Addressing contextual pressures and challenges in social care: the prospects of multi-actor engagement with strategic HRM

Drawing on an exemplary case of strategic HRM in a nonprofit social care provider responding to a recruitment and retention crisis, this article offers evidence for a multi-actor, recursive model of HRM implementation. We examine how multi-actor engagement with strategic HRM reinforces or modifies intended HRM, and how this engagement is shaped by external and internal contextual pressures in nonprofit social care organizations. Through an in-depth qualitative study, we shed light on the internal process dynamics that not only engender a shared understanding of intended HRM strategy and practice among key organizational actors (convergence) but also allow for local deviation (divergence) that forges a more adequate response to workforce challenges. Our study contributes to theory on the social dynamics of HRM implementation within wider institutional contexts while highlighting the limits of a business-oriented HRM system for delivering a sustainable workforce within social care.