human resource management action research

The research–practice gap in the field of HRM: a qualitative study from the academic side of the gap

• Review Paper
• Published: 15 June 2020
• Volume 15 , pages 1465–1515, ( 2021 )

Cite this article

• Jesús de Frutos-Belizón   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3194-6910 1 ,
• Fernando Martín-Alcázar 1 &
• Gonzalo Sánchez-Gardey 1  

1695 Accesses

9 Citations

3 Altmetric

Explore all metrics

In recent studies, researchers agree that there is a substantial gap between research and practice in the field of human resource management (HRM). The literature exploring the causes and consequences of this gap does not represent a finely structured discourse; it has focused on analysing the gap from the practitioner side, and it is based on opinions and theoretical discussions rather than on empirical evidence. In this paper, we try to shed some light on this so-called “valley of death”. We attempt to identify the causes underlying the disconnect between academics and professionals in our field by drawing on empirical qualitative evidence obtained from interviews with 15 expert academics in the field of HRM. Thus, the approach presented in our work differs from that of the prior literature in that it is focused not on the opinions of individual authors but on the personal experiences of a larger expert sample composed of independent, experienced scholars in the area. Based on in-depth semi-structured interviews, we analyse the factors explaining why academics are not always willing to focus their research on professional needs or orientate their research outputs to the practitioner community.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Rent this article via DeepDyve

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Exploring the gap between research and practice in human resource management (HRM): a scoping review and agenda for future research

Methodological choices of HR research conducted in Asia

Research Approaches in e-HRM: Categorisation and Analysis

Relating to the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope, and the distinction between justified belief and opinion.

Abrahamson E (2009) Necessary conditions for the study of fads and fashions in science. Scand J Manag 25(2):235–239

Article   Google Scholar  

Agarwal R, Hoetker G (2007) A Faustian bargain? The growth of management and its relationship with related disciplines. Acad Manag J 50(6):1304–1322

Ajzen I (1991) The theory of planned behavior. Organ Behav Hum Decis Process 50(2):179–211

Antonakis J (2017) On doing better science: from thrill of discovery to policy implications. Leadersh Quart 28(1):5–21

Armstrong M (2006) A handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers, London

Google Scholar  

Artés J, Pedraja-Chaparro F, del Mar Salinas-JiméneZ M (2017) Research performance and teaching quality in the Spanish higher education system: evidence from a medium-sized university. Res Policy 46(1):19–29

Bahuguna PC, Kumari P, Srivastava SK (2009) Changing face of human resource management: a strategic partner in business. Manag Labour Stud 34(4):563–581

Banks GC, Pollack JM, Bochantin JE, Kirkman BL, Whelpley CE, O’Boyle EH (2016) Management’s science–practice gap: a grand challenge for all stakeholders. Acad Manag J 59(6):2205–2231

Bansal P, Bertels S, Ewart T, MacConnachie P, O’Brien J (2012) Bridging the research–practice gap. Acad Manag Perspect 26(1):73–92

Barley SR (2016) 60th anniversary essay: ruminations on how we became a mystery house and how we might get out. Adm Sci Q 61(1):1–8

Barnacle R, Dall’Alba G (2014) Beyond skills: embodying writerly practices through the doctorate. Stud High Educ 39(7):1139–1149

Barney JB, Wright PM (1998) On becoming a strategic partner: the role of human resources in gaining competitive advantage. Hum Resour Manag 37(1):31–46

Bartunek JM (2011) What has happened to mode 2? Br J Manag 22(3):555–558

Bartunek JM, Rynes SL (2010) The construction and contributions of “implications for practice”: what’s in them and what might they offer? Acad Manag Learn Educ 9(1):100–117

Bartunek JM, Rynes SL (2014) Academics and practitioners are alike and unlike: the paradoxes of academic–practitioner relationships. J Manag 40(5):1181–1201

Baum JA (2011) Free-riding on power laws: questioning the validity of the impact factor as a measure of research quality in organization studies. Organization 18(4):449–466

Bendig AW (1954) Reliability and the number of rating-scale categories. J Appl Psychol 38(1):38–40

Beyer JM, Trice HM (1982) The utilization process: a conceptual frame work and synthesis of empirical findings. Adm Sci Q 27(4):591–622

Bhatti MW, Ahsan A (2016) Global software development: an exploratory study of challenges of globalization, HRM practices and process improvement. RMS 10(4):649–682

Bryman A (1988) Doing research in organizations. Routledge, London

Bullinger B, Kieser A, Schiller-Merkens S (2015) Coping with institutional complexity: responses of management scholars to competing logics in the field of management studies. Scand J Manag 31(3):437–450

Butler L (2003) Explaining Australia’s increased share of ISI publications—the effects of a funding formula based on publication counts. Res Policy 32(1):143–155

Butler D (2008) Crossing the valley of death. Nature 453(7197):840–842

Campbell JP, Dunnette MD (1968) Effectiveness of T-group experiences in managerial training and development. Psychol Bull 70(2):73–104

Carless SA, Rasiah J, Irmer BE (2009) Discrepancy between human resource research and practice: comparison of industrial/organisational psychologists and human resource practitioners’ beliefs. Aust Psychol 44(2):105–111

Chubb J, Reed MS (2018) The politics of research impact: academic perceptions of the implications for research funding, motivation and quality. Br Politics 13(3):295–311

Cohen DJ (2007) The very separate worlds of academic and practitioner publications in human resource management: reasons for the divide and concrete solutions for bridging the gap. Acad Manag J 50(5):1013–1019

Collins K, Shiffman D, Rock J (2016) How are scientists using social media in the workplace? PLoS One 11(10):e0162680. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0162680

Community for Responsible Research in Business and Management (2016). A vision of responsible research in business and management: striving for credible and useful knowledge. Draft for targeted consultation, 30 November 2016

Davis GF (2015) Editorial essay: what is organizational research for? Adm Sci Q 60(2):179–188

De Jong SP, Muhonen R (2020) Who benefits from ex ante societal impact evaluation in the European funding arena? A cross-country comparison of societal impact capacity in the social sciences and humanities. Res Eval 29(1):22–33

Deadrick DL, Gibson PA (2007) An examination of the research–practice gap in HR: comparing topics of interest to HR academics and HR professionals. Hum Resour Manag Rev 17(2):131–139

Deadrick DL, Gibson PA (2009) Revisiting the research–practice gap in HR: a longitudinal analysis. Hum Resour Manag Rev 19(2):144–153

DORA Declaration (2012) The San Francisco declaration on research assessment. http://www.ascb.org/dora/

DeNisi AS, Wilson MS, Biteman J (2014) Research and practice in HRM: a historical perspective. Hum Resour Manag Rev 24(3):219–231

Dunbar RLM, Bresser RF (2014) Knowledge generation and governance in management research. J Bus Econ 84(1):129–144

Durette B, Fournier M, Lafon M (2016) The core competencies of PhDs. Stud High Educ 41(8):1355–1370

Eden C, Huxham C (1996) Action research for management research. Br J Manag 7(1):75–86

Espeland WN, Sauder M (2007) Rankings and reactivity: how public measures recreate social worlds. Am J Sociol 113(1):1–40

Festinger L (1962) Cognitive dissonance. Sci Am 207(4):93–106

Flickinger M, Tuschke A, Gruber-Muecke T, Fiedler M (2014) In search of rigor, relevance and legitimacy: what drives the impact of publications? J Bus Econ 84:99–128

Fochler M, Felt U, Müller R (2016) Unsustainable growth, hyper-competition, and worth in life science research: narrowing evaluative repertoires in doctoral and postdoctoral scientists’ work and lives. Minerva 54(2):175–200

Gill C (2018) Don’t know, don’t care: an exploration of evidence-based knowledge and practice in human resource management. Hum Resour Manag Rev 28(2):103–115

Goldfarb B, King AA (2016) Scientific apophenia in strategic management research: significance tests and mistaken inference. Strateg Manag J 37(1):167–176

Gordon RA, Howell JE (1959) Higher education for business. J Bus Educ 35(3):115–117

Guion RM (1965) Personnel testing. McGraw-Hill Companies, New York

Gulati R (2007) Tent poles, tribalism, and boundary spanning: the rigor–relevance debate in management research. Acad Manag J 50(4):775–782

Hammarfelt B (2017) Recognition and reward in the academy: valuing publication oeuvres in biomedicine, economics and history. Aslib J Inf Manag 69(5):607–623

Hammarfelt B, De Rijcke S (2015) Accountability in context: effects of research evaluation systems on publication practices, disciplinary norms, and individual working routines in the faculty of Arts at Uppsala University. Res Eval 24(1):63–77

Hangel N, Schmidt-Pfister D (2017) Why do you publish? On the tensions between generating scientific knowledge and publication pressure. Aslib J Inf Manag 69(5):529–544

Hayes RH, Abernathy WJ (1980) Management minus invention (D2). The New York Times, NewYork

Hemlin S, Rasmussen SB (2006) The shift in academic quality control. Sci Technol Hum Values 31(2):173–198

Hicks D, Wouters P, Waltman L, De Rijcke S, Rafols I (2015) The Leiden Manifesto for research metrics. Nature 520(7548):429

Hodgkinson GP, Starkey K (2011) Not simply returning to the same answer over and over again: reframing relevance. Br J Manag 22(3):355–369

Hollingshead AB (1938) Ingroup membership and academic selection. Am Sociol Rev 3(6):826–833

Huff AS, Huff JO (2001) Re-focusing the business school agenda. Br J Manag 12(s1):S49–S54

Ibrahim AM, Lillemoe KD, Klingensmith ME, Dimick JB (2017) Visual abstracts to disseminate research on social media: a prospective, case–control crossover study. Ann Surg 266(6):e46–e48

Jiang K, Lepak DP, Hu J, Baer JC (2012) How does human resource management influence organizational outcomes? A meta-analytic investigation of mediating mechanisms. Acad Manag J 55(6):1264–1294

Kelemen M, Bansal P (2002) The conventions of management research and their relevance to management practice. Br J Manag 13(2):97–108

Khurana R (2007) From higher aims to hired hands: the social transformation of American business schools and the unfulfilled promise of management as a profession. Princeton University Press, Princeton

Book   Google Scholar  

Kieser A, Leiner L (2009) Why the rigour-relevance gap in management research is unbridgeable. J Manag Stud 46(3):516–533

Kieser A, Leiner L (2012) Collaborate with practitioners: but beware of collaborative research. J Manag Inq 21:14–28

Kieser A, Nicolai A, Seidl D (2015) The practical relevance of management research: turning the debate on relevance into a rigorous scientific research program. Acad Manag Ann 9(1):143–233

Kvale S (2007) Doing interviews. Sage Publications, London

Langbert M (2005) The master’s degree in HRM: midwife to a new profession? Acad Manag Learn Educ 4(4):434–450

Lange T (2013). Evidence-based HRM: a scholarship perspective with a difference. In: Evidence-based HRM: a global forum for empirical scholarship, vol 1, No 1. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp 4–15

Larivière V, Gingras Y (2010) The impact factor’s Matthew effect: a natural experiment in bibliometrics. J Am Soc Inform Sci Technol 61(2):424–427

Lawler EE (2007) Why HR practices are not evidence-based. Acad Manag J 50(5):1033–1036

Lebel J, McLean R (2018) A better measure of research from the global south. Nature 559(7712):23

Lengnick-Hall ML, Lengnick-Hall CA, Andrade LS, Drake B (2009) Strategic human resource management: the evolution of the field. Hum Resour Manag Rev 19(2):64–85

Lewin AY, Chiu CY, Fey CF, Levine SS, McDermott G, Murmann JP, Tsang E (2016) The critique of empirical social science: new policies at management and organization review. Manag Organ Rev 12(4):649–658

Locke E (2011) Handbook of principles of organizational behavior: indispensable knowledge for evidence-based management. Wiley, New York

Markoulli MP, Lee CI, Byington E, Felps WA (2017) Mapping human resource management: reviewing the field and charting future directions. Hum Resour Manag Rev 27(3):367–396

Mayo E (1933) The human problems of an industrial organization. McMillan, New York

Mcculloch S (2017) Hobson’s choice: the effects of research evaluation on academics’ writing practices in England. Aslib J Inf Manag 69(5):503–515

Merton RK (1957) Priorities in scientific discovery: a chapter in the sociology of science. Am Sociol Rev 22(6):635–659

Merton RK (1968) The Matthew effect in science: the reward and communication systems of science are considered. Science 159(3810):56–63

Merton RK (1973) The sociology of science: theoretical and empirical investigations. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

Miles RE, Snow CC (1984) Designing strategic human resources systems. Org Dyn 13(1):36–52

Mulligan A, Mabe M (2011) The effect of the internet on researcher motivations, behaviour and attitudes. J Document 67(2):290–311

Pfeffer J, Sutton RI (1999) Knowing “what” to do is not enough: turning knowledge into action. Calif Manag Rev 42(1):83–108

Pieper R (1990) Human resource management: an international comparison. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin

Pierson FC (1959) The education of American businessmen: a study of university college programs in business administration. McGraw-Hill, New York

Pindur W, Rogers SE, Suk Kim P (1995) The history of management: a global perspective. J Manag Hist 1(1):59–77

Quan W, Chen B, Shu F (2017) Publish or impoverish: an investigation of the monetary reward system of science in China (1999–2016). Aslib J Inf Manag 69(5):486–502

Rau H, Goggins G, Fahy F (2018) From invisibility to impact: recognising the scientific and societal relevance of interdisciplinary sustainability research. Res Policy 47(1):266–276

Roethlisberger FJ, Dickson WJ (1943) Management and the worker: an account of a research program conducted by the Western Electric Company, Hawthorne Works, Chicago. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

Rousseau DM, Manning J, Denyer D (2008) Evidence in management and organizational science: assembling the field’s full weight of scientific knowledge through syntheses. Acad Manag Ann 2(1):475–515

Rybnicek R, Bergner S, Gutschelhofer A (2019) How individual needs influence motivation effects: a neuroscientific study on McClelland’s need theory. RMS 13(2):443–482

Rynes SL, Colbert AE, Brown KG (2002) HR professionals’ beliefs about effective human resource practices: correspondence between research and practice. Hum Resour Manag 41(2):149–174

Rynes SL, Giluk TL, Brown KG (2007) The very separate worlds of academic and practitioner periodicals in human resource management: implications for evidence-based management. Acad Manag J 50(5):987–1008

Sanders K, van Riemsdijk M, Groen B (2008) The gap between research and practice: a replication study on the HR professionals’ beliefs about effective human resource practices. Int J Hum Resour Manag 19(10):1976–1988

Seeber M, Cattaneo M, Meoli M, Malighetti P (2019) Self-citations as strategic response to the use of metrics for career decisions. Res Policy 48(2):478–491  

Shani AB, Coghlan D (2014) Collaborate with practitioners: an alternative perspective a rejoinder to Kieser and Leiner (2012). J Manag Inq 23(4):433–437

Shapiro DL, Kirkman BL, Courtney HG (2007) Perceived causes and solutions of the translation problem in management research. Acad Manag J 50(2):249–266

Shibayama S, Baba Y (2015) Impact-oriented science policies and scientific publication practices: the case of life sciences in Japan. Res Policy 44(4):936–950

Sousa CAA, Hendriks PHJ (2008) Connecting knowledge to management: the case of academic research. Organization 15(6):811–830

Strauss AL, Corbin J (1998) Basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory, 2nd edn. Sage, Thousand Oaks

Taylor FW (1911) The principles of management. Harper, New York

Taylor EK, Wherry RJ (1951) A study of leniency in two rating systems. Pers Psychol 4(1):39–47

Tenhiälä A, Giluk TL, Kepes S, Simón C, Oh IS, Kim S (2016) The research–practice gap in human resource management: a cross-cultural study. Hum Resour Manag 55(2):179–200

Tijdink JK, Schipper K, Bouter LM, Pont PM, De Jonge J, Smulders YM (2016) How do scientists perceive the current publication culture? A qualitative focus group interview study among Dutch biomedical researchers. BMJ Open 6(2):e008681

Tsui A (2016) Reflections on the so-called value-free ideal: a call for responsible science in the business schools. Cross Cult Strateg Manag 23(1):4–28

Van de Ven AH, Johnson PE (2006) Knowledge for theory and practice. Acad Manag Rev 31(4):802–821

Vosburgh RM (in press) Closing the academic-practitioner gap: Research must answer the “SO WHAT” question. Hum Resour Manag Rev

Wang J, Peters HP, Guan J (2006) Factors influencing knowledge productivity in German research groups: lessons for developing countries. J Knowl Manag 10(4):113–126

Watermeyer R, Chubb J (2019) Evaluating ‘impact’in the UK’s Research Excellence Framework (REF): liminality, looseness and new modalities of scholarly distinction. Stud High Educ 44(9):1554–1566

Wierzbicki AP, Nakamori Y (2006) Creative space. Springer, Berlin

Wonderlic EF, Hovland CI (1939) The personnel test: a restandardized abridgment of the Otis SA test for business and industrial use. J Appl Psychol 23(6):685–702

Wu L, Wang D, Evans JA (2019) Large teams develop and small teams disrupt science and technology. Nature 566(7744):378–382

Wuchty S, Jones BF, Uzzi B (2007) The increasing dominance of teams in production of knowledge. Science 316(5827):1036–1039

Zizzo DJ (2010) Experimenter demand effects in economic experiments. Exp Econ 13(1):75–98

Zollo M, Winter SG (2002) Deliberate learning and the evolution of dynamic capabilities. Organ Sci 13(3):339–351

Download references

Acknowledgement

This study has benefited from financing from the Research Project ECO2014-56580-R of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitively, and the Research Projects P12-SEJ-1810 from the Andalusia Government (Spain) and PR2016-018 (Research Projects University of Cadiz).

Author information

The authors appear in alphabetical order and have contributed equitably to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

Department of Business Management, University of Cádiz, Cádiz, Spain

Jesús de Frutos-Belizón, Fernando Martín-Alcázar & Gonzalo Sánchez-Gardey

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jesús de Frutos-Belizón .

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest.

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

• Notes: The academics interviewed appear in alphabetical order. This order is not related to the number assigned to each academic interviewed. All information about the interviewees was obtained through Elsevier’s Scopus database and public information in their CVs
• *The Centre for Performance-led HR (CPHR) at Lancaster has been successful at bringing together world–class academic experts to work with top HR directors to overcome the most pressing issues facing senior HR specialists. It is a unique partnership between Lancaster University Management School and major corporations and was nominated as one of five Outstanding Employer Engagement Initiatives in the 2009 Times Higher Education Awards
• **NIHR Patient Safety Translational Research Centres (PSTRCs) work to pull advances in basic research with potential relevance to patient safety into an applied research setting
• ***The LINK Research Institute, based at Dublin City University Business School, sets out to understand the factors that contribute to successful organisations, both private and public, in Ireland and internationally. The LINK Research Institute enjoys mutually beneficial collaborations with a wide range of organisations. This includes various consulting projects with a wide range of organisations such as: Fáilte Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, The Electricity Supply Board, The Health Service Executive, The Department of Social Protection, Novartis, Intel, Mars, Airbus and Pfizer
• ****The Global Future of World Foundation aims to help Business, Academia and Goverments around the globe to prepare the workforce of the future for a sustainable world by detecting and predicting trends and paradigms for successful transformation ( http://globalfutureofwork.com/ )
• + The Institute for Business Research serves as the hub for externally funded business research within the Broad College of Business, and as part of the Michigan State University (MSU) campus-wide research infrastructure, collaborates with other MSU Colleges/Departments as well as the Offices of Regulatory Affairs, MSU Technology, Sponsored Programs, Business Connect and Contract and Grant Administration
• ++ The People Management Center (PMC) is an organization located with the department of Human Resource Studies at Tilburg University, which serves as a platform for global HR excellence to connect staff and students of the department, TIAS Business School and the business partners in the HR field

Appendix 2: Interview guide

According to your research experience, do you consider that research is individual or collective? What individuals or agents do you collaborate with in the development of your research projects?

Could you say that you have a stable research group? Do you have stable relationships with agents outside the group?

Could you briefly describe how work is normally organized in the research projects in which you participate?

Do you engage with professional partners in the development of research? How was this experience? What difficulties and benefits did you find in these collaborations?

Normally, what motivates your choice of research topics?

Could you specify the different steps of the research processes conducted in your group?

Which of them do you think are more important?

Do you think your research is relevant to the professional community?

Have you ever carried out a research project collaboratively with the professional community?

Do you consider that research in our field must be produced only for academics? Is it considered possible or viable to produce research jointly with the professional community?

How much time would you say that the whole process takes, from the time you have a stimulus to research until the time an output is generated?

What specific steps of the process do you feel are more time-consuming?

Do you usually change your research ideas and initial impressions after contrasting them with the rest of the members of your research team? Do you also do this with non-academic agents?

Does your research group have formal procedures (such as regular meetings) established? Do they incorporate external agents?

Could you say that the group has established routines to develop research activities?

Does your research team have a strong shared culture?

What do you think are the skills, knowledge or experience necessary to carry out a successful academic career? How would you describe a successful researcher in terms of knowledge, skills and experience?

How are these skills distributed in your group? Are there members specialized in some specific activities or phases of the research process?

How would you describe internal relationships within your research team?

Have you ever had communication problems between the members of the unit? How would you describe your communication with external and/or professional agents?

How is your research normally funded?

Do you receive funding from non-academic institutions, such as firms or professional foundations?

How do you think that the prevalent academic culture affects the development of your research?

Could you describe the process through which your research results are disseminated?

What are the criteria used to select the specific means through which research results are disseminated? To what extent do you make use of non-academic or professional channels?

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

de Frutos-Belizón, J., Martín-Alcázar, F. & Sánchez-Gardey, G. The research–practice gap in the field of HRM: a qualitative study from the academic side of the gap. Rev Manag Sci 15 , 1465–1515 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11846-020-00397-x

Download citation

Received : 27 June 2017

Accepted : 01 June 2020

Published : 15 June 2020

Issue Date : August 2021

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11846-020-00397-x

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Human resource management research
• Valley of death
• Research–practice divide
• Rigor–relevance gap

JEL Classification

• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research

Driving growth through talent and technology

Thriving organizations are driving change at the intersection of technology and talent. The powerful combination of data and AI and human experience unlocks new work structures, roles and environments which enable people and businesses to thrive.

Talent & organization now

Fortune 500 leaders ranked talent shortages as the #1 threat to their business

of executives say it is more important than ever for organizations to innovate with purpose

Top-line productivity premium when unlocking the growth combination of data, tech and people

of workers are ready to learn gen AI skills, but just 5% of organizations are providing training at scale

Reinvent with talent & organization

Develop leaders and culture to deliver your future strategy.

Reimagine your organization to drive growth

Access, create and unlock the potential of talent across the organization

For businesses to grow, people must thrive, putting people at the center of change.

Your C-suite faces difficult decisions every day. Through a deep understanding of your unique challenges and team dynamics, you can build the capability needed to achieve results.

Transform leadership

Create the conditions for leaders to execute strategy through assessment and development that builds skills and sparks shifts in behavior.

Create cultural change

This starts with developing high-functioning and resilient cultures where leaders support people through the challenges of change to achieve strategic goals.

Accelerate action

Move beyond analysis and strategic planning to enable action that creates real, lasting change for individuals, teams and organizations.

Understand the relationships at play

Illuminate the interplay between individuals, teams and cultures in an organizational system.

Ensure your business keeps pace today and is ready for tomorrow by designing an aligned, healthy and dynamic organization that creates the environment for talent to thrive.

Become a resilient organization

Build a sustainable and resilient organization by uncovering the data and insights you need to define impactful interventions and create and deliver new growth.

Compete with distinctive capabilities

By identifying and building distinctive capabilities, you can achieve ambitious business results and enable new ways of working.

Speed up decision-making

An operating model that balances agility and scale can speed up decision-making, ensuring a rapid response to changing market conditions.

Unlock new levels of efficiency

When you understand complexity drivers, leverage economies of skill and scale and harness automation and analytics, your organization becomes simple and efficient.

Enable new ways of working

With strong connections, conversations, and leadership behaviors, you can tie the elements of your organization together seamlessly, enabling new ways of working across the organization.

Sustainable business strategy

By driving a sustainable business strategy and incorporating sustainability throughout all aspects of the operating model, you can meet shareholder value and stakeholder demands.

Access, create, and unlock the potential of talent across the organization

Transform your approach to talent inside and out. With a balanced combination of skills, capabilities and organizational wiring, you can build a thriving, skills-driven organization that is always ready for change. 

A talent strategy that works with your business strategy

Identify areas of focus, uncover meaningful insights about talent, and pick the most impactful talent strategies that go beyond the obvious and deliver lasting and competitive impact.

Focused skills and capabilities give you a competitive edge

Build skills and capabilities that are needed for today and tomorrow's world and that enable advanced ways of working. Go from talent scarcity to talent advantage by attracting, engaging, and retaining the most critical talent, and identifying new diverse pipelines of talent for the future.

Tap into talent insights

Combine the power of human science and data science to transform decision making and ways of working across the entire talent continuum.

Deliver next-level employee experiences

Great employee experiences happen when a deep sense of care, kindness, and connection defines people’s experiences at work every day. By prioritizing employee experience you’ll gain access to people’s true potential. It’s all about taking care of business while taking care of people.

A workforce that’s ready for anything

Continuously develop the workforce required to achieve your business strategy while simplifying the development landscape and clarifying career pathways.  With a data-driven operating model, talent practices, and structures, rapidly respond to ongoing change with speed and agility.

Improve sustainability

Drive a sustainable business strategy by strategically evolving the skills, mindsets, and behaviors needed to meet the organization’s sustainability goals.

What’s trending in talent & organization

Gen AI will transform entire value chains—and the very nature of work itself. Leaders need to lead and learn in new ways to drive business performance and more productive, creative and meaningful work for everyone.

Prioritizing employee experience pays off. Leading companies are better at attracting and retaining talent, and they’re also seeing exponential business growth. Here's the winning approach.

Five imperatives the C-suite must address to reinvent in the age of generative AI.

Accenture outlines what the future of work will look like across industries, from hybrid workplaces to the virtual workplace and the metaverse.

A new type of CHRO is leading their C-suite peers in connecting data, technology and people and cultivating collaboration. These “High-Res” CHROs bring growth and exceptional experiences into higher resolution. 

Accenture details 5 key steps to help companies unlock the full value of their data and technology investment.

Accenture and Marriott International created a new global HR hub that delivers employee experiences as exceptional as the guest experiences that make Marriott, Marriott.

See how Henkel's digital upskilling program fostered growth through the growth of its people and created a culture of innovation worldwide.

How culture change and training initiatives have helped insurance company UNIQA start a movement.

Partners in change

Helping you unlock the value of your SAP application portfolio with the power of intelligence, innovation and industry.

Leverage the experience of AWS and Accenture with proven technology offerings and industry-ready solutions.

The largest global Microsoft practice. Eighteen-time Microsoft Global Alliance SI Partner of the Year. Powered by Avanade. Runs on Microsoft.

Supercharge Human Resources and Finance as strategic partners to drive revenue growth.

The winning combination for unlocking your cloud potential.

Reimagining human experiences that reignite growth and accelerate the path to value.

See our extended partner ecosystem

Awards and recognition

Idc marketscape report: worldwide people & organizational consulting services 2022-2023 vendor assessment, idc marketscape report: worldwide employee experience consulting services 2022-2023 vendor assessment, hfs top 10: employee experience services, our leaders.

Karalee Close

Global Lead – Talent & Organization

Yaarit Silverstone

Senior Managing Director – Talent & Organization, Global Strategy Lead & North America Lead

Senior Managing Director – Talent & Organization, EMEA Lead

Gaston Carrion

Managing Director – Talent & Organization, Growth Markets Lead

Grow your careers at the heart of change

The Role of the Internet of Things in Improving Human Resource Management Practices in Marketing Companies

Article sidebar, main article content.

Among the many fields being impacted by the transformative power of the Internet of Things (IoT) is human resource management (HRM) inside marketing businesses. This research delves at the ways in which the IoT affects HRM processes, namely talent acquisition, employee engagement, and performance rating and evaluation. This research sought to understand how the Internet of Things (IoT) affects HRM efficiency by using a mixed-methods strategy that included quantitative surveys with qualitative interviews. We found that leveraging the IoT improves talent recruiting. To fully profit from the Internet of Things (IoT), human resource management must first overcome several challenges. A few of them include the importance of privacy and the need to optimize innovation. To further understand the long-term effects of the Internet of Things, future research may look at data privacy and security ethics, compare assessments across businesses, and conduct longitudinal studies. Improved evidence-based practices, more comprehensive theoretical frameworks, and digital HRM implications are all possible results of this study. Marketers and others who see the revolutionary potential in HRM practices made possible by the IoT want their organizations to succeed and prosper in the long run.

Article Details

Skip to Content

Other ways to search:

• Events Calendar

HR Service Center - HRSC May 2024 Newsletter

Busy season.

• We are currently receiving a high volume of tickets. Thank you for your patience in this busy season. We will complete requests on a modified first-in-first-out basis, as we will prioritize upcoming deadlines. For ticket updates please continue to utilize the  customer portal  and send all questions and requests to  [email protected] . 

May HRL Meeting Update

• The May HRL meeting has been canceled due to commencement. HR will send out slides containing important updates and reminders.

Summer Research Faculty Reminder

• If you have submitted a Summer Research (DIC) form for a faculty member and need to submit an updated or additional form for the same faculty member, be sure to select “1st addendum, 2nd addendum, etc.” on the form before submitting the request to  [email protected] .

Recruitment Process Reminder

• If you have any student employees that are graduating that you would like to hire for a temporary position, please refer to the temporary employee hiring process found on the  HR Website.  As a reminder, per compliance rules, employees should not start working in their temporary position until they have been fully hired and are in the system.

Leave Sweeps

• Employee leave balances will be swept down to their maximum allowance effective July 1, 2024.
• Help employees predict how much leave will be swept by following the instructions outlined in this  Employee Services blog post . If you would like assistance pulling queries, please submit a request to  [email protected] .
• If you or the employee find any MyLeave balance discrepancies, please submit a  Leave Adjustment/Termination Request Form  to  [email protected] .

Faculty Contract Election

• Current permanent faculty (anyone being paid on a 9x9 or 9x12 contract) have the option to switch over to the other pay schedule for AY24-25. They may change their election through their employee portal. The deadline to do so is EOD July 12, 2024 . This is a hard deadline as the contract type cannot be changed after this date. For guidance, please see the  Employee Services Website .
• New permanent faculty (including those who started in spring 2024) should fill out the  contract election form  and submit it to  [email protected] .

Action Items

• Lecturer Summer Benefits: If your department has any active lecturer appointments, you will soon receive a roster for review. Please reply to  [email protected]  by EOD May 21, 2024, with the names of anyone who should be placed on a short work break (SWB) over the summer. Anyone with an expired spring 2024 contract who is not placed on SWB will be terminated.
• Please submit June monthly requests as soon as possible. The monthly deadline will be June 18, 2024. With the end of the fiscal year approaching, it's beneficial to be proactive. 

Important Dates to Know

• May 20, 2024 - May monthly deadline (previously May 21, 2024).
• May 21, 2024 - Deadline to request short work break for lecturers.
• May 27, 2024 - HRSC closed to observe Memorial Day.
• June 18, 2024 - June monthly deadline. The Annual Leave sweeps process will occur sometime after payroll processing (effective date 7/1/24).
• June 19, 2024 - HRSC closed to observe Juneteenth.
• June 30, 2024 - Current  fiscal year ends . See  CCO Key Dates and Deadlines.
• July 12, 2024 - Deadline for faculty to elect their 2024-2025  contract schedule .
• For upcoming payroll deadlines, please see the  HRSC Deadline Calendars .

Monthly Encouragement

“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does." - William James

A member of Human Resources will generally respond within 2 business days. If you need immediate assistance, please contact 303-492-6475. 

Blue carbon: The potential of coastal and oceanic climate action

The oceans and coasts are the Earth’s climate regulators. Covering 72 percent of the planet’s surface, they have absorbed around 40 percent of carbon emitted by human activities since 1850. 1 Pierre Friedlingstein et al., “Global carbon budget 2019,” Earth System Science Data , 2019, Volume 11, Number 4. Coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, tidal marshes, and seagrass meadows act as deep carbon reservoirs, while marine ecosystems absorb and sequester greenhouse gases (GHG) through the carbon cycle. 2 International Union for Conservation of Nature issues brief , International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), November 2017. The bad news for humankind is that both oceans and coasts are under pressure, amid atmospheric and marine warming, habitat destruction, pollution, and the impacts of overfishing and industrial activity. These destructive factors are undermining the role of oceanic systems in slowing climate change.

Humankind’s impact on coastal and offshore ecosystems is a double-edged sword. While we are responsible for significant destruction, we also have agency over potential outcomes. Through our efforts, we can avert damage to or restore the oceans. This would increase carbon absorption from the atmosphere and move the world toward the net-zero emissions envisaged by the Paris Agreement on climate change. Companies that are seeking to offset their carbon emissions through voluntary and compliance carbon markets, and in particular those whose activities are connected to the oceans, such as the fishing industry, would have a key role to play in facilitating this process.

One of the key tools to tackle climate change is the carbon markets, through which organizations can trade emissions allowances to achieve reduction targets. The vast majority of funding provided by carbon markets is allocated to so-called nature-based solutions (NBS). These are focused on the protection, restoration, and management of natural and modified ecosystems. On land, the most recognizable NBS is planting of trees to restore forests. In this report, we analyze the potential of so-called blue carbon NBS, which are designed to protect or enhance ecosystems on coasts and in the oceans. We consider three categories of blue carbon solutions, which we rank according to their scientific and economic maturity:

• Established solutions: We consider blue carbon NBS to be “established” when they meet minimum standards of scientific understanding and implementation potential. These relatively mature solutions are focused on the protection and restoration of mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrass meadows. They are more widely understood than many less mature blue carbon solutions, offer scientifically verifiable levels of carbon abatement, and are amenable to funding through the carbon markets. 3 Carlos M. Duarte and Catherine E. Lovelock, “Dimensions of blue carbon and emerging perspectives,” Biology Letters , 2019, Volume 15, Number 3.
• Emerging solutions: Emerging solutions are those for which there is an existing body of peer-reviewed research to quantify CO 2 abatement potential, but for which further research is required to align with funding frameworks such as the Core Carbon Principles, published by the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets. The emerging category includes the protection and restoration of seaweed forests, extension of seaweed forests, and strategies to reduce bottom trawling.

Nascent solutions: The nascent and potentially largest blue carbon NBS category focuses on the protection or restoration of marine fauna populations. This category is the most challenging in terms of understanding impacts, establishing permanence (preventing leakage), and proving the vital concept of additionality—meaning the benefit would not have accrued anyway, for example, for economic or legal reasons. Fish themselves are not considered a form of carbon sequestration, but they contribute to the effectiveness of the biological carbon pump and therefore to exportation of carbon into the deep sea. Also in the nascent category are reef-based solutions. Healthy reefs may contribute to carbon sequestration through their support for a range of organisms and shell fish.

Due to the scientific challenges around quantification, the nascent category is not yet financeable through carbon markets.

Assessing blue carbon solutions

McKinsey’s new report,  Blue Carbon: The potential of coastal and economic climate action , sizes blue carbon NBS and measures their impacts, costs, and likely access to future funding. It highlights the latest scientific research and leverages McKinsey analysis to estimate abatement or conservation potential on a 2050 timeline. Deep dives on kelp reforestation and bottom trawling show how economies of scale in these emerging solutions could help reduce costs.

Explore COP28 with McKinsey

Join us for a series of dynamic virtual events during COP28. Discover new research, practical strategies, and collaborations across sectors that propel climate action and growth towards net-zero.

If fully implemented, the established class of solutions would offer 0.4 to 1.2 metric gigatons (Gt) of annual CO 2 abatement, or between 1 and 3 percent of total current annual emissions (Exhibit 1). That potential jumps to approximately 3 GtCO 2 of annual abatement (about 7 percent of total current annual emissions) if the solutions in the emerging category, such as large-scale seaweed farming and bottom-trawling management, were to be fully confirmed and implemented. Nascent solutions might add another 1 to 2 GtCO 2 of annual abatement potential in the longer term, but the science remains highly uncertain. 4 Estimate based on emerging and evolving science and the assumptions we outline in this report; $18/tCO 2 based on opportunity cost of lower-end estimate of bottom trawling impact (approximately 0.4 Gt) in emerging category. If bottom trawling is confirmed at full potential (approximately 1.5 Gt), price viability for large portion of abatement potential could drop to approximately $11/tCO 2 . To put these numbers into context, annual human emissions are currently around 40 GtCO 2 . 5 Myles R. Allen et al., Special report: Global warming of 1.5°C: Summary for policymakers , Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2018.

Alongside the climate case for blue carbon solutions, there are potentially significant ecosystem benefits. For example, as mangroves recover, fish and marine-fauna populations will expand, supporting both fisheries and nature-based tourism, as well as bolstering coastal protection and filtering runoff. 6 Michael Getzner and Muhammad Shariful Islam, “Ecosystem services of mangrove forests: Results of a meta-analysis of economic values,” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health , 2020, Volume 17, Number 16.

When it comes to costs, preliminary analysis suggests that around one third of the total abatement potential would be viable below $18 per tCO 2 . This is more than the $5 to $15 per tCO 2 average price paid in the voluntary carbon markets but below the $40 to 100 per tCO 2 paid in the European compliance markets over the past year (February 2021–2022) (Exhibit 2). 7 Voluntary carbon markets offer entities or individuals the opportunity to buy GHG or carbon credits to offset their emissions and to finance the avoidance or reduction of emissions from other sources; the $18 per tCO 2 estimate is based on the opportunity cost of the lower-end estimate of bottom-trawling impact (approximately 0.4Gt) in the emerging category. If bottom trawling is confirmed at full potential (approximately 1.5Gt), price viability for a large portion of abatement potential could drop to approximately $11 per tCO 2 ; Kate Abnett, Nina Chestney, Susanna Twidale, “Europe’s carbon price nears the 100 euro milestone,” Reuters , February 6, 2022.

Significant hurdles

While blue carbon solutions are an increasingly viable option to help companies and organizations get to net zero, many promising ideas face significant hurdles. Scientific research into many solutions remains at an early stage, creating uncertainty over the impacts of abatement. For example, it is scientifically unclear how seaweed farming or avoided bottom trawling reduces atmospheric CO 2 (complex biogeochemical cycles in seawater and ocean currents influence net exchange of CO 2 with the atmosphere 8 Peter Macreadie et al. “The future of blue carbon science,” Nature Communications , 2019, Volume 10, Number 3998. ). In addition, there is insufficient modeling of how terrestrial processes such as agricultural runoff and climate change may impact the ocean’s continued ability to sequester carbon. 9 Peter Macreadie et al. “The future of blue carbon science,”  Nature Communications , 2019, Volume 10, Number 3998.

Beyond scientific uncertainty, matters of coastal and marine law are often complex or opaque. Estuarine and coastal environments, which are subject to national jurisdictions, are often governed by numerous subnational regulatory and administrative regimes. Offshore ocean environments are mainly overseen by the consensus-oriented United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and UN Environment Programme. However, individual nations retain rights to resources up to 200 nautical miles from their coastlines. Nearer to shore, disputes over land tenure are common. Finally, in many countries, the practical path to implementation is likely to be bumpy. Coastal blue carbon project developers will need to engage with local communities, respecting traditional access and tenure rights and supporting marine-resource stewardship. We show how some organizations are working to tackle challenges in these areas.

Apple’s blue carbon initiative

Despite varying levels of practicality and scientific certainty, there are viable arguments to suggest that blue carbon solutions present a net opportunity. Indeed, companies are starting to roll out projects as part of their journeys toward net-zero emissions. Apple is working with nonprofit Conservation International to preserve a 27,000-acre mangrove forest in Colombia, the first fully accounted carbon offset credit for a mangrove, expected to sequester one million metric tons of CO 2 over its lifetime. Procter & Gamble, meanwhile, has partnered with the same organization to safeguard 31 species of mangroves in the Philippines.

Another tailwind is the ongoing development of methodologies to report and quantify project impacts. In 2020, standards setter Verra published the first blue carbon conservation methodology approved under any major carbon-offset program. The methodology, which is a revision to the VCS REDD+ Methodology Framework (VM0007), adds blue carbon conservation and restoration activities as eligible project types, and is expected to unlock new sources of funding for tidal wetland conservation and restoration. 10 This methodology provides a set of modules for various components of a methodology for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). The modules, when used together, quantify GHG emission reductions and removals from avoiding unplanned and planned deforestation and forest degradation. This methodology is applicable to forest lands, forested wetlands, forested peatlands, and tidal wetlands that would be deforested or degraded in the absence of the project activity.

Actions to support funding

There is no escaping the fact that blue carbon solutions are, for the most part, in their infancy. Just a trickle of projects have qualified for carbon markets to date, and there are significant financial, practical, and legal hurdles to scaling in ocean and coastal environments. In short, there are deficits in both supply and demand, resulting in a challenging risk-return profile. That said, the science that supports established blue carbon sequestration is sound, and there is clear opportunity for corporations to consider blue carbon opportunities. Moreover, given their beneficial impact on biodiversity and coastal communities, blue carbon solutions are particularly rich in “cobenefits” beyond their abatement profiles. Therefore, amid narrow pathways toward a 1.5°C outcome, the solutions merit serious consideration across financial markets, corporates, and governments .

Financial markets

As in any nascent technology, a key early requirement is to get to sufficient scale to achieve critical mass. At financial institutions, current investment in blue carbon projects is rooted in a broader mismatch between climate ambition and operational resources. Outside the top tier, many banks and investors lack the strategy and capabilities to commit to a relatively marginal asset class. Ticket sizes tend to be small compared with the effort required, and there is often a gap to cost parity with incumbent technologies. To resolve these challenges, financial institutions need to find ways to layer blue carbon into portfolio allocation frameworks and source the knowledge resources that can help them navigate new markets. Even then, there are doubts around returns profiles and timelines. These present significant barriers that need to be overcome if blue carbon is to become established as an alternative to terrestrial solutions.

Corporate scaling opportunities

Companies looking to offset their carbon emissions face similar challenges to those faced by financial institutions. In comparison with more readily available terrestrial credits, blue carbon offset opportunities may appear high risk, subscale, and expensive. Still, Apple and others have shown there are opportunities, particularly in the established class of solutions. For companies focused on the ocean, such as expedition cruise lines, there is also the chance to align their net-zero programs with their real-world activities. Tackling the challenge of scaling both supply and demand, the recently announced Blue Carbon Buyers Alliance aims to aggregate and educate buyers around a clear demand signal, with members committing to funding or purchasing credits from high-quality blue carbon projects. 11 Blue Carbon Buyers Alliance: Scaling blue carbon markets to conserve and restore coastal ecosystems , Business Alliance to Scale Climate Solutions, 2021. These collective, early mover signals could have a significant impact on supply, potentially bringing down prices in the process.

Project leads and governments

To support financial and corporate initiatives, blue carbon project leads have an important role to play. They must seek out more risk-tolerant financing and then design, pilot, and demonstrate project feasibility. This will establish the track record that will support more capital inflows. To create early momentum, they should share their early successes as widely and as comprehensively as possible.

Finally, governments will be critical in scaling participation and funding. A good blueprint is the work of the US Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is tasked with promoting and funding research into advanced energy technologies. In addition, multilateral and development assistance agencies can fund innovative and scalable programs. Progress at the COP26 summit in Glasgow on drafting the terms of a future structure for carbon markets under the revised Article 6 of the Paris Agreement was a positive step, and more progress is expected over the coming year. Governments could also signal support by including blue carbon solutions in nationally determined contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement. Through these kinds of initiatives, they could nudge blue carbon toward the mainstream, and the world toward a promising new abatement opportunity.

Julien Claes is an associate partner in McKinsey’s Brussels office, Duko Hopman is a partner in the New Jersey office, Gualtiero Jaeger is a consultant in the Miami office, and Matt Rogers is a senior partner emeritus in the Bay Area office.

The authors wish to thank Joe Roman at the University of Vermont, Amy Schmid at Verra, and David Wigan at Perceptive Communications, as well as our McKinsey colleagues Urs Binggeli, Caroline De Vit, Hauke Engel, Kartik Jayaram, Laurent Kinet, Peter Mannion, Sébastien Marlier, Erik Ringvold, Ignus Rocher, Robin Smale, Antoine Stevens, and Matt Stone for their contributions to this article.

Explore a career with us

Related articles.

Putting carbon markets to work on the path to net zero

Why investing in nature is key to climate mitigation