Legal Issues in Human Resource Management

Edited by:
Barbara Lee, Rutgers University
Mark Roehling, Michigan State University

A volume in the series: Research in Human Resource Management. Editor(s): Dianna L. Stone, Universities of New Mexico, Albany, and Virginia Tech. James H. Dulebohn, Michigan State University. Brian Murray, University of Dallas. Kimberly M. Lukaszewski, Wright State University.

Call for Papers

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

In the United States and most industrialized countries, employment laws, regulations, and/or the risk of litigation have the potential to impact virtually every aspect of human resource management (HRM). Organizations in the U.S. have been buffeted by recent court decisions changing how existing laws are interpreted (for example, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964). Congress and state legislatures have enacted new laws that, in some respects, limit the manner in which organizations recruit, evaluate, pay, and discipline their employee. It is difficult to think of any aspect of human resource management that has not been impacted by new, revised, or abandoned legal doctrines.

For example, in the United States, the 2023 opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court regarding affirmative action in college admissions has dramatically altered the ways in which business and nonprofit organizations approach their efforts to diversify their workforce. Changes in federal compensation laws have forced a rethinking of how work is done and by whom. Decisions expanding the definitions of “employee” and “employer” in the National Labor Relations Act have exposed a wide array of businesses to union organizing in sectors that historically have not been unionized. Laws in certain states that restrict the treatment of transgender individuals have influenced the way that businesses address the concerns of these employees. Privacy laws and regulations in the European Union and in China have forced changes in HRM practices as well.

Some sectors have been influenced more heavily than others. The “culture wars” struggles concerning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and the rights of and protections for individuals confronting gender identity and sexual orientation concerns have placed educational organizations at both the K-12 and postsecondary levels in the spotlight. The rights of teachers and professors to control their classroom communications, the curriculum they teach, and the books they assign have been under attack. But the legal changes go well beyond educational organizations. Human resource professionals across the organizational spectrum understandably may feel whipsawed between their professional obligations to support and develop talent on the one hand, and to monitor and respond to what may appear to be escalating demands for change from both within and outside the organization.

TOPICS OF INTEREST:
• The challenges of managing employment litigation risk across countries—in general and for multinational companies

• The use of “private law” (e.g. corporate codes of conduct or other forms of contracting) in establishing transnational legal standards within multinational enterprises

• The impact of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard on corporate DEI initiatives

• The effect of revised wage and hour regulations on classification of employees

• Revised EEOC definitions of “sex” following the Supreme Court’s Bostock decision

• Effect of laws banning abortion on employee health benefits

• Risk management: what’s new and how can human resources support its success?

• The impact of pay transparency laws on human resource compensation programs

• Examples of laws requiring equal pay for similar work and their effect on employee recruitment and reward systems

• Privacy laws: what do they mean for HRM and what is HR’s role in the implementation of privacy protections, either in in the U.S. or globally?

• May employers restrict employee “free speech” in public organizations? What are the limitations?

• Provide an interdisciplinary critique of HRM “best practice” (examining the recommended practice from both behavioral science and legal perspectives)

• Propose a new construct that you believe plays a significant role in the law’s impact on HRM, or formally explicate a construct that has been only loosely referenced in the literature to date (“legal culture” or “legal climate” or “litigation mentality”)

• Examine the role that legal considerations play in current models of strategic HRM. What role should legal considerations play in the strategic HRM process, and to what extent is this reflected in current models?

• Critique the legal literature’s treatment of HRM practices or the HRM profession. In what ways does the legal literature misunderstand or mischaracterize the field of HRM, and what are the potential consequences?

• Religion and employee rights—how is HR navigating this challenge?

• New challenges in managerial training and development

• How can mentoring go wrong and what is HR’s role in fixing it?

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS:

Submissions should be limited to conceptual papers, systematic or integrative literature reviews with theory, conceptual development, or research implications, critiques of the literature or the field of HRM with implications, comparative legal analysis of legal developments and their implications for HR practice, new theoretical models or research frameworks, or meta-analyses. In a few cases, empirical research will also be accepted for this special issue (contact Mark Roehling for approval.)

The editors would like to review your potential topic so we ask that you email a short (1 to 5 page) proposal to Mark Roehling (roehling@msu.edu) and Barbara Lee (barbalee@oq.rutgers.edu) by October 1, 2024.
If your proposal is accepted, then you should email your final paper to Mark Roehling (roehling@msu.edu) and Barbara Lee (barbalee@oq.rutgers.edu) by June 1, 2025.

Research in HRM is a peer reviewed research series, so all papers are double blind reviewed by two subject matter experts and the editors. They will determine if your paper is accepted for publications. It is indexed in Cabell's, PsyInfo, etc.

All final submissions are due June 1, 2025.

Send all inquiries to Mark Roehling (roehling@msu.edu) and Barbara Lee (barbalee@oq.rutgers.edu)

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