National Industrialisation Strategies and Their Influence On Patterns of Hr Practices

This article uses a framework developed by Kuruvilla (1995a) that hypothesised a very close link between industrialisation strategies of Southeast Asian nations and industrial relations systems. That framework is used here to argue that the industrialisation strategy adopted by nations also influences the development of firm level IR/HR practices. Using case studies of firms in the ‘import substitution industrialisation’(ISI) and ‘export oriented industrialisation’(EOI) sectors in Malaysia and the Philippines, the author finds that in both countries, the ISI sector is characterised by firm level IR/HR practices that are passive, pluralistic and paternalistic in nature, while the EOI sectors in both economies are characterised by IR/HR practices that can be termed aggressive, flexible, and dynamic in nature. In addition, given that Malaysia and the Philippines are currently at different stages of export oriented industrialisation, the cases demonstrate that workplace practices in the EOI sector in Malaysia are more dynamic and advanced than those of the Philippines. Thus, the article shows that the industrialisation strategies of nations create distinct patterns of industrial relations and human resource practices within the economy, controlling for other factors such as business strategies and the technological processes of firms that also cause such variation in IR/HR patterns.     

Finders,keepers? Attracting,motivating and retaining knowledge workers

Attracting, motivating and retaining knowledge workers have become important in a knowledge‐based and tight labour market, where changing knowledge management practices and global convergence of technology has redefined the nature of work. While individualisation of employment practices and team‐based work may provide personal and organisational flexibilities, aligning HR and organisational strategies for competitive advantage has become more prominent. This exploratory study identifies the most and least effective HR strategies used by knowledge intensive firms (KIFs) in Singapore for attracting, motivating and retaining these workers. The most popular strategies were not always the most effective, and there appear to be distinctive ‘bundles’ of HR practices for managing knowledge workers. These vary according to whether ownership is foreign or local. A schema, based on statistically significant findings, for improving the effectiveness of these practices in managing knowledge workers is proposed. Cross‐cultural research is necessary to establish the extent of diffusion of these practices.     

Configurations of human resource management practices: a model and test of internal fit

This study examined human resource management (HRM) configurations. A typology consisting of four bundles of aligned HRM practices (labelled the bureaucratic, market, professional and flexibility bundle) linked to organizational structures was developed. Support for the proposed ideal-typical bundles was found in an assessment by a panel of experts. Next, the distance between the ideal types and actual bundles of HR practices was assessed for 175 organizations. For each, senior HR managers' ratings of HRM practices and CEO ratings of outcomes were obtained. Support was found for two of the four proposed types and about one-third of the firms showed some fit with one of these two types. The ‘fit in general hypothesis’ (i.e. the closer an observed HR bundle resembles any of the ideal types, the higher organizational performance) did not receive support. However, fit with a specific type of bundle (the professional bundle) did relate positively to outcomes. Organizations with observed HRM practices fitting the professional bundle score significantly higher on measures of firm performance, employees' going beyond contract, and firm innovativeness.     

HR flexibility and firm performance: analysis of a multi-level causal model

Human resource flexibility as a construct, how it develops, and its effect on firm performance have not received adequate attention in strategic HRM literature in spite of their obvious importance in today's dynamic competitive environment. Based on a study of 98 manufacturing and 103 service firms in India, this paper addresses these issues by developing and testing a multi-level model that attempts to explore the ‘black box’ of the interlinkages between the various components of HR flexibility and firm-level human, operational, and financial outcomes. The results suggest that a certain set of ambidextrous HR practices constitute a distinct dimension of HR flexibility, beyond the dimensions of flexibilities of skill, behaviour and HR practices as already identified in the existing literature. Evidences from both manufacturing and service sectors support the notion of HR value chain that suggests that HR system has a direct impact on firm-level HR outcomes which are most proximal, and its effects on increasingly more distal operational and financial outcomes are mediated by HR outcomes that it produces. Another important finding is that HR practices as a system have both direct and indirect (mediated by behavioural flexibility) effects on firm-level HR outcomes. Existence of significant direct effects highlights the important role that HR practices play as a structural mechanism in achieving superior firm performance.     

Organisational flexibility and HRM in the hotel industry: evidence from Australia

The hotel industry is renowned for its poor pay and employment conditions and a low take‐up of HR practices. It is generally believed that the industry has relied on a lowcost, numerically flexible and disposable workforce. Recently, however, there has been debate concerning the extent to which managers in the hotel industry are embracing high commitment HRM and functionally flexible work practices. This study seeks to shed light on this question by analysing large‐scale survey and interview data on the hotel industry in Australia. While hotel workplaces in general continue to be associated with high levels of numerical and temporal flexibility and greater informality of HR policies, it was apparent that larger luxury hotels were adopting more systematic employee management techniques and strengthening their internal labour markets through functional flexibility initiatives. Such firms were also pursuing numerical and temporal flexibility strategies, although in rather different ways.     

Managing knowledge through human resource practices: empirical examination on the Spanish automotive industry

This paper considers the relationship between human resource management (HRM) and knowledge management (KM). Specifically, it examines how the human resource (HR) practices that are expected to impact on employees’ abilities, motivation, and opportunity to engage in KM, do so by enabling knowledge sharing, knowledge maintaining, and knowledge creation within organizations. HRM expected to impact employees’ abilities include training and development practices. HRM expected to impact on employees’ motivation include rewards and appraisal practices. HRM expected to impact on employees’ opportunities including providing the support of trusting collaborative relationships. Therefore, HR practices impacting employees’ abilities, motivation, and opportunities are expected to be positively related to knowledge sharing and maintaining within organizations. HR practices impacting employees’ abilities, motivation, and opportunity are expected to be positively related to knowledge creation through their effect on knowledge sharing within organizations. Our research methodology uses a questionnaire survey approach to collect data from firms belonging to the Spanish automotive industry. Results from a final sample of 64 Spanish automotive firms show that HR practices aimed at motivating and giving employees the opportunity to behave as expected significantly affect knowledge sharing and maintaining. Further, knowledge sharing and maintaining is shown to mediate the relationship between HR practices and knowledge creation. The paper ends with a conclusion, limitations and implications for future research.     

Working time flexibility across Europe: a typology using firm‐level data

Using the European Establishment Survey of Working Times, we derive a typology of firms based on the mix of flexible working time practices they employ. Six flexibility profiles are distinguished, each representing a considerable proportion of establishments. The typology not only differentiates between more and less flexible firms, but also between the focus of the practices firms adopt, stressing that flexibility is not a one‐dimensional concept. We also investigate what firm characteristics are good predictors of the adoption of a certain flexibility profile and how the profiles are related to performance and perceived HRM bottlenecks.     

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.     

Environmental dynamism,human resource flexibility,and firm performance: analysis of a multi-level causal model

While strategic HRM scholars have conceptualized HR flexibility as an important source of sustainable superior firm performance in dynamic environments, the process through which HR flexibility creates value for the firm has not been empirically investigated. Based on a study of 98 manufacturing and 103 service firms from a wide array of industries in India, this paper attempts to illuminate the black box of causal linkages between environmental dynamism, flexibility of human assets, and firm level human-, operational-, and financial-outcomes by developing and testing a multi-level causal model. Evidence indicates that HR flexibility mediates the influence of environmental dynamism on firm performance and that irrespective of the nature of the industry and the degree of environmental turbulence, superior firm performance ensues when HR flexibility as actually possessed by the firm matches the environmental demands for such flexibility as perceived by the firm managers. The results also support the notion of HR value chain that postulates that HR system has direct impact on firm-level HR outcomes which are most proximal, and its effects on increasingly more distal operational- and financial-outcomes are mediated by HR outcomes. The findings of the study suggest that HR practices as a system have both direct and indirect (mediated by behavioral flexibility) effects on firm-level HR outcomes. Existence of significant direct effects signifies that HR practices play an important role as a structural mechanism in achieving superior firm performance.     

Promoting Employee Flexibility Through HR Practices

Current competitive environments have created a growing interest in employee flexibility in firms. Recently researchers have differentiated between two facets of employee flexibility: behavior flexibility and skill flexibility. This study proposes a model of relationships between these two facets of employee flexibility and the extent to which HR practices influence them. This model is tested by estimating structural equation models on a sample of 226 commercial departments in Spanish companies. The results of the study show that the two facets of employee flexibility are interrelated, in that skill flexibility influences behavior flexibility. Furthermore, findings confirm the influence of job enrichment on employee flexibility and the significant effect of the internal fit among HR practices on employee flexibility. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Bridging knowledge in ambidextrous HRM systems: empirical evidence from hidden champions

Managing the tension between efficiency and flexibility is one of the core challenges that organizations must tackle in order to survive in the global competitive environment. Ambidexterity has been identified in the literature as a key way of managing this tension. Despite the enormous popularity of the concept of ambidexterity, the questions of how HR practices influence exploration and exploitation and support organizational ambidexterity remain underexplored. Drawing on our empirical case studies of three mid-sized ‘hidden champions’ in different high-tech manufacturing industries, we show how an ambidextrous human resource management (HRM) system works. We demonstrate that ambidextrous HRM systems can be regarded as a special type of high-performance work system (HPWS) that facilitates the continuous integration of exploration and exploitation in the pursuit of flexibility and efficiency. In particular, we elucidate how firms apply integrative employment practices and integrative work practices to facilitate collaboration and to create and strengthen a common frame of reference that fosters knowledge integration. Finally, setting up an ambidextrous HRM system supports the complementary interplay between a common frame of reference and a firm's ability to integrate knowledge in order to manage the conflicting demands of exploration and exploitation.     

Performance and reward practices in foreign multinationals in the UK

This article examines variability in pay and performance management systems (PPMS) across foreign multinational companies (MNCs) in the UK, using a representative survey. It examines factors shaping PPMS for two groups, managers and the largest occupational group (LOG). It finds that US MNCs tend to have more PPMS practices in combination than do non‐US firms, but that for individual items nationality has relatively low influence, particularly for LOG. Other key factors in PPMS vary by employee group: for managers, international HR structural mechanisms for networking, organisational learning and the transmission of a global HR philosophy are important. For LOG, collective bargaining coverage is crucial. The article discusses the implications of the findings for ‘contingency’ approaches to HR ‘architecture’.     

HRM in dynamic environments: Exploitative,exploratory, and ambidextrous HR architectures

Abstract

The current economic crisis has brought to the fore the need for firms to deal with ambiguity and complexity. Hence, firms need a specific balance between exploration and exploitation in order to keep pace with varying and changing environmental conditions. Hitherto, there is limited research that has examined the nexus of HR architectures, ambidexterity, and environmental dynamics. In this conceptual paper we ask: How do HR architectures serve as a means of balancing exploitative and exploratory learning in different dynamic environments? We explain how exploratory, exploitative, and ambidextrous HR architectures with their embedded HRM systems on the business unit level enable organizations to meet different environmental requirements. Thus, firms in which heterogeneous demands for flexibility and for innovation co-exist need to develop internally differentiated HR architectures. In particular, we elucidate how critical the organization’s ability is to connect different HRM systems to create an ambidextrous HR architecture to find an appropriate balance between exploration and exploitation.     

Foreign firms in China: modelling HRM in a toy manufacturing corporation

This article reports the study of a large, wholly foreign‐owned toy factory in China. It explores whether foreign direct investment (FDI) manufacturing firms in China inevitably operate in a Taylorist fashion, in contrast to the much praised HR model of blue chip multinational corporations (MNCs) in the country, or whether there is a ‘third way’ in which good HR practices may be adopted on the ground. The article concludes that a more nuanced approach is needed in our study of FDI companies in order to gain a fuller understanding of the institutional and cultural factors at play and of the consequent diversity in the HR and employment practices of FDI firms, instead of being trapped in a simplistic and polarising typological framework of analysis. This study is necessary in light of the growing diversity in the patterns of FDI companies operating in China in terms of their ownership structure, product market, management style and HR strategy, both for managers and for workers.     

How the impact of HR practices on employee well‐being and performance changes with age

With changing retirement ages and an aging workforce, interest is growing on the potential contribution of relevant bundles of HR practices in eliciting well‐being and performance among aging workers. Drawing on theories on lifespan development and self‐regulation, we distinguished two bundles of HR practices: development HR practices that help individual workers reach higher levels of functioning (e.g. training), and maintenance HR practices that help individual workers maintain their current levels of functioning in the face of new challenges (e.g. performance appraisal). Further, based on lifespan theories, we expected and found that the association between development HR practices and well‐being (i.e. job satisfaction, organisational commitment and organisational fairness) weakens, and that the associations between maintenance HR practices and well‐being, and between development HR practices and employee performance, strengthen with age. In addition, a third bundle of ‘job enrichment’ HR practices emerged that elicited higher job performance among aging workers.     

High‐involvement work practices and analysts' forecasts of corporate earnings

Research has shown that high‐involvement work practices are positively related to corporate financial performance. However, it is unknown if investors are able to use information on high‐involvement practices to predict the performance of specific companies. In this study, we examine earnings forecasts for a sample of Fortune 1000 firms and find professional stock analysts consistently underestimated the earnings of firms that made greater use of high‐involvement practices during the 1990s. Based on data collected from newspaper articles and annual reports, we argue that these lower estimates resulted from a lack of information on innovative HR practices. Recommendations to managers for disseminating information on and leveraging highinvolvement HR practices are discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Why should I share my knowledge? A multiple foci of commitment perspective

Knowledge‐intensive firms need to leverage their individual knowledge assets via knowledge sharing to create collective knowledge resources. This process is, however, in the control of the knowledge worker. We explore this personal and emotive quality of knowledge sharing by asking: ‘How does employee commitment impact on knowledge sharing?’ We study professional service firms operating in cross‐boundary environments and examine the impact of commitment to the organisation, profession, team and client on knowledge sharing. The article contributes directly to our understanding of the interrelationship between (a) the types and foci of commitment and (b) bidirectional knowledge sharing.     

Managing multidimensional knowledge assets: HR configurations in professional service firms

The purpose of this article is to illustrate empirically how HR practices are configured to manage multidimensional knowledge assets. It contributes directly to the configurational approaches to HRM by identifying HRM systems that are used to manage various types of knowledge assets. First, we develop a framework from theory to categorise knowledge assets into human (industry and firm specific), social (entrepreneurial and co‐operative) and organisational capital (mechanistic and organic). Within this framework, we draw on data gathered in the 12 professional services firms to understand how HR practices enable the management of each knowledge asset. We identify two configurations of HR practices (organisationally and professionally focused). These configurations do not exist in isolation but are used simultaneously by organisations via either a targeted (different practices in different parts of the organisation) or a temporally segregated way (different practices for the same group of employees over time).     

Work‐life balance and the software worker

This article examines the impact of employer flexibility to work‐life issues and negative spillover from work to non‐work life on the attitudes of software developers. Software workers present an interesting case for work‐life balance issues – Ackroyd et al (2000) designate them the key occupation to examine in future studies of ‘knowledge workers’, and Barrett (2001) states that they are the ‘vanguard’ of new working practices, with the separation of work and life being substantially more ‘blurred’ than for more traditional occupations. Despite this general perception of the work‐life boundary, our results show that intrusion of work into private life for this group of workers still has a substantial impact on work‐related attitudes. Work‐life boundary variables affect trust in the organisation which plays a mediational role in these variables' relationship to job satisfaction and organisational commitment. Our results suggest that even within this industry, where employees are relatively individualistic in orientation, highly marketable and unlikely to show attachment to a single organisation, mutual gains for employee and employer can be attained by an accommodating approach to non‐work commitments which may lead to greater organisational attachment.     

HR strategy and competitive advantage in the service sector

While taking its cue from studies of high‐performance work systems in manufacturing, this article examines theory and research on the potential for HR advantage in the service sector, building directly on recent studies of market segmentation and HR strategy in the sector. The article uses these studies, along with strategic management theory, to put forward a new typology of market characteristics, competitive dynamics and HR strategy in services. Three broad types of competition, ranging from mass market to knowledge‐intensive services, are identified. This framework helps the article to explore the issue of whether competitive differentiation through human resources is possible only in high‐skill areas such as professional services. It argues that opportunities for HR advantage are broader; they exist where quality and/or knowledge are important in competitive strategy. However, seeing the opportunity is not the same as achieving the result. Service firms that identify and pursue these opportunities face the problems of building and maintaining barriers to imitation, and of managing the ‘politics of appropriation’.