Advances in Human Performance and Cognitive Engineering Research: Volume 3

Many organizations have implemented distance-learning (DL) courses and programs as an economical, efficient way to deliver training. The purpose of this chapter is to summarize some of the major considerations that are associated with distance-learning programs. We describe a number of the issues surrounding DL, ranging from how organizations use DL to the differing forms of training being delivered and how organizations are reacting to DL. We close with a discussion of issues in practice and suggest directions for future research.

Technology has had a dramatic impact on organizational environments. The changes necessitate that Human Resource Management (HRM) take aggressive steps to adapt and to add value to organizations. This chapter focuses on implications for HRM, particularly in the areas of job analysis, selection, and performance management. Directions for both research and practice are discussed.

To compete in an increasingly volatile global business environment, many firms are choosing to partner with multiple firms, creating a series of independent alliances which have been called virtual organizations. Enabled by the advances in information and communication technologies, these virtual organizations often utilize a different organization structure than traditional organizations. With this new structure comes a need for a deeper understanding of the impacts this structure has on the human resource concerns within the virtual organization. Although much research has focused on the technological and communication requirements for virtual organizations, limited research has been conducted focusing on the broader managerial issues facing these organizations. Using the organizational framework developed by Galbraith (1973), this chapter outlines some of the changes in human resource management that a virtual organization both enables and necessitates and the implications this has for the role and responsibility of managers in the 21st century virtual organization.

This paper examines the necessity of making compensation changes concurrently with information technology implementation that increases the requirements of incumbent jobs. The paper reviews several theoretical frameworks that highlight corollary effects of technology change on other organizational elements and underscore that organizational change programs do not occur in isolation. Following, organizational justice literature is reviewed as a theoretical background for assessing employee evaluations of, and reactions to, the absence of compensation adjustments in technology change. An organizational field study, utilizing a pretest-posttest control group design, was conducted to test a number of hypothesized effects resulting from a failure to adjust compensation for affected jobs during the implementation of a new human resource information system. The results indicated increases in perceptions of procedural injustice, distributive injustice, and dissatisfaction with the structure and administration of the compensation system. A discussion of the results and implications of the study are presented.