BEYOND EFFICIENCY: EXPLORING EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCES OF DIGITAL HR TRANSFORMATION IN INDONESIAN ORGANIZATIONS: A QUALITATIVE STUDY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52166/adilla.v8i1.8188Abstract
Digital human resource management (HRM) is often associated with efficiency, accuracy, and service accessibility, yet these outcomes provide limited understanding of how employees experience digitally mediated employment relationships. This qualitative single-case study examines how an integrated cloud-based HR information system reshaped employee experience in a medium-sized Indonesian manufacturing organization. Data were collected from 18 participants, including HR professionals, line managers, and employees, through semi-structured interviews, organizational documents, and non-participant observations. The data were analyzed using the Gioia methodology. Findings reveal five interconnected themes: efficiency without human connection, transparency alongside perceived digital control, reconfiguration of organizational justice, fragmented trust across technological and human targets, and efforts to humanize digital HR. While digitalization reduced administrative burdens and strengthened procedural consistency, it also reduced relational interaction, constrained managerial discretion, and weakened interactional and informational justice. Employees developed differentiated trust toward system reliability, HR professionals’ support, and organizational intentions. This study contributes to digital HRM research by introducing justice rebalancing and fragmented trust as mechanisms explaining employees’ ambivalent responses to rule-based digital mediation. The findings highlight the importance of relational safeguards, including human escalation, contextualized review, and meaningful employee communication.
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