A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Scholz, Tobias M. Book — Published Version Big data in organizations and the role of human resource management: A complex systems theory- based conceptualization Personalmanagement und Organisation, No. 5 Provided in Cooperation with: Peter Lang International Academic Publishers Suggested Citation: Scholz, Tobias M. (2017) : Big data in organizations and the role of human resource management: A complex systems theory-based conceptualization, Personalmanagement und Organisation, No. 5, ISBN 978-3-631-71905-3, Peter Lang International Academic Publishers, Frankfurt a. 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Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode www.econstor.eu 5 Big data are changing the way we work as companies face an increas- ing amount of data. Rather than replacing a human workforce or making Tobias M. Scholz decisions obsolete, big data are going to pose an immense innovating force to those employees capable of utilizing them. This book intends to first convey a theoretical understanding of big data. It then tackles the phenomenon of big data from the perspectives of varied organizational theories in order to highlight socio-technological interaction. Big data are Big Data bound to transform organizations which calls for a transformation of the human resource department. The HR department’s new role then enables organizations to utilize big data for their purpose. Employees, while re- maining an organization’s major competitive advantage, have found a in Organizations powerful ally in big data. and the Role of Human Resource Management A Complex Systems Theory-Based Conceptualization · Big Data in Organizations and the Role of HRM Tobias M. Scholz is currently holding a position as a Post-Doctoral Re- searcher at the University of Siegen. After graduating from universities in Germany and the U.S., he has worked as a Research and Teaching Assistant. His field of research is human resource management and or- Umschlaggestaltung: ganizational behavior. © Olaf Gloeckler, Atelier Platen, Friedberg Tobias M. Scholz Tobias PERSONALMANAGEMENT UND ORGANISATION Cover Design: Herausgegeben von Volker Stein© Olaf Gloeckler, Atelier Platen, Friedberg www.peterlang.com ISBN 978-3-631-71890-2 Conception de la couverture du livre: © Olaf Gloeckler, Atelier Platen, Friedberg PUO 05_271890_Scholz_AM_A5HCk PLA.indd 1 02.03.17 KW 09 15:23 5 Big data are changing the way we work as companies face an increas- ing amount of data. Rather than replacing a human workforce or making Tobias M. Scholz decisions obsolete, big data are going to pose an immense innovating force to those employees capable of utilizing them. This book intends to first convey a theoretical understanding of big data. It then tackles the phenomenon of big data from the perspectives of varied organizational theories in order to highlight socio-technological interaction. Big data are Big Data bound to transform organizations which calls for a transformation of the human resource department. The HR department’s new role then enables organizations to utilize big data for their purpose. Employees, while re- maining an organization’s major competitive advantage, have found a in Organizations powerful ally in big data. and the Role of Human Resource Management A Complex Systems Theory-Based Conceptualization · Big Data in Organizations and the Role of HRM Tobias M. Scholz is currently holding a position as a Post-Doctoral Re- searcher at the University of Siegen. After graduating from universities in Germany and the U.S., he has worked as a Research and Teaching Assistant. His field of research is human resource management and or- Umschlaggestaltung: ganizational behavior. © Olaf Gloeckler, Atelier Platen, Friedberg Tobias M. Scholz Tobias PERSONALMANAGEMENT UND ORGANISATION Cover Design: Herausgegeben von Volker Stein© Olaf Gloeckler, Atelier Platen, Friedberg www.peterlang.com Conception de la couverture du livre: © Olaf Gloeckler, Atelier Platen, Friedberg PUO 05_271890_Scholz_AM_A5HCk PLA.indd 1 02.03.17 KW 09 15:23 Big Data in Organizations and the Role of Human Resource Management PERSONALMANAGEMENT UND ORGANISATION Herausgegeben von Volker Stein Band 5 Zur Qualitätssicherung und Peer Review Notes on the quality assurance der vorliegenden Publikation and peer review of this publication Die Qualität der in dieser Reihe Prior to publication, the erscheinenden Arbeiten wird quality of the work published vor der Publikation durch den in this series is reviewed Herausgeber der Reihe geprüft. by the editor of the series. Tobias M. Scholz Big Data in Organizations and the Role of Human Resource Management A Complex Systems Theory-Based Conceptualization Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. Zugl.: Siegen, Univ., Diss., 2016 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Scholz, Tobias, author. Title: Big data in organizations and the role of human resource management : a complex systems theory-based conceptualization / Tobias M. Scholz. Description: New York : Peter Lang, [2017] | Series: Personalmanagement und Organisation ; Vol. 5 | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: LCCN 2016059623 Subjects: LCSH: Personnel management–Research. | Big data. | System theory. Classification: LCC HF5549.A27 S36 2017 | DDC 658.4/03801–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016059623 This book is an open access book and available on www.oapen.org and www.peterlang.com. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 which means that the text may be used for non- commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ D 467 ISSN 1868-940X ISBN 978-3-631-71890-2 (Print) E-ISBN 978-3-631-71903-9 (E-PDF) E-ISBN 978-3-631-71904-6 (EPUB) E-ISBN 978-3-631-71905-3 (MOBI) DOI 10.3726/b10907 © Peter Lang GmbH Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften Frankfurt am Main 2017 All rights reserved. PL Academic Research is an Imprint of Peter Lang GmbH. Peter Lang – Frankfurt am Main ∙ Bern ∙ Bruxelles ∙ New York ∙ Oxford ∙ Warszawa ∙ Wien This publication has been peer reviewed. www.peterlang.com Preface In an environment where digitization permeates both society and economy at an ever-increasing pace, big data rank among the most fascinating challenges for all types of organizations. And their influence is not limited to those organizations concerned with matters of political administration such as national intelligence. All types of organizations, and especially those seeking to make a profit, i.e. companies, resort to big data. They now sense that the use of big data simultaneously entails fascinating opportunities and great risk. Companies are immediately affected by the sheer momentum of the challenge that is big data, thus facing a series of profound questions: Do we even want to deal with big data? If so, what exactly do we want to do? What is possible, what is legal, what is reasonable, what is effective, and what can we legitimize? Those aspects refer to strategic decisions and, consequentially, to the more detailed questions regarding the actual execution of big data projects. Tobias M. Scholz tackles exactly this in his dissertation. Even just consecutively reading through the array of practical as well as theoretical deficits he explicitly elaborates, reveals the overall chain of arguments: research on big data rarely dedi- cates itself to the human perspective – besides being a technological phenomenon, big data is also a social one – research rarely contextualizes big data towards par- ticular corporations – big data challenge the role of the HR department – neither organizational theory nor theory on HR management adequately discuss the sub- jectivity of big data – research widely ignores the catalyzing effect of big data on complexity – the effects of big data on employees and the company are unclear – big data are insufficiently categorized theoretically – research on big data still lags behind in terms of practical application. Especially when putting into consideration those