Principal speaker
Dr Ashlea Kellner
Abstract: The franchise business model is spreading rapidly, particularly in Australia. Despite the profusion of franchising and the potential for continued growth, our understanding of human resource management (HRM) in these organisations is extremely limited. In franchises, the ‘franchisee’s’ autonomy is located midway between employed managers and independent business owners, while the ‘franchisor’ regulates core processes such as marketing and product development. While heavy franchisor control over certain functions is customary and in fact integral to the franchise model, the delineation of HRM responsibilities between the HR department and franchisees is less clear.
This seminar addresses research deficiencies at the junction of HRM and franchising by examining the role of the corporate franchisor HR department and the degree to which HRM activities are centralised and standardised. Using an inductive, multi-case approach, data from three Australian food franchises were collected via observation, documentary analysis and 37 semi-structured interviews. The findings demonstrate substantial variation in the approach to HRM between cases. The franchisor’s strategic decision to prioritise brand protection or liability avoidance ultimately determines the role of the HR department and their level of involvement in HRM. The relationship between these strategic priorities, characteristics of the approach to HRM, and the resultant level of franchisor control are illustrated in a new typology, and implications for both parties to the franchise relationship are explored. In particular, we will examine the range of franchisee approaches to managing HRM at store level, from adoption of corporate policy to development of innovative people management approaches.
Speaker: Dr Ashlea Kellner is employed as a Research Fellow in the Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing at Griffith University.
She submitted her doctoral thesis in HRM in September 2013 and is currently working on an ARC project examining HRM in healthcare. Ashlea has published three journal articles, including one from her thesis in Human Resource Management Journal. She has also produced six conference papers, three book chapters and a number of articles and blog posts in mainstream publications such as Franchising Magazine.
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RSVP on or before Thursday 5 September 2013 , by email wow@griffith.edu.au , or by phone 3735 3714