The Staffing Cycles Framework: Viewing Staffing as a System of Decision Events

We propose an alternative staffing framework that adopts a systems view of staffing and articulates the internal structures and influence mechanisms that determine “how” staffing outcomes occur. The staffing cycles framework (SCF) portrays the interrelationships among the actors, contexts, and activities of staffing as staffing cycles composed of decision events. A staffing cycle is a sequence of seven decision events controlled alternately—not mutually—by individuals and organizational decision makers. Staffing cycles are the smallest unit of analysis that still retains all staffing components and frames how and when staffing outcomes are affected. Decision events capture the primary decision activities of staffing systems. All decision events share a common structure that depicts how actors, contexts, and activities are combined to influence staffing outcomes.