E-HRM as a driver for frontline employee performance: a socio-technical model

Purpose Prior e-HRM research mainly studies knowledge workers in developed economies, overlooking frontline employees who constitute the majority workforce in labor-intensive sectors. This study addresses three gaps: (1) insufficient examination of social-technical subsystem interplay in resource-constrained retail, (2) absence of socio-technical frameworks for frontline workers in emerging markets and (3) limited understanding of e-HRM effectiveness for low-skilled, mobile-dependent employees with minimal digital literacy. Design/methodology/approach Comparative case studies of two Indian hypermarket chains employing grounded theory methodology. Unlike survey-based e-HRM research, this processual approach reveals micro-level socio-technical realignments during execution through expert interviews. Findings E-HRM effectiveness depends on four interconnected domains: workforce planning, employee lifecycle stages, process improvements and performance management. Critically, mobile-first design emerges as essential, social ecosystems fundamentally shape technology acceptance beyond TAM predictions and cost-efficiency trade-offs manifest differently in the context of emerging markets. Practical implications Practicing managers can learn the integral considerations to be kept in mind when developing the vision for e-HRM in their organizations. These include the social ecosystem, ease of resources, the trade-off between cost and efficiency, and the employee lifecycle touchpoints, among others. The socio-technical systems influence the final outcome of e-HRM implementation, which is the job redesign. Originality/value Three theoretical contributions include the development of a contextualized socio-technical framework for frontline employees, the demonstration that social affordances are more consequential than technical sophistication for frontline performance, and the extension of socio-technical theory by explicating how resource constraints necessitate “frugal innovation” approaches, harmonizing minimal technical features with maximal social support.