Trust in HRM

Introduction

The two-year Research Seminar Series Trust in HRM which will run from November 2009 to May 2011, focuses on organisational HRM policies and their role in developing and fostering trust within the organisation. Such policies and practices have long been argued to be among the most influential for trust development. In this series of seminars we aim to explore the evidence.  Employees’ perceptions of organisational fairness and trustworthiness are shaped through HRM policy areas, such as selection and recruitment, performance management, reward and recognition, training and development, discipline, union-management relations and redundancy management. In addition to the fairness of the content and design of each of these policies, the consistent and effective implementation of each of these in practice, plus the expression of care for employees and adaptation to employees’ interests, could be expected to impact on the development and maintenance of trust. However, the HRM function often sits uneasily between the demands of managers and employees charged with finding satisfactory solutions to meet the needs of both parties. Though normatively committed to trust-building models of employment relations, HRM professionals are often tasked with designing and implementing trust-reducing practices. This seminar series aims to develop a greater understanding of how the application of the principles of trust development (and repair) could contribute toward managing these tensions and increase the efficacy of HRM strategies and practices.

The Research Seminar Series will address these issues by combining conceptual and empirical inquiry. It will bring together researchers and practitioners from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, including HRM, industrial/organisational psychology, employee relations, economics. The seminars will bring together academics with participants from a range of organisational sectors to challenge and question our insights and understanding.

Organisers

Dr Rosalind Searle, The Open University (main contact: r.searle@open.ac.uk)
Prof Paul Thompson, Strathclyde University,
Prof Denise Skinner, Coventry University,
Dr Graham Dietz, Durham Universit

Upcoming: Seminar 3

Performance Management and Reward

7 June 2010 – Durham University

The 3rd seminar will consider trust in the context of HRM as it relates to performance management and reward with keynotes including Prof Antoinette Weibel and Prof Audrey Korsgaard. The management of performance within organisations is widely accepted as being crucial in gaining competitive advantage and consequently forms a key component of HRM strategy and practice. Performance management, and its subsequent reward, are one of the key HRM processes which have a powerful and regular effect on employees. Main activities grouped under this heading relate to defining performance, managing performance and the provision of feedback on performance, as well as underlying issues, such as motivation and interpersonal relationships with line managers. The issue of control, introduced at the first seminar, is a central concern that will be further developed here.