Successful crisis-driven human resource management in German consulting firms : an evolutionary perspective

Abstract

The present study exams the management of human resources in turbulent economic times with particular reference to the top 25 management and the top 25 it German consultancies during the period of 2001 to 2003 as well as 2008 and 2009, where central aspects of this phenomenon are the success of such HRM practices, their emergence and evolvement over time. More specifically it pursues 1) to develop an empirically grounded theoretical framework with regard to crisis-driven HRM (CD HRM) in large German consultancies from an evolutionary perspective and 2) to design an excellence model of crisis-driven HRM by taking into account the specifics of the consultancy industry. --- While the evolutionary model is supposed to answer the question "how" (evolutionary dynamics) and "why" (evolutionary logic and effects) particular aspects of CD HRM (evolutionary object) in consulting firms changed over time, the excellence model is aimed at improving managerial decision-making and diagnosis in general as well as benchmarking activities and audits with respect to successful CD HRM. --- To address both ojectives, the research design followed the phases of the cognitive process inherent in the grounded theory (GT) - comprehension, synthesis and theorizing. The phase of comprehension started with deriving an indicator model from the existing literature on CD HRM along four evolutionary categories in the particular context of the German consulting industry and resulted in indicating concepts, preliminary propositions (PP) and research questions (RQ), for the purpose of guiding the emergence of an empirically grounded theory. --- The second part of the phase of comprehension included collection of qualitative and quantitative data as well as the process of synthesis, which was facilitated by the interaction between data collection and data analysis. This part was outlined as a three-stage longitudinal study (January 2007 to March 2010) whereby the outcome of each stage served as input for the next, based on a large variety of data collection and analysis tools. --- The results of the study presented in form of six multiple case studies, lead to an evolutionary-related theoretical model with regard to CD HRM in consulting firms which refer to the phase of theorizing. A further outcome of the present study, addressing in particular the second research objective and also in accordance with the research process of GT is an excelllence model of CD HRM. Following the notion of assessing business excellence, the pursued model represents a framework based on interrelated components with their weights both measuring and ensuring success of HRM. --- Finally, some conclusions and lessons learnt are drawn with regard to contemporary direction in which CD HRM evolves considering the very specifics of German consultancies. In addition, implications for decision-makers and HR experts in consulting firms as well as suggestions for future research are outlined.