Human Resource Information System Courses: An Examination of Instructional Methods

Journal of Information Systems Education, Fall 2005 by Jones, William J, Hoell, Robert C

ABSTRACT

This study examines to what degree and with what method human resource information systems (HRIS) concepts and techniques are being taught at colleges and universities in the United States. Forty-three course descriptions for graduate or undergraduate courses in HRIS, human resource management systems (HRMS), or a specialty human resource (HR) course that specifically covers HRIS or HRMS, were analyzed. Results of this analysis provide benchmarks for developing collegiate HRIS courses. A discussion is given on various teaching methods, objectives, focuses, and topics.

Keywords: Human Resource Information Systems, Human Resource Management Systems, Instructional Methods.

1. INTRODUCTION

A human resource information system (HRIS) is a systematic procedure for collecting, storing, maintaining, retrieving, and validating data needed by an organization about its human resources (HR), personnel activities, and organization unit characteristics (Walker 1982). While Kovach and Cathcart (1999) correctly point out that an HRIS (also known as a human resource management system, or HRMS) can be as informal as the payroll records and time cards of a small business, for the vast majority of organizations, corporate success will increasingly depend on the coordinated, strategic management and integration of the organization's human resources and information technology (Valaskakis, Coull, & Clermont 1991). Achieving this strategic coordination requires those responsible for developing, implementing, operating, and maintaining an HRIS to have a broad knowledge of the organization's human resource programs, the relationship between human resource programs and overall strategic planning, and the potential inherent in computer and data technology (Rampton, Turnbull, & Doran 1999). The goal of this research is to discover to what degree HRIS techniques and concepts are being taught at the graduate and undergraduate collegiate levels.

Unlike the mainframe era, HR professionals today are more comfortable using computers for HR functions, a shift resulting from increasingly user-friendly applications (Roberts 1999a). Training on HRJS, or more specifically the gaps between job requirements and employees' abilities to utilize HRIS technologies, was cited by Roberts as a main reason that technology is under-utilized for HR functions. Not surprisingly, Elliot and Tevavichulada (1999) raise the issue that, while a high percentage of private and non-profit organizations offer computer training (95% public sector and 82% private sector), only 40 percent of public sector and 30 percent of private sector organizations offer training on a regular basis. In addition, their study found that private and non-profit organizations integrate software and human resource management (HRM) functions in low numbers.

In the 1990's, HR technology users shifted from HR-specific systems to those that integrated their companies' enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems (Alsop 1998). Large, integrated ERP solutions allowed for HRIS applications to be built around a single database and a common workflow model. Since then, demands for specialized data, variances in systems among operating partners, and diversity of available applications have made it impossible to manage business processes with a single software package (Vander Hey 2000). Complications can arise when integrating legacy systems with new Internet applications based on Java and XML (Extensible Markup Language). Because Java and XML are meta-languages, their interpretive abilities of other programming languages facilitate the integration of a plethora of software and web-based applications. These advances suggest that HR technology users will need not only technical training in new systems use, but also the conceptual knowledge to select, manage, and evolve with new technology.

College and university settings can be a key source for acquiring both conceptual and technical knowledge. Given this, it is not surprising that textbooks on HRIS have recently been written with a post-secondary audience in mind or have been designed with a format applicable to a college course (e.g., Rampton, Turnbull, & Doran 1999; Ceriello & Freeman 1998). While books of this nature can certainly provide the needed concepts about HRIS, no book can substitute for exposure to actual HRIS technologies. A curriculum development issue then becomes whether to focus on concepts or applications, and how and why such knowledge and experiences should be integrated into existing educational programs.

Floyd, Bedell, Webster, and Conway (2002) discuss the California State University-Bakersfield experience that integrated HRIS technology into many of the University's existing HR courses, fundamental through advanced. This approach was developed to work with current education methods and textbooks, maintain classroom flexibility, and reduce the current technology skills gap by developing students' knowledge and skills identified as important in the workplace. This multiple-class HRIS integration approach allowed CaI State-Bakersfield to both provide students with a foundation of technology skills as they progressed into upper division HR courses and allow faculty to identify pitfalls that would be common to new academic uses. Multiple-class HRIS integration requires that critical success factors be met that are not common to every university, especially across class, section, and instructional coordination and integration.