Development and validation of a measure that examines attitudes towards e-HRM practices

Abstract

The main objective of this research was to investigate, analyse and evaluate attitudes towards electronic human resource management (e-HRM) tools within a large South African financial institution. This was done by developing and validating an instrument to determine e-HRM tool usage, e-HRM tool preference as well as attitudes towards e- HRM. Methodology: a total of 104 HR professionals and line managers completed the e-HRM attitudinal questionnaire. The sample demographics were obtained using analysis of the frequencies of respondents in each of the demographic categories as well as within the tool usage section and attitudinal measurement section. To ascertain the internal consistency of the attitudinal component of the e-HRM measurement instrument and the six attitudinal subscales, the Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient was calculated for overall scale and corresponding subscales. Due to the low reliability obtained for three of the subscales, the structure of the e-HRM measurement instrument was assessed using exploratory factor analysis. Differences between groups with regard to preference for tool usage were assessed, using Pearson’s Chi-Square tests for both the occupational and the demographic characteristics of respondents. Finally, to explore whether there were any significant differences for biographical and occupational demographics and attitude on the measurement instruments, an independent samples ttest was conducted and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used. The main finding of the study was that users of e-HRM tools had significantly more positive attitudes towards e-HRM tools than non-users.