Introduction to the Research Handbook on Human Resource Management and Disruptive Technologies

The past decades have witnessed the emergence of many technologies – such as artificial intelligence, online platforms, internet of things, and social robots to name but a few – that (again) fundamentally altered Human Resource Management (HRM), work and performance management, work-life balance, organization dynamics, and discussions about future of work. The discussions they enforce in many ways are new, but in many ways – they ring a strong bell of familiarity for those, who have been in HRM practice and research for a longer time. To us, the main questions remain: How should HRM research and practice respond to the observation that the technologies are evolving rapidly and aggressively, with unclear trajectories into the future, when no one in the scholarly and practitioner community can easily make an overview of existing technologies? What are the general principles that have to be developed to design technological arrangements for management of people matters in organizations? These questions confront researchers around the world. Our objectives are to help better understand the HRM challenges posed by disruptive technologies and to develop generalizable propositions to respond to them.