Trained as a work and organizational psychologist with 10 years of experience in HRM and business consulting, I joined Tilburg University in 2003 to teach and to research about HRM.
I strongly believe that all organizations can benefit more from human resource management, when more time is spend on understanding the causes of people-related issues in their specific contexts in combination with a better understanding of available research evidence. I take effort to understand the organizational context that relates to people management issues (research). I like to teach students (education) and practitioners (executive education, management) that it is possible to improve the quality of people related decision-making in organizations by making better use of research evidence and taking a bit more time to understand people related issues in organizations.
My research focus is on extending HRM theory to workers and work contexts that are less standard in HRM research, such as small entrepreneurial (family) businesses, migrant-, agency- and low skilled work. I combine a business- with an ethical/employee perspective in evaluating HRM outcomes (decent work).
For HRM education I have developed a modular approach that allows to appeal to various audiences who need an introduction course to human resource management (TSB, Tisem), while using the same underlying didactical set-up. Won teaching innovation (2009-2011) and best teacher awards (2013 - 2014).
Current roles:
I am the Academic Director of the Bachelor Human Resource Studies. HRS provides two Bachelor programs: Personeelwetenschappen (NL) and HRS: People Management (Int.). The programs offer a multi-disciplinary perspective on the management of people in organizations: psychology, business, economics, sociology, ethics, law and research methods are all relevant in understanding which Human Resource Management (HRM) is optimal for business, for individuals and society.
In my courses, I teach how to do ‘Evidence based HRM’. All managers should some basic understanding of HRM. However, since not every organization is the same, and because the challenges that organizations face are different, there is no ‘one best practice suits all’ recipe for doing HRM. Organizations need trained experts and managers who know where to find the best HRM interventions for the issues that they face.
I also teach Comparative Employment Relations in Europe.
Recent key publications:
Kroon, B., & Paauwe, J. (2022). HRM in 21st century small organizations: A midrange typology to describe, contrast and contextualize the phenomenon. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 33(16), 3224–3251. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2021.1915359
Kroon, B. (2022). Evidence based HRM: What we know about people in workplaces. Open Press Tilburg University. https://doi.org/10.26116/yy4w-tn37