HRM-related journals included in this study
Journal | snip | cite | sjr | Number of papers included |
---|---|---|---|---|
Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources | 1.17 | 1.58 | 0.60 | 429 |
Human Resource Development International | 1.06 | 1.72 | 0.45 | 796 |
Human Resource Management Journal | 1.54 | 3.75 | 1.39 | 510 |
Human Resource Management Review | 1.98 | 4.97 | 1.66 | 713 |
Human Resource Management | 1.95 | 4.28 | 1.89 | 859 |
International Journal of Human Resource Management | 1.28 | 2.71 | 0.96 | 2,703 |
Journal of Human Capital | 1.79 | 2.10 | 2.52 | 185 |
Journal of Human Resources | 6.65 | 8.27 | 12.36 | 663 |
Trends in HRM research in the years 2000–2020
Activity of long-lasting and emerging trends in recent years
Avg. papers per year in 2016–2020 | Activity in recent years | ||
---|---|---|---|
Decrease | Stable | Increase | |
More than 50 | |||
26–50 | |||
1–25 |
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Braga , B.M. , de Camargo Oliva , E. , de Miranda Kubo , E.K. , McKenna , S. , Richardson , J. and Wales , T. ( 2021 ), “ An institutional approach to ethical human resource management practice: comparing Brazil, Colombia and the UK ”, Journal of Business Ethics , Vol. 169 No. 4 , doi: 10.1007/s10551-019-04257-x .
Capobianco-Uriarte , M.D.L.M. , Casado-Belmonte , M.D.P. , Marín-Carrillo , G.M. and Terán-Yépez , E. ( 2019 ), “ A bibliometric analysis of international competitiveness (1983-2017) ”, Sustainability , Vol. 11 No. 7 , p. 1877 , doi: 10.3390/su11071877 .
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Choi , J.N. , Sung , S.Y. and Zhang , Z. ( 2017 ), “ Workforce diversity in manufacturing companies and organizational performance: the role of status-relatedness and internal processes ”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management , Vol. 28 No. 19 , pp. 2738 - 2761 , doi: 10.1080/09585192.2016.1138315 .
Cong , Y. , Chan , Y.B. and Ragan , M.A. ( 2016 ), “ A novel alignment-free method for detection of lateral genetic transfer based on TF-IDF ”, Scientific Reports , Vol. 6 , p. 30308 , doi: 10.1038/srep30308 .
Cooke , F.L. , Wood , G. , Wang , M. and Veen , A. ( 2019 ), “ How far has international HRM travelled? A systematic review of literature on multinational corporations (2000-2014) ”, Human Resource Management Review , Vol. 29 No. 1 , pp. 59 - 75 , doi: 10.1016/j.hrmr.2018.05.001 .
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DuBois , C.L.Z. and Dubois , D.A. ( 2012 ), “ Strategic HRM as social design for environmental sustainability in organization ”, Human Resource Management , Vol. 51 No. 6 , pp. 799 - 826 , doi: 10.1002/hrm.21504 .
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Dumont , J. , Shen , J. and Deng , X. ( 2017 ), “ Effects of green HRM practices on employee workplace green behavior: the role of psychological green climate and employee green values ”, Human Resource Management , Vol. 56 No. 4 , pp. 613 - 627 , doi: 10.1002/hrm.21792 .
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Garza , A.S. and Morgeson , F.P. ( 2012 ), “ Exploring the link between organizational values and human resource certification ”, Human Resource Management Review , Vol. 22 No. 4 , pp. 271 - 278 , doi: 10.1016/j.hrmr.2012.06.011 .
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Gould , J.A. , Kulik , C.T. and Sardeshmukh , S.R. ( 2018 ), “ Trickle-down effect: the impact of female board members on executive gender diversity ”, Human Resource Management , Vol. 57 No. 4 , pp. 931 - 945 , doi: 10.1002/hrm.21907 .
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Have you ever wondered how you can stay up to date with the latest advancements in Human Resources Management ( and other related fields ) without going back to University?
In the field of HRM, it’s not always necessary to return to college to continue learning. If higher education is not an option for you, it’s still important to note that the pursuit of knowledge should always extend beyond personal insights and the opinions of popular workplace influencers. This article aims to guide HR professionals towards credible and up-to-date HRM learning content. It underscores the necessity of diversifying information sources and relying on validated, professional resources to elevate the quality of people management practices.
Human Resources Management is a dynamic field in which new knowledge is created every day, and where staying up-to-date with the latest advancements is essential. While personal experiences and influencers may offer insights, their quality and applicability can be questionable. In addition, as HR professionals shift between different organizational contexts and environments, the knowledge gained in one setting may not seamlessly translate to another. Thus, exclusive reliance on these sources can be a risky choice. It’s imperative to understand that learning is a continuous process, necessitating a foundation in rigorously researched insights.
There are professionals in many areas of social sciences, including Human Resources Management, who spend their days at work applying the scientific method, defined by Oxford Reference (2021) as the procedure that science utilizes to gain knowledge. The scientific method consists of making observations, formulating specific theories, and testing hypotheses to verify their validity through experimentation. This process, as well as other mixed research methods, lead researchers to produce trustworthy knowledge. For that reason, it’s important to stay up to date with the work of the scientific community and the findings that concern HRM professionals.
In addition, through science-backed knowledge, we can also discover how others are evaluating certain subjects and processes. This information might be of great use to those who want to carry out specific research projects within organizations, complementing the popular “ internal best practices ” approach.
It’s important to note that academic research papers are not always accessible free of cost. The work of researchers is valuable and important, and it makes sense for databases to charge a fee to access their knowledge. Independently of that, there still are many open-access sources with thousands of valuable studies and academic dissertations available to the general public online. If your budget is tight, why not take advantage of all that hard work, learn something new, and complement your existing knowledge with some well-researched facts?
To access credible HRM material, you can explore various sources (Proofed, 2019). We reviewed a few to discover if we could find studies on HR topics that we were interested in learning more about, and we were quite satisfied with what we found. Now we’re sharing information on 7 databases we’d recommend:
The ILO (2021) is the United Nations agency that collaborates with governments, employers, and workers to establish labor standards, formulate policies, and implement programs aimed at promoting decent work. Given the ILO’s central focus on labor-related matters, its database serves as a valuable resource for HR professionals seeking high-quality content on personnel management. The ILO’s website offers dedicated sections for publications and research, featuring resources such as LabourDoc (the ILO’s institutional repository) and LabourDiscovery (the ILO’s library collection). A search for Human Resources Management on LabourDoc yields 1,383 document results, while LabourDiscovery provides access to an extensive collection of 715,122 documents. Many of these materials are available as full-text open-access resources and provide links to other databases mentioned in this article.
Google Scholar (n.d.) is widely recognized as an effective platform for accessing professional content. This scholarly literature search engine was created to offer a user-friendly means to conduct targeted searches. It encompasses a diverse array of fields, including Human Resource Management (HRM), and incorporates content from articles, books, academic publishers, universities, and various other reputable sources. When searching for “Human Resources Management,” users can expect to discover an extensive collection of pages containing relevant content, which can be further refined using date filters.
CORE (n.d.) positions itself as the world’s largest repository of open-access research papers. Its mission is to provide a global open-access research platform that ensures free and unrestricted accessibility for all (CORE, 2019). This platform gathers research papers sourced from institutional and subject repositories, hybrid and open-access journals, and encompasses all research domains. It currently possesses an impressive collection of over 208 million open-access articles drawn from a network of more than 10,000 data providers worldwide. A straightforward search for “Human Resources Management” yields a total of 19,011,079 academic articles in 19 different languages (CORE, n.d).
BASE (Bielefeld University Library, 2021) is a specialized German academic web resource search engine. It holds an extensive collection of content, with over 240 million files sourced from more than 8,000 content providers, and is searchable in over 20 languages. In addition, 60% of these full-text documents are freely accessible to the general public. A single search using the keyword “Human Resources Management” generates a substantial result of 25,961 items. This content derives from a variety of sources, including digital collections, journals, institutional repositories, and more. It’s important to note that BASE holds rigorous standards for academic quality and relevance when accepting content on its platform.
EThOS , the British Library’s e-theses online service, is the official national repository for doctoral research theses produced in the United Kingdom, as described by Kefford (n.d). It is dedicated to enhancing the visibility and accessibility of these valuable academic works. A substantial portion of the research documents available on this platform has been publicly funded to support students in UK Higher Education Institutions. Consequently, there is a prevailing belief that the knowledge generated through such funding should be openly accessible in full-text format. EThOS holds an extensive collection, comprising 500,000 records and 260,000 full-text documents, originating from more than 120 institutions. It continually expands and updates its content to benefit a wide audience. A general search for “Human Resources Management” yields a noteworthy 1,620 records of doctoral theses.
The DOAJ (2020), short for The Directory of Open-Access Journals, serves as an autonomous repository housing more than 15,000 peer-reviewed open-access journals, spanning all fields of science, including Human Resource Management within its social science category. Its objective is to enhance the global presence, accessibility, and utilization of research journals. The content featured on this platform is contributed by researchers from 125 different countries, and it is accessible in up to 80 languages, all without charge. When conducting a journal search for “Human Resources Management,” the DOAJ returns 35 results, each containing a collection of articles related to the subject.
The SSRN , officially known as the Social Science Research Network, under Elsevier (2021), is another notable open-access digital library and preprint community that enjoys a user base of 2.3 million individuals. Its core focus lies in social sciences, encompassing a vast repository of 940,733 research papers spanning over 60 distinct disciplines. The majority of these documents are available for free download. Searching for “Human Resources Management” on SSRN yields a significant result of 1,938 papers, providing a valuable resource for interested learners.
At The Humans of HR , our mission is to offer accessible and practical content that draws inspiration from the work of fellow professionals and the scientific community. We take pride in creating and delivering high-quality educational content. If you’re seeking content that is easily digestible, free from abstract sections and overwhelming statistics, yet maintains a strong scientific foundation, we invite you to explore our Online Magazine . Additionally, staying connected with us through our newsletter or on social media channels will keep you updated on our latest contributions to the field.
Gaining HR knowledge requires a multifaceted approach. Relying solely on personal experiences or influencers is insufficient in a field that demands precision and adaptability. Leveraging professional sources, including the scientific community’s work and reputable platforms, empowers HR professionals to make informed decisions and uphold high standards in HR management practices.
If there’s something we want you to take away from reading this article, it’s that there are thousands of well-researched pieces of content on work-related topics freely accessible online. The platforms we’ve highlighted are invaluable tools designed to empower you in making evidence-based decisions when it comes to managing people in the workplace. Let’s ensure that this abundance of high-quality knowledge doesn’t go untapped or underutilized.
Rossina Gitto is the Founder and creative force behind The Humans of HR . She’s a Licensed Psychologist specialized in workplace dynamics and holds a Master’s Degree in International Human Resources Management from the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas. Having lived, studied, and worked in 8 different countries across Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East, she brings a unique global perspective to People Management. She contributes, edits, and publishes diverse content across a broad spectrum of topics for The Humans of HR.
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Bielefeld University Library. (2021). Base—Bielefeld academic search engine | what is base? https://www.base-search.net/about/en/index.php CORE. (n.d.). About core . Retrieved April 12, 2021, from https://core.ac.uk/about CORE. (2019, January 21). Introducing core . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gFYNg_8ySQ DOAJ. (2020). Directory of open access journals . About. https://doaj.org/about/
Elsevier. (2021). Social Science Research Network Solutions . Elsevier.Com. https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/ssrn Google. (n.d.). About google scholar . Retrieved April 12, 2021, from https://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/about.html International Labour Organization. (2021). About the ilo . ILO. https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/lang–en/index.htm Kefford, B. (n.d.). About British Library EThOS – search and order theses online [Text]. Retrieved April 12, 2021, from https://ethos.bl.uk/About.do Oxford Reference. (2021). Scientific method . Oxford Reference. https://doi.org/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100447727 Proofed. (2019, April 5). 10 free research and journal databases. Proofed . https://getproofed.com/writing-tips/10-free-research-journal-databases/
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Xiaoping qin.
1 School of Health Policy and Management, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100730 China
2 College of Medical and Health Science, Asia University, Taichung, 41354 Taiwan
3 Department of Education, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100730 China
4 Department of Innovative Medical Research, Hospital Management Institute, Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital, Beijing, 100853 China
5 Affiliation Program of Data Analytics and Business Computing, Stern School of Business, New York University, New York, 10012 United States of America
6 Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, 518055 China
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All data and materials generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article.
Human resource management (HRM) in healthcare is an important component in relation to the quality and efficiency of healthcare delivery. However, a comprehensive overview is lacking to assess and track the current status and trends of HRM research in healthcare. This study aims to describe the current situation and global trends in HRM research in healthcare as well as to indicate the frontiers and future directions of research. The research methodology is based on bibliometric mapping using scientific visualization software (VOSviewer). The data were collected from the Web of Science(WoS) core citation database. After applying the search criteria, we retrieved 833 publications, which have steadily increased over the last 30 years. In addition, 93 countries and regions have published relevant research. The United States and Australia have made significant contributions in this area. Current research articles focus on topics clustered into performance, hospital/COVID-19, job satisfaction, human resource management, occupational/mental health, and quality of care. The most frequently co-occurring keywords are human resource management, job satisfaction, nurses, hospitals, health services, quality of care, COVID-19, and nursing. There is limited research on compensation management and employee relations management, so the current HRM research field still has not been able to present a complete and systematic roadmap. We propose that our colleagues should consider focusing on these research gaps in the future.
Among the many management elements, people are the most dynamic and active element, and they are an important asset in organizations [ 1 ]. The term “human resources” was first coined by the academic Peter F. Drucker in 1954 [ 2 ]. The key function of human resources management (HRM) is to “put the right people in the right jobs at the right time” [ 2 ]. HRM refers to the planned allocation of human resources in accordance with the requirements of organizational development through a series of processes, such as recruitment, training, use, assessment, motivation, and adjustment of employees, to mobilize their motivation, bring into play their potential and create value for the organization [ 1 ]. Ensuring the achievement of the organization’s strategic objectives, HRM activities mainly include human resource strategy formulation, staff recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management, compensation management, staff mobility management, staff relationship management, staff safety and health management, etc. Similarly, modern healthcare management has human resources as the core. The HRM level in hospitals is related to the quality and efficiency of medical services provided by hospitals, which is also the core of internal hospital management and the focus of health macro management [ 3 ].
The World Health Organization (WHO) states that health systems can only work with the help of health workers, and that improving the coverage of health services and realizing the right to the highest standard of health depends on the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of health workers [ 4 ]. In response to evolving characteristics in socio-economic development and the human resource market, healthcare system personnel reforms are evident in three key areas: first, decentralization and flexible employment practices grant hospital managers greater decision-making autonomy concerning priorities and access to medical resources. However, they also impose quantitative and functional constraints on physicians' working hours, career planning, and medical payment systems. Second, a focal point is the rational allocation of technical staff to achieve efficiency while controlling labor costs. Finally, hospital organization change and restructuring are prevalent. Many European countries have unionized hospital employees, limiting the ability to establish independent incentives and rewards. In contrast, U.S. hospital employees often do not belong to specific organizations, leading cost control efforts to revolve around adjusting the allocation of technical staff and employee numbers to reduce labor expenses [ 5 – 7 ].
The current global trend in the number of publications on HRM in healthcare is rising. However, there are currently several problems in HRM research. The following issues mainly exist: (1) the expertise and professionalism of HRM managers are limited. (2) Theoretical methods and technical applications are weak. (3) Insufficient regulation of regulations, systems and procedures. (4) Management is mainly at the level of operational work, and functions are too fragmented [ 8 , 9 ]. Although hospitals worldwide generally recognize the importance of HRM, they do not pay sufficient attention to it. The management of human resources is also stuck in the previous understanding that its work is carried out only by transferring positions in hospitals, promoting and reducing the salary of employees and a series of other operations [ 10 ]. Most senior management in hospitals have comprehensive medical knowledge; some are experts in a particular field. Still, they lack expertise in HRM, which makes them work in a transactional way in HRM. There is also currently a general health workforce imbalance in countries worldwide. The lack of well-being of healthcare workers is particularly problematic in foreign healthcare institutions [ 11 ], and to reduce costs, some organizations have reduced staffing levels. In turn, because of lower quality of service, the morale of healthcare providers often suffers. Patient satisfaction may decline [ 12 ]. In the process of data gathering, we found that the literature related to HRM in healthcare is still under-reported and that the research topics are scattered, and there is still a lack of generalization and summary of these literatures [ 13 ]. There is no systematic theoretical support in the current research, which defines the perspective that researchers should take when analyzing and interpreting the data to be collected, leading to biased interpretations of the results, and does not allow other researchers to combine the findings with existing research knowledge and then apply them to practice [ 14 ]. Second, data collection was not rigorous, and the downloading strategy was not appropriate to achieve completeness and accuracy of data. There is also a lack of information and incomplete use of features in the presentation of knowledge maps and visualization results [ 15 ].
Therefore, the aims of this study are the following; first, we provide a new way of viewing the field of healthcare HRM and its associations by examining co-occurrence data. Second, we relate our evolutionary analysis to a comprehensive future research agenda which may generate a new research agenda in healthcare hospital HRM. This review, therefore, focuses on illuminating the research frontiers and future roadmap for healthcare HRM research [ 16 , 17 ].
This study provides a bibliometric analysis of the HRM research literature in health care over a 30-year period to describe the landscape and trajectory of change in the research field. The methodology used for this overview is based on bibliometric mapping [ 18 , 19 ], a visualization technique that quantitatively displays the landscape and dynamic aspects of the knowledge domain [ 20 ]. Data were collected from the Web of Science (WoS) core citation database. Two Java-based scientific visualization software packages (CiteSpace and VOSviewer), developed by Chaomei Chen and Van Eck and Waltman, were used to analyze the data [ 18 , 21 ].
The data for this study were retrieved from the Web of Science on 28 September 2022. Web of Science was chosen as the search engine, because it is the most widely accepted and commonly used database for analyzing scientific publications [ 22 ]. The keywords “human resource management” and “healthcare organization” were used as search topics. First, to get a complete picture of HRM research, we searched all the literature from 1977 to the date of the search.
Eight hundred thirty-three publications on HRM in healthcare organizations were identified (Fig. 1 ). We excluded publications before 1990, because the two documents before 1990 did not include complete information. In addition, articles, review articles, and early access articles were included in the study. To minimize language bias, we excluded literature published in languages other than English. Each publication in WoS contains detailed information, including the year of publication, author, author’s address, title, abstract, source journal, subject category, references, etc. A detailed description of the contents of the database preceded the bibliographic analysis. For example, some authors presented their names in different spellings when submitting articles, so reviewing and integrating the data in detail was necessary. A total of 718 publications were included and exported to VOSviewer and CiteSpace software to analyze the following topics: global publishing trends, countries, journals, authors, research orientations, institutions, and quality of publications.
Research flow chart of the bibliometric analysis
VOSviewer is a software tool for building and visualizing bibliometric networks. It was developed by Van Eck and Waltman [ 21 ]. In VOSviewer, metric networks can be visualized and analyzed for factors, including journals, researchers, or individual publications. They can be constructed based on citations, bibliographic couplings, co-citations, or co-authorship relationships [ 21 ].
Number of global trends.
After applying the search criteria, we retrieved a total of 718 articles. Figure 2 a shows the increase in articles from 1 in 1977 to 108 in 2021. To predict future trends, a linear regression model was used to create a time curve for the number of publications throughout the year, and the model fit curve for the growth trend is shown in Fig. 2 b. The trend in the number of publications fitted the time curve well at R 2 = 0.8802. The R-squared value is a measure of how well the trend line fits. This value reflects the degree of fit between the estimated value of the trend line and the corresponding actual data; the better the fit, the more reliable the trend line is [ 23 , 24 ]. Based on the model’s trends, it is also predicted that the number of articles on HRM in healthcare will increase to approximately 300 by 2030, an almost threefold increase compared to 2021.
a Total number of publications related to HRM research. The bars indicate the number of publications per year. b Model fitting curves of global publication trends. c Top 10 countries of total publications. d Distribution world map of HRM research
Figure 2 c, d shows the number of publications and the world distribution of the top 10 countries in total publication numbers. The USA contributed the most publications (172, 24.2%), followed by Australia (86, 12.0%), the UK (83, 11.6%), and China (78, 10.9%).
The USA had the highest total number of citations of all included publications (5195) (Table (Table1), 1 ), while the UK ranked second (2661), followed by Australia (1960) and the Netherlands (1271). The detailed rankings and numbers are shown in Fig. 3 a and Table Table1 1 .
Contributions in publications of countries
Country | Publications | Sum of the Times Cited | Average Citations per Item | H-index |
---|---|---|---|---|
USA | 172 | 5195 | 30.2 | 36 |
UNITED KINGDOM | 83 | 2661 | 32.06 | 27 |
AUSTRALIA | 86 | 1960 | 22.79 | 23 |
NETHERLANDS | 60 | 1271 | 21.18 | 21 |
CANADA | 46 | 1248 | 27.13 | 22 |
CHINA | 78 | 997 | 12.78 | 19 |
BELGIUM | 19 | 936 | 49.26 | 12 |
TAIWAN | 36 | 795 | 22.08 | 15 |
GERMANY | 31 | 596 | 19.23 | 11 |
IRAN | 27 | 277 | 10.26 | 9 |
a Top 10 countries of average citations for each article. b Average number of citations. c Top 10 countries of the H-index
Belgium had the highest average number of citations (49.26), followed by the UK (32.06), the USA (30.2), and Canada (27.13), as shown in Fig. 3 b.
Total citations and the h-index reflect the quality of a country’s publications and academic impact[ 25 ]. Figure 3 c shows the ranking of the h-index, where the top country is the USA (h-index = 36), followed by the UK (h-index = 27), Australia (h-index = 23), and Canada (h-index = 22).
Table Table2 2 shows the top 10 journals for publications on HRM in healthcare, with 54 articles published in “International Journal of Human Resource Management”, 44 articles published in “BMJ Open”, 30 articles published in “Journal of Nursing Management”, and 24 articles in “BMC Health Services Research”.
Top 10 journals of publications related to HRM research
Publications | Times | Percentage( = 718) |
---|---|---|
International Journal Of Human Resource Management | 54 | 7.521 |
Bmj Open | 44 | 6.128 |
Journal Of Nursing Management | 30 | 4.178 |
Bmc Health Services Research | 24 | 3.343 |
Journal Of Advanced Nursing | 18 | 2.507 |
Health Care Management Review | 16 | 2.228 |
Human Resources For Health | 16 | 2.228 |
Human Resource Management | 14 | 1.95 |
Plos One | 14 | 1.95 |
Human Resource Management Journal | 11 | 1.532 |
Table Table3 3 shows the top 10 most published authors with 96 articles/reviews in the last decade, representing 13.4% of all literature in the field. Timothy Bartram from Australia has published 19 papers, followed by Sandra Leggat from Australia, Stanton P from the USA, and Townsend K from the UK with 13, 11, and 10 papers, respectively. All researchers listed as authors were included in this term for analysis, regardless of their relative contribution to the study. Notably, we have included all authors in this analysis regardless of their relative contribution to the study.
Top 20 authors of publications
Author | Publications | Sum of the Times Cited | Average Citations per Item | h-index |
---|---|---|---|---|
Bartram T | 19 | 722 | 38 | 12 |
Leggat SG | 13 | 488 | 37.54 | 9 |
Stanton P | 11 | 510 | 46.36 | 8 |
Townsend K | 10 | 210 | 21 | 8 |
Wilkinson A | 10 | 210 | 21 | 8 |
Van Rhenen W | 8 | 138 | 17.25 | 5 |
Paauwe J | 7 | 258 | 36.86 | 4 |
Boselie P | 6 | 338 | 56.33 | 6 |
Kellner A | 6 | 87 | 14.5 | 6 |
Marchal B | 6 | 163 | 27.17 | 6 |
Figure 4 a shows the top 10 research orientations of the 100 research orientations. The most common research orientations were management (193 articles), nursing (107 articles), health policy services (105 articles), and health care sciences services (201 articles).
a Top 10 research orientations and the number of publications in each orientation. b Top 20 institutions with the most publications
Figure 4 shows the top 20 institutions with the most published papers. La Trobe University has the highest number of articles with 24, followed by the University of London (23) and Griffith University (18).
In the keyword mapping on HRM research in healthcare, the size of the nodes represents the frequency, while the line between the nodes reflects the co-occurrence relationship. A total of 1914 keywords were included, and 59 met the criteria. All keywords were grouped into six clusters: performance (light blue cluster), job satisfaction (red cluster), quality of care (blue cluster), human resource management (brown cluster), occupational/mental health (purple cluster), and hospital/COVID-19 (green cluster) (Fig. 5 ).
Co-occurrence analysis of HRM research in healthcare
The most prominent themes in HRM research in healthcare are as below. In the “Performance” cluster, the keywords which have the greatest co-occurrence strength were “performance”, “systematic review”, “decentralization health system” and “motivation”. The main keywords in the “Job Satisfaction” cluster are “job satisfaction”, “organizational commitment”, “transformational leadership” and “turn over”. In the “Quality of care” cluster, the keywords that stand out are “quality of care”, “patient safety”, “high-performance work system”, “quality management” and “patient satisfaction”. In the “Human resource management” cluster, the prominent keywords include “human resource management”, “health policy”, “public health”, and “education and training”. In the “Occupational/Mental Health” cluster, the prominent keywords are “Occupational health”, “mental health”, “well-being” and “burnout”. The main keywords in the “Hospital/COVID-19” cluster were “hospitals”, “COVID-19” “workforce” and “qualitative research”.
Our study of HMR research in healthcare illustrates current and global trends in publications, contributing countries, institutions, and research orientations. The field of HMR research has evolved over the past three decades. However, as this study shows, the number of publications steadily increases yearly, with 93 countries or regions publishing in the field, suggesting that research focusing on HMR research and providing in-depth knowledge will likely increase.
We find that most publishing countries are developed countries, but developing countries are catching up. The total citation rate and the h-index reflect the quality and scholarly impact of a country’s publications [ 25 ]. According to our study, the US ranks first among other countries in total publications, citations, and h-index, making the most substantial contribution to global HRM research. The UK and Canada also contribute significantly, with impressive total citation frequencies and h-index, especially the UK, which ranks second in average citation frequency. However, some countries, such as Belgium, Canada and Australia, also play an important role, given their high average citation frequency. In developing countries, HRM research has also served as a guide for hospitals to improve the quality of care. The study will serve as a reference for developing countries to learn from the experience of developed countries as their economic development gradually catches up with that of developed countries.
The impact and prestige of the journals can be seen in the number of articles published in the field and the influential journals in healthcare HRM research, including the BMC Health Services Research, the Journal of Nursing Management, the International Journal of Human Resource Management, the Health Care Management Review, and the Journal of Health Organisation and Management. These high-quality journals are thus the main source of information for researchers in this field on the latest developments in HRM in healthcare.
The study shows that almost all of the top 20 institutions come from the top five countries with the most publications, with the majority coming from the US, Australia and the Netherlands, reflecting the great academic influence of these three countries in the field of HRM in healthcare. These institutions play an important role in raising the academic performance of a country. Furthermore, the top 20 authors represent research leaders who are likely to impact the future direction of research significantly. Therefore, more attention should be paid to their work to stay abreast of the latest developments in the field.
Keywords play a crucial role in research papers as they contain vital information [ 26 ]. A systematic analysis of keywords within a specific research domain offers valuable insights into trends and focal points across various research areas [ 27 ]. Moreover, co-occurrence analysis relies on the number of joint publications to evaluate relationships among the identified keyword domains. As a result, it serves as an effective method for predicting future trends and focal points within the research areas of interest. These findings are expected to inspire more researchers to contribute to the future of HRM research in healthcare [ 28 ].
In this study, a total of six research domains were eventually summarized. Performance, Hospital/COVID-19, Job Satisfaction, Human resource management, Occupational/Mental Health, and Quality of care. By visualizing the analysis results, we can easily further clarify future trends. As the co-occurrence diagram shows, the keywords “Organizational culture”, “Patient safety”, “Nursing”, “Leadership”, “Quality of care” and “Hospitals” are highlighted as larger icons, so that investment and demand for quality research are necessary for the context of these six research directions.
This study found that the visual clustering results and the keywords that emerged from the clusters were closely related to the HRM module s described in “Human Resources Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage” by Noe. R . [ 29 ]. The modules have been cited in HRM research and are used as textbooks in universities [ 30 – 33 ]. Some of the keywords in each cluster correspond to human resource planning, performance management, recruitment and staffing, and training and development, respectively. The explanation of the HRM modules is described in the next paragraph. However, there are no explicit keywords in the modules related to employee relations management and compensation management results. This may be due to the private nature of the compensation structure in healthcare organizations during data collection, making it unavailable.
Human Resource Plan (HRP) stands for the implementation of the HR development strategy of the enterprise and the accomplishment of the enterprise’s goals, according to the changes in the internal and external environment and conditions of the enterprise, through the analysis and estimation of the future needs and supply of human resources and the use of scientific methods for organizational design, as well as the acquisition, allocation, utilization and maintenance of HR and other aspects of functional planning. HRP ensures that the organization has a balance of HR supply and demand at a needed time and in a required position, and achieves a reasonable allocation of HR and other resources to effectively motivate and develop of employees [ 34 ].
Decentralization health system, organizational culture/structure are high-frequency words in the clustering results related to “human resource management”. It is important to assess the extent to which decentralization can be used as a policy tool to improve national health systems. For policymakers and managers, based on relevant literature and research as well as country experience analysis, the experience of decentralization in relation to the organization and management of healthcare services is considered a forward-looking and pioneering concept capable of achieving optimal allocation of HR and other resources, in addition to the need to focus more on ex-ante and ex-post incentive development to deliver a 1 + 1 > 2 HRM effect [ 35 ]. HRP is the starting point and basis for all specific HRM activities. It directly affects the efficiency of the overall HRM of the enterprise. It is, therefore, taken as the primary job requirement for HR managers [ 36 ]. Organizational culture/structure significantly impacts the healthcare sector, such as excellence in healthcare delivery, ethical values, engagement, professionalism, cost of care, commitment to quality and strategic thinking, which are key cultural determinants of high-quality care delivery [ 37 ]. Therefore, as with other for-profit organizations, healthcare organizations must ensure that their organizational structure functions effectively to achieve their strategic goals. The organization formulates and implements HRM, an important task to achieve the development strategy goals.
Recruitment and staffing are the first steps in hospital HRM activities. Under the guidance of the organization’s human resources development plan, potential staff who meet the development conditions are attracted. Through the scientific selection of outstanding personnel, a platform with guaranteed treatment and development prospects is provided to ensure that the team of the healthcare organization is built solidly and meets the development needs. From the findings of this study, the keywords “workforce” and “workload” appear as high-frequency keywords in the co-occurrence analysis. Still, keywords related to traditional staff recruitment (e.g., analysis of recruitment needs, job analysis, competency analysis, recruitment procedures, and strategies) do not appear often. Recruitment and staffing are the prerequisites of human resources work. They bring a new dynamic source to healthcare organizations while complementing staff, making the organization full of vitality and vigor, facilitating organizational innovation and management innovation and helping improve the healthcare organization’s competitive advantage [ 38 ]. Recruitment and staffing, as a part of HR, directly impact the successful running of daily activities.
Human resource training is an important component of quality and safety in the health care system. The keyword “education and training” shows a high frequency of co-occurrence in the clustering results of analysis, corresponding to the module “training and education”. However, it is connected to the keywords “human resource management” and “health policy”, and is in the same cluster with” public health”, “health care management”, and the distance between the lines and dots indicate that these topics are closely related, proving the importance of education and training in the HRM of health systems. Healthcare organizations (especially for non-professionals and caregivers) can improve the performance of their employees by enhancing their capabilities, knowledge and potential through learning and training, so that they can maximize their qualifications to match the demands of their work and advance their performance [ 39 , 40 ].
Performance management, the core of the six modules, is also featured in the clustering results. Although this is an important focus for HR professionals, few studies have explored the link between HRM and health sector performance [ 6 ], the results show “performance” and “motivation”. The effectiveness of performance management is an important component of HRM, which effectively improves the quality of care in healthcare organizations/institutions [ 6 ]. Focusing on the effectiveness of performance management is considered to be crucial. First, as an integral part of HRM within an organization, it can help the organization meet its goals. Second, ineffective approaches can lead to negative attitudes among employees (including clinicians, nursing staff, administrators, etc.) and adversely affect performance due to decreased satisfaction among employees and patients. Third, given the increasing quality and cost reduction pressures on healthcare organizations, conducting further research on performance management and effectiveness is critical [ 41 ]. However, it is clear from our results that healthcare organizations have recognized the importance of performance management and are pursuing “high performance”. Although the topic of performance management in HRM in healthcare is one of the research priorities, the number is lacking and more discussion on performance management should be suggested for future research.
Compensation is an important tool to motivate employees to work hard and to motivate them to work hard. The results of the database's bibliographic analysis show that no keywords directly involved compensation. This indicates that “compensation management” has not been considered a hot topic or a research issue over 30 years of available literature. To clarify the content of this module, we further searched the database of 718 articles with keywords, such as compensation, remuneration, salary, etc., and found that only 35 of them mentioned or discussed compensation, and some years (e.g., 2018, 2009) even had no relevant literature being published. However, issues such as fairness of compensation management and employee compensation satisfaction are still important issues of concern to business management academics [ 42 , 43 ]. The actual situation is that it is difficult to conduct research on compensation management. Most organizations keep their employees’ compensation confidential, and when conducting research, HR managers avoid talking about their employees’ compensation or leave it vague, rendering it impossible for researchers to conduct further research.
Employee compensation is one factor that has the greatest impact on organizational performance. In the future, organizations should be encouraged to scientifically structure their compensation management and empower academic research to establish and implement fair compensation management systems based on empirical research while maintaining the privacy and security of organizational information.
The connotation of employee relations management involves organizational culture and employee relations, as well as the coordination of the relationship between employers and employees. Healthcare organizations have complex structures with employees with varying skills, tasks or responsibilities, and such conflicts are often managed through the communication skills of administrative staff [ 44 ]. Although the keywords related to “employee relations management” did not occur in this study's analysis results, the six HRM modules are closely related. Therefore, this does not mean that no description of employee relations management was completely absent in the retrieved articles. It is clear that there is currently a lack of research on employee relations management in the healthcare field. Still, with the continuous development of the healthcare industry, it faces multiple challenges. If employee relations are not handled properly, healthcare organizations with social responsibility will face great public pressure, which will even affect the quality of healthcare services and performance, so it is especially important to strengthen the research on employee relations management.
This study inevitably has some limitations, the first of which arises from using quantitative methods to review documents in the field of HRM. The review relied on an analysis of the bibliographic data associated with the documents rather than a review of the research findings. The impact of the study was, therefore, limited to the general direction of developments in the field, rather than a synthesis of research findings. As a result, we may have missed some publications due to database bias. Second, most of the publications identified were in English and some articles relevant to other languages have not been included. Third, Since HRM exists in a wide range of industries and research areas, although researchers have set the screening criteria as detailed as possible, there may still be some literature that has not been detected.
This study describes the current state and global trends in HRM research in healthcare. The United States has made significant contributions in this field, establishing itself as a global leader. It is foreseeable that more and more publications will be published in the coming years, which indicates that HRM research in healthcare is booming. The analysis results of this study echoed the modules of HRM. It can be seen that in the current HRM research, many topics have been of interest. However, the focus and hotspots of the research are scattered, and there is presently no systematic research on the content of HRM in healthcare.
The authors thank the Editor-in-Chief and the referees for their helpful comments which help to improve our manuscript significantly.
BW, ZH and LLconceived of the presented idea. BW, developed the theory. BW, YH, RW, KC and XQ collected the data and discussed the results. BW and YH encouraged XQ to investigate the hospital management field and supervised the findings of this work. All authors discussed the results and contributed to the final manuscript.
This research was supported by Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, China (Grant number: 2021-RC630-001).
Declarations.
There are no human or animal studies in this manuscript, and no potentially identifiable human images or data are presented in this study.
Not applicable.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
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Human Resources for Health volume 21 , Article number: 94 ( 2023 ) Cite this article
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Human resource management (HRM) in healthcare is an important component in relation to the quality and efficiency of healthcare delivery. However, a comprehensive overview is lacking to assess and track the current status and trends of HRM research in healthcare. This study aims to describe the current situation and global trends in HRM research in healthcare as well as to indicate the frontiers and future directions of research. The research methodology is based on bibliometric mapping using scientific visualization software (VOSviewer). The data were collected from the Web of Science(WoS) core citation database. After applying the search criteria, we retrieved 833 publications, which have steadily increased over the last 30 years. In addition, 93 countries and regions have published relevant research. The United States and Australia have made significant contributions in this area. Current research articles focus on topics clustered into performance, hospital/COVID-19, job satisfaction, human resource management, occupational/mental health, and quality of care. The most frequently co-occurring keywords are human resource management, job satisfaction, nurses, hospitals, health services, quality of care, COVID-19, and nursing. There is limited research on compensation management and employee relations management, so the current HRM research field still has not been able to present a complete and systematic roadmap. We propose that our colleagues should consider focusing on these research gaps in the future.
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Among the many management elements, people are the most dynamic and active element, and they are an important asset in organizations [ 1 ]. The term “human resources” was first coined by the academic Peter F. Drucker in 1954 [ 2 ]. The key function of human resources management (HRM) is to “put the right people in the right jobs at the right time” [ 2 ]. HRM refers to the planned allocation of human resources in accordance with the requirements of organizational development through a series of processes, such as recruitment, training, use, assessment, motivation, and adjustment of employees, to mobilize their motivation, bring into play their potential and create value for the organization [ 1 ]. Ensuring the achievement of the organization’s strategic objectives, HRM activities mainly include human resource strategy formulation, staff recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management, compensation management, staff mobility management, staff relationship management, staff safety and health management, etc. Similarly, modern healthcare management has human resources as the core. The HRM level in hospitals is related to the quality and efficiency of medical services provided by hospitals, which is also the core of internal hospital management and the focus of health macro management [ 3 ].
The World Health Organization (WHO) states that health systems can only work with the help of health workers, and that improving the coverage of health services and realizing the right to the highest standard of health depends on the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of health workers [ 4 ]. In response to evolving characteristics in socio-economic development and the human resource market, healthcare system personnel reforms are evident in three key areas: first, decentralization and flexible employment practices grant hospital managers greater decision-making autonomy concerning priorities and access to medical resources. However, they also impose quantitative and functional constraints on physicians' working hours, career planning, and medical payment systems. Second, a focal point is the rational allocation of technical staff to achieve efficiency while controlling labor costs. Finally, hospital organization change and restructuring are prevalent. Many European countries have unionized hospital employees, limiting the ability to establish independent incentives and rewards. In contrast, U.S. hospital employees often do not belong to specific organizations, leading cost control efforts to revolve around adjusting the allocation of technical staff and employee numbers to reduce labor expenses [ 5 , 6 , 7 ].
The current global trend in the number of publications on HRM in healthcare is rising. However, there are currently several problems in HRM research. The following issues mainly exist: (1) the expertise and professionalism of HRM managers are limited. (2) Theoretical methods and technical applications are weak. (3) Insufficient regulation of regulations, systems and procedures. (4) Management is mainly at the level of operational work, and functions are too fragmented [ 8 , 9 ]. Although hospitals worldwide generally recognize the importance of HRM, they do not pay sufficient attention to it. The management of human resources is also stuck in the previous understanding that its work is carried out only by transferring positions in hospitals, promoting and reducing the salary of employees and a series of other operations [ 10 ]. Most senior management in hospitals have comprehensive medical knowledge; some are experts in a particular field. Still, they lack expertise in HRM, which makes them work in a transactional way in HRM. There is also currently a general health workforce imbalance in countries worldwide. The lack of well-being of healthcare workers is particularly problematic in foreign healthcare institutions [ 11 ], and to reduce costs, some organizations have reduced staffing levels. In turn, because of lower quality of service, the morale of healthcare providers often suffers. Patient satisfaction may decline [ 12 ]. In the process of data gathering, we found that the literature related to HRM in healthcare is still under-reported and that the research topics are scattered, and there is still a lack of generalization and summary of these literatures [ 13 ]. There is no systematic theoretical support in the current research, which defines the perspective that researchers should take when analyzing and interpreting the data to be collected, leading to biased interpretations of the results, and does not allow other researchers to combine the findings with existing research knowledge and then apply them to practice [ 14 ]. Second, data collection was not rigorous, and the downloading strategy was not appropriate to achieve completeness and accuracy of data. There is also a lack of information and incomplete use of features in the presentation of knowledge maps and visualization results [ 15 ].
Therefore, the aims of this study are the following; first, we provide a new way of viewing the field of healthcare HRM and its associations by examining co-occurrence data. Second, we relate our evolutionary analysis to a comprehensive future research agenda which may generate a new research agenda in healthcare hospital HRM. This review, therefore, focuses on illuminating the research frontiers and future roadmap for healthcare HRM research [ 16 , 17 ].
This study provides a bibliometric analysis of the HRM research literature in health care over a 30-year period to describe the landscape and trajectory of change in the research field. The methodology used for this overview is based on bibliometric mapping [ 18 , 19 ], a visualization technique that quantitatively displays the landscape and dynamic aspects of the knowledge domain [ 20 ]. Data were collected from the Web of Science (WoS) core citation database. Two Java-based scientific visualization software packages (CiteSpace and VOSviewer), developed by Chaomei Chen and Van Eck and Waltman, were used to analyze the data [ 18 , 21 ].
The data for this study were retrieved from the Web of Science on 28 September 2022. Web of Science was chosen as the search engine, because it is the most widely accepted and commonly used database for analyzing scientific publications [ 22 ]. The keywords “human resource management” and “healthcare organization” were used as search topics. First, to get a complete picture of HRM research, we searched all the literature from 1977 to the date of the search.
Eight hundred thirty-three publications on HRM in healthcare organizations were identified (Fig. 1 ). We excluded publications before 1990, because the two documents before 1990 did not include complete information. In addition, articles, review articles, and early access articles were included in the study. To minimize language bias, we excluded literature published in languages other than English. Each publication in WoS contains detailed information, including the year of publication, author, author’s address, title, abstract, source journal, subject category, references, etc. A detailed description of the contents of the database preceded the bibliographic analysis. For example, some authors presented their names in different spellings when submitting articles, so reviewing and integrating the data in detail was necessary. A total of 718 publications were included and exported to VOSviewer and CiteSpace software to analyze the following topics: global publishing trends, countries, journals, authors, research orientations, institutions, and quality of publications.
Research flow chart of the bibliometric analysis
VOSviewer is a software tool for building and visualizing bibliometric networks. It was developed by Van Eck and Waltman [ 21 ]. In VOSviewer, metric networks can be visualized and analyzed for factors, including journals, researchers, or individual publications. They can be constructed based on citations, bibliographic couplings, co-citations, or co-authorship relationships [ 21 ].
Number of global trends.
After applying the search criteria, we retrieved a total of 718 articles. Figure 2 a shows the increase in articles from 1 in 1977 to 108 in 2021. To predict future trends, a linear regression model was used to create a time curve for the number of publications throughout the year, and the model fit curve for the growth trend is shown in Fig. 2 b. The trend in the number of publications fitted the time curve well at R 2 = 0.8802. The R-squared value is a measure of how well the trend line fits. This value reflects the degree of fit between the estimated value of the trend line and the corresponding actual data; the better the fit, the more reliable the trend line is [ 23 , 24 ]. Based on the model’s trends, it is also predicted that the number of articles on HRM in healthcare will increase to approximately 300 by 2030, an almost threefold increase compared to 2021.
a Total number of publications related to HRM research. The bars indicate the number of publications per year. b Model fitting curves of global publication trends. c Top 10 countries of total publications. d Distribution world map of HRM research
Figure 2 c, d shows the number of publications and the world distribution of the top 10 countries in total publication numbers. The USA contributed the most publications (172, 24.2%), followed by Australia (86, 12.0%), the UK (83, 11.6%), and China (78, 10.9%).
The USA had the highest total number of citations of all included publications (5195) (Table 1 ), while the UK ranked second (2661), followed by Australia (1960) and the Netherlands (1271). The detailed rankings and numbers are shown in Fig. 3 a and Table 1 .
a Top 10 countries of average citations for each article. b Average number of citations. c Top 10 countries of the H-index
Belgium had the highest average number of citations (49.26), followed by the UK (32.06), the USA (30.2), and Canada (27.13), as shown in Fig. 3 b.
Total citations and the h-index reflect the quality of a country’s publications and academic impact[ 25 ]. Figure 3 c shows the ranking of the h-index, where the top country is the USA (h-index = 36), followed by the UK (h-index = 27), Australia (h-index = 23), and Canada (h-index = 22).
Table 2 shows the top 10 journals for publications on HRM in healthcare, with 54 articles published in “International Journal of Human Resource Management”, 44 articles published in “BMJ Open”, 30 articles published in “Journal of Nursing Management”, and 24 articles in “BMC Health Services Research”.
Table 3 shows the top 10 most published authors with 96 articles/reviews in the last decade, representing 13.4% of all literature in the field. Timothy Bartram from Australia has published 19 papers, followed by Sandra Leggat from Australia, Stanton P from the USA, and Townsend K from the UK with 13, 11, and 10 papers, respectively. All researchers listed as authors were included in this term for analysis, regardless of their relative contribution to the study. Notably, we have included all authors in this analysis regardless of their relative contribution to the study.
Figure 4 a shows the top 10 research orientations of the 100 research orientations. The most common research orientations were management (193 articles), nursing (107 articles), health policy services (105 articles), and health care sciences services (201 articles).
a Top 10 research orientations and the number of publications in each orientation. b Top 20 institutions with the most publications
Figure 4 shows the top 20 institutions with the most published papers. La Trobe University has the highest number of articles with 24, followed by the University of London (23) and Griffith University (18).
In the keyword mapping on HRM research in healthcare, the size of the nodes represents the frequency, while the line between the nodes reflects the co-occurrence relationship. A total of 1914 keywords were included, and 59 met the criteria. All keywords were grouped into six clusters: performance (light blue cluster), job satisfaction (red cluster), quality of care (blue cluster), human resource management (brown cluster), occupational/mental health (purple cluster), and hospital/COVID-19 (green cluster) (Fig. 5 ).
Co-occurrence analysis of HRM research in healthcare
The most prominent themes in HRM research in healthcare are as below. In the “Performance” cluster, the keywords which have the greatest co-occurrence strength were “performance”, “systematic review”, “decentralization health system” and “motivation”. The main keywords in the “Job Satisfaction” cluster are “job satisfaction”, “organizational commitment”, “transformational leadership” and “turn over”. In the “Quality of care” cluster, the keywords that stand out are “quality of care”, “patient safety”, “high-performance work system”, “quality management” and “patient satisfaction”. In the “Human resource management” cluster, the prominent keywords include “human resource management”, “health policy”, “public health”, and “education and training”. In the “Occupational/Mental Health” cluster, the prominent keywords are “Occupational health”, “mental health”, “well-being” and “burnout”. The main keywords in the “Hospital/COVID-19” cluster were “hospitals”, “COVID-19” “workforce” and “qualitative research”.
Our study of HMR research in healthcare illustrates current and global trends in publications, contributing countries, institutions, and research orientations. The field of HMR research has evolved over the past three decades. However, as this study shows, the number of publications steadily increases yearly, with 93 countries or regions publishing in the field, suggesting that research focusing on HMR research and providing in-depth knowledge will likely increase.
We find that most publishing countries are developed countries, but developing countries are catching up. The total citation rate and the h-index reflect the quality and scholarly impact of a country’s publications [ 25 ]. According to our study, the US ranks first among other countries in total publications, citations, and h-index, making the most substantial contribution to global HRM research. The UK and Canada also contribute significantly, with impressive total citation frequencies and h-index, especially the UK, which ranks second in average citation frequency. However, some countries, such as Belgium, Canada and Australia, also play an important role, given their high average citation frequency. In developing countries, HRM research has also served as a guide for hospitals to improve the quality of care. The study will serve as a reference for developing countries to learn from the experience of developed countries as their economic development gradually catches up with that of developed countries.
The impact and prestige of the journals can be seen in the number of articles published in the field and the influential journals in healthcare HRM research, including the BMC Health Services Research, the Journal of Nursing Management, the International Journal of Human Resource Management, the Health Care Management Review, and the Journal of Health Organisation and Management. These high-quality journals are thus the main source of information for researchers in this field on the latest developments in HRM in healthcare.
The study shows that almost all of the top 20 institutions come from the top five countries with the most publications, with the majority coming from the US, Australia and the Netherlands, reflecting the great academic influence of these three countries in the field of HRM in healthcare. These institutions play an important role in raising the academic performance of a country. Furthermore, the top 20 authors represent research leaders who are likely to impact the future direction of research significantly. Therefore, more attention should be paid to their work to stay abreast of the latest developments in the field.
Keywords play a crucial role in research papers as they contain vital information [ 26 ]. A systematic analysis of keywords within a specific research domain offers valuable insights into trends and focal points across various research areas [ 27 ]. Moreover, co-occurrence analysis relies on the number of joint publications to evaluate relationships among the identified keyword domains. As a result, it serves as an effective method for predicting future trends and focal points within the research areas of interest. These findings are expected to inspire more researchers to contribute to the future of HRM research in healthcare [ 28 ].
In this study, a total of six research domains were eventually summarized. Performance, Hospital/COVID-19, Job Satisfaction, Human resource management, Occupational/Mental Health, and Quality of care. By visualizing the analysis results, we can easily further clarify future trends. As the co-occurrence diagram shows, the keywords “Organizational culture”, “Patient safety”, “Nursing”, “Leadership”, “Quality of care” and “Hospitals” are highlighted as larger icons, so that investment and demand for quality research are necessary for the context of these six research directions.
This study found that the visual clustering results and the keywords that emerged from the clusters were closely related to the HRM module s described in “Human Resources Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage” by Noe. R . [ 29 ]. The modules have been cited in HRM research and are used as textbooks in universities [ 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ]. Some of the keywords in each cluster correspond to human resource planning, performance management, recruitment and staffing, and training and development, respectively. The explanation of the HRM modules is described in the next paragraph. However, there are no explicit keywords in the modules related to employee relations management and compensation management results. This may be due to the private nature of the compensation structure in healthcare organizations during data collection, making it unavailable.
Human resource planning is the starting point of HRM. It helps the organization forecast future personnel needs and their basic qualities, primarily through planning.
Recruitment and staffing, with HR planning as the input, is equivalent to the organization’s blood, nourishing the organization and solving the problem of staffing and staff matching.
Training and development, with the “education” theme.
Performance Management is at the heart of the six dimensions. It is also the primary input to the other dimensions.
Compensation management aims to motivate employees to solve the company’s problems.
Employee relations management aims to manage people and help the company form an effective cycle of rational human resource allocation.
Human Resource Plan (HRP) stands for the implementation of the HR development strategy of the enterprise and the accomplishment of the enterprise’s goals, according to the changes in the internal and external environment and conditions of the enterprise, through the analysis and estimation of the future needs and supply of human resources and the use of scientific methods for organizational design, as well as the acquisition, allocation, utilization and maintenance of HR and other aspects of functional planning. HRP ensures that the organization has a balance of HR supply and demand at a needed time and in a required position, and achieves a reasonable allocation of HR and other resources to effectively motivate and develop of employees [ 34 ].
Decentralization health system, organizational culture/structure are high-frequency words in the clustering results related to “human resource management”. It is important to assess the extent to which decentralization can be used as a policy tool to improve national health systems. For policymakers and managers, based on relevant literature and research as well as country experience analysis, the experience of decentralization in relation to the organization and management of healthcare services is considered a forward-looking and pioneering concept capable of achieving optimal allocation of HR and other resources, in addition to the need to focus more on ex-ante and ex-post incentive development to deliver a 1 + 1 > 2 HRM effect [ 35 ]. HRP is the starting point and basis for all specific HRM activities. It directly affects the efficiency of the overall HRM of the enterprise. It is, therefore, taken as the primary job requirement for HR managers [ 36 ]. Organizational culture/structure significantly impacts the healthcare sector, such as excellence in healthcare delivery, ethical values, engagement, professionalism, cost of care, commitment to quality and strategic thinking, which are key cultural determinants of high-quality care delivery [ 37 ]. Therefore, as with other for-profit organizations, healthcare organizations must ensure that their organizational structure functions effectively to achieve their strategic goals. The organization formulates and implements HRM, an important task to achieve the development strategy goals.
Recruitment and staffing are the first steps in hospital HRM activities. Under the guidance of the organization’s human resources development plan, potential staff who meet the development conditions are attracted. Through the scientific selection of outstanding personnel, a platform with guaranteed treatment and development prospects is provided to ensure that the team of the healthcare organization is built solidly and meets the development needs. From the findings of this study, the keywords “workforce” and “workload” appear as high-frequency keywords in the co-occurrence analysis. Still, keywords related to traditional staff recruitment (e.g., analysis of recruitment needs, job analysis, competency analysis, recruitment procedures, and strategies) do not appear often. Recruitment and staffing are the prerequisites of human resources work. They bring a new dynamic source to healthcare organizations while complementing staff, making the organization full of vitality and vigor, facilitating organizational innovation and management innovation and helping improve the healthcare organization’s competitive advantage [ 38 ]. Recruitment and staffing, as a part of HR, directly impact the successful running of daily activities.
Human resource training is an important component of quality and safety in the health care system. The keyword “education and training” shows a high frequency of co-occurrence in the clustering results of analysis, corresponding to the module “training and education”. However, it is connected to the keywords “human resource management” and “health policy”, and is in the same cluster with” public health”, “health care management”, and the distance between the lines and dots indicate that these topics are closely related, proving the importance of education and training in the HRM of health systems. Healthcare organizations (especially for non-professionals and caregivers) can improve the performance of their employees by enhancing their capabilities, knowledge and potential through learning and training, so that they can maximize their qualifications to match the demands of their work and advance their performance [ 39 , 40 ].
Performance management, the core of the six modules, is also featured in the clustering results. Although this is an important focus for HR professionals, few studies have explored the link between HRM and health sector performance [ 6 ], the results show “performance” and “motivation”. The effectiveness of performance management is an important component of HRM, which effectively improves the quality of care in healthcare organizations/institutions [ 6 ]. Focusing on the effectiveness of performance management is considered to be crucial. First, as an integral part of HRM within an organization, it can help the organization meet its goals. Second, ineffective approaches can lead to negative attitudes among employees (including clinicians, nursing staff, administrators, etc.) and adversely affect performance due to decreased satisfaction among employees and patients. Third, given the increasing quality and cost reduction pressures on healthcare organizations, conducting further research on performance management and effectiveness is critical [ 41 ]. However, it is clear from our results that healthcare organizations have recognized the importance of performance management and are pursuing “high performance”. Although the topic of performance management in HRM in healthcare is one of the research priorities, the number is lacking and more discussion on performance management should be suggested for future research.
Compensation is an important tool to motivate employees to work hard and to motivate them to work hard. The results of the database's bibliographic analysis show that no keywords directly involved compensation. This indicates that “compensation management” has not been considered a hot topic or a research issue over 30 years of available literature. To clarify the content of this module, we further searched the database of 718 articles with keywords, such as compensation, remuneration, salary, etc., and found that only 35 of them mentioned or discussed compensation, and some years (e.g., 2018, 2009) even had no relevant literature being published. However, issues such as fairness of compensation management and employee compensation satisfaction are still important issues of concern to business management academics [ 42 , 43 ]. The actual situation is that it is difficult to conduct research on compensation management. Most organizations keep their employees’ compensation confidential, and when conducting research, HR managers avoid talking about their employees’ compensation or leave it vague, rendering it impossible for researchers to conduct further research.
Employee compensation is one factor that has the greatest impact on organizational performance. In the future, organizations should be encouraged to scientifically structure their compensation management and empower academic research to establish and implement fair compensation management systems based on empirical research while maintaining the privacy and security of organizational information.
The connotation of employee relations management involves organizational culture and employee relations, as well as the coordination of the relationship between employers and employees. Healthcare organizations have complex structures with employees with varying skills, tasks or responsibilities, and such conflicts are often managed through the communication skills of administrative staff [ 44 ]. Although the keywords related to “employee relations management” did not occur in this study's analysis results, the six HRM modules are closely related. Therefore, this does not mean that no description of employee relations management was completely absent in the retrieved articles. It is clear that there is currently a lack of research on employee relations management in the healthcare field. Still, with the continuous development of the healthcare industry, it faces multiple challenges. If employee relations are not handled properly, healthcare organizations with social responsibility will face great public pressure, which will even affect the quality of healthcare services and performance, so it is especially important to strengthen the research on employee relations management.
This study inevitably has some limitations, the first of which arises from using quantitative methods to review documents in the field of HRM. The review relied on an analysis of the bibliographic data associated with the documents rather than a review of the research findings. The impact of the study was, therefore, limited to the general direction of developments in the field, rather than a synthesis of research findings. As a result, we may have missed some publications due to database bias. Second, most of the publications identified were in English and some articles relevant to other languages have not been included. Third, Since HRM exists in a wide range of industries and research areas, although researchers have set the screening criteria as detailed as possible, there may still be some literature that has not been detected.
This study describes the current state and global trends in HRM research in healthcare. The United States has made significant contributions in this field, establishing itself as a global leader. It is foreseeable that more and more publications will be published in the coming years, which indicates that HRM research in healthcare is booming. The analysis results of this study echoed the modules of HRM. It can be seen that in the current HRM research, many topics have been of interest. However, the focus and hotspots of the research are scattered, and there is presently no systematic research on the content of HRM in healthcare.
All data and materials generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article.
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The authors thank the Editor-in-Chief and the referees for their helpful comments which help to improve our manuscript significantly.
This research was supported by Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, China (Grant number: 2021-RC630-001).
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Xiaoping Qin, Zhiyuan Hu & Bing-Long Wang
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Yu-Ni Huang
Department of Education, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100730, China
Kaiyan Chen
Department of Innovative Medical Research, Hospital Management Institute, Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital, Beijing, 100853, China
Affiliation Program of Data Analytics and Business Computing, Stern School of Business, New York University, New York, 10012, United States of America
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BW, ZH and LLconceived of the presented idea. BW, developed the theory. BW, YH, RW, KC and XQ collected the data and discussed the results. BW and YH encouraged XQ to investigate the hospital management field and supervised the findings of this work. All authors discussed the results and contributed to the final manuscript.
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Top 10 issues facing hr leaders heading into 2022.
Eric Friedman is the Founder and CEO of eSkill , a global leader in skills testing and behavioral assessment solutions for employers.
It’s no secret that the modern working environment is changing at a lightning-fast pace. While many of these changes aim to improve workplace culture and provide employees with better work/life balance, the onus falls on HR leaders to implement these new practices.
This article will outline the top human resource issues of 2022 that HR leaders are likely to encounter. The top 10 HR issues facing 2022’s best HR professionals are varied and intricate, including:
1. Improving Diversity, Equity And Inclusion (DEI)
According to a recent Gartner survey , 35% of HR leaders will prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion in the coming year. Organizations across virtually every industry will strive to become more aware of DEI-related issues to create an inclusionary working environment.
These entities are facing internal and external pressures to become more diverse, so improving DEI is considered one of the top human resources issues of 2022.
2. Paving The Way For Remote Work
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During the height of the pandemic, organizations across the globe transitioned to hybrid and remote work. Even though many organizations are considering a return to the office in some form in the future, this new trend is here to stay. The majority (92%) of companies polled by Gartner expect some employees to continue working remotely.
In light of this trend, HR departments must set up for remote work. Employees and company leaders want to continue capitalizing on the advantages of this employment format, which will require HR leaders to change the way they manage human capital to maintain productivity and an optimal level of interpersonal communication.
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While employees and executives are open to the idea of a hybrid work environment, implementing sweeping organizational changes can fatigue staff. Improving change management is considered one of the top 10 HR issues 2022’s leadership teams will face.
McKinsey found that companies were "five times more likely to have a successful transformation when leaders have role-modeled the behavior changes they were asking their employees to make." HR leaders should prioritize reevaluating change management, as many employees are likely experiencing burnout and fatigue due to the changes implemented in the past year and a half.
4. Building Critical Skills
McLean & Company conducted a 2021 HR Trends Report to identify pressing issues that HR leaders are facing. What they discovered was that many industries are encountering a significant skills gap.
In response, HR leaders must analyze their organizational skills gaps with tools such as role-based skills assessments while also training employees in specific new abilities. According to the report , only a small percentage of HR departments are currently engaging in this type of training and analyzing the employee skills gap.
5. Equipping Future Leaders
DDI conducted research surveying 368 CEOs and 2,102 HR professionals and found that the C-suite only rated 38% of their mid-level leaders as "very good" or "excellent." This trend is extremely concerning as the global talent shortage makes promoting from within vital to a company’s long-term success.
In 2022, HR leaders must deploy strategies that are designed to equip future leaders for promotional opportunities. Specifically, this training should focus on creating empathy-driven managers that are conscious of the needs of their subordinates.
6. Finding Talent During A Shortage
The global talent shortage, often now referred to as the Great Resignation, is making it challenging for organizations to find quality employees to fill vacant roles. To mitigate the effects of this shortage, HR leaders must devise more effective strategies for evaluating talent. This work may include skills tests and remote interview practices, as these tactics may accelerate the hiring process.
7. Providing Great Employee Experiences
The modern employee cares about much more than just a good salary. While earning potential will affect their decision to stay at a particular company, they are equally concerned about a healthy working environment. HR leaders must find ways to increase workforce health, making employees more resilient to disruptions.
8. Identifying Skills Employees Will Need Going Forward
Before HR teams can create new training programs, they must first identify which skills their staff will need going forward. Unfortunately, it can be incredibly challenging to predict what skills will be in demand shortly. For instance, the skills needed for a specific job in 2018 might no longer be pertinent in 2022. This obsolescence is due to the rapid advancements in technologies used by businesses across sectors.
9. Revamping Training Practices
HR leaders need to prioritize building critical skills and core competencies. This focus comes as no surprise as many HR leaders say that they cannot create effective skill development solutions quickly enough to meet the evolving needs of their companies. In 2022, HR leaders will be tasked with revamping their existing training practices to teach employees new skills more efficiently.
10. Fostering A Healthy Work Environment
The last of our top human resource issues of 2022 is fostering both a psychologically and physically healthy working environment. In addition to a competitive salary and positive working experience, employees also want a high level of workplace safety, sustainable average stress levels and interpersonal emotional maturity.
Since remote teams do not meet physically, it's important that an organization's culture is strong to act as a healthy work environment. For companies adopting a hybrid model, maintaining physical safety can be guided through trusted protocols against Covid-19 or even OSHA's ETS (although, there is a stay on this standard currently). For ongoing productivity and retention, HR leaders must address individual employee concerns on their stress and burnout levels. For emotional well-being, they must create a working environment that is collaborative and provides psychological safety. Lastly, HR staff should provide employees with development opportunities in an inclusionary setting.
HR leaders who effectively prepare for these challenges will help their organizations create a productive and diverse workforce. Everyone from line-level employees to C-suite executives will reap the benefits.
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Topic 3:An examination of knowledge management and organisational learning for sustained firm performance. A case study of British Telecom. Topic 4:Investigating learning and development of human resources in the public sector in the UK. Topic 32:The importance of HR learning and development activities for SMEs.
The influence of human resource practices on perceived work ability and the preferred retirement age: A latent growth modelling approach. Karen Pak, Dorien T. A. M. Kooij, Annet H. De Lange, Swenneke van den Heuvel, Marc J. P. M. Van Veldhoven. , Pages: 311-325. First Published: 03 June 2020.
Today's Human Resource Management (HRM) needs to deploy complex set of competences to deal with different issues threatening organizations' performance and, even, survival. Moreover, the Covid-19 pandemic set off a situation of rupture with the past, that has made emerge HRM's fragility and challenges - in part already existing - in an explosive and faster way. Thus, the current ...
1.2 Equal Employment Opportunity HR Research Topics. 1.3 Career Development HR Research Topics. 1.4 Research Topics on Recruitment and Selection. 1.5 HR Risk Management Topics. 1.6 Workplace Safety HR Topics. 1.7 Trending HR Topics. Human Resources is one of the most popular and essential topics for the business minded.
Regular absenteeism can hobble output and even bring down a business. But fostering a collaborative culture that brings managers together can help companies weather surges of sick days and no-shows. Research by Jorge Tamayo shows how. 15 Mar 2024. HBS Case.
A number of recent review articles have summarized implications for HRM in times of crisis based on empirical research conducted before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g. Bailey and Breslin, 2021; Collings et al., 2021; Rigotti et al., 2021; Rudolph et al., 2021).
Conceptual Development for Future Research. The Human Resource Management Review (HRMR) is a quarterly academic journal devoted to the publication of scholarly conceptual/theoretical articles pertaining to human resource management and allied fields (e.g. industrial/organizational psychology, human capital, labor relations, organizational behavior). ). HRMR welcomes manuscripts that focus on ...
These papers cover a diverse range of cutting edge topics including human capital, digital disruption, health and well-being, agile HR, HR co-creation and Iinternational assignments. ... Human resource management research and practice in asia: Past, present and future. ... Human Resource Management Review. (2021), 10.1016/j.hrmr.2021.100823 ...
The proposed approach was designed to allow early detection of nascent, non-obvious trends in research, which will help researchers address topics of high value for both theory and practice. Second, the results of our study highlight shifts in focus in HRM over the past 19 years.
Over the past decade Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) has emerged as a growing field of conceptual and empirical work both within, and separate from, the broader topic of Sustainable HRM. As such, we believe it is an opportune time to provide an overview of the Green HRM literature up to 2020, together with a critical consideration of ...
A big data approach is a "must have" capability for both human resource management (HRM) researchers and practitioners (Angrave et al., 2016, Shah et al., 2017) and creates an interdisciplinary opportunity for HRM researchers to solve research puzzles that cannot be addressed by traditional sample-based data (Edelman, 2012, George et al ...
July 17, 2021. Human resource management (commonly termed as HR or HRM) is the strategic wing of any corporate affairs. It is meant for an effective and efficient management of the workforce in a company, enterprise, or organization like helping their business to gain a competitive edge over the market. The primary objective of this designing ...
HR Analytics is the area of Human Resources Management (HRM) that uses the techniques of artificial Intelligence, social sciences, and innovation to extract, treat, and present data for decision ...
The purpose of the study was to detect trends in human resource management (HRM) research presented in journals during the 2000-2020 timeframe. ... it uses modern methodology to gather and synthesize HRM research topics. The proposed approach was designed to allow early detection of nascent, non-obvious trends in research, which will help ...
A search for Human Resources Management on LabourDoc yields 1,383 document results, while LabourDiscovery provides access to an extensive collection of 715,122 documents. ... officially known as the Social Science Research Network, under Elsevier (2021), is another notable open-access digital library and preprint community that enjoys a user ...
Leadership Magazine Article. Claudio Fernández-Aráoz. Hitting the hiring bull's-eye is one of an executive's most important—and most difficult—responsibilities. Ten common mistakes can ...
38% of highly efective orgs in 2021 DE&I v. 25% of low efective orgs. Unfortunately, very few of the organizations that were inefective in addressing DE&I issues last year have plans for improving ...
Third, although there are several reviews on BDA application in the HRM context, such as Garcia-Arroyo and Osca (2021) and Zhang et al. (2021), however, these studies lack in-depth investigation ...
2023-2024 SHRM State of the Workplace. This year's State of the Workplace report hones in on the major issues organizations faced in 2023 and what they foresee looking ahead into 2024 ...
Human resource management (HRM) in healthcare is an important component in relation to the quality and efficiency of healthcare delivery. ... Figure 2 a shows the increase in articles from 1 in 1977 to 108 in 2021. ... It can be seen that in the current HRM research, many topics have been of interest. However, the focus and hotspots of the ...
Human resource management (HRM) in healthcare is an important component in relation to the quality and efficiency of healthcare delivery. ... Figure 2a shows the increase in articles from 1 in 1977 to 108 in 2021. ... It can be seen that in the current HRM research, many topics have been of interest. However, the focus and hotspots of the ...
Having HRM practices. in place, would positively improve the firm's performance; such as, revenue r eturns, benefit, competitiveness an d. market share (Katou, 2008). According to Anwar, (2017 ...
Our findings indicate that research topics greatly expanded beyond the early HRD research topics of learning and development to include various topics related to diversity, critical HRD, and equity issues in organizations and society. ... so our analysis is limited to articles published from 2012 to the summer issue of 2021.
This article will outline the top human resource issues of 2022 that HR leaders are likely to encounter. The top 10 HR issues facing 2022's best HR professionals are varied and intricate ...
Interesting Human Resource Topics. Discuss the role of performance appraisal in companies. Why companies should encourage bottom-up communication. Ways of ensuring that employees enjoy doing their work. Discuss the latest development in the hiring process. The role of decisive decision making for an HR officer.