methodology. Yin (2014) suggested that the case study approach would be instrumental in research looking into “contemporary phenomena within its real-life context.”

Crowe et al. (2011) believed that the case study approach would be useful for investigating phenomena with certain characteristics and parameters. A multiple case study approach was adopted to develop a multifaceted and in-depth study that explored complex issues involved in the decision-making process of technology adoption in three organizations.

Stake (1995) broadly and comprehensively put case studies into three major categories: intrinsic, instrumental, and collective. According to Stake, a case would be regarded as intrinsic when its focus was on a specific unit, person, or institution, with the research focus solely and exclusively on this group. Such intrinsic case studies would be carried out when researchers want to better understand a specific unit, person, or institution with particularity and ordinariness. In 74 contrast, Stake defined an instrumental case study as one that is designed to drive a broader understanding of a certain issue or phenomenon, describing it as one that is “mainly to provide insight into an issue or to redraw a generalization.” Case studies in this category aim to facilitate understanding of a separate issue and are utilized as “a means or an anchor for the purpose of elucidating the other interest strewn within or about it” (Njie & Asimiran, 2014). A multiple case study, as defined by Stake, is one involving a number of cases carried out jointly with the common goal of investigating a specific unit, institution, person, phenomenon, or population.

According to Stake (2006), the multiple case study method focuses on the experiences of participants in these cases and their complexity. This research method allows researchers to capture details of natural experiences according to the description of research participants, while other information available from secondary sources, such as documentation, allows researchers to confirm certain details to ensure accuracy (Stake, 1995). A multiple case study has been recognized as an instrumental case study, as the interest of the study exceeds just the one situation or the experience of one person (Stake, 2006).

Case studies are distinguished by distinctive boundaries and limitations, and this study was designed to ensure that the need for boundaries and limitations was taken into consideration

(Baxter & Jack, 2008; Stake, 2006, 2010; Yin, 2011, 2014). The study was bounded by and limited to the experiences of multibillion-dollar firms with significant operations in Hong Kong.

The phenomenon of interest was the experience of firms’ adoption of technology to hire, manage, develop, and retain employees, including those in Generations Y and Z. Interviews were conducted with a selected sample of top executives or HR officers to gather data. Given the need to be open to information available from other sources, I chose the multiple case study method, 75 generally guided by Stake (2010). This choice allowed the research to follow the unambiguous steps developed and promulgated by Stake, which emphasize individual experiences.

This study gathered real-world, empirical data on the use of emerging HR technologies by multibillion-dollar companies to hire, manage, develop, and retain employees, including those in Generations Y and Z. The participants in the study, who were either top executives or HR professionals in these firms – or alternates they recommended – related their answers about the adoption of such technologies to their natural work environments (Stake, 1995). Studies adopting the case study method support an underlying philosophy that experiences are unique to different individuals; that specific experiences apply to individuals, as well as situations; and that human sentiment and attitudes influence both the experience of and motivation toward actions in those situations (Bandura, 2012; Fredrickson, 2003; Grusec, 1992; Locke & Latham, 2015). Against this backdrop, adopting the case study method enabled this research to contribute to the literature with qualitative, first-person perspectives of top executives who have contributed to or driven the technology adoption process in their companies. This is even more important because such information about Hong Kong was very limited, as found in the literature review in Chapter 2.

Data on individual perspectives were gathered through semi-structured interviews. Semi- structured guiding questions were prepared so there was methodological consistency across interviews (Stake, 2000). Interviews were recorded after appropriate informed consent was obtained from participants (see Appendix B).

Data Collection and Analysis

The case study methodology guided the question formation for participants, the data collection methods, and the data analysis in this study. Unlike Yin (2002), who emphasized that

“data collection procedures are not routinized” (Yin, 2002, p. 58), Stake encouraged flexibility 76 and emphasized the experience of qualitative researchers, such as sensitivity and skepticism.

That said, Stake, whose proposed way of conducting a case study guided this research, emphasized that the crafting of case studies should represent the researcher’s understanding and choice of meaningful data points from the specific cases. With that in mind, in order to drive meaningful and robust case studies, it is essential to thoroughly understand the data collection and analysis methods. This argument was supported by other academics, such as Sandelowski

(1995) and Malterud (2001), who suggested that information contained in the research would be transparently and efficiently communicated and disseminated by carrying out data analysis in a systematic manner. This research adopted a hybrid approach in terms of data collection and analysis, postulated to be “advantageous because it integrates themes described in related literature with those that emerge from the data at hand” (Anderton & Ronald, 2018, p. 272).

Data Collection

Stake (1995) suggested that “there is no particular moment when data gathering begins”

(Stake, 1995, p. 49), as the process should begin even before the participants are committed to be a part of a study, when researchers start gathering background data and getting acquainted with relevant cases. That said, it was advised that researchers should set two or three research questions to “help structure the observation, interviews, and document review” for case studies

(p. 20). Stake did not advocate that a detailed plan of action or data collection instruments must be in place, while suggesting using document review, observation, and interviews as key data collection channels.

As for this research, on top of undertaking public document review, desktop research, interviews, and observing interviewee behavior, I prompted the interviewees with questions to see whether further data could be collected. For instance, after the executives mentioned that the 77 mobile apps available to employees were instrumental in employee engagement and information dissemination, I asked for screenshots; both Executives A and X shared screenshots of their employee mobile apps with me after the interviews. Similarly, I also sought inputs from the interviewees on any related social media channels the companies may have launched, such as

LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and WeChat. Together with information collected from traditional data collection channels, this approach enriched the data available for comprehensive analysis in this study.

In terms of recruitment of interviewees, an invitation was sent to top executives and senior HR directors directly from me (see Appendix A), and relevant records were kept carefully.

Noting that some invitees might not have direct or adequate exposure to specific aspects, I considered it appropriate that, if the original invited participants recommended alternates in their organizations, such offers would be accepted because it would allow me to obtain the best knowledge on the subject matter given the liberty for the original invitees to forward the invitation to other relevant colleagues. An arrangement with an alternate was not needed in any of the three cases involved in this study.

Following the methods of Rubin and Rubin (2005), main questions were developed and shared with interviewees before the interviews to drive structured conversations. This approach can “make sure you cover all the major parts of your research problem, whereas the follow-up questions ask for explanation of themes, concepts, or events that the interviewee has introduced”

(p. 2, Chapter 7). This also added vividness, nuance, and richness to the study, allowing me to describe the interviewees as real people with quotations and specific insights instead of as abstractions. Rubin and Rubin advised that less than half a dozen main questions should be prepared, with a few additional follow-up questions. Therefore, I developed some main, follow- 78 up, prompting questions, focusing on unveiling the organizational design and practices adopted by the interviewees. These questions are presented in Appendix C.

Because it was not advisable for the interviews to take place at casual venues such as a restaurant or a coffee shop, the interviews were conducted in a business setting. All interviews occurred at the interviewees’ , with me visiting them.

For each case, I considered it desirable to have two rounds of interviews with the same target, while it was understood that interviews with certain companies could only occur a single time because of practicality constraints. In the end, only one interview was conducted with each interviewee, because all the needed information was provided during that interview. While Rubin and Rubin suggested that it could be advisable for researchers to raise “only nonthreatening questions during the first interview” (p. 10, Chapter 6), I attempted to ask questions with adequate depth as much as possible. This was especially important because I held the interviews with top executives of MNCs, who might not often be available for interviews with researchers.

As a result, notes were prepared in an accurate and efficient manner to capture the essence of their precious time, set around 60 minutes.

I considered it appropriate to have the notes accurately prepared as soon as the interviews were finished. Therefore, both voice recording and note-taking methods were deployed. While it would allow a researcher to accurately record and transcribe the exact choice of words by the interviewees, according to Rubin and Rubin, “electronic recording can distract both interviewer and interviewee and influence what people say” (p. 4, Chapter 6). At the same time, I have been constantly engaging in closed-door meetings and have demonstrated a high level of competence in delivering accurate notes. Therefore, I participated in the interviews with a fully charged iPad for notetaking purposes. Noting that only the highlights and key points could be typed to keep 79 the conversation with the interviewees going, voice recording was also adopted and prior approval from the interviewees was received. I generally finished the notes within 72 hours after the interviews were concluded so I did not lose any significant material from them. Transcription services were also hired, while I listened to the recording and verified the transcript repeatedly.

As an interview protocol, I shared the notes and confirmed their validity with the interviewees.

Data Analysis

Consistent with his stance on data collection, Stake (1995) defined analysis as “a matter of giving meaning to first impressions as well as to final compilations” (p. 71). In other words,

Stake considered the impressions of researchers to be a key source of data, and the sensemaking of such data to be the key form of analysis. While suggesting that researchers could benefit from the adoption of analysis protocols that would “help draw systematically from previous knowledge and cut down on misperception,” intuitions and impressions were given precedence in the protocol (Stake, 1995, p. 72). Stake considered it appropriate for researchers to collect data and carry out analysis processes concurrently. To this end, it was implied that there was “no exact point in the research process to start analysis because there is no exact point to start data collection” (Yazan, 2015, p.145).

For this research, coding strategies were adopted to enable an effective analysis process.

Saldaña (2016) noted that a “theme can be an outcome of coding, categorization or analytic reflection, but it is not something that is, in itself, coded” (2016, p. 15). Broadly speaking, according to Punch (2014), coding happens in two main phases: the first level of coding involves low inference and more descriptive codes broadly designed for summarizing segments of data, while the second level of coding involves more interpretive codes that require inference beyond the data. Following Saldaña, procedures involved in the qualitative data analysis for this study 80 can be largely categorized in two steps. For the first cycle of coding, information was in vivo and provisional, setting the scene for emerging themes. Then, the second cycle of coding involved a higher degree of analytical elements involving pattern, axial, and hypothesis coding.

While the questions might not appear to directly address the three distinct areas of social change in the diffusion of innovations theory, the data analysis section of this study was built around the theoretical framework, and, therefore, its prominence is apparent. For instance, after the first round of coding, I tried to map out and identify where the companies belonged in terms for adopter categories –innovator, early adopter, early majority, late majority, or laggard – and which stage of technology –knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation, or confirmation – was considered a hurdle to overcome.

To enhance trustworthiness and reliability, I engaged in regular discussions with my advisor and other practitioners in the field of human capital management. Discussions regarding coding strategy, themes from coding, and interpretation and analysis of data were conducted.

Adopting a hybrid thematic approach in the data collection and analysis process allowed this study to take advantage of the knowledge and coding themes presented in the literature. At the same time, the data collection and analysis allowed this study to grasp the opportunity to identify novel themes emerging from the data presented through the interviews and other processes.

Participants

In line with his approach and attitude toward data collection and analysis, Stake (1995) called for flexibility in the selection of participants. I recruited three participants from different multibillion-dollar firms that have significant operational presence in Hong Kong. As I have gained a strong reputation as a reliable economic and policy researcher in Hong Kong and had 81 direct access to senior business executives through previous experiences, the research was practicable. Given the existing relationships, this research succeeded in recruiting interviewees willing to share relevant and useful information for the study. No incentive was offered to participants for their participation in the research process.

As detailed in earlier sections, the key criterion for interviewee selection was that they must be top executives or HR professionals in multibillion-dollar firms with a significant presence in Hong Kong. Such interviewees would allow me to understand how firms were adopting emerging HR technologies to hire, develop, manage, and retain employees, including those in Generations Y and Z. Therefore, the recruited interviewees shared the common characteristics of being senior and having substantial influence on the HR decisions at their firms. No additional resources were needed after the in-depth interviews with the executives and the background research conducted on the internet prior to the meetings. During the process, the researcher kept in mind carving out the similarities and diversities of background among these interviewees in terms of age, gender, job nature, nationalities, industry of the company, years of experience with the company, and others.

Sampling Procedures

According to Yazan (2015), “Stake does not mention any sampling strategies or procedures for qualitative case study research” (p. 143).

Protection of Human Subjects

The protection of interviewees, including their identity, is a key subject in qualitative research studies. This section explains how this research was conducted on a step-by-step basis.

Upon completion of the research proposal and having successfully acquired approval from the 82

IRB, the research complied with the guidelines for protecting human participants, covering ethical considerations, trustworthiness, potential research bias, and limitations.

Ethical Considerations

According to Crowe et al. (2011), it would be of high importance for researchers to give prior consideration to the potential risks and burdens on the participants and participating sites in case studies, including ethical implications associated with the study. Crowe et al. considered inadvertently breaching anonymity or confidentiality of the participants, the potential emotional or emotive burden involved in such studies, and organizational disruption to be ethical risks that researchers must pay attention to. At the same time, the stakeholders (the participants and participating sites) need to be equipped with adequate information to make informed decisions about whether to participate.

Noting that that the context of case studies and the procedures followed could affect how readers reach conclusions, researchers need to provide adequate contextual information. Crowe et al. (2011) highlighted the need for coding to uphold the anonymity of case study participants and the sites where the cases were carried out. Specifically, for collective case studies, researchers should consider presenting the findings from various cases separately, after which the amalgamation of cases could be undertaken.

Referring to Creswell (2012), Yau (2019) suggested that researchers should be

“completely transparent with the participants regarding the background and nature of the research study” (p. 49). As the intended participants were senior executives in multibillion-dollar firms that have been listed on one or more stock exchanges – and therefore were subject to certain rules and regulations – it was of paramount importance to ensure that their identity and companies would remain anonymous. To this end, all records of interviews, such as audio recordings, transcripts, notes, and analysis, were stored securely in password-protected files. I 83 pseudonymized the participants and saved the identities of the interviewees in a password- protected file separate from such the records of the interviews. I stored all relevant information for this study in a private, password-protected Google cloud account. Communication on emails and instant messengers were backed up and stored in a password-protected Microsoft Word document with clear labeling of when the communication happened.

Trustworthiness

According to Nowell et al. (2017), to demonstrate trustworthiness:

Qualitative researchers must demonstrate that data analysis has been conducted in a

precise, consistent, and exhaustive manner through recording, systematizing, and

disclosing the methods of analysis with enough detail to enable the reader to determine

whether the process is credible. (p. 1)

Nowell et al. argued that it would be difficult for readers to assess the trustworthiness of a study and its research process if its assumptions and data analysis were not clearly communicated.

Thus, qualitative researchers should demonstrate the data analysis process through recording, proper arranging and organizing of data, and unveiling and detailing methods of analysis to build the trust of readers (Attride-Stirling, 2001; Nowell et al., 2017; Ryan et al., 2007).

Moreover, I was inspired by the mentioning of “competency, honesty, and reliability” by

Yau (2019) as the key components of trustworthiness (p. 49). In this regard, with the guidance of seasoned advisors from the faculty of Northeastern University, together with the my reputation as an economic and policy researcher, this research has explained to the participants and readers the procedures used throughout the research process. I also approached the study with complete honesty, sharing and explaining the intent of the study and how the sampling of participants would be conducted, which is another key to building and cementing trust with participants and 84 readers. Last but not least, as explained above, I carried out the research with due care to safeguard the participants, interviewing sites, and data and records related to the research.

Lincoln and Guba (1985) asserted that the trustworthiness of qualitative studies could be strengthened by establishing credibility, transferability, and dependability, among others. To enhance the credibility of a study, persistent observation, triangulation, peer debriefing, member- checking and other methods could be used. The facts that I have worked directly with some of the intended interviewees and that the research topic has appeared in discussions with other top executives in Hong Kong are examples of persistent observation. With regard to member- checking, while some would argue that the process could lead to fixed truth (Angen, 2000), the researcher confirmed and verified the findings through presenting and discussing the materials and findings with participants and soliciting feedback from them.

In the area of transferability in qualitative research, a common approach is to drive it through a thick description technique (Geertz, 1973). For case studies, a degree of transferability is typically assumed by researchers, despite the fact that it could be difficult, if not impossible, to generalize because a single research target or target group should be unique and not directly comparable to others. That said, because case studies usually are not establishing or demonstrating causal relationships between variables, results of cases can be transferable when researchers “suggest further questions, hypotheses, and future implications” and present the results as “directions and questions” (Lauer & Asher, 1988, p. 32). Researchers should systematically collect data and take thorough account of participants’ experiences, which might help increase the transferability of the research by allowing readers to assess how relevant observations might be transferable to their respective situations.

85

Dependability

Unlike researchers who adopt a positivist approach, qualitative researchers tend to focus narrowly on participants with a small sample size, and the research results are often subject to the interpretation of the researcher. In short, it should not be the intention for qualitative researchers to design research, using the same research method and similar procedures as other research, to derive similar results. In this regard, as proposed by Shenton (2004) and Thomas and

Magilvy (2001), qualitative researchers should drive dependability through providing a concrete trail of useful information detailing procedures undertaken during the research process. That trail of information allows readers to understand the chain of thoughts and arguments of the researcher, thereby establishing credibility for the study.

Limitations

Minchiello et al. (1990) distinguished quantitative research from qualitative research by noting that the former was more concerned with discovering facts about certain social phenomena, while the latter aimed at making sense of human behavior from the perspective of informants. Suggesting that qualitative research requires researchers to adopt a naturalistic and interpretive approach, Denzin and Lincoln (1994) wrote that qualitative researchers have to

“study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them” (p. 2). Sargeant (2012) pinpointed that qualitative research is distinctly different from quantitative research in its intent and focus, as it emphasizes understanding certain phenomena and events. Instead of discovering what firms have been doing in terms of technology adoption, this research focused on making sense of why the senior executives made decisions on technology adoption in their respective professional capacities. 86

Another limitation is related to the transferability of research findings. I was aware that there would be no guarantee that results obtained in this research would be applicable to situations outside the study. While precision is important to the discovery of causal relationships, this study has put more focus on making sense of the decision process, which would be useful for readers as they try to understand how senior executives make decisions. To this end, I struck a balance between precision and generalizability through detailing the situation and how the research was conducted. Another step I took was to increase the variety of corporations, which increased the sample population and, therefore, the study’s generalizability.

Conclusion

The objective of this study was to examine a complex problem of practice intertwined with different factors, to contribute knowledge to the literature from raw data extracted through interviewees, and to provide context to readers so they can understand and potentially come up with strategies to address the problem of practice. Guided by these parameters, the case study approach was adopted, involving three top management or senior HR executives in multibillion- dollar corporations. The central research question guiding this study was: How are large MNCs using emerging HR technologies to hire, manage, develop, and retain employees? By addressing this question, this research could inform what benefits the senior executives saw in such technologies. On a second level, noting that millennials and Generation Z employees were said to have a higher intention or likelihood of leaving their jobs than baby boomers and Generation

X employees, this dissertation studied how the adoption of emerging HR technologies could help companies mitigate the risks associated with employee attrition.

This chapter outlined the research design adopted in this study, explaining why the qualitative research approach and the constructivism-interpretivism paradigm was the most 87 suitable for this study. The method of data collection and analysis, as well as why the case study research strategy of inquiry was appropriate for this study, was elaborated. The recruitment of interviewees and other procedural elements involved in this qualitative study, such as ethical considerations, trustworthiness, dependability, and limitations, were also discussed. 88

Chapter 4: Findings and Analysis

As an economic and policy researcher in Hong Kong, I interact with executives of all ranks regularly. Through this interaction and the professional requirements of my job, I have read and heard about the importance of talent to companies and been told that technological advancement has brought significant improvements in company performance in recent decades, including but not limited to hiring, developing, managing, and retaining talent. The positive contribution of technologies to the corporate sector was said to be increasingly influential as

Generation Y and Z employees started joining the workforce because these employees would be spending more time on and were more accustomed to technologies. The literature tends to confirm these benefits of technologies, as illustrated in the literature review in Chapter 2.

Notwithstanding hearsay and the support of literature, I also learned, either first-hand in my current and previous workplaces or through my business contacts, that many companies in

Hong Kong have not incorporated much technology into their human capital management processes. Moreover, because the overall attrition rate in Hong Kong has remained a high despite the perceived adoption of such technologies in the HR process, I asked whether such advanced technologies had been as effective for employee retention as claimed. With these observations in mind, I considered it instrumental to have more in-depth discussions with top executives at multibillion-dollar MNCs, as these corporations would generally have more resources to spend on technology adoption.

The objective of this dissertation was to study the experience of senior corporate executives with technology adoption in human capital management, with a specific focus on technology’s impact on hiring, development, retention, and turnover at large MNCs in Hong

Kong. This study was also designed to study the attitude – in terms of importance – of such 89 senior executives toward human capital management among younger generations of workers.

Guided by these parameters, the case study involved three top management executives at multibillion-dollar corporations. Knowledge generated from this study makes a positive contribution to the academic literature.

The diffusion of innovations theory, which elucidates how innovations are adopted in a group of people or society, was the theoretical framework adopted in the study. The central research question guiding this study was: How are large MNCs using emerging HR technologies to hire, manage, develop, and retain employees? By addressing this question, this research informs what benefits senior executives see in such technologies. On a second level, noting that millennials and Generation Z employees are said to have a higher intention or likelihood to leave their jobs than baby boomers and Generation X employees, this dissertation studied how the adoption of emerging HR technologies could help companies mitigate the risks associated with employee attrition.

The purpose of this nonexperimental qualitative study was to explore the experiences of top managers with the adoption HR technology, specifically the experiences of managers working for multibillion-dollar MNCs with significant operations in Hong Kong that hire, manage, develop, and retain employees. Through conducting this multicase study involving top executives at three multibillion-dollar MNCs, it was found that, while it is common across the interviewed companies that technologies were adopted, the attitude, approval process, and factors impacting HR technology adoption varied among them (see Table 1). Technologies were often seen as enablers of companies’ HR processes, and, with the benefits brought about by technologies, the executives believed that their companies were enabled to design and deploy different strategies for both external customers and internal clients. 90

Table 1

Cross-study Comparison

Findings Case 1 – Executive A Case 2 – Executive X Case 3 – Executive Y Description of A top corporate development A top HR executive who has A top executive who has participant executive who has worked worked for a leading airline worked for a multinational for a home-grown Hong operator for over four hiring almost Kong conglomerate for decades. half a million employees in almost 30 years. different geographies for almost four decades.

Attitude toward Executive A expressed that he Executive X expressed that Executive Y believed that the technology had a welcoming attitude his attitude toward company had adopted a toward technology and technology was “extremely very welcoming attitude added that his ability to welcoming” but noted that toward technology. In the cope with such changes the company could not be area of human capital would be a key too innovative because it management, the company consideration. Among was subject to some rigid has had various other things, he believed regulatory requirements. experiences with that advanced technologies He added that the technology adoption, would allow companies to company had turned to off- though such systems were capture more data, which the-shelf products since often adopted on a would allow them to bring the industry began piecemeal basis. transformational changes. believing that airlines The company was integrating should focus on their a people management competitive advantage. system to enhance linkages Looking ahead, automation across data, which would and increasing allow managers to have transparency of businesses better oversight of the would be the major company’s skills and talent contribution of technology. map.

Technology The functional departments When a business department All the responsible adoption would need to initiate the wished to adopt any new departments would work procedures process with a proposal systems, it had to initiate with the IT department and that defined the expected the process with a outcome and key proposal, work together members. Third-party performance indicators with the IT department, implementation (KPIs) for such investments, and pitch the idea to the consultants would also be including pros and cons, business improvement involved in the company’s alternative systems, and department. After this, the technology adoption cash outflow. The IT management committee process. department would get would be consulted, and involved as a technology approval would be sought. expert, while the company leader would make the final call. After this, the finance department would make necessary financing arrangements.

91

Findings Case 1 – Executive A Case 2 – Executive X Case 3 – Executive Y Human capital The company used both In terms of technologies It was acknowledged that it management traditional and omni- adopted for hiring would not be practical or practice channels, including purposes, Executive X efficient for the group HR hackathons and social reckoned that the company department to hire and media, in its hiring, mostly used traditional manage the large volume development, and channels involving little of employee relationships management practices. technology. For directly. These functions were aided management and The company would delegate by the presence of the development purposes, the much of the decision- company mobile app. That company’s mobile app making process to the said, the company did not helped carry out such frontline staff, who would actively retain employees, functions. In terms of take charge of the because the company retention, the company businesses on a day-to-day considered that, given the had not adopted any basis. opportunities and training technology in the area per provided, employees would se, in part because the want to continue to serve company believed the company. departing employees would usually not be truthful about their reason for leaving.

Perception of The company did not believe Over the years, the company Executive Y believed the Generations Y that there is a huge did observe some conditions and and Z difference between generational differences. circumstances faced by workers categorized as However, while different generations (e.g., Generation Y or Z and the highlighting that family wealth), as well as earlier generations, except employees belonging to the attitude toward and that younger colleagues Generation Y and Z could values placed on career, would tend to be more show signs of individualism were some key reasons technology savvy. The and inclination toward leading to the presence of company would try to “thinking of what not to generational differences. enable and empower the do,” Executive X believed The company had designed younger colleagues to make such employees could different programs so the the company’s contribute to the success of managers would be more environment be more the company because they accustomed to the innovative. were more technology generational differences savvy and could drive and could design and companies to reduce deploy appropriate human unnecessary processes and capital management and procedures. other strategies accordingly.

Case 1: Executive A

Executive A was a senior corporate development professional, leading that function at a multibillion-dollar home-grown conglomerate with a major presence domestically and in 92

Mainland China. He had worked for the company for about 30 years, first for a few subsidiaries of the firm and then moving up the corporate ladder to become the corporate development leader for the group in the 2000s. With his legal and background, Executive A considered himself an atypical corporate development executive. That said, he believed his exposure to different areas of business in the company and his relationships with colleagues in other departments was conducive to his work. He believed he could perform as a “bridge,” connecting colleagues handing “financial performance and business performance, [as well as those] from the subsidiaries.” In his current capacity, he was responsible for driving innovation, entrepreneurship, and corporate culture.

When asked what drove his decision to join the company about 30 years ago, Executive

A believed it was “by chance.” He highlighted that he had sought additional help from his previous employer, who did not want to support his request, leading to his eventual exit. He claimed that he had never thought about leaving the current company since he began working there about 30 years ago, as he has been “living” in his “second home” during the last decades.

Attitude toward Technology

Among other areas of work, Executive A was responsible for driving innovation in the company. He appeared to welcome new ideas and technologies, based on examples such as his support – or, in his word, “push” – for enterprise resources planning and HR systems. With regard to his attitude toward technologies, on a scale of one to five, with one being extremely unwelcoming and five being extremely welcoming, he gave himself a four (welcoming). He added, “I welcome technology a lot. The point is, only if it’s my ability to cope with it.”

Notwithstanding his reservation about his ability to cope with new technologies,

Executive A’s passion about and belief in technologies was clearly demonstrated during the 93 interview. For instance, he described adoption of technology as bringing about “transformational change” to the business as it would “rewrite the whole way of getting in touch with customers.”

He considered the purchase of certain technologies or HR management programs to be “minor changes.”

The company believed that new technologies had enabled it to obtain more useful information about their customers through the deployment of different tools to create a comprehensive ecosystem that would:

Take care of people from cradle to grave, from wake up to sleep… We’re looking at

people in totality every single second on how we can serve you with all our services and

products and environment. We built everything around you, personalized, so that we can

try to understand you. So, technology, to us, enables us to understand you more.

Executive A added:

Big data, for example, [allow us to] gather all the information about you. We are trying to

gauge you through online, offline modes. And then we analyze you and then we make

use of our built environment, all our services, all our products to circumvent you. And

make sure that you're with us all the time, all day, every single second. And that means

your timeshare, your mind share, and wallet share is ours.

Technology Adoption Procedures

Despite being an advocate of and responsible for adoption of new technologies,

Executive A expressed that different parties were involved in the decision process and decisions were made collectively. Among others, the “boss” is the person in charge of making the call.

Executive A said the “department head has a role to make sure that their practices are up to date, or even the best, competing against other people.” All the functional leaders needed to 94 look after departmental needs and seek opportunities for improvement. While the company did have resources to invest in different programs that could enhance productivity, these department leaders would need to begin the process by coming up with a proposal, which would need to identify the product or service that the department was looking for and clearly define the expected outcome and key performance indicators for the investment. Pros and cons, alternative systems, and cash outflow of the investment were metrics that top management would consider.

In terms of procedures, the proposal would first need to be vetted by the information and technology (IT) department, the technical experts at the company who would evaluate the technological aspects of requested systems. He said, “The visibility, the functionality, the viability… They will advise, whether this technology is good, or is it not good.” He continued,

“they would do an evaluation of the risk and the comparability with the other systems. These are their expertise.”

Then, the main user would need to ensure that other departments that were potential users of the new system would agree with the direction. Executive A said:

Nowadays, most importantly, the system is not just for one, but several departments. It is

cross-departmental, cross-functional. So, in that case, collaboration within and across

departments is much more important nowadays. Even say HR right, it’s not HR doing the

HR thing. It’s everybody’s job, so we have to be our own HR for employee engagement

services. So, we have to really look into who are the audience and stakeholders

concerned.

According to Executive A, the company highly valued such opinions, or the “voices of customers” – both internal and external customers. 95

After getting buy-ins from the IT department and relevant stakeholders, the proposer would need to pitch the idea to the “boss”, who would make the final call. “Boss may not be agreeing, but you have to push hard if you want it,” said Executive A, semi-jokingly. If the proposal to adopt a new system were approved, the finance department would have to be informed, for the amount owed to the provider of the system would be considered a capital expenditure item, for which the cost involved would be spread across its lifespan or be written off in the year of purchase, depending on accounting policy treatments.

Human Capital Management Practices

In terms of hiring practices, Executive A shared that the company would adopt different channels to recruit new people, from the traditional campus recruitment day to using services of

HR consultants, from posting job advertisements to hackathons. “We use a lot of omnichannels in some sense. We try to engage people from all channels here,” he said.

Among others, Executive A shared that the company has developed hiring strategies via its social media platforms: “On hiring, we use a lot of social media. If you can trace back to our earlier recruitment programs, you can see [the company] is very exotic in development with the management trainee recruitment.” The company not only focused on literacy or academic performance but also put much emphasis on personal attributes. Executive A explained:

Academic to us is just a standard byline. We look into the people in terms of how creative

they are, how engaged they are, how expressive they are, how brave they are, how

proactive they are. These are the elements beyond just academic.

Job applicants were encouraged to show their strengths by sharing “a poem, a song, a dance” through social media platforms that would enable the company to have a better sense of them as potential employees. 96

Besides traditional ways of recruiting – such as hiring top college students who have served as interns during their penultimate years as graduate trainees – the company had benefited from organizing hackathons in recent years. According to an article published by McKinsey in

2015, a hackathon was:

An event that pools eager entrepreneurs and software developers into a confined space

for a day or two and challenges them to create a cool killer app. Yet hackathons aren’t

just for the start-up tech crowd. Businesses are employing the same principles to break

through organizational inertia and instill more innovation-driven cultures. (Grijpink et al.,

2015, p. 1)

Executive A believed that hackathons would expose the company to third parties who might come from different walks of life, and these parties might, in turn, bring inspirations and new ideas:

So, if they have good ideas, we may offer them a hiring position or even an investment

[from] here. What we need is not a worker. As I said, we want a change-maker. So, it

comes with an idea of enabling and empowering to make a change with [the company’s]

platform. This the way we attract people.

Executive A believed combining the company’s resources, connectivity, and branding with the vibrant ideas of other people could maximize the company’s benefit: “You don’t want to have competitors competing with us. We’d rather have collaborators.”

For some roles where structured job descriptions could be prepared, the hiring managers and the HR department would work together to prescribe the qualities and qualifications desired in the candidates. At the same time, the company also made room for future growth by having a pool of unstructured hiring or engagements. While some job applicants or entrepreneurs who 97 submit their proposals may not be a best fit for current openings or activities, Executive A shared that the company had adopted the approach where they would, after seeking consensus, retain the information for future opportunities. This, in the view of Executive A, would enrich the of potential employees and allow the company to deploy some “agile” hiring strategies.

While the company’s businesses spanned different sectors, voluntary employee turnover was noticeably higher in one of the new retail businesses, possibly because of the “new model” and the “always moving targets.” According to Executive A, “people came in for their dreams; they left because of the failure to find consensus among themselves, their dimensions, and what

[the company leader] is thinking. So ‘[in Chinese] we part ways because we understand each other.’”

Executive A believed that the company’s salaries, perks, and other material benefits were at roughly the 75th percentile among its peers – in other words, notably higher than average but not at the very top – but considered the generous investments in providing training programs to employees to be the key differentiating factor of the company. Because the company provides ample training opportunities for its employees, Executive A believed such trainings paid for by the company during office hours were a key attribute of the company’s ability to retain its employees.

To this end, the company did not have any active employee retention program in place, and Executive A believed that there are a lot of qualities that would make people want to stay:

Personally, I don’t believe in retention because, after all, [the company] is attractive.

People come, and they retain themselves, rather than we retain them… We buy your

time, buy your heart, buy your mind – but we don't retain you… We are vibrant, [we

have] a lot of opportunities, we have a lot of resources, we are innovative, we are going 98

fast, we are creative, we are engaging people, we are attracting a lot of people with future

mindset, dreams. Some people come to me because of their dreams. You know they are

understanding that [the company] is a good platform for themselves…. Rather than

retaining them, they stay. We don’t proactively retain people.”

Adoption of HR Technologies: A Successful Case

Executive A acknowledged that the company had invested in different systems with a view to enhancing the company’s infrastructure and HR management capabilities. Among others, employees generally appreciated the company mobile app, which was launched in 2016 or 2017. The mobile app hosted a wide range of functions that allowed colleagues to extract necessary information as needed and, at the same time, submit necessary information to supervisors or other departments. Information such as e-learning, staff benefits, staff database, food menu, and other benefits offered to colleagues was readily available on the mobile app.

Meanwhile, annual leave applications, approval for various procedures, reimbursement claims, staff referral programs, and other functions could be done via the mobile app.

Executive A said, “Within this app we have a lot of applications. Including all the approvals, all the leave applications, other calendars, contact points, e-learning, everything in it.”

Amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak in Hong Kong, the company also used the mobile app to collect up-to-date information about colleagues’ health status:

Every single staff has to log into this app and to declare their health status everyday…

And with that, we can certainly gather the data about the [body] temperature, whether if

you have a cold, or do you have any contact with anybody unsafe? Have you been to the

Mainland? Have you been in contact with somebody from the Mainland? 99

All the department leaders would receive an overview of relevant data about their teammates and be notified about special situations that warranted their attention.

Executive A said that, because of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, the company had stopped all in-person training sessions to minimize the risk of infection, but the mobile app has enabled company-wide learning to continue. With built-in materials on the e-learning platform that are accessible through the mobile app, employees could access such materials effortlessly.

Adoption of HR Technologies: A Less Successful Experience

On the other hand, a less successful example related to the planned implementation of a talent management system (TMS). According to Executive A, the idea behind implementing a

TMS was to strengthen the company’s ability to deploy a human capital management solution, whereby, if and when a specific opportunity or task arose, the company could make a quick and informed decision based on information it had collected. He suggested that the company would like to have an overview of employees’ personal attributes, including but not limited to “their ability, their potential, their performance, and their ranking.”

Among other reasons, Executive A noted that the company had a handful of subsidiaries and that the systems they used might not be synchronized with those available at the group level; without a complete set of required information, a synergized strategy based on holistic information was not plausible. He explained:

Our HR system is not totally consolidated with all the subsidiaries. We don’t know how

many good talents with that kind of functionality or personal attributes… So, the [right]

thing to us is actually to consolidate all the HR core systems first. Even your name,

gender, position, pay, basic [matters], right? We don’t have the totality of all the basic

data. So that’d already take years to consolidate. 100

Related to the availability of data was trust in data storage by top executives. Executive A explained that, as the company realized that an overhaul of the TMS would take time, the company did not want to sit still on relevant initiatives. Among others, the company decided to begin implementing a learning management system (LMS), with a view to providing an automated, data-driven, user friendly learning platform. Differentiating it from an e-learning platform, Executive A stressed that it would “engage people to make sure they’re supporting all the learning dimensions and driving their career progression.” With insufficient data on attributes, qualifications, performance, and other areas, implementation would be challenging.

“Without technology, we are gone; with technology, we are at risk. So that’s the dilemma we’re facing,” he added. The company then decided to steer toward adopting an on-premise

LMS, because the “boss back then was not a believer of cloud in their technology. He gave the notion that no cloud solution, [it] must be on premises.” While data fed into the system – which was among the best on-premise solutions at the time of adoption – appeared to be sufficient, with the rapid development and advancement of cloud technologies, the HK$2-3 million investment in the LMS has become “obsolete,” according to Executive A:

[It is] how efforts were wasted. We are moving toward another LMS solutions right now.

So, these are the failures we’re facing. But the culture, the platform, the dimension is

correct; it is the system that is not fitting us. Because…the acceptance of cloud solution

and noncloud solutions. It’s totally upside down.

Listening to Workers

As explained in the technology adoption process, the voices of internal and external customers were highly valued by the company. The company has also established a work improvement team (WIT), allowing colleagues from different areas to join hands voluntarily to 101

“look into different issues, pain points they faced and then try to recommend some colors, innovation, ideas to improve and recommend how we can change the process.” Executive A, as the corporate development leader, would facilitate by providing them with the necessary tools, coaching, and communication platforms and by giving them a platform to present their findings.

While this practice was not set in stone, the company would also provide some rewards for members of the WIT so that they would be “motivated to come together to voice out what they think is the best for the business. And they come together as a group to present something great.”

Professionally, as the key driver of corporate changes in the company, Executive A approached frontline staff as much as practicable to collect views for operational improvement.

The company had a customer committee in place, comprised of functional department heads and highlighted by the participation of operational departments (e.g., sales, , security, customer, office management). The customer committee would gather views from different employees, analyze those inputs, and generate insights and action plans based on the feedback. This customer committee would, based on inputs from frontline staff, create ideas for improvement. The ideas agreed by the committee would be submitted to another innovation committee, led by the company’s leader (the “boss” mentioned in other parts of the interview). If the leader agreed with the idea, “money, endorsement, authority” would be provided and a product committee would be responsible for the execution of the process.

Generation Y and Z Employees

Executive A did not think there were huge differences between workers categorized as

Generation Y or Z and those of previous generations (baby boomers and Generation X), as he believed that “they're coming on board, because we're moving with the age.” While he recognized that different generations have some general characteristics, he believed that by 102 empowering employees and allowing them to do what they were good at, companies would benefit from them regardless of their generation:

While I am a Gen X and am all about working…but the company wants everyone to be

entrepreneurial…so if you can’t adopt entrepreneurial as a concept, you are not getting

into [the company]. That means you really have to be a change-maker.

The company welcomed new ideas and appreciated efforts to cater its products and services to the younger generation. He used an example that happened in the early-2010s, when the company’s website was still relatively “primitive,” with outdated design and style and not optimized for mobile browsing. A group of new graduate trainees was assigned the task of improving the website, a process starting with the identification of pitfalls. Toward the end of the project, the young graduate trainees identified numerous areas to be improved and garnered support from the company leader. Executive A elucidated:

That is a challenge to old people. You’re not going to change it? You’re out... We bring

everybody to the new age… [If] you can’t move, you’re gone. That’s why we everybody

here are moving quite fast.

The company had a rich family history, and its culture went through some changes when the current leader took over the responsibility of managing the company and got the blessing from his predecessor to drive cultural changes. Executive A believed that the company’s culture encouraged employees to push their limits and innovate. He highlighted that his department had many young employees: “They're the ones to try new initiatives [and] I am the one to give direction, enabling and empowerment.”

103

Summary

According to Executive A, the company embraced technology and had ample experience with adopting technologies in various areas. The company had a system in place whereby the main user of a system would need to initiate the process with a proposal and go through several rounds of pitching the process to get funding for the system adoption, with the company leader being the key decisionmaker. While the launch of the company mobile app several years ago was considered a success of technology adoption, the company also had a less successful experience that was due largely to the lack of connectivity among various systems within the company as well as the vision of the company leader (he did not trust the reliability of cloud storage).

Among other areas, the company had adopted technologies in hiring (social media and hackathons), development (learning management system), and management (company mobile app). However, the use of technology for retention appeared to be lacking – which could be partly because of the company’s value. Pointing to the significance of ideas and suggestions for improvements, Executive A showed eagerness to engage with the younger generation and suggested that the new generation would be good fits for the company’s entrepreneurial culture and could contribute to the company’s future development.

Case 2: Executive X

Executive X was a senior executive who had been working at a leading airline operator with a significant presence in Asia for over 40 years. Before recently taking an advisory (i.e., less operations-oriented) role to the chief executive of the company, he had held numerous leadership positions in the HR department, where he was once in charge of the HR operation for the company. Executive X joined the company as an engineering trainee and reached the rank of manager in the engineering department before taking up a similar position in the HR department. 104

Looking back to when he joined the company, he believed what employees looked for in a company was different from now:

In the old days, there was no such consideration of “finding my career.” This was a big

organization, an international company with advanced technology in terms of aero

dynamic or aviation engineering. That is a very attractive...I got a passion to be a part of

the advanced technology [company as a] mechanic, technician [and] at the end of the day

engineer. That is, I think a lot of the engineering students’ dream to join.

Considering the main factors that have kept him with the company for over four decades,

Executive X believed that it was because of the “very collaborative working environment” – in other words, the friendly working environment and the opportunities to collaborate with colleagues with diverse backgrounds.

Attitude Toward Technology

When asked about his attitude toward technology, Executive X expressed that he was

“extremely welcoming” but noted that the company could not be too innovative because it is subject to some rigid regulatory requirements: “In the real life, because [the] organization is old and in the airline industry, the nature of the industry is very operational focused as well as very

[regulated], so we have very specific technologies.”

Looking back to his earlier years in the industry, Executive X flagged that airline companies used to have more incentives to develop their own technologies and systems. He believed that the company had done well in inventing the process, for it had systems in place to handle revenue management, reservations, and operations:

We were very good in this area, and that’s why [I said] we like technology. Without

technology, you cannot do a lot of things because you have to link together with different 105

ports and different countries. You have to send messages in real time to every port, to

every country you operate.

Since the 1990s, companies have begun to focus more on their respective strengths and to purchase services and products from external providers. According to Executive X, it was a time when business leaders were advocating for the ideas of competitive advantage, whereby firms would be advised to: “focus on your core business… do something you do better than the other people… [and] you have to let other people to do other things.” To this end, since the company’s competitive advantage was in delivering airline services, technology was not considered a core function of the company. With some providers being able to produce products and services at a lower cost and with comparable or even seemingly better quality, the company “decided to stop to invest in this technology development” and started “ off-the-shelf” products. This move explained why Executive X believed that there was no apparent differentiation between the technologies adopted in the company versus its peers.

Looking ahead, Executive X believed that technological development would be relevant to simplifying work processes, gathering useful data for the decision-making process, and analyzing data more efficiently to perform better than competitors:

In these coming 5 years, a lot of [technology] development in HR field is mainly focused

on automation, improving productivity, improving pro-activeness of individuals, and

encouraging people to do less. Using a simpler process to do things and to improve self-

service.

The use of dashboards and analytics, such as those involving big data, will become a more common way to expedite the decision-making process. Because such developments would enable managers to deliver their work more easily and effectively, managers would tend to 106 welcome such ideas: “When you mention about some things where you are going to make their life easier and make their colleagues’ life easier, they always welcome.”

While expecting technologies to develop quickly going forward, it is important for companies to consider the achievable goals of adopting technologies. Executive X believed there were two key areas companies should pay attention to as they develop technology-related strategies: enabling people and boosting transparency. “One is to enable people, including simplifying the process, letting them help themselves, let them get all information by themselves, this kind of enablement,” he said. While important information could mean different things to different managers:

If you have analytic there and you can connect the financial system or other important

systems linked together with the HR system, then you can see about the productivity, you

can see about a process, you can see about turnaround time.

Reflecting on the unsuccessful execution of the first attempt of the company-wide mobile app project, Executive X believed that the disconnect between the data and enterprise-wide systems was another issue:

Transparency is one of the very important issues. When I was in the position of [the

company’s HR director], a lot of the initiatives focused on these targets. We implemented

many cloud-based systems in order to get the information back to these common

repositories in HR.

This would allow the company to combine the relevant information with the data required for any systems, be it a financial system or another human capital management system, to retrieve useful information for analytics: 107

Relatively, now it’s easier to put all the information together. That is very important to let

everyone know about the information about the [employees]…. We can use this kind of

connection to build some dashboards for individual managers so they can base on this

information to make their own decisions rather than ask HR to tell you how to do it.

Technology Adoption Procedures

Executive X said the company required end-users to initiate system or technology adoption by coming up with an informed proposal detailing the alternatives and market options:

[You] have to know about what is in the market. Now, it’s easier because those white

papers you can find in Google, but in the old days you were going to ask some suppliers,

ask your IT people to provide you with some white paper, then you’re going to have

some fundamental understanding of what is available in the market. Then, analyze the

need of your organization in terms of [the HR department]…I think the working

relationship is that you work very closely with the IT experts, [as] they are going to tell

you about some basic technology, about how to link people and the system together.

After getting to know the offerings in the market, the company required such users to get the department involved in inviting some vendors to present the different features and specifications of the systems to the company. The business improvement department (BID) that was responsible for cost control on behalf of the management committee would also be involved in compiling a business case and deciding whether the system acquisition would be viable for the company. The management committee, which was made up of top management team members, would then listen to the presentation and decide whether the project warranted the requested resources. If the management committee considered it viable, all the parties mentioned would be involved. Among others, the BID would be held accountable for managing 108 and monitoring the benefit realization progress and would keep track of the realization of the promised benefits as laid out in the proposal.

Human Capital Management Practices

The airline company had two clearly distinct groups of employees – most of them being frontline operational staff, with the others being “back-office staff.” According to Executive X, the company’s HR system had distinctive management processes for the two groups of employees, while different practices would also be applied to the two groups. For hiring frontline operational staff, the company relied on the management committee to come up with an annual establishment, with the assistance of the budget committee:

Say, for example, if the establishment of the cabin crew is [3,000], then whenever there is

[any] retirement or attrition, then it is not necessary for the department to reapply for the

replacement; then, right away, you can hire and the company [would only] control the

overall cost.”

Executive X explained that the same rules would not apply to the hiring of back-office staff:

No matter how – if you want to do some new things, if someone left the company, if you

want to rehire, try to find a replacement – [for] every single case, you have to go through

the management committee to do the application. Then, the management committee

[would] ask you several questions. Say for example, what is the value and the process of

this job, whether technology can replace this job, whether other people [could be] doing it

cheaper and better than us.

The hiring would only be endorsed if the questions raised could be addressed properly. The next step would be to engage the HR department to take forward the hiring procedures, and the hiring 109 team would need to adhere to a control mechanism that was set up to assist the management committee with certain “tedious processes” that could be unique to the airline industry.

The differentiation of practices for the two groups of colleagues was industry specific.

According to Executive X, there were three key metrics that operators in the airline industry had to control: revenue, cost, and headcount. With that in mind, he explained:

Because we believe the more people you get, the more process we will invent and [it

would reduce] the agility of the company…. [Therefore], back office, we try to keep it as

lean as possible. Frontline, because that’s impossible for you to do this calculation or

analytic every time, so we were using a bulk approach to do the approval. [But for] back

office, we control very seriously.

In general, the company would hire through traditional channels. In terms of hiring through the use of social media, Executive X believed the company had not performed exceptionally well:

Occasionally, we will be better, because our management people – they are using a

rotational approach – because most of them are starting from management trainee… They

have already bright ideas, then they can create some kind of very pavilion approach on

the social media. On some occasions, there is a spark you can see.

In other words, it was not the company’s general direction to use social media to attract talent:

“They have mentioned, but have we done sufficient on this area? I don't think so.”

On the other hand, compared to other service industries, Executive X believed that the company has been successful at keeping attrition relatively low, around 9-10%. While there was no formal mechanism to retain its employees, the company had developed various programs to boost the attractiveness of the company’s compensation package for its employees. Among 110 others, the “flexi plan” – a lump-sum credit paid to employees for purchasing medical services, exchanging annual leave, dental coverage, or life insurance – was considered a key benefit. With such autonomy given, together with other perks provided, employees would consider it rewarding and satisfying for them to stay.

While the company did adopt some technologies and systems to aggregate and consolidate the data of employees and candidates, Executive X refused to regard such technologies or systems as “advanced,” though he added that such systems had helped the organization “a lot.” The company utilized HR systems to aggregate, store, and analyze data to make informed decisions:

All the people information will go to this network, and then you develop an analytic that

is a data mine, [and] analyze the brain of all this kind of data. With this kind of

connection, this network together with the analytics, then you can probably hold most of

the people information.”

He thought that HR tools would be quite generic in the market, with hiring tools being confined to certain talent acquisition systems. Key providers offering better connectivity were

“PeopleSoft, Oracle or SAP.”

Considering that a candidate’s information could eventually turn into employee information, the inclusion of such information in the talent acquisition system or recruitment system could be powerful because the company might retain “information about their competency, about their characteristics, about their job experience.” Such information stored in the people management system would be instrumental for human capital development, learning, performance management, and other areas. For the company and its parent company, he said a key focus would be: 111

On succession planning and try to see who we think they are potential people, how we’re

going to make them to be a next generation manager. That includes hiring, development,

promotion, performance management, all linked together. That exactly is philosophy of

people to develop this HR system.

As for retention, Executive X did not appear to agree with the idea that information gathered during exit interviews, as reported by the outgoing employees, would be useful for future reference. From his experience, employees leaving companies tend to provide generic excuses, such as “better career opportunities” and “family reasons,” which would not help drive a solution for the company to avoid future attrition.

For the company, periodic collection of data through seeking opinions from employees could help retain talent, but he added:

Retaining is not an absolute thing, because a healthy organization, some certain

percentage of people are going to go and then you hire new people…. All the way we

have a single-digit attrition. I think that is good, but we try to make it a little bit lower,

because hiring in Hong Kong is very difficult. Even when you hire the rank and file

people – [you need them to have proper] attitude, English [standard] – it is a headache

area to get the right people in the Hong Kong market. As I said, the employee satisfaction

survey and then try using some small quiz to ask their satisfaction level, it did help us a

lot on fine tuning our process.

Adoption of HR Technologies: A Successful Case

Considering that the company had a young pool of employees, Executive X thought that technologies granting employees easier access and a higher degree of convenience would be well-received by its workers. On this basis, he believed that the introduction of the company’s 112 mobile app, as well as the portal that had essentially served as the earlier desktop version of the mobile app, was very valuable to the company and its employees.

Executive X considered the app to be “very useful” and “that is the key part of retention; they have to be able to do it by themselves.” Recognizing that his view might not be consistent with that of other organizations –he had essentially only served one organization throughout his career – Executive X believed these enabling technologies would be very important to the company’s workforce. He explained:

For example, lifestyle, can I swap the duty with other people? How long is it going to

take for you to approve my swap application? Can I swap [the duty with a person] and

then swap-over-swap? These kinds of things are very important.

Realizing the importance of such conveniences to its employees, the company introduced an employee portal in early 2000s. The portal not only provided necessary and useful information for employees, but it also allowed them to directly exchange duties with their peers.

Executive X said:

If they can do this thing by themselves, then I think they will feel that they are useful and

they are powerful, [as they can] control [certain matters] by themselves. Then, their

behavior will be more proactive… Because they felt that their concerns are being

addressed and their needs are being met. That is one of those approaches that allowed

[the company] to put the attrition rate at a relatively low level.

The mobile app had many practical functions. For instance, at the time of writing this thesis, Hong Kong, like many places in the rest of the world, was fighting against the coronavirus outbreak. The mobile app served as an important channel to keep the business running. Employers in both the public and private sectors have made arrangements for their 113 employees; among which, working from home was a common and indeed the recommended approach of the HKSAR government. With the mobile app, employees were provided with instructions to “make remote working work.” Meanwhile, because the company also asked its employees to take certain days of unpaid leave in light of the drastic decline in business demand, such unpaid leave could be applied via the mobile app.

Adoption of HR Technologies: A Less Successful Experience

Executive X strongly believed that the success of technology adoption would be largely through its implementation process. While there might be little differentiation between what a system could offer compared to another, the services, communication effectiveness, engagement activities, and expectations of the internal staff and the service providers would be the significant difference makers. The attempt to launch the first version of the company’s mobile app was suggested as an example of failure. Executive X recalled:

The first app, I think that was a failure. I am not sure how they approached it, but they

tried to put all the things in one app. Then, [the employees in charge] asked the supplier

to help us to do that. The supplier [was] doing just in accordance with what we said and

[was] not providing a very good idea on how to do it.

Besides not providing many valuable inputs and recommendations on how to make the mobile app more appealing to its potential users, the supplier also showed it was incapable of engaging with colleagues at the company:

The system implementation partners, at that time, were not quite helpful on the UAT, the

user acceptance tests. Our colleagues felt very [fed up] because the product [they had]

built was not helping them to do a good work, then they were very worried. They cried, 114

and came to me and said, “If the product is just like this…if I cannot test, if they refuse to

let us to test, then we’re not going to use it.”

As the company investigated the process of how the service provider had approached the tasks, it was found that, in part because of time constraints, the supplier did not follow the procedure of reaching out to all users for feedback. “They just [went for] a high-level user acceptance testing rather than going to every single process to do it,” he explained. Given that the company was looking for high-standard products, after deliberation among managers, the company decided to stop the project.

Listening to Workers

As described by Executive X, the company valued the opinions and suggestions of its colleagues, including both management and front-line staff. To Executive X, a pain point of engaging external service providers was the largely inefficient communication between external and internal stakeholders. He explained:

If you ask some outside vendor to implement some system for you, they may try to speed

up the process and then ignore some of the expectation or some of the requirement from

the user. That is the biggest area [of concern]. Probably it will contribute some negativity

on the acceptancy of the new technology.

At the same time, Executive X explained that by listening to its employees, as well as connecting back-office managers with the frontline staff, the company could benefit from smoother implementation and execution processes. He referred to an incident that occurred about a decade ago, when the company was about to put a new inflight entertainment system in place.

The engineering department was taking the lead without having the cabin crew and other frontline staff involved. He detailed: 115

At that time only engineering department go and do it. After that, then they were going to

launch system in-flight, but then cabin crew didn't know how to use it… That made the

situation very messy, and then we’re going to change process, using a team-based project

team to implement these tasks. Cabin crew is [now part of] the team and then try to

contribute their operational view to the engineering department. The satisfaction [has

become] relatively higher than [the time during the] old implementation [process].

To Executive X, despite the power of technology, the company’s success was largely because of its people and the communication with and among them: company employees were the ones servicing its customers.

Generation Y and Z Employees

Executive X thought there were obvious generational differences between Generation Y and Z employees and those from earlier generations. In a nutshell, while he believed that members of Generations Y and Z would “not quite like to get their hand dirty,” he suggested that they would contribute to the firm’s innovation process through their inclination toward “thinking of what not to do.” Instead of getting more involved in the work process, such as following more experienced “masters” and following the mundane workflow, he believed that Generation Y and

Z employees would be thinking of ways to reduce unnecessary processes and procedures, which could contribute to improving the automation process and reducing operational costs through innovation. He added, “Thinking of what not to do is a kind of automation. I think that is very important as they can contribute a lot of idea; even [only] 1% becomes workable, it contributes a lot to the company.” Acknowledging that this mentality might not be valid at smaller and medium enterprises – likely because of budgetary and resources constraints – it would work 116 ideally for his company “because our people, they have a lot exposure in multinational culture, so relatively is easier.”

Relatedly, he believed that Generation Y and Z employees were generally more technology savvy and could be impatient about the progress made by the company:

[For] most of our young frontline people, they are relatively young because we have a

very big force on providing frontline services. This group of people, they like using the

new technology helping themselves... But, as I said, airline industry, because we are very

operational and very [regulated], [there are] a lot of the things we cannot change.

He added:

Say for example, GD, that is the general declaration of the crew…that [cannot] only [be

done] by the airline per se, you have to collaborate with the regulator, you have to

collaborate with other airport operators. Some of the development will be a little bit

slower. I think the frontline staff members are very hungry. They have no idea [about] the

relationship between the regulator and the other operators. They want to speed up the

process, but the problem is not the difficulty of implementing, not the difficulty of

whether they accept this new technology. In their eyes, probably their employer is a little

bit slow.

Executive X also observed that Generation Y and Z employees have shown signs of being individualists. Looking back to when he was a young colleague at the company, he suggested that he, together with his peers, used to pay much respect to their senior and experienced colleagues: “Today, they (the senior colleagues) expect the junior, young people to respect them like what they respect their old senior, but there is a gap [in expectation].” To

Executive X, individualism among the younger generation of employees has been high, and it 117 appeared to be escalating: “That is probably one of the areas that we, as HR people, have to think about: how to [bring] the two generations’ relationship closer.”

In terms of company practices, the company hired staff devoted to team management functions who would be tasked to manage relationships between colleagues of different generations and functions. “We have a lot of workshops to ask the different generations to sit together,” Executive X shared. Nonetheless, in order to drive a higher level of satisfaction among employees of the younger generations, he highlighted that a higher, faster adoption of technology could be the solution: “If you ask me how to manage the expectation of young generation, I think if you do a lot more automation then they will be happier.”

Summary

According to Executive X, the company had an extremely welcoming attitude toward technology and has adopted different technologies in various business areas. However, he also noted that because in part of industry constraints (e.g., the regulatory environment) as well as the shift in company strategies toward focusing on its competitive advantage in the 1990s – and, therefore, relying on purchasing off-the-shelf systems – the company’s technology level was only on par with its peers. When a business department wished to adopt a new system, it had to initiate the process with a proposal, work together with the IT department, and pitch the idea to the business improvement department and the management committee to seek approval.

The company had talent acquisition and other HR management systems in place. In terms of hiring practices, the company had two distinct systems for frontline and back-office employees, and the hiring and management processes were different for the two groups. In terms of technologies adopted for hiring purposes, Executive X reckoned that the company mostly used traditional channels involving little technology; in terms of retention, the company had not 118 adopted any technology per se. That said, he believed that a higher degree of adoption of technology would indirectly keep the attrition rate low, because employees would enjoy the convenience and feel empowered.

The key success factors in technology adoption were related to communication among and with key stakeholders (launching a thorough user acceptance test or getting all relevant departments involved) and transparency (the transferability of data among systems utilized by the same company). While highlighting that employees belonging to Generations Y and Z could show signs of individualism and inclination toward “thinking of what not to do,” Executive X believed such employees could contribute to the success of the company because they were more technology savvy and could drive companies to reduce unnecessary processes and procedures.

Case 3: Executive Y

Within the Hong Kong business community, Executive Y has been known for his accountability and integrity. He has been a top executive at a multinational conglomerate with business spanning different lines of services, including property development and management as well as other goods and services offered directly to businesses and consumers. The company has established a business presence and relationships across Asia and Europe, with the Greater

China region being a large contributor to its portfolio; it has growing importance and employs about half a million employees. Having been with the company for almost four decades,

Executive Y was at the helm of different streams of operation within the company’s portfolio of subsidiaries and associate companies before taking up a more senior position with the parent company. Along with his business pursuits and other public service commitments, Executive Y has devoted much time and energy to the betterment of the business community and the overall competitiveness of Hong Kong, and he has been advising the HKSAR government on such areas. 119

His current employer has been the only one in Executive Y’s career since he graduated from college. Before he joined the company as a college graduate in the early 1980s, he had received numerous offers and, as he weighed the options before him, he decided to join the company for its potential career development opportunities, contribution to the company, income, and other considerations. He explained that, over time, there had been moments when he had considered leaving the company, given some “enticing offers” presented to him through various channels, but decided to stay for the opportunities with his first and so-far only employer:

I think this company is still giving me many opportunities to continue to develop and also

be promoted. So, over time, even those interesting offers did come in, I just feel that I

have also been able to continue to develop my career in this company with interesting

and different appointments and assignments. Staying with what I know and also being

able to contribute in a field makes me feel quite satisfied and happy, so I didn’t at the end

of the day taking up any of those offers.

Attitude Toward Technology

Executive Y considered himself to be very welcoming to technologies, explaining that the prevalence of digital technology has risen noticeably, especially in the past 5 years, and it would allow the company to optimize business operations and cost structures. He explained:

People having digital devices, people's access to information, and the ability to assess the

customers on a more individual and personalized manner means that we needed to

obviously use technology to be able to personalize our services to each individual

customer to the best that we can. I am not one of those technophobes, but on the other

hand, it is an inevitable thing. You can’t push up the hill, you’ve got to accept that 120

technology is evolving and changing the way that we do things, and we’ve got to adapt

and also use technology to the maximum effect. Also, it reduces the cost of doing

business in many ways. It reduces a lot of the customer analysis, reduces the cost of a lot

of the back office functions, because a lot of service can be actually provided

electronically or run by technology, and it allows us to analyze a lot more data and to use

data analytics to understand our business, our customers better.

Other than the direct business and commercial implications, Executive Y believed that technology could also be adopted as a tool to sharpen the company’s HR practices. He stressed, with information scattered across different platforms not being synchronized and analyzed coherently, it could “take a lot of time to make things happen and it is a lot of bureaucracy we can eliminate” through adopting relevant technologies.

In order to enhance the consistency, reliability, and effectiveness of human capital management tools, Executive Y explained that the company would adopt Workday to help the company obtain and manage data on potential recruits and others:

We use that data to help us, first of all, shortlist candidates for interviews. For people

who are appointed, we develop their careers, we follow on their training, their progress.

Also, we link it up to our staff benefits electronic platforms, their salary platform and all

the others.

This would allow the company to develop profiles of its employees and to identify and analyze them:

You are able to separate people any way you like, by nationality, by gender, by age, by

experience, by education attainment, and you’re able to look at your HR pool and say to 121

yourself what needs to be done with certain individuals or what needs to be done with

certain groups of people and so on. So, there is a lot of data at hand.

Technology Adoption Procedures

According to Executive Y, all the responsible departments lead the technology adoption process by proposing solutions to boost the efficiency of the workflows. Other relevant personnel, such as the IT department and senior management members, are also involved in the process. Making reference to the adoption of Workday, he said, “In fact, we also involve participation of the various HR heads of the different subsidiaries, the chief technology officers and so on. They all have a say because implementation is up to the individual companies.” In addition to internal staff members, Executive Y explained that the company would hire the services of a third-party company to assist with implementation processes.

In the case of the adoption of Workday, it was the HR department that came up with the idea and it had benchmarked itself against the best practices in the market:

Obviously, they are constantly aware of what’s going in the HR world. As these software

suites are constantly being marketed to HR professionals, [our HR department] looked at

how they are performing their roles and what this particular piece of software can do to

change the way and improve the way that they do things, and take a lot of the drudgery

away from their work and speed up what they can.

After submitting a proposal to adopt such a system along with a comparison to several competing platforms, the top management team evaluated the proposal, evaluating “our needs against what these can provide.”

The parameters considered when management assessed and evaluated projects included the cost per employee across the geographies where the company had presence or operations: 122

We also look at [the adoption of such platforms] for our group because we are in all

different geographies, how able they are to provide support to our different subsidiaries in

the different countries would make a huge difference…. Some suites were very powerful

but maybe they are unable to support us or have a very light operation in certain

countries, so it means that they are unable to support people on the ground.

As a result, Executive Y suggested that the company would have to look at support across Asia – where the company’s major operations are located – and how able these service providers could help the firms in those different locations and geographies.

Human Capital Management Practices

With some 500,000 employees across different geographies and natures of business,

Executive Y acknowledged that it would not be practical or efficient for the HR department of the parent company to hire and manage such relationships directly:

The hiring decisions are all up to, first of all, the individual subsidiaries and their own

sub-branches in the different locations. It’s a big tree and at the end of the day, the people

in the frontline make the decision.

He elaborated:

The way that we hire is always a between the HR department and also the

particular employing department. In marketing, if I wanted to hire somebody, I would say

they collaborate with the HR department in terms of trying to source candidates and then

they will be able to, from the candidates that come in, shortlist, interview and then choose

someone. On the other hand, you might have a lot of people whom we need to work in

restaurants as waiters, and again, you need to source a large group of people and then you

train them, develop them and then bring them in and work in restaurant. Then maybe 123

eventually identify those who perform well and promote them to become restaurant

managers, supervisors, and maybe even higher positions.

During the interview, Executive Y showed that the company would delegate much of the decision-making process to the frontline staff who would be in charge of the businesses on a day- to-day basis. Specifically, he refuted the idea that headquarters would set any limits or guidelines as to the number of staff in certain businesses or branches:

It is very hard for our head office to be able to say to a subsidiary that “You have hired

too many” or “You have hired too few,” because when you’re looking across a large

number of different businesses, why would we have more expertise than the people who

are living and breathing their business every day?

With that being said, the company would have several ways to monitor and evaluate the

HR process and needs of its subsidiaries and associate companies. For instance, it would benchmark them against the peers of comparable nature – in terms of the size of staff, for example – so the argument of having too many or too few employees could be rationalized.

Secondly, the company would review the return on capital of the business: “We invest a certain amount of money in each business and then we look at what is the return that we get. In order to deliver the return, all of these businesses essentially have to right-size their staff.” He opined:

If they have hired too many employees, then that means that the cost rate is too high, the

profits are not good enough and the returns are low against their peer sets. There is an

industry performance metric, and staff costs are a very important component of the cost

base, which will affect their profitability.

Other metrics, such as the customer satisfaction index (CSI) score, would also be considered and compared against those obtained by industry peers. He explained: 124

If you hire too few people, we are unlikely to be able to have happy customers…. That

will give you an indication of whether you’ve hired, first of all, the right number of

people, or whether you’ve hired and trained them appropriately, or whether you’re

managing them correctly.

Taking CSI scores as an example, Executive Y believed that it would be useful for the company to evaluate not only customer satisfaction per se, but also the implications behind it, including the size of and training for staff:

There is always a whole host of metrics that you need to delve into to understand what is

it that is causing customers to be happy or not happy, and that will give you an indicator

of whether you are hiring the right number of people or the wrong number of people, the

right kind of people or the wrong kind of people, or where you have gone right or where

you have gone wrong.

While technology could be utilized to facilitate training and learning in certain areas,

Executive Y believed that some in-person training sessions would still be required, including some soft skills (e.g., manners) and services training (e.g., bussing a table):

With technology, what we are doing is a lot more on the onboarding training. It used to

be you gather people in one room and have someone lecture them about the company’s

history, background, benefits, what you are entitled to, what are the labor laws and so on.

But now with technology…when they are recruited and accepted as employee, they can

just get already on their smartphones, videos that tell them about, again, what are their

entitlements, what the leave policy is, and welcome to the company, in terms of the

history of the company or background of the company, what expectations are. There are a

lot of things that can be done when it is a one direction kind of communication. 125

As with employee retention, Executive Y believed that the company would first look into data in relation to previous cases of employee turnover and, from there, identify areas where improvements could be sought. He elucidated:

So as long as the input data is correct, we will be able to give you a picture of why people

are leaving and are there dangerous signals…. There are many ways to understand that

information and you can then, through this feedback, and improve what you do.

Recognizing human capital as a key profit driver for the company, it would review its human capital strategies on a semiannual basis. Executive Y suggested:

In most cases, our most important asset, and the right people can make a lot of difference

to the company. Half a year means we always have a fixed review of our hiring practices

or retention practices and of our key people. We always review who they are, what their

progress is, any issues with the key people, and again, we will review it to make sure we

retain the good talent or the people developing the raw talent. So, we always keep on

doing that because the more competitive our people are; and the happier they are with the

company, the better they are able to perform their jobs, serve the customers and

eventually make more profits for us.

Adoption of HR Technologies: A Successful Case

Executive Y explained that the recent adoption of Workday has been successful and was expected to contribute much to the company’s future, for it could enable the aggregation of data and the deployment of a more coherent and consistent human capital strategy. With necessary and useful employee data stored in the system, it the company could evaluate the importance and contribution of the employees to the company: 126

Adjusting salaries would be, again, very easy in the future; approvals, who can approve

what, again, electronically on-the-go when using mobile devices. In the past, or even

currently, since they are transitioning right now, all of it uses a huge amount of paper. For

example, to do the annual appraisal of someone like yourself. You are going to sit down,

you are going to bring up the objectives, you are going to review what their achievements

were, and then you are going to put it in the system. Someone then copies it, puts it in

their personal file.

With all the important information stored electronically and properly synchronized across various systems, managers would be able to make objective HR-related decisions (e.g., bonuses, promotions, and salary adjustments) based on the institutional memories of subordinates (e.g., appraisals, achievements, and qualifications); efficiencies would be enhanced by removing unnecessary transaction costs and moving from pen-and-paper to an electronic system.

Executive Y believed that it would be constructive and cost effective for the company to invest in a system that has been designed and managed by external parties, given the reliability of the backend technology designed and the dependable after-sales service provided:

These suites of software are basically all joined up and linked up and they use one

common database; and that is the power of it. Someone has actually designed this, and it

makes sense to actually buy this kind of software and buy the licenses so that you are

able to take advantage of the whole suite, which is all interconnected, integrated, and

someone is going to be able to constantly update and fix the bugs.

Adoption of HR Technologies: A Less Successful Case

Reflecting on the successful implementation of Workday and how it could be beneficial to the company, Executive Y noted the successful application of data analytics depended on the 127 interconnectedness of data. He therefore believed that there could be room for improvement against the previous piecemeal approach to technology adoption:

In the past, we would do it more in a sort of piecemeal basis because [implementing

useful systems] seemed like a good idea. Obviously, everyone runs some kind of

system to begin with, and payroll systems basically, it is inputting your salary, your

bonus, your overtime payments for the frontline stuff. This is a discrete piece of software,

but it only does payroll and also kept computer annual and so on.

Because the company had decided to allow employees to apply for annual leave electronically, another discrete piece of software was implemented to serve that function; in addition, there were other systems in place that served other functions such as approval for entertainment expenses. He commented on the resulting lower degree of convenience and efficiency:

There are all different lumps there and they are built to solve a particular problem to

reduce bureaucracy or to speed up processing. But they are not integrated, so they are in

separate databases and they have their certain functions.

Listening to Workers

The fact that the company had delegated the decision-making process to the frontline staff and leaders at the subsidiary level illustrated how it would listen to its workers. This quality was also highlighted by how the company would tackle matters relating to employee retention, where the company would not focus on the past data, and how the company would refer to previous experience and proactively make necessary arrangements for valued employees.

Executive Y explained that the company believed that there was a certain degree of predictability to attrition: “For example, you can see that in the past, people who worked five years and they have no promotions or no changes in jobs, they will leave.” Noting elements such 128 as the approximate timeframe (e.g., 5 years) and considerations (e.g., promotion, change in job nature), the company could strategize and prepare necessary actions for such talent:

You can ask yourself, “For all people who have worked for 5 years in the company, 4

years have gone by already and they are coming up to their fifth year, who are the really

good talent that you really want to retain?” Maybe we want to give them job rotation,

maybe we want to give them a change of workplace, something to keep them interested

or engaged, as long as they are ones we want to retain. So, we are able to sort of predict

some of the things that might cause people to think about leaving and using this

understanding and insight to pre-empt people thinking about departure.

He showed that a key channel of soliciting such raw inputs was the exit interviews, where employees leaving the company could provide honest feedback. An important requirement for this process to thrive and contribute to the company’s institution memory would be the trust between the departing employees and the HR manager:

A good HR manager will be able to get the employees on their side, and they will think

that the HR manager is a friend of the employee, not necessarily someone who is working

with the big boss and against them. So good HR managers should always be able to

obtain the trust of their colleagues. I think in order to be able to obtain that information,

there has to be some trust, and the HR department has to be projecting themselves as a

friend of the employee and the employee has to trust the HR people well enough that they

know what they say will not be directly fed back to the people who they are saying it

against.

129

Generation Y and Z Employees

Executive Y believed the conditions and circumstances faced by different generations, as well as the attitude toward and values placed on career, were some key reasons leading to the presence of generational differences:

It is a form of gradation. I am more in the baby boomer sort of category, and the work

ethic is, I think, probably different because perhaps people grow up under different

circumstances and cultural expectations and norms. The baby boomers grew up in a

society where loyalty is highly valued, where big corporations dominated the jobscape

and everyone wants to become an employee of IBM or any employee of HSBC and have

a job for life. Promotions, career ladders, or they want to be professional like a doctor and

then they rise. So, there are certain norms, education norms and cultural norms that

reflect that generation. These people work very hard, they are very corporate people –

they toe the line – and then they rise up in their professions. This is what happens in sort

of baby boom type generations, and they think nothing of putting in a lot of hours, very

long hours because that is the expectation.

Facing better living conditions and circumstances as they grew up, Executive Y believed that some of these workers in Generations X, Y, and Z might not feel that there was “an obligation to earn money.” With more family wealth and encouragement from parents to fulfill their dreams, workers of these generations could develop a mindset that could differ from that of the previous generation:

They don't necessarily subscribe to the thought of a kind of career on the paddlewheel

[where] you are always trying to run up the hill, compete against people. Some of them

actually have personal wishes, which their parents more and more encourage them to 130

fulfill. So their willingness to work long hours, their willingness to follow discipline,

their willingness to sacrifice the immediate and the now for a longer term benefit is very

different. This is how they are, and this is because the cultural expectations and norms

that they live under is very, very different.

Given its large workforce, the company would inevitably have many employees of

Generations X, Y and Z. The company has designed different programs so managers would be more accustomed to the generational differences:

The way you manage [the employees] and motivate them has to be different because they

don't get motivated by just more money. They do not get motivated by “You can be the

boss in 10 years’ time;” some of them obviously are still interested in that, but a lot of

them are not, and very few of them want to have a lifelong career. In fact, more and more

of the Y’s and Z’s, they don’t want to stay in a company for 20-30 years. They want to do

a few years, they want to do something else, they want to do their own thing, and then

they come back in the company again. We just have to accept and also have our own

recruitment and retention policies and benefits policies revolve around people who might

eventually come in and out of the company every few years.

Summary

The company has adopted a welcoming attitude toward technology. In the area of human capital management, the company has had various experiences with technology adoption, though such systems were more often adopted on a piecemeal basis. That said, the company was integrating Workplace as its company-wide people management system with the aim of enhancing the interconnectedness of data, which would allow managers to have more insight into the company’s skills and talent map. With the new platform, the company was expecting a better 131 human capital development plan and management process for the hiring, management, development, and retention of employees. HR management platforms equipped with better technologies could help the company with some, but not all, procedures and areas. For instance, while it was believed that technology could help the company with certain training modules, those confined to one-directional communication such as dissemination of messages by the company, the company would still provide different in-person trainings for its employees (e.g., soft skills and manners).

The company has tended to allow employees at the frontline, subsidiaries, and associated companies to make the call on various decisions, including those involving human capital management and technology adoption. In the area of technology adoption, all the responsible departments would work with the IT department, senior management members, and third-party implementation consultants.

Executive Y believed the conditions and circumstances faced by different generations

(e.g., family wealth), as well as the attitude toward and values placed on career, were some key reasons leading to generational differences. Given that the large workforce of the company would inevitably involve many employees of Generations X, Y, and Z, the company has designed different programs so managers would be more accustomed to generational differences and could design and deploy appropriate human capital management and other strategies.

Conclusion

This chapter detailed salient points from interviews with three senior executives working for large corporations with a large operational presence in Hong Kong. The three executives believed that their companies have adopted a welcoming attitude toward technologies, and they believed their use would permit company management to adopt a more information-led approach 132 to decision making. Subject to defined approval-seeking procedures in their companies, all of them had adopted some technology into their human capital management process.

Notwithstanding the availability of such systems, a more holistic adoption with emphasis on interdatabase linkages appeared to have only emerged in recent years, which could be a result of the lessons from previous less-successful attempts. This conclusion could be drawn from the fact that the interviewed companies have identified that the piecemeal approach toward technology adoption in the past resulted in inconsistency and nontransferable data.

In terms of human capital procedures, the three companies have adopted very different approaches. At the company where Executive A worked, new hiring procedures would have to be initiated by the hiring department, negotiated with HR, and granted by the top leader; omnichannels (hackathons, social media, traditional job postings) were adopted to entice people with different skillsets to join the company; employee retention appeared to not be a priority for the company because it believed that it had provided good access to resources (training and branding) and returns (salaries and perks) to its employees. At the company where Executive X worked, the human capital management functions for frontline (airline crew members) and back- office (HR management) staff were subject to different evaluation processes and tools. While the management team had some centralized power in human resources planning, a traditional way of hiring was maintained as the key channel and employee retention was conducted mostly through enablement (e.g., by providing them with flexibility) and empowerment. The company where

Executive Y worked believed that the employees running the business would know the business better, so it delegated HR-related decision-making power to frontline colleagues and subsidiaries, with such decisions subject to review (e.g., peer comparison). Although this was not covered in the interview, separate research found that the company’s hiring strategy was to use 133 traditional postings, and perhaps increasingly use social media. Reviewing its human capital strategy on a semiannual basis, the company employed a proactive approach to employee retention by understanding the needs of employees through previous experience and designed relevant programs catering to the demands of valued employees.

The findings of this chapter also highlight that the companies have had different experiences with employees belonging to different age groups or generations. In this regard, all three companies have designed and deployed strategies to maximize the strengths of employees of the newer generations and to minimize any friction that differences might present.

134

Chapter 5: Discussion of Research Findings

Companies around the world have been competing for the talent they need to drive their success by designing and deploying efficient and effective human capital management strategies

(Bhalla et al., 2018; Michaels et al., 2001; Samuel & Chipunza, 2009). With rapid technological improvements, more, and arguably better, technology-enabled platforms have emerged as tools for companies to enhance their human capital management practices (Anderson et al., 2015; Ho,

2017; MichaelPage, 2017; Pettey, 2017; Segal et al., 2014; Teng, 2007; Wellins et al., n.d.).

Based on my interaction with senior executives, the lingering tight labor market conditions

(Atsmon et al., 2012; Cieri & Bardoel, 2009; Leopold et al., 2018) and differences between the previous and new generations of workers (Gallup, 2016; Reuters, 2018) have been identified as some of the key talent-related challenges for employers in Hong Kong.

Chapter 4 detailed four major themes that emerged from interviews with top executives in three major multinational corporations with a significant presence in Hong Kong. The four key areas with notable findings are: (a) attitude toward technology, (b) technology adoption procedures, (c) human capital management practices, and (d) perceptions of members of

Generations Y and Z.

This chapter discusses findings from the cases involving Executives A, X, and Y and then relates these findings to the theoretical framework and literature review. It elaborates on limitations and recommendations for further study before closing with a concluding statement.

Discussion of Key Findings from the Interviews

The central question of this study was: How are large MNCs using emerging HR technologies to hire, manage, develop, and retain employees? This dissertation also studied how the adoption of emerging HR technologies could help companies mitigate the risks associated 135 with employee attrition. Four key findings emerged from interviews with senior executives at three multibillion-dollar firms with a significant presence in Hong Kong: (a) adoption of technologies in companies, (b) technology adoption procedures, (c) use of technologies in human capital management practices, and (d) perceptions of the new generations of workers.

Adoption of Technologies in Companies

It was common for the interviewees to show that their companies had adopted technologies in the HR process, but it was generally their opinion that such technologies were not very advanced. All interviewees shared the view that such technologies, platforms, or systems have existed for a while, but their usage had often been piecemeal – such as purchasing a payroll system (Executive Y) or learning management system (Executive A) before conforming to a more holistic approach. In general, technologies were considered and described as helpful for aggregating data about customers and potential or existing employees, and the success of such technologies would usually hinge on their connectivity with different systems.

All three companies have (employers of Executives A and X) or would soon have

(employer of Executive Y) adopted a platform that could be considered a depository and disseminator of information for their companies. All interviewed executives considered such technology-enabled platforms to be useful for their companies’ hiring, development, and management because they would aggregate data and allow companies to locate needed talent more effectively. All interviewees believed that the effectiveness and usefulness of such technology-enabled systems depended on the data input. According to the interviewees, if different databases and systems were connected, with data transferable from one system to another, the system would tend to be more welcomed by companies and employees.

136

Technology Adoption Procedures

All the interviewees’ companies had some form of technology adoption procedures in place. Key users of any platforms or technologies would initiate the application process by providing proposals to adopt them, while the IT department would usually be the technical expert and execution party that would play a supportive role. While Executive A showed that the company’s decision would rely on the “boss,” Executives X and Y both shared that their companies would focus more on the procedures set out for such purposes, including involving the IT department and getting approval from top management.

Use of Technologies in Human Capital Management Practices

Based on the interviews, the companies’ belief in and their use of technologies in relation to employee retention was neither unified nor conclusive. While the interviewees’ companies have all utilized technologies for employee hiring, management, and development, the executives had diverging opinions about how their employers would approach employee retention practices. For instance, Executive A believed that his company would not need to retain employees proactively because it has been an established leader in the business that provides training and perks to employees. From a slightly different angle, Executive X suggested that the best employee retention approach was to empower staff members and streamline tedious procedures for them, while noting that opinions offered by departing employees had not been useful for future references. In contrast, Executive Y was optimistic about departing employees being honest with the HR manager about their reason for leaving, and he believed such insights would be valuable to the company at large because they could prevent it from losing valued employees to competitors in the future for the same reasons. Therefore, Executive Y believed it 137 would be useful for the company’s retention practices if the opinions of departing employees could be stored and aggregated in the company’s database.

All interviewed executives indicated that their companies had been (Executives A and X) or would soon be (Executive Y) using mobile apps catering to the needs and convenience of their employees. While the layout of such mobile apps varied from one firm to another, the functions and information available on such platforms would be similar, including employee benefit entitlement, leave and approval applications, and expense claim procedures. All interviewees believed that the adoption of such platforms was conforming to changing everyday behavior, because people are generally spending more time on their mobile devices.

A common pain point in technology adoption appeared to be the synchronization of data.

With some of their firms’ systems being considered obsolete, all interviewed executives held the view that it would be necessary for companies to design and possess a set of data that was commonly shared across the organization for any advanced technology to become effective.

Perceptions of the New Generations of Workers

Regarding generational differences, all interviewees believed that their companies had appropriate plans to address them. According to Executive Y, who noted that the rise of family wealth could be a reason for changing attitudes among younger employees, the company has been providing necessary training for their managers to equip them with adequate knowledge and understanding to tackle such issues. Meanwhile, Executive X believed that because the company has been constantly hiring a certain number of fresh graduates every year, the company was kept abreast of new trends on the best way to manage such employees. According to

Executive X, the airline operator asserted that companies could benefit from empowering their employees by getting higher satisfaction and lower voluntary turnover. The company has 138 attempted to finesse its intranet and mobile app platforms to help address the individualism and inclination of younger employees, given their appreciation of autonomy and empowerment.

Executive A explained that the company expected all employees to be entrepreneurial, and therefore did not approach employees of different generations with different attitudes. That said,

Executive A expected that, because younger colleagues would tend to be more technology savvy, the company would try to enable and empower them to lead the company’s environment toward being more innovative.

Discussion of Findings in Relation to the Theoretical Framework

The diffusion of innovations theory elucidates how innovations are adopted by a group of people or society (LaMorte, 2018; Rogers, 2003; Simpson & Clifton, 2017). As a long-standing theoretical framework, the diffusion of innovations theory makes three distinct contributions in the area of social change: (a) defining the attributes of successful innovation adoption, (b) highlighting the significance of networks and peer-to-peer communications, and (c) comprehending different needs of various user segments. Rogers (2003) believed that innovations would be adopted by individuals within society at different times, while Infante et al.

(1997) suggested that the presence of change agents, who could influence the decisions of opinion leaders, was important in the innovation adoption process. The suggestions of the diffusion of innovations theory resonate with the findings of this study.

The Attributes of Successful Innovation Adoption

From the interviews, executives at large corporations observed that there had been a few important elements of successful innovation adoption, including seeking buy-in from responsible parties, establishing trust between the technology implementer and the employees concerned, and an appropriate degree of transferability and usability of data across different systems. 139

It was a common practice for the interviewees’ companies to require the responsible departments to initiate the technology adoption process by putting together a proposal. This indicated that getting buy-in from parties responsible for such technical areas (e.g., HR, finance, marketing, economic analysis) would be essential to generating the needed attention, paving the way to a higher degree of technology adoption.

Executives X and Y stated that third-party assistance would often be sought for any implementation process. As specifically highlighted by Executive X’s unsuccessful experience, it was essential to establish trust between the employees concerned and the technology implementer for successful adoption of new technologies. This involved creating mutual expectations between the frontline staff, who are the day-to-day users of such platforms, and the technology implementer, maintaining a consistent and frequent communication channel throughout the implementation process, and seeking agreement and approval through such mechanisms as the user acceptance test.

The transferability and usability of data across different systems was an element commonly highlighted as important by all interviewed executives. They clearly preferred systems that would enable the management team to conduct holistic analysis of the company.

Although they had different experiences with technology adoption, the piecemeal approach toward such initiatives and the inability to apply relevant data across various systems led them to be eventually replaced by platforms that allowed data transfers and analysis with ease.

Networks and Peer-to-peer Communications

All interviewees shared a similar message: responsible officers of different departments would be required to understand the best practices in their specialized fields (e.g., HR, marketing, finance). To this end, regular exchanges of information between the parent company 140 and its subsidiaries, as well as between practitioners in the same field across different companies, were a key channel for promoting the availability, strengths, and weaknesses of any innovation.

To grasp the opportunities via strengthening peer-to-peer communications, vendors could consider being present and providing shareable materials to key opinion leaders in the field when opportunities arise.

Different Needs of Various User Segments

The responsible departments would be unlikely to be able to decide on purchases single- handedly because the established procedures required cross-departmental collaboration. For instance, the IT department would generally be considered as the technology experts and the coordinator of the implementation process, while investment in such platforms would have to be endorsed by management and a regular review mechanism would need to be in place to evaluate the effectiveness (the return on investment). Therefore, it would be necessary for vendors to facilitate communication between key users and other internal collaborators.

Discussion of Findings in Relation to the Literature Review

Mapping the key overlaps and differences observed between findings from the literature review and the interviews, the following emerged as areas with notable differences or consensus: the importance of talent, technology adoption in large corporations, emphasis on data quality, and attitude toward employee retention.

Importance of Talent

Michaels et al. (2001) found that while a clear majority of top executives would acknowledge the importance of talent, few of them believed their company practices had catered to the need. Similarly, Charan et al. (2018) argued that most top executives have not yet spent enough effort on identifying and engaging with top performers in their companies. While it was 141 generally agreed that there was no one-size-fits-all approach to effective human capital management, a constructive employee experience driven by appropriate strategies and swift actions by a strategic human resources management team would be useful (Accenture, 2018;

Andrianova et al., 2018; Dhingra et al., 2018). In this regard, all three interviewees’ companies were listening to the demands of employees and reacting to them accordingly; among the three, the employer of Executive Y appeared to review such strategies most frequently (semiannually).

Technology Adoption in Large Corporations

With regard to technology adoption in large corporations, the findings from the literature review resonated with trends identified and practices adopted by the interviewees’ employers.

Technological advances have been considered conducive to enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of human capital management, with Michaels et al. (2001) suggesting that data-driven analytics would become increasingly important. Schroeck et al. (2013) reported that a higher percentage of companies had attributed their competitive advantages over their peers to the use of information and analytics. LaValle et al. (2010) found that top-performing companies were more likely to use analytics in a sophisticated way. Along the same line, Bersin (2017) predicted that the emergence of technologies such as big data analytics would reinvent companies’ operation and management models.

Realizing the positive contribution of better technology-enabled analytics to their organizations, large firms and government agencies have tended to adopt advanced technologies to boost employee development (The Office of Personnel Management, n.d.). Charan et al.

(2018) considered it necessary for firms to ride on the abundance of data to review and consider new business and talent strategies from time to time. All three interviewees suggested that their companies would consider the proliferation of datapoints driven by technology-enabled 142 platforms to be important to their operation. At the same time, in accordance with the technology-adoption timeline shown by Bersin (2017), all three interviewees’ companies appeared to be in the fourth (the most updated) phase. The companies stressed the interconnectivity of different databases and collaboration among teams, which would allow teams and networks to make collaboration more efficient by using technology-enabled platforms.

Emphasis on Data Quality

While LaValle et al. (2011) found that only one in five executives considered data quality to be one of the top three issues about analytics, all three interviewees cited this as a key area of concern. As explained by the interviewees, what they appreciated about the existing platforms was their connectivity and usability – the data would not be stored in a separate location and banned from being transferred and used in another system. In fact, all three executives referred to their previous experience with adopting standalone systems on a piecemeal basis as unsuccessful, if not disappointing.

Attitude Toward Employee Retention

Chambers et al. (1998) and Kahn (1990) both suggested that, in order to keep employees with a company, they would need to receive attention. According to Tseng (2010) and others who have studied Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Bobic and Davis, 2003; Udechukwu, 2009;

Ugah and Arua, 2011), addressing employees’ needs would affect employees’ work behaviors, keep them satisfied, and boost retention rates. In this regard, the interviewees’ attitude was aligned with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. They would try to satisfy the employees’ needs so they would not want to leave; however, they had adopted slightly varying attitudes toward retention. In Executive A’s case, because the company provided employees with such rewards and benefits as abundant training sessions and decent salaries, he believed there was little need 143 for a retention policy; no specific policy was identified from the interview. Executive X believed that the most efficient retention method was to provide employees with a needed platform to handle administrative work with ease. While there would be an exit interview for departing employees, Executive X believed that such interviews were not of much importance or relevance because these departing employees would refrain from speaking the truth. At Executive Y’s employer, certain trends had been identified from past experiences, and the company had started engaging the valued employees actively and keeping track of their progress to ensure that they were motivated and would not consider leaving the company. The company believed that employees’ opinions – even those of departing employees – would be very relevant to the company’s operation as inputs for both backward-looking (review) and forward-looking

(prediction) purposes, and that it would be conducive to the stability and growth of the company if there could be trust between employees. This echoed Kahn (1990).

Limitations and Recommendations for Further Study

This multiple-case study was meaningful to me but had limitations in scope. First and foremost, while the experience of the interviewees allowed me to draw some cross-company comparisons, one must remember that findings of these cases should not be generalized. Because readers could draw very different conclusions from various cases, it would be conducive to the academic literature if more cases conducted in similar fashion could be produced. This could broaden the application of the theoretical framework and provide more opportunities to assess the utility of these findings.

While the opportunity to have in-depth interviews with key executives at three large

MNCs with different backgrounds in Hong Kong on the same topic was invaluable, the scope could be expanded even further to cover more companies. For instance, while this study focused 144 on the adoption of technologies in large firms that would presumably have more resources for that purpose, readers who care about such trends in Hong Kong could benefit from a study that covered smaller and medium sized enterprises, for those represent some 98% of business establishments and almost half of the employment in the city. Similarly, given that Hong Kong is an international financial and business center for not only local and international firms but also for firms with Mainland Chinese background, extending the scope to cover such companies with presence in the city could add value to the literature. If this research approach is considered applicable, expanding it geographically to Mainland China, which ranked 14th among the 129 economies covered in the Global Innovation Index prepared by the World Intellectual Property

Organization (2019), could contribute to the literature as well.

Another dimension could be related to the diversity of the interviewees. All of the interviewed top executives at three different firms were men in their 50s or 60s who had worked for their firms for no less than 25 years. While it was the purpose of this study to have interviewees having worked for their current companies for no less than 2 years, expanding the interviewee mix in a further study could yield different perspectives.

Implications for Practice

Although all cases and companies are unique, the experiences of the interviewees’ companies may be relevant to similar MNCs. The four key findings that emerged from this study can have different implications for company executives.

Adoption of Technologies in Companies

Company executives considering the adoption of technologies in the HR process may want to be aware that, instead of taking a piecemeal approach and purchasing software serving a single purpose, the interviewees’ firms have appreciated systems that allow them to have a 145 holistic view of employee data. With the added ability to aggregate data relating to customers and employees, the findings suggest that firms can deploy relevant strategies efficiently.

Technology Adoption Procedures

Because the interviewees’ companies all have some form of technology adoption procedures in place, other practitioners may want to be sure that similar practices were designed in their companies to minimize risks and demand accountability. On top of the users, the IT department is commonly involved in a supporting role as the technical expert and execution party. Practitioners need to consider who should be the person (e.g., a top executive) or group of people (e.g., a management committee) that makes the ultimate call on technology adoption.

Use of Technologies in Human Capital Management Practices

Practitioners may wish to note that while utilizing technologies in hiring, managing, and developing employees is common, there was less consensus that using technology leads to better employee retention outcomes. A couple of interviewees identified the use of online platforms

(e.g., mobile apps) as a possible direct or indirect channel to boost the retention rate, and this relationship may be worth exploring in the future. With all of the interviews conducted between

February and March 2020 – a period highlighted by the coronavirus disease outbreak – companies highlighted that technologies were instrumental in some HR practices, including but not limited to onboarding and training functions. Against this background, practitioners may consider the interviewees’ successful experiences in their technology adoption journey.

Perceptions of the New Generations of Workers

Practitioners will need to establish appropriate plans for addressing the emerging new generation of workers. With differences in expectations and work attitudes between different generations of workers, practitioners may wish to provide necessary training for their managers 146 to equip them with adequate knowledge and understanding to tackle issues that may arise. On the other hand, practitioners should also make good use of the talent, such as technology savviness and creativity, of these employees as they ride on the emergence of technology.

Reflection

This research process was challenging in nature but rewarding in return. That said, one should never expect writing a doctoral thesis to be easy: there are many steps to follow and execute before reaching the final result. From coming up with a topic and framing the first proposal to identifying interviewees and preparing research findings and conclusions, the process involved years of an iterative process. To this end, I am grateful for the encouragement, guidance, and support of my advisor, Dr. Kelly Conn, who prevented me from giving up on the completion of this study. The rigorous research process has also helped me in two specific areas, namely improvement of time management skills and framing of research subjects.

Improvement of Time Management Skills

Through the process of completing this research, I have benefited tremendously from the experience by improving my time management, which can be separated into personal and professional aspects. From a personal perspective, with a demanding full-time job and a family with two young children, the research process required me to excel in prioritizing tasks and managing time effectively. Many unnecessary activities were eliminated as much as practicable during the final year of the research process; at times, this meant that I would have to give up on opportunities for career advancement or family trips, but the joy and satisfaction from the completion of this work should make up for those opportunities.

From a professional perspective, this process required much preparation at each stage, which has trained me to become more organized for work. Among others things, to overcome challenges faced at the literature review stage (resulting from underestimating the time required 147 for the process), I had to set a target of completing five journal articles every week to continue progress with the dissertation, however slowly. I have adopted a similar practice in my professional capacity since then: a to-do list is now being set up on a weekly basis and I closely follow the list to establish clear priorities at work.

Improvement of Research Subject Framing

While I have been an economic and policy researcher for much of my career, this is the first piece of rigorous academic research I have conducted. With the guidance of my advisor, constructive comments from readers, and insights offered by the interviewees, I believe my research skills have been greatly improved through the journey of this study.

Specifically, through the need to articulate research findings around the theoretical framework, I understand the need and virtue of having a concrete research framework. Noting that such frameworks are adopted and criticized by different academics over time, the ones that remain relevant should possess a proven ability to dissect issues relating to certain fields. The diffusion of innovations theory adopted for this study, for instance, is an invaluable theoretical framework for explaining how innovations are adopted in a society and the importance of peer- to-peer communication.

Concluding Statements

The primary purpose of this study was to explore the adoption experience of HR technology by top managers, specifically those working for multibillion-dollar corporations with significant operations in Hong Kong that hire, manage, develop, and retain employees. This was attained by capturing feedback from senior executives working for such companies on relevant matters. Key elements of the successful incorporation of technologies in companies included constant and effective communications with both internal and external stakeholders, the presence 148 of a technology-welcoming environment, and the ability to consolidate data inputs from different sources and systems.

By adopting descriptive phenomenology in this multiple-case study, I found that interviewed executives revealed that their employers paid much attention to their employees, while they showed different approaches and attitudes toward hiring, management, development, and retention. I discovered that the senior executives involved in this study generally saw the importance of technologies to their employers’ business and HR practices. They also revealed that the applicability and usability of technologies hinged on the comprehensiveness and transferability of data. Effective communications among stakeholders, both internally within the company and externally with service providers, was of high importance.

While it was highlighted in the literature review that technology has had a meaningful impact on businesses, the interviewed executives suggested that companies would have to go through established procedures and address questions and queries from relevant parties before certain technologies could be adopted. Because a rigorous selection process would usually be involved, survivor bias could be present as the less competitive technologies might have been screened out (Schwartz, 2011; Turcan et al., 2010).

The corporate executives identified that a mechanism was in place if any type of new technology was to be purchased and utilized by their organizations. While Executive Y’s employer would delegate more decision-making power to its frontline staff and Executive X’s employer would give the management team more decision power than the others, Executive A shared that the “boss” would make key decisions. While a conclusive set of findings might not be drawn from this study, a company’s background (local vs. international), structure (flat vs. hierarchical), management beliefs (delegatory vs. concentrated), industry (airlines vs. 149 conglomerate), and size (50,000 vs 500,000 employees) were some variables in how the organizations would adopt and adapt technologies.

I hope these findings, together with the detailed sharing by senior executives with rich experience in their organizations, make a positive contribution to the academic literature. 150

References

Accenture. (n.d.). Inform through analytics: Human capital analytics help lead to better focus,

employee experience and ROI. https://www.accenture.com/hk-en/service-fei-digital-hr-

transformation-inform-analytics

Accenture. (2018). The future of HR: Five technology imperatives.

http://feeds.accenture.com/~r/accenture-talent-and-organization-

rss/~3/tqDzkrG2cyY/insight-oracle-future-of-hr-five-technology-imperatives.aspx

Allen, D., Bryant, P., & Vardaman, M. (2010). Retaining talent: Replacing misconceptions with

evidence-based strategies. Academy of Management Perspectives, 24(2), 48-64.

Alter, S. L. (1976). How effective managers use information systems. Harvard Business Review,

54(6), 97-104.

Anderson, T., Prasad, K., Robie, A., Esber, D., & Gregg, B. (2015). Discussions on digital: The

new war for talent [Podcast]. McKinsey & Company. http://www.corporate-

leaders.com/index.cfm/page:hr-leaders/id:discussions-on-digital-the-new-war-for-talent

Anderton, B. N., & Ronald, P. C. (2018). Hybrid thematic analysis reveals themes for assessing

student understanding of biotechnology. Journal of Biological Education, 52(3), 271-

282. https://doi.org/10.1080/00219266.2017.1338599

Andrianova, S., Maor, D., & Schaninger, B. (2018). Winning with your talent-management

strategy. McKinsey & Company.

Angen, M. J. (2000). Evaluating interpretive inquiry: Reviewing the validity debate and opening

the dialogue. Qualitative Health Research, 10(30), 378-395.

Atsmon, Y., Child, P., Dobbs, R. & Narasimhan, L. (2012). Winning the $30 trillion decathlon:

Going for gold in emerging markets. McKinsey Quarterly. 151

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-

insights/winning-the-30-trillion-decathlon-going-for-gold-in-emerging-markets

Attride-Stirling, J. (2001). Thematic networks: An analytic tool for qualitative research.

Qualitative Research, 1, 385-405.

Baer, D. (2015). 13 qualities Google looks for in job candidates. Business Insider.

https://www.businessinsider.com/what-google-looks-for-in-employees-2015-4

Bandura, A. (2012). On the functional properties of perceived self-efficacy revisited. Journal of

Management, 38(1), 9-44. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206311410606

Barriere, M., Owens, M., & Pobereskin, S. (2018). Linking talent to value. McKinsey

Quarterly.https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-

insights/linking-talent-to-value

Barton, D., Carey, D., & Charan, R. (2018). An agenda for the talent-first CEO. McKinsey

Quarterly. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/an-

agenda-for-the-talent-first-ceo

Barton, D., & Court, D. (2012). Making advanced analytics work for you. Harvard Business

Review, 90(10), 78-83.

Bassi, L. J., & McMurrer, D. P. (2006). Employers’ perspectives on human capital development

and management. McBassi & Company.

Bassi, L., & McMurrer, D. (2009). Human capital analytics: Aligning people and results

McBassi & Company. https://mcbassi.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/McBassi-

HumanCapitalAnalytics.pdf 152

Bassi, L., & McMurrer, D. (2016). Four lessons learned in how to use human resource analytics

to improve the effectiveness of leadership development. Journal of Leadership Studies,

10(2), 39-43.

Baxter, P., & Jack, S. (2008). Qualitative case study methodology: Study design and

implementation for novice researchers. The Qualitative Report, 13(4), 544-559.

Beechler, S., & Woodward, I. C. (2009). The global “war for talent.” Journal of International

Management, 15(3), 273-285.

Bell, B. S., & Kozlowski, S. W. J. (2007). Advances in technology-based training. In S. Werner

(Ed.), Managing human resources in North America (pp. 27-43). Routledge.

Bennett, E. E. (2009). Virtual HRD: The intersection of , culture, and

intranets. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 11(3), 362-374.

Bennett, E. E. (2018). Intranets of people, things, and services: Exploring the role of virtual

human resource development. In C. A. Simmers & M. Anandarajan (Eds.), The internet

of people, things and services: Workplace transformations (pp. 166-183). Routledge.

Bennett, E., & McWhorter, R. (2017). Organizational learning, community, and virtual HRD:

Advancing the discussion. New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource

Development, 29(3), 19-27.

Bersin, J. (2017). HR technology disruptions for 2018: Productivity, design, and intelligence

reign. Deloitte. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/human-

capital/us-hc-2018-hr-technology-disruptions.pdf

Bhalla, V., Caye, J. M., Lovich, D., & Tollman, P. (2018). A CEO’s guide to talent management

today. BCG. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2018/ceo-guide-talent-management-

today.aspx 153

Bobic, M., & Davis, W. (2003). A Kind Word for Theory X: Or Why So Many Newfangled

Management Techniques Quickly Fail. Journal of Public Administration Research and

Theory, 13(3), 239-264.

Booth, S., & Hammer, K. (2007). Labour turnover in the retail industry: Predicting the role of

individual, organisational and environmental factors. International Journal of Retail &

Distribution Management, 35(4), 289-307.

Bris, A., & Cabolis, C. (2018). IMD world talent ranking 2018. The World Competitiveness

Center, Institute for Management Development. https://www.imd.org/wcc/world-

competitiveness-center-rankings/talent-rankings-2018/

Briscoe, F. M. (2005). A question of representation in educational discourse: Multiplicities and

intersections of identities and positionalities. Educational Studies, 38(1), 23-41.

Burgess, J. R. D., & Russell, J. E. A. (2003). The effectiveness of distance learning initiatives in

organizations. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 63, 289-303.

Chambers, E. G., Foulon, M., Handfield-Jones, H., Hankin, S. M., & Michaels, E. G. (1998).

The war for talent. The McKinsey Quarterly, 3.

http://www.executivesondemand.net/managementsourcing/images/stories/artigos_pdf/ges

tao/The_war_for_talent.pdf

Chan, J., & Burgess, J. (2010a). Human resource reporting and positioning in ten Hong Kong

listed companies. International Employment Relations Review, 16(1), 1-27.

Chan, J., & Burgess, J. (2010b). Public reporting of HRM practices among selected Hong Kong

companies. Journal of Chinese Human , 1(2), 115-127.

Chan, J., & Burgess, J. (2012). Human resource reporting in Australian and Hong Kong initial

placement offers. International Employment Relations Review, 18(2), 4-24. 154

Charan, R., Barton, D., & Carey, D. (2018). Talent wins: The new playbook for putting people

first. Harvard Business Review Press.

Christian, M. S., Garza, A. S., & Slaughter, J. (2011). Work engagement: A quantitative review

and test of its relations with task and contextual performance. Personnel Psychology,

64(1), 89-136.

Cieri, H. D., & Bardoel, E. A. (2009). What does “work-life management” mean in China and

Southeast Asia for MNCs? Community, Work & Family, 12(2), 179-196.

https://doi.org/10.1080/13668800902778959

Collins, H. (2010). Creative research: The theory and practice of research for the creative

industries. AVA Publications.

Crowe, S., Cresswell, K., Robertson, A., Huby, G., Avery, A., & Sheikh, A. (2011). The case

study approach. BMC Medical Research Methodology.

Dansereau, F., Graen, G., & Haga, W. J. (1975). A vertical dyad linkage approach to leadership

within formal organizations: A longitudinal investigation of the role making process.

Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 13(1), 46-78.

Davenport, T. H., Harris, J. G., & Morison, R. (2010). Analytics at work: Smarter decisions,

better results. Harvard Business Press.

Denzin, N., & Lincoln. Y. (1994). Handbook of qualitative research. Sage Publications.

Dewhurst, M., Pettigrew, M., & Srinivasan, R. (2012). How multinationals can attract the talent

they need. McKinsey Quarterly. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-

functions/organization/our-insights/how-multinationals-can-attract-the-talent-they-need 155

Dhingra, N., Emmett, J., & Samadani, M. (2018). Time for an EX intervention? McKinsey &

Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/the-

organization-blog/time-for-an-ex-intervention

Dooley, K. E. (1999). Towards a holistic model for the diffusion of educational technologies: An

integrative review of educational innovation studies. Educational Technology & Society

2(4), 35-45.

Entelo. (n.d.). What factors are driving recruiting automation?

https://www.entelo.com/recruiting-automation/

Eveland, J. D., & Tornatzky, L. G. (1990). The deployment of technology. In L. G. Tornatzky &

M. Fleischer (Eds.), The processes of technological innovation (pp. 117-148). Lexington

Books.

Farndale, E., Scullion, H., & Sparrow, P. (2010). The role of the corporate HR function in global

talent management. Journal of World Business, 45(2), 161-168.

Felicio, J. A. (2013). Study on the characteristics of top managers and strategic options in

different industries over a time period. Global Business Perspectives, 1(3), 239-260.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40196-013-0018-3

Fernandez, C. (2017). Enabling growth for HK retailers with workforce technology.

Computerworld Hong Kong.

Fichman, R.G. (2000). The diffusion and assimilation of information technology innovations. R.

W. Zmud, ed. Framing the Domains of IT Management: Projecting the Future through

the Past. Pinnaflex Publishing, Cleveland, OH, 105–127.

Fine, M. (1994). Working the hyphens: Reinventing self and other in qualitative research. In N.

Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.). The handbook of qualitative research (pp. 70-82). SAGE. 156

Flynn, F. J. (2005). Identity orientations and forms of social exchange in organizations. Academy

of Management Review 30(4), 737-750.

Flyvbjerg, B. (2006). Five misunderstandings about case-study research. Qualitative Inquiry,

12(2), 219-245. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800405284363

Francis, T., & Hoefel, F. (2018). “True Gen”: Generation Z and its implications for companies.

McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-

goods/our-insights/true-gen-generation-z-and-its-implications-for-companies

Frank, F. D., Finnegan, R. P., & Taylor, C. R. (2004). The race for talent: Retaining and

engaging workers in the 21st century. Human Resource Planning, 27(3), 12-25.

Fredrickson, B. L. (2003). Positive emotions and upward spirals in organizations. In K. S.

Cameron, J. E. Dutton, & R. E. Quinn (Eds.), Positive organizational scholarship (pp.

163-193). Berrett-Koehler.

Fry, R., & Parker, K. (2018). Early benchmarks show “post-millennials” on track to be most

diverse, best-educated generation yet. Pew Research Center.

Gallup. (2016). How millennials want to work and live.

Gartner. (n.d.). Advanced analytics. https://www.gartner.com/it-glossary/advanced-analytics

Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures; selected essays. New York: Basic Books.

Grijpink, F., Lau, A., & Vara, J. (2015). Demystifying the hackathon. McKinsey Digital.

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-

insights/demystifying-the-hackathon

Grusec, J. E. (1992). Social learning theory and developmental psychology: The legacies of

Robert Sears and Albert Bandura. Developmental Psychology, 28(5), 776-786.

https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.28.5.776 157

Hainstock, J. (2017). 5 ways to use technology to improve employee engagement, collaboration

and retention. InnovationManagement.

http://www.innovationmanagement.se/2017/03/23/5-ways-to-use-technology-to-improve-

employee-engagement-collaboration-and-retention/

Hansen, J. T. (2004). Thoughts on knowing: Epistemic implications of counseling practice.

Journal of Counseling & Development, 82, 131-138.

Hassan, M., Hassan, S., Khan, K. U. D., & AkramNaseem, M. (2011). Employee retention as a

challenge in leather industry. Global Journal of Human Social Science, 11(2).

https://globaljournals.org/GJHSS_Volume11/2-Employee-Retention-as-a-Challenge-in-

Leather-Industry.pdf hiQ Labs. (n.d.). The global standard for people analytics [Validation report].

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5803b57737c581885cbd0667/t/59c44d5ee5dd5bcfd

e0dc232/1506037087308/predictive_accuracy.pdf

Ho, C. (2017). How companies are using social media and internet tools to retain employees.

MichaelPage. https://www.michaelpage.com.hk/advice/management-advice/engagement-

and-retention/how-companies-are-using-social-media-and-0

Hong, W. C., Wei, S. Y., & Chen, Y. F. (2007). A comparative test of two employee turnover

prediction models. International Journal of Management, 24(4), 808-821,823-824.

Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce. (2015). The future of work [Bulletin].

https://www.chamber.org.hk/FileUpload/201512031551478920/Dec2015.pdf

Hong Kong Institute of Human Resources Management. (2019). Turnover rate and vacancy rate

(1st half of 2019). https://www.hkihrm.org/index.php/mb/members-area/hr-

statistics/manpower-trend-manpower-change-turnover-rate-vacancy-rate/569- 158

s/mb/member/hr-statistics/manpower-trend-manpower-change-turnover-rate-vacancy-

rate/2316-turnover-rate-and-vacancy-rate-1st-half-of-2019-en

Infante, D. A., Rancer, A. S., & Womack D. F. (1997) Building Communication Theory (3rd ed.).

Waveland Press.

Isleem, M. I. (2003). Relationships of selected factors and the level of computer use for

instructional purposes by technology education teachers in Ohio public schools: a

statewide survey [Doctoral dissertation, The Ohio State University]. ProQuest Digital

Dissertations.

Jagun, V. (2015). An investigation into the high turnover of employees within the Irish

hospitality sector, identifying what methods of retention should be adopted.

http://trap.ncirl.ie/2096/1/victoriajagun.pdf

Judd, S., O’Rourke, E., & Grant, A. (2018). Employee surveys are still one of the best ways to

measure engagement. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2018/03/employee-

surveys-are-still-one-of-the-best-ways-to-measure-engagement

Kahn, W. A. (1990). Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at

work. Academy of Management Journal, 33(4), 692-724.

Kerslake, P. (2005). Words from the Ys: Leading the demanding dot-coms. New Zealand

Management, 52(4), 44-46.

Kincheloe, J. L., & McLaren, P. (2000). Rethinking critical theory and qualitative research. In N.

Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research (pp. 279–314). Thousand

Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. 159

King, B., & Tang, C. (2020). Employee preferences for industry retention strategies: The case of

Macau's "Golden Nest Eggs". International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism

Administration, 21(2), 115-140.

Kwok, H. K. (2012). The Generation Y’s working encounter: A comparative study of Hong

Kong and other Chinese cities. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 33(2), 231-249.

Lam, T., & Zhang, H. Q. (2003). Job satisfaction and organizational commitment in the Hong

Kong fast food industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality

Management, 15(4), 214-220.

LaMorte, W. M. (2018). Diffusion of innovation theory. http://sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/MPH-

Modules/SB/BehavioralChangeTheories/BehavioralChangeTheories4.html

Lauer, J. M., & Asher, J. W. (1988). Composition research: empirical designs. Oxford Press.

Laumer, S. (2009). Non-monetary solutions for retaining the IT workforce [Paper presentation].

15th Americas Conference on Information Systems. San Francisco, CA, United States.

Laumer, S, Eckhardt, A., & Weitzel, T. (2010). Electronic human resources management in an e-

business environment. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, 11(4), 240-250.

LaValle, S., Hopkins, M. S., Lesser, E., Shockley, R., & Kruschwitz, N. (2010). Analytics: The

new path to value. MIT Sloan Management Review

https://sloanreview.mit.edu/projects/analytics-the-new-path-to-value/

LaValle, S., Lesser, E., Shockley, R., Hopkins, M. S., & Kruschwitz, N. (2011). Big data,

analytics and the path from insights to value. MIT Sloan Management Review, 52(2), 21-

32.

Legislative Council Secretariat. (2016). Background brief on Financial Services Development

Council (LC Paper No. CB(1)78/16-17(06)). Legislative Council. 160

Legislative Council Secretariat. (2019). Updated background brief on Financial Services

Development Council (LC Paper No. CB(1)760/18-19(07)). Legislative Council.

Leopold, T. A., Ratcheva, V. S., & Zahidi, S. (2018). The future of jobs report 2018. Centre for

the New Economy and Society, World Economic Forum.

Leung, M., & Tung, R. (2018). Dual-class shares: The good, the bad, and the ugly. CFA

Institute.

Liebling, A. (2011). Being a criminologist: Investigation as a lifestyle and living. In M.

Bosworth & C. Hoyle (Eds.), What is criminology? (pp. 518-529). Oxford University

Press.

Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Sage Publications.

Liu, Z., Cai, Z., Li, J., Shi, S., & Fang, Y. (2013). Leadership style and employee turnover

intentions: A social identity perspective. Career Development International, 18(3), 305-

324.

Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2015). Breaking the rules: A historical overview of goal-setting

theory. In A. J. Elliot (Ed.), Advances in motivation science (Vol. 2, pp. 99-126).

Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.adms.2015.05.001

Machi, L. A., & McEvoy, B. T. (2009). The literature review: Six steps to success. Corwin Press.

Malterud, K. (2001). Qualitative research: Standards, challenges, and guidelines. The Lancet,

358, 483-488. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(01)05627-6

Marchand, D. A., & Peppard, J. (2013). Why IT fumbles analytics. Harvard Business Review,

91(1-2), 104-112. 161

Maxwell, G. A., Ogden, S. M., & Broadbridge, A. (2010). Generation Y’s career expectations

and aspirations engagement in the hospitality industry. Journal of Hospitality and

Tourism Management, 17, 53-61. http://dx.doi.org.e10.1375/jhtm.17.1.53

McShea, C., Oakley, D., & Mazzei, C. (2016). How CEOs can keep their analytics programs

from being a waste of time. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2016/07/how-ceos-

can-keep-their-analytics-programs-from-being-a-waste-of-time

McGregor, D., (1960). The human side of enterprise. McGraw Hill.

Merriam, S. B. (1991). How research produces knowledge. In J. M. Peters, & P. Jarvis (Eds.),

Adult education (pp. 42-65). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

MGMA. (2015). What's the true cost of employee turnover? MGMA Connexion, 15(6), 10-11.

MichaelPage. (2017). Talent management at a time where job-hopping is the new normal.

https://www.michaelpage.com.hk/advice/management-advice/engagement-and-

retention/talent-management-time-where-job-hopping-new

Handfield-Jones, Helen, Michaels, Ed, & Axelrod, Beth. (2001). Talent management: A critical

part of every leader's job.(Statistical Data Included). Ivey Business Journal, 66(2), 53-58.

Millennial Branding and Beyond.com. (2013). The cost of millennial retention study.

http://millennialbranding.com/2013/cost-millennial-retention-study/

Minichiello, V. (1990). In-depth interviewing: Researching people. Longman Cheshire.

Morrison, S. (2009, May 19). Google searches for staffing answers. Wall Street Journal.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124269038041932531

Nagadevara, V., Srinivasan, V., & Valk, R. (2008). Establishing a link between employee

turnover and withdrawal behaviours: Application of data mining techniques. Research

and Practice in Human Resource Management, 16(2), 81-99. 162

Njie, B., & Asimiran, S. (2014). Case study as a choice in qualitative methodology. IOSR

Journal of Research & Method in Education, 4(3), 35-40.

Nowell, L. S., Norris, J. M., White, D. E., & Moules, N. J. (2017). Thematic analysis: Striving to

meet the trustworthiness criteria. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 16, 1-13.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406917733847

The Office of Personnel Management. (n.d.). Training and development policy wiki: Learning

new technologies for employee development programs.

https://www.opm.gov/WIKI/training/Leveraging-New-Technologies-for-Employee-

Development-Programs.ashx

Pandita, D., & Ray, S. (2018). Talent management and employee engagement: A meta-analysis

of their impact on talent retention. Industrial and Commercial Training, 50(4), 185-199.

https://doi.org/10.1108/ICT-09-2017-0073

Pettey, C. (2017). Treating information as an asset. Data & Analytics, Garner.

https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/treating-information-as-an-asset/

Pettigrew, M., & Srinivasan, R. (2012). Winning the talent war in local markets by staying

global. McKinsey & Company.

https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/dotcom/client_service/organization/pdfs/

winning_the_talent_war_in_local_markets_by_staying_global.ashx

Pfeffer, J. (1994). Competitive advantage through people: Unleashing the power of the work

force. Harvard Press.

Ponterotto, J. G. (2005). Qualitative research in counseling psychology: A primer on research

paradigms and philosophy of science. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 52(2), 126-136. 163

Porter, M. E., & Nohri, N. (2018). How CEOs manage time. Harvard Business Review, 96(4),

41-51.

Powell, T., & Dent‐Micallef, A. (1997). Information technology as competitive advantage: The

role of human, business, and technology resources. Journal, 18(5),

375-405.

Price, J. L. (1977). The study of turnover. Iowa State University Press.

Punch, K. (2014). Introduction to social research (3rd ed.). SAGE.

Quest. (n.d.). A solution to employee turnover for the generations X, Y and Z (Case study 9).

https://www.quest.co.za/sites/quest/files/2016-

11/Quest%20Case%20Study%209_A%20solution%20to%20employee%20turnover%20f

or%20the%20generations%20X%2C%20Y%20and%20Z_0.pdf

Reuters. (2018). How employers are recruiting and retaining Gen Z [Video file].

https://www.reuters.com/video/2018/12/12/how-employers-are-recruiting-and-

retaini?videoId=491267663&videoChannel=118279&channelName=The+Z+Factor

Riva, G. (2012). Personal experience in positive psychology may offer a new focus for a growing

discipline. American Psychologist, 67, 574-575. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029955

Rogers, E. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). Free Press.

Rose, J., Berndtsson, M., Mathiason, G., & Larsson, P. (2017). The advanced analytics

jumpstart: Definition, process model, best practices. Journal of Information Systems &

Technology Management. 14(3), 339-360.

Rubin, H. J., & Rubin, I. S. (2005). Qualitative interviewing: The art of hearing data (2nd ed.).

SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452226651 164

Ryan, F., Coughlan, M., & Cronin, P. (2007). Step-by-step guide to critiquing research. Part 2:

Qualitative research. British Journal of Nursing, 16, 738-744.

Sahin, I. (2006). Detailed review of Rogers’ diffusion of innovations theory and educational

technology-related studies based on Rogers’ theory. The Turkish Online Journal of

Educational Technology – TOJET, 5(2). http://tojet.net/articles/v5i2/523.pdf

Saldana, J. (2016). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. SAGE.

Samuel, M. O., & Chipunza, C. (2009). Employee retention and turnover: Using motivational

variables as a panacea. African Journal of Business Management, 3(8), 410-415.

Sandelowski, M. (1995). Qualitative analysis: What it is and how to begin. Research in Nursing

and Health, 18, 371-375. https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.4770180411

Sargeant, J. (2012). Qualitative research Part II: Participants, analysis, and quality assurance.

Journal of Graduate Medical Education, 4(1), 1–3. https://doi.org/10.4300/JGME-D-11-

00307.1

Schroeck, M., Shockley, R., Smart, J., Romero-Morales, D., & Tufano, P. (2013). Analytics: The

real-world use of big data. IBM Institute for Business Value, Said Business School.

https://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/gb/en/gbe03519usen/global-business-

services-global-business-services-gb-executive-brief-gbe03519usen-20180209.pdf

Schwandt, T. A. (2000). Three epistemological stances for qualitative inquiry: Interpretivism,

hermeneutics, and social constructionism. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.),

Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 189–213). Sage.

Schwartz, M. (2011). Incubating an illusion? Long-term incubator firm performance after

graduation. Growth and Change, 42(4), 491-516. 165

Segal, L., Goldstein, A., Goldman, J., & Harfoush, R. (2014). Deploying big data to recruit and

retain talent. Ivey Business Journal.

https://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/deploying-big-data-to-recruit-and-retain-

talent/

Sharpe, G. (2016). Sociological stalking? Methods, ethics and power in longitudinal

criminological research. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 17(3), 233-247.

Shenton, A. K. (2004). Strategies for ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research projects.

Education for Information, 22(2), 63-75. https://doi.org/10.3233/EFI-2004-22201

Silverman, D. (2000). Analyzing talk and text. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.),

Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 821-834). Sage.

Simons, T., & Hinkin, T. (2001). The effect of employee turnover on hotel profits: A test across

multiple hotels. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 42(4), 65-69.

Simpson, G., & Clifton, J. (2017). Testing diffusion of innovations theory with data: Financial

incentives, early adopters, and distributed solar energy in Australia. Energy Research &

Social Science, 29, 12-22.

Smyth, H., & Edkins, A. (2007). Relationship management in the management of PFI/PPP

projects in the UK. International Journal of Project Management, 25(3), 232-240.

Stake, R. E. (1995). The art of case study research. Sage.

Stake, R. E. (2006). Multiple case study analysis. Guilford Press.

Stake, R. E. (2010). Qualitative research: Studying how things work. Guilford Press.

Stone, R. J. (2005). Human Resource Management. Sydney: Wiley.

Strang, D., & Macy, M. (2001). In search of excellence: Fads, success stories, and adaptive

emulation. American Journal of Sociology, 107(1), 147-182. 166

Straub, E. T. (2009). Understanding technology adoption: Theory and future directions for

informal learning. Review of Education Research, 79(2), 625-649.

Stuart, W. D. (2000). Influence of sources of communication, user characteristics and innovation

characteristics on adoption of a communication technology (Doctoral dissertation, The

University of Kansas). ProQuest Digital Dissertations.

Teng, A. (2007, May). Making the business case for HR: Talent management aids earnings.

HRO Today Magazine. https://www.hrotoday.com/news/talent-acquisition/making-the-

business-case-for-hr-talent-management-aids-earnings/

Thomas, E., & Magilvy, J. K. (2011). Qualitative rigor or research validity in qualitative

research. Journal for Specialists in Pediatric Nursing, 16(2), 151-155.

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6155.2011.00283.x

Tingling, P., & Parent, M. (2002). Mimetic isomorphism and technology evaluation: Does

imitation transcend judgment? Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 3(1),

113-143.

Tracey, J. B., & Hinkin, T. R. (2008). Contextual factors and cost profiles associated with

employee turnover. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 49(1), 12-27.

Tseng, C. Y. (2010). The retention of software development employees in the IT industry in

Taiwan (unpublished doctoral thesis). Southern Cross University.

Tung, R. (2014). China: The not-so-calm year of sheep. Coface.

Tung, R. (2015). What we see in the Asia Pacific region. Coface.

Turcan, R. V., Mäkel, M., Sørensen, O., & Rönkkö, M. (2010). Mitigating theoretical and

coverage biases in the design of theory-building research: An example from international 167

entrepreneurship. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 6(4), 399-

417.

Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, S. M. (2008). Generational differences in psychological traits and

their impact on the workplace. Journal of , 23, 862–877.

Udechukwu, I. (2009). Correctional Officer Turnover: Of Maslow's Needs Hierarchy and

Herzberg's Motivation Theory. Public Personnel Management, 38(2), 69-82.

Ugah, A. D., & Arua, U. (2011). Expectancy Theory, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and

cataloguing departments.(Report). Library Philosophy and Practice, Library Philosophy

and Practice, April, 2011.

United States Office of Personnel Management. (n.d.). How to identify and use human capital

analytics: Human capital management reference materials. https://www.opm.gov/policy-

data-oversight/human-capital-management/reference-materials/tools/how-to-identify-

and-use-human-capital-analytics.pdf

Vardi, M. Y. (2014). Would Turing have passed the Turing Test? Communications of the ACM,

57(9), 5-5. https://doi.org/10.1145/2643596

Vidgen, R., Shaw, S., & Grant, D. B. (2017). Management challenges in creating value from

business analytics. European Journal of Operational Research, 261(2), 626-639.

Wanous, J. P., Stumpf, S. A., & Bedrosian, H. (1979). Job survival of new employees. Personnel

Psychology, 32, 651-662.

Wellins, R. S., Smith, A. B. S., & Erker, S. (n.d.). Nine best practices for effective talent

management. https://www.ddiworld.com/DDI/media/white-

papers/ninebestpracticetalentmanagement_wp_ddi.pdf?ext=.pdf 168

World Intellectual Property Organization. (2019). Global innovation index 2019.

https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_pub_gii_2019/cn.pdf

Yau, L. (2019). Effective leadership practices of early-stage startup co-founders (Unpublished

doctoral dissertation). Northeastern University.

Yazan, B. (2015). Three approaches to case study methods in education: Yin, Merriam, and

Stake. The Qualitative Report, 20(2), 134-152.

Yee, R. W., Yeung, A. C., & Cheng, T. C. (2010). An empirical study of employee loyalty,

service quality and firm performance in the service industry. International Journal of

Production Economics, 124, 109-120.

Yin, R.K. (2002). Applications of Case Study Research. Sage Publications.

Yin, R. K. (2011). Qualitative research from start to finish. Guilford.

Yin, R. K. (2014). Case study research: Design and methods (5th ed.). Sage Publications.

169

Appendix A

General Participant Recruitment Letter

Dear ______,

I am writing to invite you to be a part of my doctoral study, entitled The Use of Technology- enabled Human Capital Management Tools in the Practices of Hiring, Developing, Managing, and Retaining Talent: Experiences of Top Management of Large Multinational Corporations in Hong Kong.

My advisor, Dr. Kelly Conn of Northeastern University in Boston, and I believe that you would be a perfect candidate to be a part of this study because you have a wealth of experience in management in your current and previous capacities with ______. At the same time, given that ______is a leader in the industry, we are confident that your generous sharing will be of interest to other practitioners in the field of human capital management.

Through this study, we hope to gain more insight into technology adoption in your organization. In particular, we are interested in learning more about how the organization would make a decision about technology adoption while addressing such issues as hiring, development, managing, and retaining talent. Relatedly, since members of Generations Y and Z are often said to be different than workers from previous generations, we hope to benefit from your sharing about how different they are and how companies can hire, manage, develop and retain such persons. We hope this will allow us to identify ways in which we will be able to reflect on the situation and help organizations enhance their attractiveness to employees.

I understand that your time is valuable, so the interview session(s) would last approximately 60 minutes. During the research process, your participation would be truly valuable. It would primarily occur through the interview session(s) I would have with you.

Before the interview session(s), I would share a list of the main questions that would drive our conversation. I will likely come up with some additional questions, depending on your answers to the main questions, but they would be on the same subjects, seeking further clarification and deeper information. To ensure that we will have enough time for each question, it may be necessary for me to interrupt you if time is running short. I hope you would not mind.

I would be joining you at a location you choose for the interview session(s). I intend to use a voice recorder for data transcription services. The data will be useful for my research purposes and will only be accessible to me, the principal investigator (Dr. Kelly Conn), and the rest of the research panel. I would also be joining you with an iPad and paper notepad for notetaking purposes, and your answers to the questions raised would be described in my notes. Soft copies would be prepared and stored safely for 3 years after the completion of research. I assure you 170 that all responses would be confidential and only a pseudonym would be used when quoting from the interviews.

Voice recording would only begin if you agree, and I assure you that I would be the only one privy to the tapes, which would eventually be destroyed after they were transcribed. Please be assured that only the reviewing panel for the project and I would have access to the transcript, and the relevant materials would be destroyed after you confirm the transcript.

Participation is entirely voluntary. Please respond to this email (at [email protected]) or call me at +852 -6748-7296 to volunteer. Thank you for your kind consideration.

Please let me know if you have any further questions at this time. I look forward to your favorable response to my interview request.

Regards,

Rocky Tung ([email protected] ; (+852) 6748 7296) Candidate, Organizational Leadership Doctor of Education Northeastern University

171

Appendix B

Unsigned Informed Consent

Northeastern University, College of Professional Studies

Name of Investigator(s): Principal Investigator: Kelly Conn Student Researcher: Yat-Ngok Rocky Tung

Title of Project: The Use of Technology-enabled Human Capital Management Tools in the Practices of Hiring, Developing, Managing, and Retaining Talent: Experiences of Top Management of Large Multinational Corporations in Hong Kong

Informed Consent to Participate in a Research Study We are inviting you to take part in a research study. This form will tell you about the study, and the student researcher will explain it to you first. You may ask the researcher any questions that you have. When you are ready to decide, you may tell the researcher whether you want to participate or not. You do not have to participate if you do not want to. If you decide to participate, the researcher will ask you to sign this statement and will give you a copy to keep.

Key Information • Your consent is being sought for participation in a research project and your participation is voluntary. • The purpose of the research is to explore experiences with the adoption of human resources (HR) technology by top managers working for multibillion-dollar multinational companies (MNCs) with significant operations in Hong Kong that hire, manage, develop, and retain employees. • The anticipated amount of time that your participation will take is 2 hours. • The procedures that you will be asked to complete include: o An email detailing key information in relation to the research, seeking your written consent. o A set of main questions will be circulated prior to the interview in preparation for the interview. o A 1-hour interview, and potentially a follow-up interview taking about 30 minutes. The interview(s) will be voice recorded. o Review the materials prepared by the researcher that reflect the outcome of the study related to you and your organization. • The foreseeable risks to you: o There are no reasonably apparent or foreseeable risks, harms, discomforts, or inconveniences that you may experience. o There is no anticipated harm to you. Your identity will be protected and all files related to the study will be stored electronically on a password-protected drive or in a locked file cabinet. • There are no financial or monetary benefits to you, but the information generated from the study may be of interest and value to you. 172

• Because the study does not involve treatment or other potential benefit, you, as a potential participant, have the option to not participate.

Why am I being asked to take part in this research study? • We are asking you to be in this study because you are a well-regarded leader in the business community who has extensive experience and exposure to the research subject. • Senior executives, regardless of age, gender, socioeconomic status, and literacy level will be invited to participate; however, all participants must have at least 15 years of working experience, ideally with at least 2 years working at their current company.

Why is this research study being done? . • The purpose of the research is learn how top managers at large MNCs in Hong Kong use advanced HR technologies to hire, manage, develop, and retain employees.

What will I be asked to do? • If you decide to take part in this study, we will ask you to participate in one or two interviews to share your views on the subject matters. • Prior to the interview(s), you will be provided with a list of the main questions that will guide the interview(s). • These main questions will be related to you and your organizational background, the adoption of technology in your organization, and the human resources management practices in the organization. • Before the research study is finalized and concluded, you will be provided with the draft for comment.

Where will this take place and how much of my time will it take? • You will be interviewed at a location you choose, not where the student researcher works. • The first interview will take about 1 hour; the second interview, if any, will take about 30 minutes. • The draft of the research report, with the portion directly related to you and your organization, will be shared with you for confirmation of details via email.

Will there be any risk or discomfort to me? • So far as the researcher is aware, there are no reasonably apparent or foreseeable risks, harms, discomforts, or inconveniences that you may experience.

Will I benefit by being in this research? • While there will be no direct benefit to you for taking part in the study, you may find the information learned through this study useful in your day-to-day management. For instance, the knowledge gathered from the comprehensive, though non-exhaustive, literature review may be of interest to you and your colleagues.

Who will see the information about me? • Your part in this study will be confidential. 173

• While the participants’ identity will be matched to their responses, your responses will only be known to the researchers. Other readers will not know that the answers you give are from you because details such as your name and the organization you belong to will be coded and not disclosed. • Coding is not only about labeling of research subjects, but, in fact, it connects data to the overarching research idea and brings it back to other data obtained from the study. In the process, on top of masking your and your organization’s identities (by renaming), some of your research input will be put into different themes in the study. • The researcher will bring a voice recorder to the interview session(s), which is intended for data transcription services. The data will be useful for research purposes and will only be accessible to the principal investigator and the rest of the research panel. An iPad and paper notepad will be used to take notes. Your answers to the questions will be described. Any handwritten notes will be turned into electronic copies as soon as practicable. These typed-up notes on an iPad or laptop will be elaborated and expanded within 72 hours after the interview. All notes will be destroyed 3 years after the completion of the study, which is expected to come in mid-2020. • There is official oversight or monitoring that may be done by Northeastern University (the college I attend), government agencies, or other parties. In rare instances, authorized people may ask to see research information about you and other people in this study. This is done only to be sure that the research is done properly. We would only permit people who are authorized by organizations such as the Northeastern University Institutional Review Board to see this information.

Your deidentified information could be used for future research without additional informed consent.

If I do not want to take part in the study, what choices do I have? • Because the study does not involve treatment or other potential benefits, you, as a potential participant, have the option to not participate.

What will happen if I suffer any harm from this research? • Under normal and foreseeable circumstances, research-related injury (e.g., physical, psychological, social, or financial) is not envisioned. However, in the possible and unforeseen circumstances where such research-related injury is incurred, no special arrangements will be made for compensation or for payment for treatment solely because of your participation in this research.

Can I stop my participation in this study? • Your participation in this research is completely voluntary. You do not have to participate if you do not want to and you can refuse to answer any question. Even if you begin the study, you may quit at any time. If you do not participate or if you decide to quit, you will not lose any rights, benefits, or services that you would otherwise have.

174

Who can I contact if I have questions or problems? • If you have any questions about this study, please feel free to contact Rocky Tung at [email protected], the person mainly responsible for the research. You can also contact Dr Kelly Conn at [email protected], the principal investigator.

Who can I contact about my rights as a participant? • If you have any questions about your rights in this research, you may contact Nan C. Regina, Director, Human Subject Research Protection, Mail Stop: 560-177, 360 Huntington Avenue, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115. Tel: 617.373.4588, Email: [email protected]. You may call anonymously if you wish.

Will I be paid for my participation? • Participants will not be paid or given a gift for the completion of the study or interview.

Will it cost me anything to participate? • If the interview will be held in your office, it is not expected to cost you anything. • If the interview will be held at another location, some form of transportation cost may be incurred.

Is there anything else I need to know? • It is not known to the researcher that there is any pertinent information that may not be stated elsewhere.

This study has been reviewed and approved by the Northeastern University Institutional Review Board (# CPS19-11-25).

I agree to take part in this research.

______Signature of person agreeing to take part Date

______Printed name of person above

______Signature of person who explained the study to the Date participant above and obtained consent

______Printed name of person above

I agree to be contacted for follow up or for future research studies

______Contact Information (email or phone) 175

Appendix C

Interview Questions

Central Research Question

How do top managers at large multinational corporations in Hong Kong use emerging human resource technologies to hire, manage, develop, and retain employees?

Subquestion

How, if at all, are technology-infused human resource strategies different for millennials and

Generation Z employees as compared to baby boomers and Generation X employees?

Main Questions

Profiling

• Please describe the division of work in the organization, with a focus on addressing direct

and indirect reporting lines related to you.

Technology Adoption

• Please describe how the emergence of technology may impact the operation of your

business over the next 5 years (e.g., increasing profits, lowering demand for labor,

enhance efficiency, increase competitiveness).

• What are some of the key initiatives and technologies adopted in the company over the

past 3 years? Have they been bringing the positive impacts they were designed to?

Human Resources Management

• Please describe the process and personnel involved in the process of hiring, managing,

developing, and retaining employees in your organization. 176

• Please highlight some of the advanced HR technologies adopted by the organization to

hire, develop, manage, and retain employees. Explain how these technologies have

influenced the effectiveness of HR management in your organization.

Follow-up Questions

Profiling

• How many people does your organization hire?

• Assuming that there are key performance indicators (KPIs) set for you by the board or

management, what are the top five priorities of your role?

Technology Adoption

• Please describe the process and personnel involved in the process of adopting a new

technology or computer software or system.

• Please describe the influence and impact of technology on the performance of your

organization, directly and indirectly, over the past 5 years.

• Please elaborate whether and how the attitude toward the emergence of technology in

your firm may be different from other organizations in the related _____ industry.

• Please describe one or two instances when your organization decided to adopt certain

technologies and has since considered them as obsolete. What are some measures as

remedies to such situations?

Human Resources Management

• Please describe whether and how your firm’s operation has been affected by employee

voluntary turnover.

• Considering the firm’s priorities, what are the top five areas that are on top of the human

capital management agenda? 177

• Please identify and describe any differences – in terms of characteristics, personalities,

behaviors, attitudes, and others – between workers in the baby boomer generation or

Generation X and those in Generations Y and Z? Please shed light on the details related

to initiatives undertaken by the firm to address the emergence of Generation Y and

Generation Z as the core of the workforce.

• How often does the company review its human capital strategy? Can you explain the

rationale behind the frequency?

Prompting Questions

General

• Can you elaborate a bit further on what you described as ______?

• Do you mind sharing the agenda of the ______event that you discussed earlier?

• Would there be any artifacts that you consider useful for our research?

• We have followed your social media websites, such as ______. Do you think

we are missing any other channels that we should be aware of?

Profiling

• Please explain whether you consider yourself as a technology-savvy person.

• Do you see yourself still working for the company in 3 years? Why or why not? How

about 10 years from now?

Technology adoption

• What makes you feel that technologies are useful for the company?

• Do you subscribe to any technology-related magazines, either online or offline? Why or

why not?

178

Human Resources Management

• How did you feel when employees you had valued decided to leave?

• How often do you talk to your direct reports?

• Do you subscribe to any HR-related magazines either online or offline? Why or why not?