The performance effects of human resource managers' and other middle managers' involvement in strategy making under different business-level strategies: the case in Hong Kong

We first developed theory arguing that HR managers' and other middle managers' involvement during strategy making would have different effects on performance for firms pursuing different business-level strategies. Then, our empirical study tested the hypotheses in the context of HR managers and middle managers in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China. We found that HR manager involvement during strategy making was positively related to perceptions of future business performance. The use of a differentiation strategy was also positively associated with future performance. Neither the use of a cost leadership strategy, however, nor involvement by other middle-level managers, was directly related to perceived future performance. Interestingly, pursuit of a cost leadership strategy, combined with either high HR manager involvement or high middle manager involvement, produced high business performance. Thus, we found a positive and significant interaction such that increasing levels of manager involvement in strategy and a cost leadership strategy was associated with much higher levels of performance. Lower levels of manager involvement combined with the cost leadership strategy, however, were related to much lower performance. No such interaction effect was apparent for differentiation strategies.     

Human resource managers' role consistency and HR performance indicators: the moderating effect of interpersonal trust in Taiwan

This study explores the consistency between human resource (HR) managers' roles and HR performance indicators. In particular it considers the moderating effects of interpersonal trust on the relationship between HR managers' roles and HR performance indicators. We selected 116 HR managers from the top 500 manufacturing companies in Taiwan as our sample, and hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to test our hypotheses. The results showed that the HR managers' roles were consistent with HR performance indicators. Also, a high level of affective trust weakened the positive relationship between HR manager roles and HR performance indicators. Thus we suggested that Chinese companies should design HR performance indicators according to the roles HR managers play. Additionally, when HR managers are playing the role of a strategic partner or change agent, top executives should avoid high affective trust with HR managers.     

Are top human resource specialists 'strategic partners'? Self-perceptions of a corporate elite

Despite the existence of various large-scale surveys of human resource specialists, there has been little research focusing specifically on the top cohort of HR practitioners. In addition, the surveys offer little insight into the ambiguous, but important questions associated with the strategic management process in large, complex corporations. This article reports a study of the qualifications, work histories, role orientations and strategic contributions of the most senior HR specialists in the New Zealand business sector. These elite practitioners typically demonstrate a 'dual background' in specialist HR activities and line management, and strongly subscribe to Legge's notion of 'conformist innovation'. As in the United Kingdom, they tend to focus primarily on the management of managers and, to a lesser extent, the management of industrial relations. Their work is increasingly integrated with other spheres of the business such as quality management. Whether their contribution is regarded as 'strategic' depends on the model of strategic management that informs the question. This paper argues that the survey-based studies have inappropriately adopted 'outside-in' models of strategic management which privilege marketing notions and assume that 'formulation' is more strategic than 'implementation'. The work of these senior HR specialists is more fairly assessed under a conception of the strategic problem which balances external and internal concerns. Given the present realignment of strategy theory, the challenge facing these HR specialists is that of developing frameworks for corporate planning and performance analysis which attribute a more central role to the critical elements of HRM.     

Human resource management on the line?

The prospects for devolving HR activities to the line are examined in this article. Evidence drawn from a wider study of HRM in practice suggests that, while line manager involvement is possible, their practices tend to be inconsistent in implementation and uneven in quality. A number of constraints on line management practice were identified. First, there is limited reinforcement of practice through institutional forces. Secondly, the short-term nature of managerial activity means that a greater priority is placed on the achievement of the numbers rather than the achievement of numbers through people. Finally, downsizing and delayering place tremendous pressures on the time which line managers could allow for people matters generally. These findings challenge much of the rhetoric associated with the idea of giving HRM back to the line by arguing that the quality of line management practice may distort the overall impact of HR policies.     

Exploring the reality of educated middle managers' capability and involvement in human resource management in China

Since the recent global financial crisis, human resource management (HRM) policies may be seen more than ever as one of the cornerstones for building an appropriate organizational culture to better promote effort and cooperation between human resource (HR) managers and other middle line-managers. This article is designed to explore the reality of educated middle managers' capability and involvement in HRM in China, given that the concepts of HR roles in general and middle managers in particular are relatively new there. By analysing the results from more than 300 middle managers who had been educated at MBA programmes in different parts of China, our findings, we argue, have important implications for both the HRM literature and management practice in emerging economies.     

Professors,managers, and human resource education

his article examines whether Masters of Business Administration (MBA) programs adequately prepare human resource professionals. It also compares managers' and professors' evaluations of the competencies HR managers will need in the twenty‐first century. It finds that both managers and professors view interpersonal and problem‐solving competencies and integration of HR with bottom line concerns as more important than technical know‐how. HR managers, however, are much more critical of what MBA programs are doing than are HR professors. HR professors may be risking complacency about their product. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Promoting Effective Psychological Contracts Through Leadership: The Missing Link Between HR Strategy and Performance

This article offers line managers and HR professionals an actionable, research‐based framework for developing psychological contracts with employees that suit their organizational and human resource (HR) strategy. Leadership styles supporting the firm's HR strategy are key to making psychological contracts that benefit both the firm and its members. When managers' styles are out of sync with HR strategy, this mismatch can lead to poorer performance through ineffective and unfulfilled psychological contracts with workers.     

企业人力资源管理有效性研究

本文通过分析企业中人力资源经理和直线经理对人力资源管理实践的相关问题的认知评价,研究了中国本土企业的人力资源管理实践有效性的问题。研究数据表明,目前企业中直线经理和人力资源经理对于人力资源管理各功能的重要性认知相同,但在人力资源管理对于企业内部客户服务的有效性的认知和评价标准存在显著差异。本研究的意义在于帮助企业从人力资源管理职能的角度,加强人力资源管理系统与企业战略目标实现的匹配,为改善企业业绩的“捆绑性”的实践提供实证依据。     

The Conduct of Management and the Management of Conduct: Contemporary Managerial Discourse and the Constitution of the ‘Competent’ Manager*

The character and conduct of the manager has formed a central focus of attempts to govern economic life throughout the present century. and current programmes of organizational change involve radical attempts to reconstitute the nature and conduct of management. This is attempted through the identification and implementation of management competencies. Discourses of organizational reform such as human resource management, total quality management and business process re-engineering all place a critical emphasis on anti-bureaucratic, organic and flexible forms of organization, which are also seen to require the development of particular capacities and predispositions among managers. Essential to their vision of ‘managerial work’ is a composite of ‘entrepreneurial’ attributes. Management competencies appear to offer a congenial method for the reconstitution of the manager along ‘entrepreneurial’ lines, not simply because they are inherently founded on managers'self-management and self-presentation of identified behaviours, but also because they represent individualized forms of business functions (and are often associated with the establishment of market relations within the organization).     

The devolution of HR to the line: Implications for perceptions of people management effectiveness

The devolution of human resource responsibilities from human resource managers to line managers is both a growing and global trend. A number of authors has suggested that there are positive as well as negative consequences of devolution. The current study conducted a survey of US human resource managers to explore the effect of devolution on human resource managers' perceptions of people management effectiveness in their organizations. Results revealed a positive effect of devolution on perceived people management effectiveness. However, this effect was qualified by an interaction between devolution and line support. Contrary to expectation, this interaction revealed that providing line managers with training and support for their human resource responsibilities had a greater positive impact on perceived effectiveness in organizations that had not devolved (non devolvers) compared to those that had (devolvers).     

Antecedents and Employee Outcomes of Line Managers' Perceptions of Enabling HR Practices

To learn more about the role of line managers in the implementation of HR practices, we propose and test a model of line managers' perceptions of enabling HR practices on the one hand and employee outcomes on the other. In a field study of 89 line managers and 631 employees, we observed that the relationship between line managers' perceptions of enabling HR practices and employees' intrinsic motivation, affective organizational commitment, and turnover intention was mediated by employees' perceived supervisor support. Line managers' perceptions of enabling HR practices, in turn, were predicted by line managers' perceived quality of the HR training they received. Theoretical and practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Doing it for themselves? Performance appraisal in project‐based organisations,the role of employees,and challenges to theory

We explore performance appraisal in project‐based organisations and provide novel insights into appraisal processes in this context. These include the central role of employees in orchestrating the appraisal process, the multiple actors that have input to appraisal including project managers, the distance between employees and their official line managers, and the weak coordinating role of human resource specialists in these systems. We draw attention to the drawbacks of current theorising on appraisal to predict and explain outcomes from appraisal systems that are not premised on stable line manager/employee dyads. Theorising based primarily on social exchange theories needs to be reconsidered in this context and new theories developed. We also question how human resource specialists can better support employees, and managers of all kinds, in their implementation roles in polyadic human resource management systems to ensure transparency, equity, and fairness of appraisal processes in a project‐based organisational context.     

Management development practices: empirical evidence from Sri Lanka

Being a South Asian developing country, management development (MD) practices in Sri Lanka has received insufficient attention. The paper reports results of an empirical investigation of 219 managers and 78 human resource (HR) managers on MD practices in Sri Lanka. The study investigated different processes by which MD takes place in organizations, the nature of immediate senior managers' support for MD, the importance given to the HRM function in the organizational strategy and the HR managers' contribution to the organizational strategy on MD aspects. The research findings indicate more similar MD practices across the three forms of ownership – local, foreign and joint venture. The conclusions address the existing practice and implications.     

In search of the changing role of the corporate human resource function in the international firm

There has been considerable research on the issues of board-level representation by personnel/HR directors and senior HR managers' involvement in strategic decision making. Since the early 1990s there has been a growing interest in international HRM, reflecting the growing recognition that the effective management of human resources internationally is a major determinant of success or failure in international business. There is also evidence that HR constraints often limit the effective implementation of international business strategies. More recently, it has been argued that the more rapid pace of internationalization and globalization leads to a more strategic role for HRM as well as changes in the content of HRM. Yet, while there have been some attempts to integrate international corporate strategy and human resource strategy, surprisingly, the role of the corporate human resources function has been neglected, particularly in the context of the international firm. This article seeks to redress the balance. The question addressed is: what is the role of the corporate HR function in the international firm? To answer these questions empirical research was conducted in thirty UK international firms. We found an emerging agenda for corporate HR in international firms which focuses on senior management development, succession planning and developing a cadre of international managers. We conceptualize this as a strategic concern with developing the core management competences of the organization, and argue that it can be usefully analysed from the perspective of the learning organization.     

Investigating Managers' Exploration and Exploitation Activities: The Influence of Top‐Down,Bottom‐Up,and Horizontal Knowledge Inflows*

abstract This paper develops and tests hypotheses on the influence of managers' knowledge inflows on managers' exploration and exploitation activities. Based on a survey among managers of a leading electronics firm, the findings indicate, as expected, that top‐down knowledge inflows of managers positively relate to the extent to which these managers conduct exploitation activities, while they do not relate to managers' exploration activities. Furthermore, as expected, bottom‐up and horizontal knowledge inflows of managers positively relate to these managers' exploration activities, while they do not relate to managers' exploitation activities. We contribute to current literature on exploration and exploitation by focusing on the manager level of analysis, and by adding the importance of knowledge flow configurations to studies which investigate the impact of organizational factors on exploration and exploitation.     

Strategic human resource practice implementation: The critical role of line management

The implementation of effective human resource (HR) practices typically rests with line managers. This paper uses social context theory to propose that line manager HR implementation is influenced by organizational culture, climate, and political considerations. Subsequently, HR implementation is anticipated to drive employee outcomes. This model's implications and future research directions also are discussed.     

In the eyes of the beholder: the HRM capabilities of the HR function as perceived by managers and professionals

This study investigated factors influencing line managers' and professionals' perceptions of the HRM capabilities of the HR function. Using a sample of 913 managers and professionals in subsidiaries of 11 Nordic multinational corporations, we tested the extent to which features of the unit's HRM system, attitudes of the unit's general manager and characteristics of the HR manager helped explain the perceived HRM capabilities. The analysis revealed that perceived HRM practice visibility and HRM inducements (the link between individual performance and HRM‐related benefits) were strong predictors of individual perceptions of the HR function's HRM capabilities. The use of e‐HRM and the most senior manager's attitudes towards the unit's HRM practices were also significantly related to perceived HRM capabilities.     

Teamworking and change: managing the contradictions

This article examines managers' experiences of introducing a team‐based work system in a manufacturing firm, and their efforts to manage this. Drawing on a social constructionist view, findings are presented that point to the plurality of ‘world views’ held among managers responsible for the delivery of change and to the socially contested nature of teamworking. Implications of these findings are pursued, including the need for change agents and human resource development (HRD) specialists to build sufficient time for review and reflection into change programmes. This is central to developing more skilled approaches to balancing inherent tensions in the employment relationship and processes of change, and in creating opportunities for more fluid and open dialogue among different groups and individuals within management in order to enhance processes of learning and understanding.     

Line managers and HRM: A managerial discretion perspective

Line managers play a central role in HRM practices, but research and theory on how their role is enacted remains underdeveloped. This paper presents a case study of a large U.K.‐based fashion retailer and uses managerial discretion theory to develop a novel understanding of line managers' contribution to the implementation of HRM practices. We describe three distinct ways in which line managers engage with HRM policies and procedures, and propose that line managers make an important contribution to the effective implementation of HRM systems through exerting their cognitive and political abilities to bring about decisions that are well suited to their local situations. Moreover, we find that HR specialists design and manage HRM policies and procedures to afford different levels of managerial discretion in different areas of HRM.