The Dark Side of Human Resource Analytics: A Systematic Integrative Review

Abstract

Advances in information technology are ushering in a new era of human resource analytics and data-driven decision-making in the corporate world. Organizations increasingly turn to human resource analytics to enhance human resource management practices such as reward management, performance appraisals, and employee well-being. This improvement in information technology has raised expectations among various management practitioners and experts and fostered a very optimistic outlook on human resource analytics. Using human resource analytics to manage people, on the other hand, poses many challenges and ethical implications. This paper investigates the risks of applying human resource analytics based on a PRISMA-guided systematic integrative review. Following established guidelines for systematic reviews, a transparent and reproducible search strategy was implemented across Emerald Insights, Taylor & Francis Online, and grey literature sources, with clearly justified inclusion and exclusion criteria to ensure methodological rigor. Two theories, the talent analytics maturity model and the technology acceptance model, form the conjectural structure for this paper to attain theoretical triangulation for the study. Inclusion criteria for the utilised articles included not more than five years old, articles in the English Language only, relevance to challenges/ethical issues in human resource analytics, full text-articles, business/social sciences articles, and only scholarly articles. The rejection criteria adopted were sources irrelevant to the study topic, sources more than 5 years old, sources not in English, pure science articles, and non-scholarly articles. The investigation identifies five challenges. Failure to diligently consider the unique aspects of human resource analytics can lead to unintended consequences such as techno-stress, invasion of workplace privacy, regulatory challenges, political challenges, bias, and discrimination. The review also revealed a lack of both qualitative and quantitative empirical studies. Not many organizations have advanced human resource analytics capabilities. The researcher suggests mixed-method and longitudinal empirical studies for each observed theme. Such studies provide a clear picture of the trends and patterns of human resource analytics challenges. Possible strategies for the menacing challenges can be found when empirical evidence is abundant.