Definition of HRM systems

And now, we move to human resource management systems. Succesful HRM systems are dependent on many factors and more important, on their integration. Employees and team leaders, suppliers, customers, organizational stategy, shareholders and stakeholders, technology and knowledge, everything has to be integrated in a system. It is logical to imagine that energy flows between individuals, between teams and their team leaders, between top managers and middle managers, but also energy flows between resources and materials. Think about knowledge exchange, think about technology exchange, control mechanisms, equipment, information exchange and other resources. If you still doubt, whether HRM systems are open or closed, think about the recent Covid-19 crisis.

The emergence of protective HRM systems was only possible, because of the open character of HRM systems, because of coordination between different people, different stakeholders, because of the coordination and integration of different resources, and because of emerging of new risk taking practices.

It is now time to define it. What would be the components, matters of HRM systems? Already back in nineteen eighties, professors from the Rutgers State University in the United States, Susanne Jackson and Randall Schuler, showed that the HRM systems involve HRM philosophies, HRM policies and HRM practices. Since the beginning of 2000s, researchers have reached consensus, about the nature of HRM systems. We have to remember the name of another professor from the Rutgers University, Dave Lepak.

Lepak has offered the following definition: