{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/21673"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/21673","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Reality and rhetoric: Sources of power for the human resource department in organizations","abstract":"Commentaries have been made on the increasing influence of human resource management (HRM) in organizations. However, the role of the human resource (HR) department in this development has not been examined. This study investigates the sources of power of the HR department, and accounts for differences found in the power among HR departments across organizations.","abstract_html":"Commentaries have been made on the increasing influence of human resource management (HRM) in organizations. However, the role of the human resource (HR) department in this development has not been examined. This study investigates the sources of power of the HR department, and accounts for differences found in the power among HR departments across organizations.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Galang, Maria Carmen Castrence"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Labor and Employment Relations","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Ferris, Gerald R."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2011,"date_issued":"2011-05-07T13:15:43Z","date_published":"2011-05-07T13:15:43Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:18Z","subjects":["Business Administration, Management","Sociology, Industrial and Labor Relations"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["Copyright 1994 Galang, Maria Carmen Castrence"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["AAI9512366","(UMI)AAI9512366"],"render_values":[{"text":"AAI9512366","href":null,"code":true},{"text":"(UMI)AAI9512366","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/21673","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Ferris, Gerald R."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Galang, Maria Carmen Castrence"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2011-05-07T13:15:43Z","10000-01-01","1994"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Labor and Employment Relations"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Business Administration, Management","Sociology, Industrial and Labor Relations"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 1994 Galang, Maria Carmen Castrence"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["AAI9512366","(UMI)AAI9512366","http://hdl.handle.net/2142/21673"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Commentaries have been made on the increasing influence of human resource management (HRM) in organizations. However, the role of the human resource (HR) department in this development has not been examined. This study investigates the sources of power of the HR department, and accounts for differences found in the power among HR departments across organizations.","A model that integrated two perspectives of intraorganizational power was proposed, arguing that the source of subunit power is grounded both in objective reality, and in the subunit's ability to create and sustain a perception of reality that also enables it to claim power within the organization. Both contextual conditions, as well as the actions taken by the subunit were argued to be determinants of subunit power. For the particular case of the HR department, these contextual factors are manpower requirements of the organization's technology, characteristics of its workforce, competitiveness of the business environment, pressures from unions, and pressures from legal requirements. Actions taken by the HR department are intended primarily to influence perceptions and beliefs with regards to the importance of its function.","Survey results from 234 organizations found that not all hypothesized predictors were significantly related to HR department power. Further, not the same predictors were found to be significant for the different measures of department power, and that some of the relationships were in the opposite direction hypothesized. The results were discussed in the light of possible methodological limitations, as well as necessary conceptual revisions. The opposite direction in relations could indicate that the underlying mechanism driving the relationships among the variables may not only be the notion of critical contingency as argued in the proposed theoretical framework, but also those of the notions of competence-reward, and competing interest groups. Overall, however, support was found for both the functionalist and interpretive perspectives in explaining HR department power.","Suggestions were also made for future research that follows from focusing on HR department power, such as the initial establishment of a separate HR unit, consequences of a powerful HR department, application to other types of subunits and organizations, and dimensionality of symbolic actions.","Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T13:15:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license.txt: 4922 bytes, checksum: 910b249b4beec47e7ab768910c8f966f (MD5) 9512366.pdf: 5006167 bytes, checksum: f69857bf8023f9e3e0d8363783d9974a (MD5) Previous issue date: 1994","Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Howard Ding (hding2@illinois.edu) on 2011-05-07T14:52:26Z Item is restricted indefinitely.","Restriction data tranferred 2014-07-01T11:24:08-05:00 Original Data Group with Access UIUC Users [automated] Release Date: none Reason: ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","U of I Only"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Reality and rhetoric: Sources of power for the human resource department in organizations"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Ferris, Gerald R."],"dc:creator":["Galang, Maria Carmen Castrence"],"dc:date":["2011-05-07T13:15:43Z","10000-01-01","1994"],"dc:description":["Commentaries have been made on the increasing influence of human resource management (HRM) in organizations. However, the role of the human resource (HR) department in this development has not been examined. This study investigates the sources of power of the HR department, and accounts for differences found in the power among HR departments across organizations.","A model that integrated two perspectives of intraorganizational power was proposed, arguing that the source of subunit power is grounded both in objective reality, and in the subunit's ability to create and sustain a perception of reality that also enables it to claim power within the organization. Both contextual conditions, as well as the actions taken by the subunit were argued to be determinants of subunit power. For the particular case of the HR department, these contextual factors are manpower requirements of the organization's technology, characteristics of its workforce, competitiveness of the business environment, pressures from unions, and pressures from legal requirements. Actions taken by the HR department are intended primarily to influence perceptions and beliefs with regards to the importance of its function.","Survey results from 234 organizations found that not all hypothesized predictors were significantly related to HR department power. Further, not the same predictors were found to be significant for the different measures of department power, and that some of the relationships were in the opposite direction hypothesized. The results were discussed in the light of possible methodological limitations, as well as necessary conceptual revisions. The opposite direction in relations could indicate that the underlying mechanism driving the relationships among the variables may not only be the notion of critical contingency as argued in the proposed theoretical framework, but also those of the notions of competence-reward, and competing interest groups. Overall, however, support was found for both the functionalist and interpretive perspectives in explaining HR department power.","Suggestions were also made for future research that follows from focusing on HR department power, such as the initial establishment of a separate HR unit, consequences of a powerful HR department, application to other types of subunits and organizations, and dimensionality of symbolic actions.","Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T13:15:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license.txt: 4922 bytes, checksum: 910b249b4beec47e7ab768910c8f966f (MD5) 9512366.pdf: 5006167 bytes, checksum: f69857bf8023f9e3e0d8363783d9974a (MD5) Previous issue date: 1994","Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Howard Ding (hding2@illinois.edu) on 2011-05-07T14:52:26Z Item is restricted indefinitely.","Restriction data tranferred 2014-07-01T11:24:08-05:00 Original Data Group with Access UIUC Users [automated] Release Date: none Reason: ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","U of I Only"],"dc:identifier":["AAI9512366","(UMI)AAI9512366","http://hdl.handle.net/2142/21673"],"dc:language":["eng"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 1994 Galang, Maria Carmen Castrence"],"dc:subject":["Business Administration, Management","Sociology, Industrial and Labor Relations"],"dc:title":["Reality and rhetoric: Sources of power for the human resource department in organizations"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Labor and Employment Relations"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:18Z"}