Rainhart Lang, Kerstin Rego & Thierry Keuscher1 ...

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Jul 3, 2017 - and the theoretical approach of micro-politics (e.g. Crozier ...... McAllister, C. P., Ellen, B. P., Perrewé, P. L., Ferris, G. R., & Hirsch, D. J. (2015).
Rainhart Lang, Kerstin Rego & Thierry Keuscher1 “We are very well informed … we know the developments and the special challenges” – Professional capital and micro-political strategies and tactics of HR managers and departments: Evidence from German Multinationals and SMEs Paper to be presented at

The 10th International Critical Management Conference 3-5 July 2017 Liverpool, UK Stream: HRM: Powerful Player or Powerless Heretic?

Introduction

Our paper addresses the status of HRM actors within organizations. Following the early notion of Legge (1978, 1995) about the “powerlessness” and marginality of HRM actors in strategic decision making, several more recent studies have tried to describe changes in status and power position of HRM managers and their departments (e.g., Marchington 2015; Lang & Rego 2015; Sheehan et al., 2014; Reichel & Lazarova, 2013; Ulrich et al. 2013; Boudreau & Lawler 2012; Roche & Teague, 2012). These empirical studies revealed, among other things, that important elements of the professional power basis of HRM, like specialized professional HRM knowledge, control over HRM activities or possibilities to manage meaning within the organization, are under threat by changing role expectations with a focus on strategic management roles (e.g., Sheehan et al., 2014). At the same time, these changes offer opportunities for HR professionals to strengthen their position in the organization. Since it is still a question, how far the new roles of a strategic advisor or business partner have gained ground in daily practice instead of being part of the expected talk of a “good” HR professional (e.g., Keegan & Francis 2010; Roche & Teague 2012), we are going to investigate

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Rainhart Lang, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany, [email protected] (corresponding author); Kerstin Rego, TU Berlin, Germany, [email protected]; Thierry Keuscher, Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany, [email protected]

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the patterns of the daily activities of HR managers and their departments, and their consequences for the power position of HR managers and departments in more depth. In more detail, we will look at …

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the patterns of the daily activities of HR departments, and how they address different role expectations;

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the power position of HR departments and the professional capital on which the position is based upon as well as the professional habitus of HR professionals;

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the micro-political activities of HR departments, and HR managers as their representatives aimed at gaining and increasing influence within the organization.

In doing so, we would like to contribute to the main questions of the stream regarding the role of HR departments via other organizational actors, and role ambiguities and their consequences for the power positions of HR departments. After a short section about the state of the art knowledge on HRM actors and their power basis, where we will shortly refer to the main empirical studies in the field, we develop the theoretical basis of our argument. We propose a frame based on the concept of professional capital, and professional habitus according to Pierre Bourdieu on the one hand, and the concept of micropolitics on the other hand. Moreover, we will link these concepts to the various role model and role changes as a basis for changing expectations towards the HR professionals.

The empirical study is based on a secondary analysis of three interviews series: one with 21 HR managers from larger German companies and two with HR managers from 7 and 11 mainly smaller and medium-sized German companies. We will describe our methodological approach and the main results with respect to activities and role changes, professional capital, and the respective habitus of German HR managers. Moreover, we will characterize the main micropolitical strategies and tactics used to maintain and develop the power basis and position within the organizations. In the last section, we are going to discuss our findings against the already existing studies on the position of HRM within organizations and draw some conclusions for further research.

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State of Research Our paper addresses the status of HRM actors within organizations. Following the early notion of Legge (1978, 1995) about the “powerlessness” and marginality of HRM actors in strategic decision making, several more recent studies have tried to describe changes in status and power position of HRM managers and their departments (e.g., Dai et al. 2016; Lang & Rego 2015; Marchington 2015; Sheehan et al., 2014; Reichel & Lazarova, 2013; Ulrich et al. 2013; Boudreau & Lawler 2012; Roche & Teague, 2012). In a more recent contribution, Reichel and Lazarova (2013) described that, despite the centrality which has been rhetorically assigned to HRM activities, HR departments often experience marginality in all-day-practice. They found that the status of HR departments seems to be negatively influenced by devolvement to line management, and positively by outsourcing of non-core HR tasks. The study by Sheenan et al. (2014) also put an emphasis on the power position of HR professionals. They show that important elements of the professional power basis of HRM, like specialized professional HRM knowledge, control over HRM activities or possibilities to manage meaning within the organization, are under threat by observed role changes towards strategic roles. Even if “…the new business partner role of HR has not become strategically oriented or organizationally embedded in any reconfiguration of the HR function or how they align with business” (Roche & Teague, 2012, p. 1353), it seems to become important for the power position to talk the language of business partnership models as a strategy of HRM actors in the face of competing role expectations (e.g. Keegan & Francis, 2010). Moreover, Roche & Teague (2012) found that expertise in operational HR activities may be rather helpful to gain influence in managerial decision making and, at the same time, maintain the status of HRM even in times of recession. In addition, other authors have pointed to communication strategies of HRM actors like developing, claiming or demonstrating professional competencies (e.g., Sheenan 2014; Ulrich et al., 2013; Boudreau & Lawler, 2012), as important activities to enhance their power position within the organization. In a more recent study, Dai et al. (2016) show how the human resources department of a state-owned company in China, is successively improving its power positions in establishing a closer relationship between the human resources department and the business department, by increasing the efficiency of the talent management for the group and transforming the department from a cost to a profit center. In contrast, Marchington (2015) examine the development of human resources departments in the UK and argue that with overemphasizing on becoming a strategic business partner, HRM loses focus, influence and its unique selling point because it has neglected the employee champion or 3

advocate role as irrelevant or counterproductive. Thus, HR might subsequently be subsumed by other management functions such as finance and marketing. All in all, the studies on power positions of HRM professionals and departments show several shortcomings. Firstly, the already existing studies address the Anglo-Saxon context. There are only very few studies from other cultural regions or institutional settings (e.g. for Germany, Lang & Rego, 2015). Although some aspects of power positions were mentioned, their focus was on other aspects. Even in our own study (Lang & Rego 2015), we concentrate on perceived tensions in HRM. Secondly, the studies are often under-theorized, lacking a sound theoretical framework from organization theory which includes the meso-level of the organizational settings like power structures, company restructuring, and the implementation of new models like the business partner model for HRM, as well as the micro-level of the individual and collective organizational actors, like HR professionals. In our paper, we address these shortcomings.

Theoretical background The theoretical basis of our analysis combines two connectable theories, namely Bourdieu`s Theory of Practice, especially the idea of professional capital and habitus as further developed by Noordegraaf and Schinkel (cf., Noordegraaf & Schinkel, 2011; Schinkel & Noordegraaf, 2011), and the theoretical approach of micro-politics (e.g. Crozier & Friedberg 1978; Yukl & Falbe 1990; Neuberger 1995, Blickle 2003, Yukl 2013). Both concepts have rarely been used for analyzing the power position of organizational professionals like HR managers, but seem appropriate to us to gain new insights into the social groups which are working under threats like rationalization, restructuring or outsourcing. Moreover, we will also shortly refer to the various role concepts and role changes (e.g. Storey 1992; Ulrich 1997; Caldwell 2003 or Ulrich/ Brockbank 2005) as a basis for changing expectations towards the HR professionals (e.g., Wright 2008, Gerpott 2015, Cohen 2015).

The power position of HR professionals within the organization: A Bourdieusian approach Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice offers an interesting theoretical frame for the analysis of the power position of various social groups in the organization, like HR professionals. A Bourdieu-inspired analysis is interested in how “inter- and intra-organizational power relations are produced, reproduced, and contested” (Emirbayer & Johnson, 2008, p. 1), and how HR professional

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attitudes and behaviors may play a role in an organizational context (Schinkel & Noordegraaf, 2011). Though Bourdieu conducted fascinating empirical studies on organizations (e.g. Bourdieu, 2005a; Bourdieu, 1988), the whole potential of his theory for organization studies was only recently discovered and unfolded. In particular Emirbayer and Johnson (2008) have developed the perspective on an organization-as-field, while Schinkel and Noordegraaf (2011) strengthen a Bourdieusian perspective on professions through the concepts of professional field, professional capital, symbolic capital and professional habitus. Thus, they present appropriate categories to explain professional developments as struggles for power of HR managers. We will now explain the main categories for our analysis, starting with the terms organizationas-field and professional field. For Bourdieu, a field is a net or configuration of objective relations between positions. Such positions are “objectively defined, in their existence and in the determinations, they impose upon their occupants, agents or institutions, by their present and potential situation (situs) in the structure of the distribution of species of power (or capital) whose possession commands access to the specific profits that are at stake in the field, as well as by their objective relation to other positions (domination, subordination, homology, etc.).” (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 2002, p. 97)

Accordingly, a single organization can be conceptualized as follows: “if we enter the ‘black box’ that is the firm, we find not individuals, but, once again, a structure – that of the firm as a field, endowed with a relative autonomy in respect of the constraints associated with the firm’s position within the field of firms”. (Bourdieu, 2005a, p. 205)

Emirbayer and Johnson (2008) broaden the focus of this quotation as they expand it from “the firm” to organizations in general and focus on the “organization-as-field”. Analyzing the organization as a field means “determining the key figures or groups in an organization and assessing the kinds of capital (…) that they possess and that appear to be at stake in their interactions” (Emirbayer & Johnson, 2008, p. 22) as well as the power relations that are spanned between the positions taken on by the actors in the field. In the following, we focus on the subgroup of HR managers within an organization-as-field, and their respective departments, their position in the organization-as-field, and their relation towards

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other groups such as owners, top management, line management and departments, with various managerial professions, workers councils, and employees. Despite focusing on the situation within organizations as a field, organizational professionals are at the same time also part of the field of their respective profession, in our case the professional field of HRM. Noordegraaf and Schinkel (2011) refer to Bourdieu’s ideas and extend them to professions and professionals. They see the latter as “a well-educated and well-behaving group member” (ibid. p. 100) following the norms and rules of the respective profession which are legitimated through professional associations, a standardized education, special codes for behavior, and jurisdictions. The position of a professional within an organization depends therefore on •

how other social groups perceive this profession as necessary and useful for the organization, and its goals and,

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whether and what kind of professional qualities they attribute to the respective professional.

Another central term is capital. The total amount and structure of capital affect the position of each participant in a field - may it be an individual, a group or a department. The types of capital that play a role in most fields are economic, cultural, social and symbolic capital (Bourdieu, 1986; Bourdieu & Wacquant, 2002, p. 119). An example for economic capital is money, or more precisely for departments or social groups in organizations, the budget of each department, which at the same time symbolizes the strength of a department’s position. For cultural capital, three different forms can be discerned: the incorporated cultural capital which is acquired during (in)formal education and socialization processes, the objectified cultural capital (e.g. books on HR management), and the institutionalized cultural capital (e.g. titles such as an MBA). Social capital embraces the total amount of current or potential resources that are connected to a net of relations or the belonging to a group (Bourdieu, 1986). Finally, a special form of capital is the symbolic capital “which is the form that one or another of these species takes when it is grasped through categories of perception that recognize its specific logic” (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 2002, p. 119, italics in original) and which works as a kind of credit or advance rooted in the belief of a group into those who possess it. E.g., a degree in law (institutionalized cultural capital) is highly valued within the German society and insofar as labor law is an important topic within HRM work, professionals possessing such an degree are granted with symbolic capital (based here on institutionalized cultural capital). More broadly, symbolic capital of HR professionals can be 6

described as the forms and amount of capital that are perceived as relevant and are highly valued by other actors, thus: are recognized. All in all, the amount of symbolic capital corresponds to the power of actors (Bourdieu, 2005b, p. 120; Bourdieu, 1984, pp. 7f). Next, the Bourdieusian concept of habitus underlines that individuals are not rational actors, able to choose their actions totally freely. Instead, Bourdieu assumes that people`s activities and behavior are already structured by the social structure. As a result of socialization processes, individuals built up the habitus that fits to their social environment which is represented by fields one is part of and the capital structure available within. This way, social structure leads to a certain habitus and, in turn, the distinct habitus structures the corridor of actions and choices one can take. Individuals are mostly unaware of the guiding principles of their habitus (Bourdieu, 2005b, pp. 53ff) which makes it quite durable. Regarding HR professionals, we can assume that the socialization within the professional field contributes to the acquisition of a professional habitus that enables actors to be part of that profession. As a result, those actors receive professional capital, which may work as symbolic capital in the organization-as-field, determining the position of the actor in the field, and enabling him/her to act adequately. At the same time, it must be considered that each organization-as-field and the field it is part of, provides specific symbolic capital as well, that may differ. The concepts of Bourdieu allow us to understand the power position and power struggles of HR professionals within the organization. Nevertheless, his concept of strategies to maintain or broaden the power position is less explicitly developed. Therefore, we were looking for an additional, more precise concept to describe the daily political activities of HR professionals.

Micro-political strategies and tactics In the late midst of the last century, different scholars introduced concepts of intra-organizational influence and micro-politics in organizational contexts. The notion of micro-politics in these contexts derives from the term policy in political science. It can be described as the exploitation and allocation of human resources to achieve personal goals, a personal rise within a system or the safeguard of a rule of power in combination with an improvement of the own conditions of existence (e.g., Burns 1962, Miller 2008, Rong/Cao 2015). In this respect, “power” is relative and reciprocal to the interdependence of actors and seldom absolute but restricted to certain individuals and traits. It is also characterized by invisibility and a disappearance in rules, which seem to be objectively structured in space or time, known as micro-physical power techniques

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(Foucault 1991, Neuberger 1995). Micro-politics considers rationales of action on an individual level that are aggregated to meso-political rationales of action on an organizational level. The latter are more stable structures that allow, pre-structure, guide and limit individual political actions, although being themselves a result of and influenced by individual and collective political activities. The assumption is that individuals have enough room to maneuver for the interpretation, and pursuit of own interests. This can be an individual or a group interests that is objectively or subjectively aligned to an individual’s or a group’s goals and needs and a perspective in which their actions, strategies and tactics are in the center of interest. The action of the individual is, as mentioned, embedded into a collective context of action that is characterized by mutual dependencies. Power orientation thus has a focus on the establishment, the maintenance and the expansion of possibilities to influence individuals or groups with a focus on the available or attributed power sources and resources (e.g., Neuberger 1995, McAllister et al. 2015, Munyon et al 2015). In more detail, individuals or social groups can adopt various power tactics and techniques to influence organizational decisions and pursue individual plans and rational strategies using own resources and the perceived resources of their interaction partners. Micro-politics includes therefore all forms of resistance and countervailing power but also the existence and effects of consensus and reciprocal consent. It can result in struggle, conflict, change and contingency, due to the various individual possibilities of action and their alternative perspectives (e.g., Fleming & Spicer 2008, Piot et al. 2016).). On this operational micro-political level of action, the influence competency and probability of success of the influencing attempts of an actor and the realization of one’s own goals are important. This includes the situational weighing of alternatives and the application of appropriate behavioral patterns like mimic, gesture, and speech (e.g., Rai 2015). There are three possible directions of influence. A supervisor can influence subordinates, employees in turn can try to influence their supervisors and finally, lateral influence can take place between equivalent individuals (Yukl & Falbe 1990, Yukl 2013, Chaturvedi & Srivastava 2014). In our case of the influence of HR professionals or departments, we are mainly referring to lateral influence, line managers, other departments or work councils, and to upwards influence towards the top management. The result of an influence attempt can either be commitment, a weaker form of compliance, or passive and active resistance (Yukl & Falbe 1990). It can be assumed that the power position of HR departments gains from an influence that “produces” at least compliance, better commitment. Different strategies and tactics can be further explained

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according to their recursive and developmental connection. The achieved power positions, based on the used resources and successfully used strategies constitute the foundation of the following influence processes (Yukl 2013). Influence tactics are often distinguished into “impression management tactics”, “political tactics” and “proactive influencing tactics”. While impression management tactics mainly emphasize the influence on an individual, and political tactics focus on the influence on decision-making processes in the organization, proactive influence tactics are concerned with the enforcement of the own interests within the daily work activities (Neuberger 2006; Yukl 2013). Neuberger also points out the tension between legitimate socio-cultural norms of behavior and illegitimate concealed behaviors with deceptive intentions in the use of strategies and tactics. This illustrates the ambivalence between micro-criminality and required as a sort of “intrapreneurship” to fill the gaps of the imperfect order in an organization (Neuberger 1995, 2006: 552f.). Depending on the concept, authors used different terms for rather similar lists of influence tactics. Some of them identified similar patterns according to their super-ordinating strategies and argued that these are more stable and used on a long-term perspective. In his list of power strategies, Falbo (1977) identified: assertion, bargaining, compromise, emotional agent, threat, persuasion, reason, emotion target, fait accompli, hinting, and persistence, deceit, thought manipulation and simple statements as the list of important power strategies. Neuberger (1995) classified: threat, idealization, escalation, personal appeal, force and pressure, rational argumentation and the formation of coalitions as the most important influence tactics. Yukl (2013) developed a set of eleven proactive influence tactics, which summarizes earlier list including the main tactics as mentioned above (see table 1). Since we wanted to analyze influence tactics as a part of the daily activities of HR professionals, we decided to base our analysis on this concept.

Proactive Influence Tactics Rational Persuasion: The agent uses logical arguments and factual evidence to show that a proposal or request is relevant for attaining important task objectives. Apprising: The agent explains how carrying out a request or supporting a proposal will benefit the target personally or help advance the target person’s career. Inspirational Appeals: The agent makes an appeal to values and ideals or seeks to arouse the target person’s emotions to gain commitment for a request or proposal. Consultation: The agent encourages the target to suggest improvements in a proposal or to help plan an activity or change for which the target person’s support and assistance are desired.

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Collaboration: The agent offers to provide relevant resources and assistance if the target carries out a request or approve a proposed change. Ingratiation: The agent uses praise and flattery before or during an influence attempt or expresses confidence in the target’s ability to carry out a difficult request. Personal Appeals: The agent asks the target to carry out a request or support a proposal as an act of friendship or asks for a personal favour before saying what it is. Exchange: The agent offers an incentive, suggests an exchange of favours, or indicates willingness to reciprocate at a later time if the target does what the agent requests. Coalition Tactics: The agent seeks the aid of others to persuade the target to do something or uses the support of others as a reason for the target to agree. Legitimating Tactics: The agent seeks to establish the legitimacy of a action, proposal or request or to verify authority by referring to rules, policies, contracts, or precedent. Pressure: The agent uses demands, threats, frequent checking or persistent reminders to influence the target to carry out a request.

Table 1: Micro political tactics (see Yukl 2013: 202) In addition to the above mentioned general impact of micro-political tactics, it seems to be interesting to know which of the proactive influence tactics have an influence on the relation between the involved actors, thereby having an influence on their power positions. Here, the study by Lee et al. (2017) delivers interesting insights. Based on 49 independent samples with a total number of N= 8987 questionnaires, they found that rational persuasion, apprising, inspirational appeals collaboration, consultation, and ingratiation as well as legitimation tactics had a positive influence on the relationship between the actors, while personal appeals, exchange and coalition tactics had a moderately positive influence. Only pressure was found to have a negative impact (Lee et al. 2017: 2ff.)

Role changes in the organizational field of HR professionals HR departments were found to be quite important and sensitive for extra-organizational as well as intra-organizational changes like value changes or technological changes but also organizational restructuring. With the responsibility for people management, HR professionals have become an important actor but are at the same time influenced by the changes in their daily work. Bourdieu’s organizational analysis but also the mainstream of the micro-political analysis of tactics have not yet considered these influences in suitable depth. Thus, we include the concept of role changes into our framework with the aim to fill this gap. It can be assumed that a changing organizational work environment may have an influence on the professional habitus, the professional capital, and the symbolic capital as an expression of the power position of HR managers in the organization. These changes are often described as role

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changes with a reference to the faceted and conflicting role expectations faced by HR professionals. The theoretical basis comprises role models of HRM (e.g., Storey 1992; Ulrich 1997; Caldwell 2003 or Ulrich/ Brockbank 2005). Table2 shows the four most influential role models for HRM, which have often been developed with respect to one another. Storey (1992) has developed his typology from an empirical study in well-known companies and public-sector organizations in the late 1980s, distinguishing between strategic and tactical as well as interventionist and non-interventionist roles. A strategic non-interventionist role is that of a consultant (advisor), who supports line managers with expert advice. The service providers (handmaiden) provide special personnel services for the managers, and the experts of change (changemakers) promote both company development as well as the development of business climate and motivation. Finally, he refers to the regulator, who is a tactical interventionist following the traditional role of the formulation, development and monitoring of employee regulations and employment policy (Storey 1992: 169).

Focus towards other social groups Top Management Line Manager

Storey (1992)

Advisor Handmaiden

Top Management/ Change maker Line Manager Employees and Regulator their Representatives All actors

Ulrich (1997)

Caldwell (2003)

Ulrich/ Brockbank (2005)

Strategic partner Administrative expert Change agent

Advisor Service provider

Strategic partner Functional expert

Change agent

Employee Champion

Regulator

Human capital developer Employee advocate HR Leader

Table 2: Roles of HR managers in selected role models

Ulrich (1997, 1998) assumes in his prescriptive model that HR managers and human resources must contribute to the added value of the company. For this purpose, it is important to assist the top management and line managers in the implementation of the strategy as efficiently as possible (strategic partner), to implement personal administrative tasks quickly and efficiently (administrative expert), to work for employees, to represent their worries against top management and to make them more responsive to the company (employee champion) as well as to support restructurings (change agent) (Ulrich 1998: 125). Caldwell (2003) discusses the

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various role models and their associated role combinations, role ambiguities, and role conflicts. His empirical survey in the British context was based on a slightly modified typology grounded on Storey, summarizing and modifying individual types. In addition to line managers, the HR Manager as an internal consultant (advisor) should actively support top management as well as line managers. The service role (service provider) is now explicitly indicated as a service. Addressees here are again line managers. The regulator (regulator) is responsible for Storey's control and monitoring, as well as the employment and personnel policy. The expert for change, as an active actor in organizational transformations and cultural change in the company, now acts as a "change agent". Ulrich and Brockbank (2005) finally resort to the original model of Ulrich and develop it further, especially regarding the content of the roles. In addition to being a strategic partner (strategic partner) of top management and the expert for HR-questions (functional expert), even beyond purely administrative questions, there is also an increased focus on the role of the change expert as developer of the human capital (human capital developer) or as the responsible company leader for all questions of personnel and / or human resources. The role of the representative of employee interests is described with a similar profile to the previous model, but a strong focus on the importance of employee motivation (employee advocate).

In the scientific discussion about the HR role models, also considering the findings from the personnel practice, the authors conclude that …

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the described roles occur in practice usually in the form role combinations (e.g. Storey 1992, Ulrich 1997, Caldwell 2003);

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roles are fundamentally conflicting, stressful (e.g. Caldwell 2003, Roche/ Teague 2012, Sheehan et al. 2014, Marchington 2015), or the expression of fundamental organizational paradoxes (e.g. Gerpott 2015), whereby…

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typical role conflicts or paradoxes, are described o between roles as employee advocate on the one hand, and substitute of the management (ward of managers) on the other hand (e.g. Gerpott 2015: 218), or o between the role of business partner and internal consultant on one hand, and intermediary of the social relations (steward of social contract) on the other hand (Kochan 2004, Wright 2008, Marchigton 2015);

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the roles are constantly changing, with an increase of role expectations and activities seeing the HR manager as a business partner, advisor to the top management, or a strategic actor in the process of change (e.g. Caldwell 2003, Ulrich et al. 2013), while the classical role of an employee attorney, who is seen as an intermediary to employees and employee representatives, clearly loses its importance (e.g. Keegan/ Francis 2010, Gerpott 2015).

The latter development is critically seen by many authors with respect to its consequences for the professional identity of HR managers as well as the development of the company (e.g. Wright 2008, Gerpott 2015, Cohen 2015, Marchington 2015). Although it is still open how far the new roles of a strategic advisor or business partner have gained ground in daily practice instead of only being part of the expected talk of a “good” HR professional (e.g., Keegan & Francis 2010; Roche & Teague 2012), one can assume that role changes may lead to changes in the professional habitus and intra-professional as well as intraorganizational symbolic professional capital. Ulrich (1997), for example, has stated that the introduction of business partner models leads to an alienation of the employees from management as well as from personnel management, but the new role expectations towards HR professionals “[…] can both, represent employee needs and implement management agendas” (1997: 45). In contrast, Keegan and Francis (2010) have found an erosion of the role as an employee expert, and problems with the established professional ethics, mainly caused by structural changes through new HR technologies, and changes in the HR division of tasks between HR practitioners and line managers (2010: 891).

Frame of reference and research question for the empirical study To summarize and integrate the three streams of literature of our theoretical basis, we assume that the power position of HR professionals and HR departments can be described by the professional capital and its recognition through other social groups within the organization (symbolic capital). Based on their capital and their professional habitus, HR managers try to maintain and increase their position by strategies and tactics against other organizational actors of different levels. These strategies are modeled here as micro-political tactics (Yukl 2013). Changing role expectations and the introduction of new organizational models of HRM must be considered by the HR actors. They are import antecedents with an influence on capital, habitus, and strategies. Picture 1 shows the basic structure and relations of our framework. 13

Professional Habitus Focus and change in Role Expectations of HRM

Micro-political Strategies

Symbolic capital of HRM

Professional Capital

Power Position of HRM

Picture 1: Frame of reference

From the antecedent, as summarized in picture 1, result various aspects that have to be considered in an empirical investigation on the power position of HR actors. Accordingly, we will focus on the following aspects in the empirical section: -

the patterns of the daily activities of HR departments and how they address different role expectations;

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the power position of HR departments and the professional capital which the position is based upon;

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the professional habitus of HR managers as a basis of their political activities, and

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the micro-political activities of HR managers and departments aimed at gaining and increasing influence within the organization.

Method and Samples Our empirical analysis is based on a secondary analysis of three interviews series: one with 21 HR managers from large German companies and two with HR managers from 7 and 11 mainly medium-sized companies (Table 3).

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Study2

Survey period Focus of the survey

Company size

Project Professionalization of HR managers (2002) 2002-2003 changes in human resources and careers of HR managers small to large companies (260 to 2,000 employees)

Dick (2010)

Langstrof (2013)

2009-2010 changes in tasks and working methods in the economic crisis medium and large companies (700 to 21,000 employees)

2013 professionalization in the human resources of SMEs small to large companies (100 to 5,000 employees) energy, logistics, retail, mechanical engineering, waste management, banking and finance, public administration

Case 3_1 to 3_11

Industries

car suppliers, trade, energy, communications services

Interviewed persons

HR managers of the company or branch

Number of interviews

7

IT, software, telecommunications, electronics, household goods, energy, car, aviation, construction, chemical, pharmaceutical, banking and finance, public administration predominantly directors or heads of HRM or head of personnel development 21

Case 1_1 to 1_7

Case 2_1 to 2_21

Interviews

HR managers

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Table 3: Overview of the studies involved

Following Alvesson and Kärreman (2000), we are looking at text accounts and argumentations of the interviewed HR managers about the position of their department within the firm, the understanding of their roles and professional activities as well as their tactical activities to gain and to increase influence within the firm. The interviews are analyzed using a qualitative content analysis (Mayring 2000). Compared to an earlier analysis on tensions of HR managers (Lang & Rego 2015), we shift our focus to the power position, and the micro-political strategies and tactics of HR departments. Moreover, we extend the empirical analysis through the inclusion of 2

We would like to thank Martin Dick and Max Langstrof for providing us with their interview material for this secondary analysis, and Fabian Colombo for supporting the coding of the interviews.

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further interview material, small and medium-sized enterprises, which also allows us to describe the situation within the last 15 years in a broader scope. Starting with the working definitions of our central categories, professional capital, habitus, HR role expectations, and micro-political strategies in accordance with to our literature basis, we developed respective codes for the interview material (see table 4)

Main categories

Professional capital of HR professionals/ departments

Professional habitus of HR professionals/ departments

Role patterns in daily activities of HR professionals/ departments

Micro-political strategies and tactics of HRM professionals

Definition and coding rule

Illustrating example

This means the acquired capital available to the individual person or a close group of persons characterizing the person or group her/ him as a HR professional. Professional capital can occur in different forms (e.g. diverse sub-forms of cultural capital, social capital or economic capital). Steady, outlasting principles of how to behave, feel, think and act as a HRM professional that structure the thinking, feeling and actions of HRM professionals. Statements about HRM activities with direct or indirect references to the typical roles of HRM, namely strategic partner, personnel expert, employee advocate, service provider, business partner of line management, or change agent

„At heart, you need the ability to talk in a targeted way to totally different persons in different situations, and in a way that our bridges are not burned behind ourselves but you may come back.” (Interview 2_15, HRM Business partner, Banking and Finance)

“This requires at its heart a certain tolerance of ambiguity (…) I also think that a high level of toughness is essential. “ (Interview 2_15. HRM Business partner, Banking and Finance)

Codes examples for strategic partner role and change agent role "Before my time, the HR manager was not a member of the top management, today I'm sitting here. It is, of course, the case that we have to go through the main objectives, which can also be found in a personnel department." (Case 3_3, Waste Management) "Then we have a very wide change management area in which we support any kind of change processes on request from the specialist areas (…) In fact, we accompany the entire process of change conceptually in implementation.” (Interview 2_21, Energy Sector) Statements that refer to Code example for Consultation and strategies or tactics of HR Networking professionals within the daily “(…) it is increasingly implemented that work through which the position HRM performs as consultant of the top of HRM in the organization-as- management representatives (…) HRM field is maintained or extended gets also increasingly proactive there, in or planned to do so. the sense of an implicit strategy.” Examples: rational persuasion, (Interview 2_1, Head HR development,

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inspirational appeals, exchange, pressure, ingratiation, collaboration, consultation, coalition, networking, legitimation tactics

IT-consulting)

Table 2: Main Guiding categories of the analysis and their definitions

Main Results Main Activities and Roles of German HR departments The empirical analysis revealed numerous references to the central roles of HR managers across the industry and across the size. The HR managers are aware of the roles as well as role conflicts: "So, the HR staff must also be able to enter the business areas which will be important. […] We are not intermediaries between executives and employees. This is the responsibility of the works council. We clearly represent the employer position. This has changed considerably. Sometimes you have to remind your own department staff on it again." (Case 3_6, Logistics Industry) “These are really the essential elements, that there are conflicts […], but if you have a businesspartner relationship with each other, this is also considered by the others. This is a reciprocal giving and taking." (Case 2_14, Chemical Industry) “Partly, we must negotiate with employees' representatives, against our own interests. You are than sometimes in a sandwich position." (Case 3_7, Energy Sector) "The HR policy is decided by our top management. We have a different opinion on it but this is the position of top management. For example, negotiations with the works council are also carried out by the management. We then typically hear from the works council what happens there. I think this is wrong, but it is lived like that." (Case 2_6, Pharmaceutical Industry)

In our material, the traditional role of an employee's representative as well as the more recent role of the strategic partner of the top management, were most frequently addressed (by 34% of each coded role references). The role of an HR expert respective HR service provider have got 23%, and 9% of the total references to personnel management roles. Moreover, certain combinations of roles were found, traditional as well as new roles. The following sample quotations briefly illustrate individual facets of the activity and role descriptions.

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Employee representatives: "... try to support him in his development" "The employee also always has the opportunity to simply go to HR and say whatever he wants […] If we are signified by an employee whom we consider valuable that he does not advance with his boss, we are secretive as HR and try to support him in his development." (Case 2_5, Chemical industry)

The results show that German HR professionals are still considering their responsibility for the employees as a central part of their professional identity. This includes their perception of work councils as important partners as well a few critical comments on conflicts with the top management. Strategic consultant: "... today I am sitting here" "Before my time the HR manager was not a member of the top management team, today I'm sitting here. It is, of course, the case that we have to go through the main objectives, which can also be found in a personnel department." (Case 3_3, Waste Management)

The quotation indicates that the role of HR as strategic consultant of the top management has gained importance during the last years. The participation of HR managers in top management decisions also helps to put HR objectives to the forefront. As a result, the symbolic capital as being a part of the top management may strengthen the power position of the HR department in the organization. Personnel expert/service provider: "We try to shape this in a need-oriented way" "Now we have a training catalog, which is launched every year and we have got a lot of encouragement for it. The topics are presented in a company-specific manner in consultation with the different departments. […] and now we give the feedback and ask: `What do you like? What is missing?` and try to make it more needs-oriented.” (Case 3_7, Energy Sector)

The role of a personnel expert as a further traditional role of HR actors also seems to be of importance. References to the role were found in nearly all organizations. But within this role, a shift towards an understanding as service provider (“need-oriented”) was found as some of the references indicate.

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Expert for change: "... has to plan much more ahead" "Then we have a very wide change management area in which we support any kind of change processes on request from the specialist areas. […] In fact, we accompany the entire process of change conceptually in implementation. Our strengths lie in the implementation on site, to bring employees into the boat, to establish a common orientation in the newly established areas and so on." (Case 2_21, Energy Sector)

References towards the role of a change agent, was not found in all, but at least a few, often larger organizations. To sum up, our material shows a certain persistence of HR professionals with respect to traditional roles as employee advocate, and expert. We also found proof for role changes towards the roles as strategic consultant and HR service provider, and, at least for larger organizations, towards the role as a change agent. We can assume that these role changes may have an impact on expectations about HR activities and behaviors. How far these expectations have gained ground in the perceptions of professional capital and professional habitus by HR managers is part of the next section.

Professional capital and professional habitus of German HR actors and departments The professional capital of German HR managers and their departments, as perceived by the managers, consists of specialized knowledge about HR issues and tools as well as knowledge about core processes of the respective firm, high potential for empathy, communication and negotiation skills, many contacts and networks of relationships, problem-solving competencies, and abilities to manage their own know-how as well as service orientation. A few examples may illustrate some of these aspects. Certainly, all interview partners put special emphasis on specialized HR knowledge. We found many firms that especially organize, manage and develop this knowledge through external but also internal training. This includes knowledge about the organization as well as the core business of the departments that an HR professional is in charge of. This is the sort of professional capital that is recognized by line managers and top management and thus serves as symbolic capital:

„The HR professionals have indeed a broad knowledge of the core business of the firm […] We really try to stay up to date and act very well in our particular division. […] In the meantime, all 19

personnel staff is people with an academic degree and professional experience. They are remarkably better educated, and all know other firms from the inside as well. This increases the recognition as well. That’s a simple fact.“ (Case 2_6, Pharmaceutical Industry)

The quotation also shows that a combination of HR expert knowledge and knowledge of the core business may strengthen the position of the HR professionals. The latter can also be developed through close cooperation with the other departments, within the role of a HR service provider.

“…we are very well informed […] As internal service provider we are in the know; we know the developments and the special challenges.” (Case 2_21, Energy sector)

Moreover, a central part of the professional capital of HR managers is the ability to communicate and negotiate with various social groups in and outside the organization.

„At heart, you need the ability to talk in a targeted way to totally different persons in different situations, and in a way that the bridges are not burned behind you, and you may come back.” (Case 2_15, Banking and Finance)

“Our strength is the local implementation, to bring the others as co-workers into the boat, to create a joint understanding of newly established structures and instruments and so forth.” (Case 2_ 21, Energy sector)

Other important aspects of the professional capital are a high potential for empathy, and a problem-solving orientation and competence to solve conflicts.

“Well, I think, a high potential for empathy is important. […] One has to work in a solutionoriented way […] And a respective behavior, for example in situations of conflict, is also needed.” (Case 1_7, Communication services) “I think a certain amount of empathy should be there, because as a HR person you should definitely have it. The ability to enter into the role of the other.” (Case 3_7, Energy)

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The professional habitus of the HR managers was characterized by general interest and an orientation towards working with people, tolerance of ambiguity, robustness, a calm and balancing character, neutral in all behaviors, and sticking to the facts. As a typical characteristic of the professional habitus of an HR professional, general interest and an orientation towards working with people combined with a feeling for people and social relations is mentioned. „You have to have a personal vein for it“ (Case 1_3, Energy sector) „Well, I would say a personal disposition is necessary. I have always been interested in being with other people.” (Case 1_5, Trade)

Moreover, a high level of tolerance of ambiguity as well as a respective degree of robustness are

typical for HR professionals:

“As a business partner, you must be able to put yourself in this position and to take sides, though you’re always caught between two stools. You are a member of HRM, not of the specialist department. You need to represent HRM here, but must represent the specialist division in the face of HRM as well. This requires at its heart a certain tolerance of ambiguity.” (Case 2_15, Finance and Banking) “Everyone is different. I think that everyone lives in his or her role and probably says: `I'm a human` or `I'm not a human` person, which is, of course, difficult again in our role. One must, or at least I am making this effort, have close contact with coworkers. But I still need a distance, however, because I also have to implement unpleasant things.” (Case 3_9, Retail)

The interviewed managers also often refer to balanced and neutral behavior like in the next quotation. „You have to be able to ignore things, even you are affected yourself. You must maintain a certain neutral distance. Otherwise you will have difficulties working in HR.” (Case 1_1, Car supplier)

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“On the other hand, , you should have an eye on the whole from a distance so that you can keep your professional distance and distinguish between personal and factual aspects.” (Case 3_7, Energy)

A few HR managers also see themselves as ward of juridical and ethical rules. “If the people did not act in accordance with laws or ethical standards, I am asked to correct this behavior. Even if it is someone higher in the hierarchy than me, I must point to possible problems, which sometimes also may lead to economic problems as well.” (Case 2_29, Aviation)

Partly, we also found statements by HR managers seeing themselves as “…a cogwheel in the big machine” (Case_ 3_7, Energy sector) or as “standing in the second row” only responsible for the fulfillment of a strategy (Case 2_3, Electronics).

Micro-political strategies and tactics of German HR actors and departments Looking at the influence tactics, we found a certain preference for the use of soft tactics like collaboration, consultation, coalition, and networking, which is obviously related to the dominant lateral or upwards influence of HR activities. But also exchange, rational persuasion, pressure and legitimation tactics were found. Typical references to collaboration, consultation respective networking as an influence strategies include:

„(…) it is increasingly implemented that HRM performs as a consultant of the top management representatives (…) HRM also gets increasingly proactive there, in the sense of an implicit strategy.” (Case 2_1, IT Consulting) „Let’s put it like this, we try to play a mediating role, to include the interests of all parties, to include them, and to find a way everybody can live with.” (Case 3_3, Waste Management)

Rational persuasion was also found to be an important tactic, demonstrating the cultural capital like professional knowledge and attitudes of HR managers, but also pointing to the contributions of HR activities to organizational goals:

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„This topic has to be placed in a way to show that we are able to create added value, which works better through long-term HR recruitment and HR retention. This is a good lever.” (Case 2_13, Construction industry)

Many HR professionals referred to exchange tactics, be it equivalent information exchange based on specific knowledge about the employees, or a reciprocal exchange of contributions to a common goal. The HR professional try to establish a stable exchange pattern, which also, at least, maintains or stabilizes their position towards the exchange partner. „Well, we try to come to a reciprocal accommodation, to solve problems with the axe does not make sense. “ (Case 1_7, Communication Services)

"… but if you have a business-partner relationship with each other, this is also considered by the others. This is a reciprocal giving and taking." (Case 2_14, Chemical Industry)

We also found several interesting examples for the use of pressure. The interesting aspect here is that the influence of pressure is often combined with an already reached power position, from which the interviewed HR managers expect a further increase of their influence. This is perfectly displayed in the quotations where the managers claim that they see their trainings as “obligatory”, or that they “want” their top management team member to act “powerfully” for HR issues. „ There are trainings, which we see as obligatory, especially in the management area, where we say that a certain group of managers have to have that kind of training.” (Case 2_7, Software development) „He is member of the top management, which I see as an ideal precondition […]. If you have someone in the superstructure who can powerfully act within the top management and the decision board. That is where we want to go.” (Case 2_2, Telecommunication)

Legitimations tactics also play a role to influence the other social groups within the organization. In the following quotations, the HR managers legitimize their HR structure with a reference to the fashionable business partner model of Dave Ulrich. Even the titles or names of the departments are claiming excellence in HR work, as the critical remark in the second quotations 23

shows. It remains open, whether this is accepted by the business partner and can result in an increasing the symbolic capital of HR. “We are organized according to Dave Ulrich. WE do have three departments here, two as socalled Centers of Excellence, where there are specialists for Compensation & Benefits, HR and management development, HR-Controlling and so forth.” (Case 2-20 Banking and Finance) “What is referred to as the `business partner` is often only a renaming of the classical personal referent […] The support for these topics has all a little bit to do with Dave Ulrich and others. In the best case, many companies have then either trained their personal referents in the best possible way, which I think is a crucial requirement to get this business partner model to fly at all. Other companies have just said that the current staff members are now called business partners, but nothing has happened.” (Case 2_10 Telecommunication)

But we also found a few influence tactics beyond the model by Yukl like the following: „We did that over years giving respective feedback. Then, we include (the issue) into leadership training and ask for it again and again. Such things do not work in short terms in our company.” (Case 2_12, Public Administration)

The interviewed manager refers here to a tactic of persistence, which can be seen in line with the professional habitus of robustness. Summarizing our findings on proactive influence tactics as described by the HR professionals, we found a combination of mainly soft and rational tactics like collaboration, consultation, rational persuasion, coalition or legitimation, which may have a positive or moderately positive effect on the relation to other groups and therefore leads to maintained or increasing power position. Moreover, pressure seems also perceived as an effective mean for increasing the own power position.

Discussion, limitations and perspectives for further research Picture 2 summarizes the main findings of our study. Contrary to findings in the Anglo-Saxon context, our context, our study gives raise to the assumption that the professional role pattern has

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not yet fundamentally changed. German HR professional see themselves mainly in the role as an HR expert and employee advocate. This is also displayed in their self-perceived professional habitus and professional capital where, for example, service orientation as a business partner is part of, but has not played a dominant role up to now. Nevertheless, some changes have been described with the adoption of new roles like a strategic consultant, business partner and the respective economic thinking. An increasing distance is partly reported, and core business knowledge has become an important part of the professional capital of HR, and is recognized as symbolic capital too. HR departments obviously invest parts of their economic capital, budget for developing cultural capital through the external and internal acquisition of HR and core business knowledge. The exiting habitus with a combination of human or people orientation on the one hand and tolerance for ambiguity and robustness on the other hand seems to allow the HR managers to cope with the conflicting role expectations.

Professional Habitus, like tolerance of ambiguity, robustness, human orientation, balanced, neutral ward of rules and ethics Focus and Change in Role Expectations on HRM, like focus on traditional role of employee advocate and HR expert, also strategic consultant, service provider

Professional Capital, like HR and core business knowledge, ability to communicate and negotiate, potential of empathy, network of contacts and relationships

Micro-political Strategies like collaboration, consultation, rational persuasion, exchange, legitimizing, pressure

Symbolic capital of HRM like provider of qualitative HR services, consultant and mentor for HR problems, knowing core processes

Power Position of HRM

Picture 2: Main findings Finally, the proactive influence tactics, with a focus on soft tactics, seem to fit with the position of HRM towards the main groups of collaborators. They found a basis in the professional social capital, and the abilities to communicate and negotiate. Exchange seems to be a tactic if HR is seen as partner who can deliver something of value like special information or knowledge. And it is mainly aimed at maintaining the existing position. Pressure, despite its side-effects, is not in 25

the very center, but seems to be an option if a certain power position is reached. It is also often used in combination with other tactics or if other tactics do not lead to the desired outcome. Although we found the theoretical framework helpful to understand important aspects of the power position of HR managers and HR departments, the structural basis, like professional and symbolic capital, and the professional habitus as well as the proactive influence tactics, we also see a few shortcomings and limitations of our theoretical framework. First, we see the necessity to better integrate the two basic concept, and analyze the relations between role expectations and capital, habitus, and tactics in more in-depth. Second, the results of the empirical study point to other tactics not included in the list provided by Yukl. Thus, we obviously should extend the list, also including political tactics, for example networking and self-promotion as well. In addition, it might be important to also notice who is aimed to be influenced by the respective tactic. Third, the theoretical approach calls for complex case studies over time, which allow to show not only the self-perception of the position by HR managers but also perception of HR through the eyes of other social groups, and the inclusion of statistical data, like a comparison of the budgets as an indicator of economic capital of a department, or observations, for example the intensity of contacts as an indicator for social capital etc. Our study merely analyses references to tactics, and only partly the perceived outcome of influence tactics. Fourth, we have just started to analyze the material. Up to now, we have not looked for context factors like branch and size of organizations, changes over time, although the material would allow such examinations. These limitations may, at the same time, be directions for further research.

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