Abstract:

The main objective of this paper is to show how an Interactive Learning Environment (ILE) can be used to develop learners' skills on the Human Resource (HR)-Performance relationship, utilizing a systemic approach.

Many scholars in the field of Strategic HR Management emphasize studying bundles of HR practices as the primary unit of analysis, rather than individual practices, to better understand the impact of HR systems on performance. Therefore, adopting a systemic approach to studying the HR-performance relationship is necessary, as internally aligned HR practices play a vital role in harmoniously influencing employee abilities, motivation, and opportunities.

The ILE is viewed as a powerful tool for analyzing complex social systems and improving decision-making processes in the field of HR-performance relationship. The ILE covers the following topics:
• The main principles of systems thinking
• The causal structures underlying the HR-performance relationship
• Non-linear analysis of the HR-performance relationship
• Identifying the feedback structure (the "black-box") from system behaviors
• The limits to growth in the HR-performance relationship
• The delay between a cause (HR practice) and its effect.

The ILE encourages learners to use the systems thinking perspective to understand how HR managers and professionals can achieve their sustainable organizational goals by considering multiple scenarios based on the characteristics of the internal and external environment in which the organization operates. Additionally, the ILE enable learners to reinforce their learning about how to identify the causal structures underlying the HR-performance relationship and to proactively experiment with the HR system through simulation. In fact, the ILE provides a simulated real business environment, where learners virtually manage their own company, assuming different roles to enact real-life scenarios about the HR-performance relationship. From this perspective, each learner's experience - through a learning-by-doing process enabled by the ILE (a system dynamics-based [SDB] teaching methodology) - provides insight into the kind of decision-making required in a complex and rapidly changing environment where:
• a set of decisions must be made, rather than one.
• decisions are interdependent due to the feedback structure of the system.
• there is often a delay between a cause and its effect.

In the context of a blended learning training program, learners could be able to put into practice the contents analyzed and discussed during the in-person training segment of the program through the use of the ILE.

The ILE also embody a section specifically aimed to permit the online assessment of learners’ learning outcomes. Such an assessment will be carried out by measuring those parameters aimed at gauging the viability, effectiveness, and efficiency of their decisions to run a firm operating in a specific environment.
The ILE is designed to foster interaction and cooperation among group actors (learners and trainers) as a shared foundation for scientifically rigorous conversations around effective and sustainable decisions concerning HR-performance relationship.

Keywords:

Interactive Learning Environments, Human Resource Management, System Thinking, Performance Management, System Dynamics.