{"id":3947,"date":"2025-04-23T19:11:55","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T19:11:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=3947"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:38:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:38:12","slug":"a-downside-of-human-resource-management-devolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/a-downside-of-human-resource-management-devolution\/","title":{"rendered":"A Downside of Human Resource Management Devolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\r\n

Human resource management (HRM) devolution\u2014leadership transferring HRM responsibilities from specialist executives to managers\u2014is becoming more common worldwide. However, there\u2019s debate over whether it helps employees and organizations or adds too much to managers\u2019 already-full plates.<\/p>\r\n

Academy of Management Scholar Carol Kulik<\/a> of the University of South Australia noted that HRM devolution is controversial.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve taken all these activities that used to be the responsibility of HR managers and units and put them in the hands of line managers,\u201d Kulik said. \u201cThere\u2019s some research that shows that individual employees have on average two important people-management conversations every week.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThey aren\u2019t having those conversations with HR but rather with their line managers,\u201d she said. \u201cYou can have the best people-management practices in the world, but it really comes down to how your individual line manager enacts them on a day-to-day basis.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Kulik emphasized that managers\u2019 jobs have gotten so much harder. Often, they get insufficient training before being promoted. Further, many are now responsible for managing more employees with smaller budgets.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cEven when they have budgets that look large, because they\u2019re spreading it across more employees, they don’t have as many dollars for training or for rewarding top performers,\u201d Kulik said. \u201cAnd they\u2019re now managing people on hybrid schedules or in remote environments that they never worked in themselves, so the job itself is getting much, much harder.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThere\u2019s evidence right now that people don\u2019t even want to become line managers\u2014they\u2019re saying, \u2018I just want to spend my whole career being an individual contributor,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cSo here\u2019s this incredibly important job, and we have line managers who have never received formal training in people management, because they didn\u2019t see that as part of their the primary part of their role.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAnd yet, they\u2019re this critical linchpin<\/a> in an organization.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n

A sample of Kulik\u2019s AOM research findings:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n