Employees as Active Consumers of HRM: Linking Employees’ HRM Competences with Their Perceptions of HRM Service Value

Recognizing the importance for companies of having high‐quality employment relationships with employees, previous studies have sought to explain the variability in employees’ perceptions of HRM service value. However, most of these studies view employees as inactive in employment relationships and, therefore, do not consider whether employees’ own attributes affect their perceptions of HRM service value. In accepting the alternative notion that consumers create value “in use,” the current study regards employees as active consumers of HRM practices, and so examines the extent and way in which employees’ HRM competences (i.e., knowledge, skills, and abilities) explain the variability in HRM service value. Based on data collected from 2,002 employees in 19 companies in the Netherlands, a positive relationship has been found between employees’ HRM competences and their perception of HRM service value, albeit one that is mediated by the perceived quality and nonmonetary costs of HRM services. The main implication of our findings is that employees should be seen as active agents in employment relationships who, through coproducing and consuming HRM services as well as leveraging their knowledge and skills, influence the value of HRM services and have the potential to increase or undermine the outcomes of the employment relationship. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Understanding Employees’ Perceptions of Human Resource Practices: Effects of Demographic Dissimilarity to Managers and Coworkers

Strategic HRM researchers have increasingly adopted an employee perspective to understand the influence of HR practices on employee outcomes and have called for studies to explain variability in employees’ perceptions of HR practices. To address this research need, we used the social information processing perspective to examine the contextual influence of managers and coworkers on employees’ perceptions of HR practices and explore demographic dissimilarities as boundary conditions of the contextual influence. Conducting research in two organizational settings, we found that both manager‐perceived and coworker‐perceived HR practices were positively related to employees’ perceptions of HR practices. The results also revealed that employee demographic dissimilarity to coworkers in terms of age and organizational tenure weakened the positive relationship between coworker‐perceived and employee‐perceived HR practices. However, the relationship between manager‐perceived and employee‐perceived HR practices was not influenced by demographic dissimilarities. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The HRM Process Approach: The Influence of Employees’ Attribution to Explain the HRM‐Performance Relationship

In an experimental study and a field study, we studied whether high‐commitment human resource management (HC‐HRM) is more effective when employees can make sense of HRM (attribute HRM to management). In the experimental study (n = 354), employees’ HC‐HRM perceptions were evoked by a management case, and their attributions were manipulated with an information pattern based on the three dimensions of the covariation principle of the attribution theory: distinctiveness, consistency, and consensus. As expected, the results showed that the effect of HC‐HRM on affective organizational commitment was stronger when employees understood HRM as was intended by management. This experimental finding was confirmed in a cross‐level field study (n = 639 employees within 42 organizations): the relationship between HC‐HRM, on one hand, and affective organizational commitment and innovative behavior, on the other hand, was stronger under the condition that employees could make sense of HRM. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Business Strategy,HRM Practices and Organizational Performance: A Study of the Indian Software Industry

ABSTRACT

Human resources and human resources management system create competitive advantage in today's global market economy that provides wider access to technology, finance and other resources. HRM research has set a new trend with its linkage process with business strategy and organizational performance to find a place for the profession and add value to the organization. This paper intends to unveil the business strategic models, HRM practices and organizational performance in Indian software companies. The study has found that there is a significant difference among HR practices in software companies in India based on Miles and Snow's strategic types, viz., prospectors, defenders, analyzers and reactors. Although reactors showed their difference from other strategic types, no significant difference was found among three proactive strategic types, viz. prospector, defender and analyzer. With regard to performance analysis, it was found that prospectors have a comparative advantage over other strategic types in almost all performance parameters. Although incentives and stock options have a greater overall impact on performance parameters, there is a lot of difference among factors that influence organizational effectiveness in three proactive strategic types.     

HR Professional Role Tensions: Perceptions and Responses of the Top Management Team

The aims of the research are to explore evidence of professional human resource management (HRM) role tensions, the factors that affect HRM role tension, and to consider the impact on management perceptions when role tensions exist. Using a qualitative approach, 25 interviews were conducted in Australia with senior HRM personnel, top management team (TMT) executives, and a management consultant. Findings reveal that the failure of the HRM profession to attract people with a business focus increases HRM role tensions. Respondents report that tensions were reduced when aspects of the HRM role were devolved or outsourced, there was an acceptance of a changed psychological contract, and clearer attempts were made to communicate an agreed‐upon strategic focus for HRM. HRM role bias led to a reduced willingness among TMT members to respect, and communicate with, HRM professionals. The implications of the negative outcomes of HR role tensions are discussed with reference to the power of the HRM function. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Off the Mark: Response to Kaufman's Evolution of Strategic HRM

Professor Bruce Kaufman's look back at two seminal books published at the beginning of the strategic HRM field and examination of two recent books to trace the evolution of the field identifies some issues, but ones with which the field has dealt for a number of years. His choice of our book HRM and Performance provided the wrong target, and consequently his analysis seemed to miss the mark. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

HRM at a Crossroads: Comments on “Evolution of Strategic HRM Through Two Founding Books: A 30th Anniversary Perspective on Development of the Field”

I agree with Bruce Kaufman's evaluation of the HRM field and the danger to its relevance if change does not take place in the field's almost exclusive use of normal science, lack of focus on organizational change and development and indifference to the development of useful and usable knowledge. I use the development of the Harvard Business School's first‐ever required course in HRM and Managing Human Assets, the book that grew from the course, to illustrate why and how the strategic HRM perspective of the book emerged. I go on to argue that we do not need more proof that HRM practices are associated with financial performance. The best CEOs already believe this, though they need knowledge and practices that will enable them to develop a positive sustainable HRM system. HRM research, both normal and action science, must answer the question of how a “great” HRM system—practices, leadership, organization design, culture, and change processes—might be developed over time (its takes years) and how great companies can avoid the liquidation of intangible assets in the face of pressures for short‐term performance. I describe my own work to illustrate the future direction HRM should take methodologically and conceptually. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A theory of the firm's demand for HRM practices

Empirical data are presented that reveal a large variation in the pattern of HRM practice adoption across firms. The paper then develops an economics-based theory that explains this pattern. The model broadens the HRM concept; models the linkage between HRM practices and firm performance (the ‘black box’); generates an HRM input demand function and demand curve; formalizes the concept of strategic HRM; suggests a new empirical tool for HRM research; generates new hypotheses and insights on the nature of the HRM–firm performance relationship; suggests that existing theories of the HRM–firm performance relationship are seriously mis-specified; and posits that on theoretical grounds the effect of more HRM on firm performance in long-run competitive equilibrium is not positive but zero.     

Evolution of Strategic HRM as Seen Through Two Founding Books: A 30th Anniversary Perspective on Development of the Field

Two pioneering books published in 1984 arguably launched the field of strategic human resource management (SHRM). The first is Strategic Human Resource Management by Fombrun, Tichy, and Devanna; the second is Managing Human Assets by Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Mills, and Walton. This article provides a 30th anniversary review of the two books, partly to honor their pioneering contributions but also to use them as a lens for examining how the field has subsequently evolved and developed. Two recently published SHRM books are used as a benchmark for this analysis. The review identifies areas of SHRM constancy and change, major theoretical and empirical innovations, and newly developed research questions and directions, largely in an American context. Diagrammatic models of SHRM are synthesized and compared from the four books; also, nine specific dimensions of evolution in the field are highlighted with discussion of advances and shortcomings. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Ownership,governance, and the diffusion of HRM practices in multinational worker cooperatives: Case‐study evidence from the Mondragon group

Drawing on a qualitative study of one Mondragon multinational worker cooperative (WC) based on longitudinal data and in‐depth interviews, our research evidences the contradictions that internationalisation poses in WCs, both through privileging managerial control at the expense of worker–member participation and through the setting‐up of capitalist subsidiaries in which employees are excluded from ownership and decision‐making. It further shows how institutions, power relations, and interests shape transfer in WCs, supporting the diffusion of certain human resource management (HRM) practices on grounds of efficiency but hampering the implementation of core cooperative practices. We make a threefold contribution: first, to a strand of inquiry focused on the influence of corporate governance on HRM; second, to the field of international HRM by analysing the cross‐national diffusion of HRM practices in WCs; and third, to ongoing debates on the challenges that WCs face when striving to balance the economic and social dimensions in globalisation.     

High‐involvement HRM,job satisfaction and productivity: A two wave longitudinal study of a Spanish retail company

The strategic human resource management literature lacks longitudinal studies, and the causal associations between human resource management (HRM) and organisational performance (OP) remain underexplored. We tested cross‐lagged relationships between high‐involvement work systems (HIWS), job satisfaction, and store productivity based on a large longitudinal dataset from the retail sector comprising two waves of data. The first wave (2011) included 6,016 employee responses from 104 stores, and the second wave (2015) included 5,842 employee responses from 94 stores. The quantitative study suggested counterintuitive negative associations. A subsequent qualitative study indicated that the association may have been conditioned by the recessionary action taken by the company in response to financial difficulties. The longitudinal research design, the compilation of data during difficult economic situations, and in a relatively unexplored sector such as the retail industry help to shed some light on the universalism of the HRM‐OP relationship and its boundary conditions.     

HRM and front line managers: the influence of role stress

With front line managers (FLMs) being critical in the delivery of human resource management (HRM) we would benefit from a better understanding of how and why these managers execute their human resources (HR) responsibilities in the way that they do. Without such knowledge we cannot fully identify the factors that contribute to the known gap between intended and implemented HRM and mediate the relationship between HRM and organizational performance. Yet FLMs have been largely overlooked in many studies of line management-HRM with very few employing a role-theoretic framework. To address this, interviews were conducted with FLMs in the retail industry to examine the relationship between their work role stressors and their implementation of HRM. FLMs were found to experience role overload, role conflict and role ambiguity, and in accordance with process role theory, engaged in role-making as a response. This resulted in FLMs deviating from intended HRM whereby role overload and conflict often brought about a renegotiation of the more intangible or costly HR policies, whereas role ambiguity undermined their ability to consistently and confidently implement HRM. The paper concludes by arguing that FLMs and their experiences of role stress are critical to our understanding of the gap between intended and implemented HRM.     

Sense‐giving in health care: the relationship between the HR roles of line managers and employee commitment

In this article, we examine line manager prioritisation of HR roles and the consequences for employee commitment in a health‐care setting. Our analysis is based on a quantitative, multi‐actor study (509 employees and 67 line managers) in four Dutch hospitals. Using sense‐giving as a theoretical lens, we demonstrate that, in addition to the effects of high commitment HRM, prioritising the Employee Champion role alone and the Employee Champion and Strategic Partner roles in combination is associated with higher employee commitment. We argue that through performing roles that are evocative of deep‐seated values, such as excellent patient care and concern for others, line managers can have a positive effect on staff attitudes. In a sector often beleaguered by staff turnover, exhaustion and burnout, we offer an important, empirically based framework that has the potential to improve employee commitment and, from there, enhance performance.     

Strategy, human resource management and performance: Sharpening line of sight

This paper builds on previous theory and research on strategy and human resource management to identify important linkages between the firm's strategy, its human resources, and performance outcomes. First, we review the relevant literature focusing in particular on the role of human resources in creating competitive advantage. We then present a multi-level model illustrating how human resource management practices can effectively align organizational, group and individual factors with the organization's strategy. We redefine line of sight as the alignment of organizational capabilities and culture, group competencies and norms, and individual KSAs, motivation and opportunity with one another and with the organization's strategy. Further, we propose that such alignment contributes to the creation of human capital and social capital, both of which are necessary to achieve and sustain superior performance. We conclude the paper with some implications for future research and practice.     

Mind the gap: the role of HRM in creating,capturing and leveraging rare knowledge in hostile environments

Abstract

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) have increasingly entered markets in less developed regions of the world afflicted with weak institutions and political conflict. Some are characterised by ‘extreme’ cases of institutional voids and terrorism, creating a hostile environment for the organisation and its people. This in-depth qualitative study of a service company, a European telecommunications joint venture in Afghanistan, seeks to shed light and build theory on the human resource management (HRM) dimension of managerial learning and knowledge acquisition in hostile environments, as part of the MNE’s organisational learning process. Specifically, we investigate how knowledge gaps can be addressed through supportive HR practices, and how knowledge classified as ‘rare’ can be captured and leveraged through HR interventions such as debriefing. We stipulate that HR practices and interventions adapted to hostile environments, together with expatriate willingness to learn and share new knowledge, play a critical role in the creation, capturing and leveraging of rare knowledge for subsequent use by the MNE in other hostile locations. The study has implications for international HRM and organisational resilience, under the proposition that competitive advantage can be gained through exploitation of rare knowledge acquired in hostile environments.     

High‐commitment HR practices,employee effort,and firm performance: Investigating the effects of HR practices across employee groups within professional services firms

In this study, the authors examine the relationship between high‐commitment HR practices and firm performance in professional services firms through the mediator of employee effort. In addition, they contribute to the debate in the field of strategic HRM on whether high‐commitment HR practices should be used across all employee groups within a firm. Their study's results show that high‐commitment HR practices positively relate to firm performance through employee effort for two employee groups within professional services firms. Further, they found that the relationship between effort and performance is contingent on the value of the employee group to firm competitive advantage, suggesting that companies may only want to expend the effort and resources on building a high‐commitment HR system for employee groups that are clearly tied to creating firm competitive advantage. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Contributions of HRM throughout the stages of environmental management: methodological triangulation applied to companies in Brazil

The purpose of this research is to analyze the contribution of human resources management throughout the evolutionary stages of environmental management in Brazilian companies. A theoretical framework concerning environmental management and its evolution and the ‘greening’ of the functional and competitive dimensions of human resource management were developed. A methodological triangulation was developed in two complimentary phases. In the first phase, data were collected from 94 Brazilian companies with ISO 14001 certification. The data collected were analyzed and processed using statistical techniques. The conclusions of the first phase supported the second phase of this empirical research. The second phase consisted of a study of multiple cases in four Brazilian companies. The results show evidence of the first known empirical study of contributions of human resource dimensions throughout the stages of environmental management in Brazilian manufacturing companies.     

Differences Between Clients’ and Vendors’ Perceptions of IT Outsourcing Risks: Project Partnering as the Mitigation Approach

Information technology (IT) outsourcing has been a business practice for more than two decades. Researchers have suggested successful risk management as a key factor in successful IT outsourcing projects implementation. The documented investigations, however, have mainly addressed risk management only from a single perspective of either clients or IT vendors. Considering only one perspective allows for an omission of possible risks considered critical by the other party, as suggested by agency theory. This study explored the potential perception inconsistency regarding the risks between the client and the vendor for IT outsourcing projects by using a quasi‐Delphi approach. The analysis results indicated some inconsistencies in the risks perceived by the two parties: (1) the clients regarded (a) lack of vendor commitment to the project and (b) poor vendor selection criteria and process as top critical risks but the vendors didn't; and (2) on the other hand, the vendors perceived (a) unclear requirements and (b) lack of experience and expertise with project activities as significant risks but the clients didn't. Insights into how the client and the vendor perceive risks may help both parties determine how to partner and manage project risks collaboratively to succeed in outsourcing.     

Exploring the Complementarities Within High‐Performance Work Systems: A Set‐Theoretic Analysis of UK Firms

High‐performance work systems (HPWS) are important conceptual instruments in the human resource management literature. Yet our current understanding of the complementarities within HPWS remains limited for two reasons: First, the dominant theoretical perspectives on HPWS provide a landscape of theoretical possibilities rather than an understanding of different possibilities through which HPWS generate positive effects on performance; and second, the literature on HPWS merely proposes several seemingly equally important HR practices. This article explores the internal nature of HPWS by integrating a configurational perspective of core, peripheral, and nonessential HR practices with a typology of complementarities. Analyzing 530 UK‐based firms using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), I identify four frequently implemented HPWS consistently associated with high labor productivity. The complementarities within all HPWS combine pairs of core HR practices with sets of peripheral HR practices. Moreover, the complementarities within three of the four HPWS rely on firms’ avoidance of implementing certain HR practices. The results suggest that the synergies of HPWS arise from efficient complementarities and virtuous overlaps, and reveal the significance of achieving high performance by not implementing HR practices. This article thus advances a new perspective on HPWSs, highlighting the challenges involved in successfully designing HPWS. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The role of HRM and social capital configuration for knowledge sharing in post-M&A integration: a framework for future empirical investigation

The literature on human resource management (HRM) indicates that HRM plays an important role in merger and acquisition (M&A) integration success, but pays little attention to the mechanisms for knowledge sharing in post-M&A integration. Limited work has been carried out to provide understanding on how social capital and HRM practices influence intra-organizational knowledge sharing in M&A integration. This paper primarily focuses on the phenomenon of social capital and HRM practices – one of the primary means by which knowledge sharing can occur within firms. The main aim of this paper is to provide an alternative framework that introduces the literature on HRM and social capital to discuss how HRM practices and the various dimensions of social capital may enhance knowledge sharing in post-M&A integration. Drawing on the literature on social capital and HRM, we offer an alternative view on the issue of knowledge sharing in M&A integration by explaining how specific HRM practices that have an impact on employees’ knowledge, skills and abilities for participating in knowledge sharing activities may depend on relational, cognitive and structural social capital. We isolate a number of HRM practices and social capital variables that may enhance knowledge sharing in post-M&A integration, and develop a research model and propositions for future empirical investigation.