STUDY OF ANTECEDENTS AND

CONSEQUENCES OF HR ANALYTICS WITH

SPECIAL REFERENCE TO STRATEGIC
WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT

Thesis Submitted for the Award of the Degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
IN
MANAGEMENT

By

MANSI SAXENA

Under the Supervision of

Prof. (Dr.) TEENA BAGGA

(Amity Business School, Amity University, Uttar Pradesh)

Prof. (Dr.) SANGEETA GUPTA

(Management Education and Research Institute, Delhi)

AMITY BUSINESS SCHOOL

AMITY UNIVERSITY UTTAR PRADESH
NOIDA (INDIA)
2022
 Chapter 6
Implication, Future Scope and Conclusion
 Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6
IMPLICATION, FUTURE SCOPE, AND CONCLUSION
“I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the
conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.”
- Albert Einstein

After a detailed discussion on the findings, in this chapter, we present the implication
of the study, limitations of the study, future scope and conclusion. The implication
section is divided into two segments, that is, the implication for theory and
implication for practice. In the next section, we stated the limitation of the study and
future scope. Lastly concluded the chapter with the conclusion of the study.

6.1 Implication

In this section, we have discussed the implications from the theory and practice
perspective.

6.1.1 Implications for Theory

We executed the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model
in the study and pursued to apply it as the fundamental model in the study. However,
we come across limited research in the field with a focus on antecedents and
consequences of HR analytics. This study aims at the adoption of HR analytics to
address the literature gap, skill gap and execution gap among the HR professionals.
The UTAUT model is retested for the validity of the scales. The study was developed
to understand the connection between the antecedents of HR analytics, i.e., general
self-efficacy, quantitative self-efficacy, performance expectancy, effort expectancy,
data availability, tool availability and social influence, with the adoption of HR
analytics and then its consequences on strategic workforce management which is
studied through task performance, strategic participation, empowerment practices and
training and development. The variable chosen for the study is by the literature and
combined with prior studies by Davis (1989), Rogers (1983), Venkatesh (2003), Pare

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and Tremblay (2000), Carlson and Kavanagh (2011), Koopmans (2014), Vargas
(2015) and Qudah et.al., (2020).

The findings of the study show a positive impact on performance expectancy, effort
expectancy, tool availability, general self-efficacy, and social influence as antecedents
of HR analytics. On the other end, quantitative self-efficacy and data availability as
antecedents of HR analytics have a negative impact on the adoption of HR analytics.
This validates the literature that HR professionals find difficult to understand data and
what could be achieved from that data (Vargas, 2015). The findings for the
consequences show that the adoption of HR analytics has a positive impact on
strategic workforce management. This supports the literature as the insights are drawn
from the data mend the ways to influence employees through tasks, participation,
training, and empowerment. The study supports the diffusion of technological
innovation through systematic planning, training and development, and leadership.

While executing the study, we executed method variance study through three different
techniques – Harman single factor, common latent factor, and comprehensive CFA
marker approach. The results show that data validation to be bias free but the
comprehensive CFA marker approach (William et.al., 2010; Simmering, 2015) was
found to have a strong statistical technique and ensures the right technique of bias free
data from its initial stage of developing the questionnaire. Our study validates the
study and turns into a strong recommendation for future research.

6.1.2 Implication for Practice

The competitive edge HR professionals started to experience through the invasion of

technology in their daily tasks led organizations to call the HRs as a business partners
and strengthen their position in the organization by not just dependent on soft skills.
This brings an urge to HRs to adopt analytics as soon as possible and contribute best
to the decision-making process rather than depending on intuitions. Many
organizations‘ irrespective of size, nature, type, region, and market position, take a
step to bring analytics into the routine tasks and empower employees with the right
functioning within and outside organization. The extension in support is provided
through mentoring, training, e-learning platform access, supportive leadership, and

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encouragement. Consequently, all supportive actions provide a push to the HRs to

come-up and get open to technology and analytics.

Organizations need to make sincere efforts to remove the barriers such as quality of data,
time constraint actions or mental blockages to execute the learning in real. The observed
challenges when combined with the barriers of self-efficacy can delay the process or
might turn costly to the organization. The right directions, clear objective, tool application
and task should be defined properly. Each of them in its own itself is a barrier to meeting
the implementation process of HR analytics. These activities can also be supported with
positive words, a positive attitude, and the right training before executing analytics in the
routine workflow. The fear of numbers or mathematics should be dealt with cautiously.
Once the ―no‖ factor among the employee can destroy the efforts. This lack of
quantitative self-efficacy can be avoided with the training and distribution of tasks in the
initial learning period. The flow of work should be considered during the learning times
and employees should be made available to learning sights or experts for proper guidance
in execution and working with data.

The structured data and its quality make a huge difference in the adoption process.
Access to workable data of good quality improves the results and visualization multi-
fold times. Managers need to focus on daily updates of working sheets in the form of
the desired output from the data, that means, the columns should be well-defined and
labeled before any information flow-in. The access and view rights should be granted
to the authorized person. The data flow should be cross-functional and the big picture
approach is assessable to its user.

Organization needs to structure them to expect some good results from the analytics.
Structuring refers to defining and recording the flow of information, ensuring regular
updates on the databases, ensuring cleaned data availability for visualization,
supporting, and appreciating small steps of change to experience the impact of the
adoption of HR analytics.

The right decision on the tool to use makes a good difference in its working. A user
friendly and easy guide to use to boost the confidence of its user. As the sample
shows the desire and use of R, As R is a statistical language that helps in deriving

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quick statistical and visualized results. The competence of its use should be mapped to
the tool used for analytics as it is observed in the study that analytics has an impact on
strategic workforce management. To ensure the right actions for the employees and
ensuring retention of the talent pool it is necessary for the organisations to have the
right decision about the tool at the right time with the right training sessions, material,
or e-learning subscriptions.

Since the findings suggested that strategic workforce management has a positive
association with the adoption of HR analytics, therefore, the organisations have a
chance to reduce recruitment – selection- training costs of employees through the
right manpower planning. The scope of improving the performances widens up as
now it would be more data based rather than personal preference or thinking about the
employee. The right information on the working capacities of the employees will help
the organisations to tap into energies in the right and desired directions for business
success. The information about tasks aligned with resources helps in tracking the
progress not only in a time and cost perspective but also on the delivery. In total, the
organisations have scope to excel in the market not only through their product and
service but rich resources supporting the working with ownership.

The study has also executed a comprehensive CFA marker approach in the study to avoid
method variance which has an implication in practice for all the researchers. Today,
researchers are focusing on bias-free data to draw conclusive results. Based on the
findings from our study we strongly recommend the use of a comprehensive CFA marker
approach, emphasizing on avoiding the method variance from the designing of the
questionnaire phase. This is later tested through more statistically proven studies and
results in a good model fit. Our study states that Harman‘s test and common latent factor
are the most acceptable techniques to test method variance, but they have some
drawbacks which can provide misleading results. Therefore, the present study acts as a
ready reckoner for the researchers to use a comprehensive marker approach.

6.2 Limitation

The limitation in the data was, it was collected primarily in India from the IT industry,
but the result of this research could be applied to other countries and other industries.

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Since IT industry is more open and welcoming to technology and innovation oriented
and thus provides a push to its non-tech workforce to adopt the new and visionary
approach to work. However, this might be the same for other industries or countries.

Research does not study other important factors such as fear appeals as an antecedent
to the adoption of HR analytics, which could possibly affect. We excluded the fear
appeals from the study during the pilot study as the experts suggested that we do not
fear of HR analytics but are concerned about the right knowledge on its usage. Since
the study is based in India with the IT industry, this might not be true for other
industries or countries.

The entire study was cross-sectional and not longitudinal. As in a longitudinal study
we can explore the changes encountered from adoption to implementation to its
consequences on the strategic management perspective (Vargas, 2015; Vargas et.al.,
2018).

The other limitation was that the entire study employed the self-reporting method.
This is done on grounds of ease of use and the degree of usefulness for the level of
adoption of analytics. It was noticed that the respondents of the survey do not have the
liberty to give their inputs in the textual format or to share their comments, so that
they can answer more in the light of positive vibes (Donaldson & Grant-Vallone,
2002). This left the report with some more or less in the reporting system. This was
more considerable for the sections like general self-efficacy, quantitative self-
efficacy, and empowerment practices, which have a scope of behavioural inputs.
Since the asked questions do not provide the option to state an explanation or
comment as behavioural statements are difficult to generalised. The other limitation
with the self-reports is, accepted or not, the respondents have a good understanding of
the questions being asked, and are completely aware of HR analytics concepts,
definition, usage, and scope of application.

The consequence of strategic workforce management was studied in four areas i.e.,
strategic participation, empowerment practices, task performance, and training and
development. The resources and time did not permit us to extend the study to other
segments of workforce management.

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Social Media was used as a tool to collect data and target the subject of the study.
Google forms were created and chosen for the study. In recent times, there are newer
methods of achieving targets and collecting data. The literature provides various
methods which are used but some stand in the debate by the researchers across the
globe. After aiming at the right application of the tool for data collection, this was
found to be the most feasible technique to pitch to the targeted audience.

6.3 Future Scope

This study can be extended on a larger scale across different countries and different
industries. A larger section of respondents apart from and the IT industry can be
pitched. The study can also be extended among the leaders of the organisation, that is,
to understand the factors they consider are relevant in the adoption of HR analytics
like cost, time, rate of return etc., to ascertain the most effective adoption process of
the technology in the organisation. The study can be further extended to test the
impact of analytics on leadership and ways to introduce change within the
organisation by studying the behavioural pattern of the employees.

The study of employee data can also act as a source of study organisation citizenship
behaviour among the employees. The analytics into the behavioural science can also
support the organisation in building ownership among the employees and ways to be
supportive for the working force.

The research was conducted to know the factors of adoption of HR analytics, but
future research can also aim at the factors for non-adoption. The literature supported
with great examples of the businesses using HR analytics and has also mentioned the
withdrawal of investment by some organisations. The failure in execution comes with
a reason and steps to be understood by newly adopted or planning to adopt
organisations.

Research does not study other important factors such as fear appeals as an antecedent
to the adoption of HR analytics, which could possibly affect. A study could be done
on the suggested measures and their effectiveness. Further researchers can study and
validate the application of HR analytics in different work areas. In our study, we have

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got the negative impact of quantitative self-efficacy and data availability on the
adoption of HR analytics. Data availability was found to be insignificant in the study
on the impact on the adoption of HR analytics. The results may change with the
change in geography or industry but would be interesting to see if that brings any
change in the impact.

Today researchers are focusing on a bias free data to draw conclusive results. In the
study, we attempt to extend our hands in creating an awareness of collecting bias free
data from the designing phase of the questionnaire and later by testing through more
statistically proven studies. We applied a common method variance study on data
collected and tested common method variance through three techniques. The
researchers can test method variance on data collected from different fields with
different objectives. The researchers can also extend the study of common method
variance to different industries across different geographical locations. Our study
proves that the comprehensive marker approach is the best among the three
approaches (Harman‘s single factor test, comprehensive marker approach and
common latent factor), but researchers can make a comparison of the CFA marker
approach to other method variance techniques like unmeasured latent method
construct. Our study states that Harman‘s test and common latent factor are the most
acceptable techniques to test method variance, but they have some drawbacks which
can provide misleading results.

In some nations HRs are working only for hiring jobs, indicating the need of detailed
research to create awareness among them and their worth in the businesses. It would
be interesting to know what HRs consider a new-age HR version 2.0 with incoming of
technology in practice.

A study could be done on the suggested measures and their effectiveness. Further
researchers can study and validate the application of HR analytics in different work
areas and the degree of impact of HR analytics in these areas. The research could be
done to test the difference in decisions made before and after the adoption of HR
analytics and the respective impact on the growth of the organisation.

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6.4 Conclusion

The study focused on the antecedents or the factors influencing the adoption of HR
analytics among the HR professionals together with the consequences or impact on
strategic workforce management. The study highlights the factors which appear to be
more relevant while adopting HR analytics and its impact on the strategised ways of
managing manpower. The literature was studied through various research studies
published in journals of repute, industry articles, reports and working papers,
empirical, and non-empirical studies with a focus on analytics, innovation adoption,
data, and management. The study includes the HR perspective of analytics,
application, and innovative stand at the individual to organisation level. The wide
view of the study emphasises on the approach of HRs who are involved in the practice
of technology, analytics, and manpower management which supports the man
resource management group to emerge as a strategic business partner.

The study on HR analytics was performed on HRs of the Indian IT industry to

identify the antecedents and consequences of HR analytics with special reference to
strategic workforce management. The literature identifies general self-efficacy,
quantitative self-efficacy, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, data
availability, tool availability and social influence as antecedents of HR analytics and
consequences with reference to strategic workforce management was studied through
task performance, strategic participation, training and development and empowerment
practice. To execute the study UTAUT was applied, which is a combination of TPB,
TRA, and TAM. The study verifies that general self-efficacy, performance
expectancy, effort expectancy, tool availability and social influence are positively
associated to the adoption of HR analytics. Quantitative self-efficacy and data
availability has a negative impact on adoption of HR analytics as the study revealed
the incompetence among the HRs towards technology, mathematics, and analysis
skills. On the collected data set, data availability shows a negative association with
the adoption of HR analytics.

This research indicates that the antecedents of HR analytics can be handled well by
both the HR professionals themselves and the leaders of the organisation. It is the
time where HR professionals have understood the importance of analytics, which is

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not just founding themselves with the use of analytics in new shoes but also holds
significance for the survival of their role in the organisation and not just for hiring
talent. The new competitive role of HR professionals through analytics asks the teams
across the organisation to look beyond just recruitment activities. Today, HR
professionals have revealed the use of analytics more in HR planning, training, and
development, which shows the proactive move from the HRs and ready to explore
different segments of work and functions.

The leader of the organisation has started and should take steps for smooth adoption
of technology in form of analytics among HRs. A positive word of appreciation and
support will boost morale and give a push to the non-tech workforce to think about
learning and the adopting in the best way possible. Hands-on right training resources
and guidance on the application is all that HR is looking forward to support in time to
learn and execute. Their demand on time to learn makes sense as this will reflect in
new age HR and improved execution in the projects both with resources and cost. As
every new change comes with some challenges, the same happened with HR analytics
as well. HR professionals reported that the analytics adoption was not a cakewalk.

It invited concerns in the form of lack of structured data, poor quality of data, lack of
support from organization, high cost and time constraints. The constant efforts and
approach to overcome help them to come create a success story in the organisation. The
focus was on making the adoption of HR analytics a success, one must see adoption as a
measure to the efforts in innovation and opportunities. HR analytics aimed to draw
insights from the data and initiates good decision-making. The HR professionals are
ready to embrace the new data side of HR.

This was validated when the HR professionals start to make fact-based decisions in their
routine jobs and improved the performance rate to nearly double in a short span of time.
The study reveals the use of analytics in almost all functional areas of HR. The impact of
HR analytics was studied on strategic workforce management. Since workforce
management is a wide area to study so we narrow it down to some important and untested
areas, i.e., strategic participation, empowerment practices, task performance and training
and development. The study shows the impact of the adoption of HR analytics on all

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these as segments as a part of strategic workforce management. The results show a

significant impact on all the segments studied and advocated a positive association
between the adoption of HR analytics and consequences on strategic workforce
management. The availability of tools, support from seniors and team, stress free learning
and time management has helped the HRs in the right way of adoption and
implementation else this can lead to an addition in cost with zero or no returns.

Adoption of HR analytics has verified impact on the strategic workforce management

which is inclusive of all the studied segments. This was imperative of insights drawn
from the employee data and found useful in majorly all functions of HR. The HRs have
accepted the best application of analytics on HR planning and training and development
which has meaningfully saved costs of the organisation and helped HR in being a
strategic partner.

The type of organisation and training on the use of HR analytics has a moderating impact
on the adoption of HR analytics and strategic workforce management. The type of
organisation always influences the motivating changes, the decision of innovation,
execution of innovation on various roles in the organisation, and plans to invest or
distribute the returns. On the other end, knowledge transfer and helping the new birds
learn to work on a new system helps in a new style of working with fresh energy. The
training has an impact on the use of any technology so does it work for HR analytics too.

6.5 Summary

The study was concluded in this chapter highlighting the implications, limitations,
and future scope. The chapter discusses both, the theoretical and the implications for
practice. The chapter also described the limitations of the study and the scope of
research for future researchers.

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