The relationship between trust,HRM practices and firm performance

Numerous researchers have begun to examine organizational trust and its influence on the workforce. However, little empirical research has focused on the conditions that engender organizational trust – those that make managers more willing to accept the vulnerability inherent in certain managerial actions that are part of human resource management. This study evaluates the trust mechanism and the way HRM practices mediate its impact on improving organizational performance. One hundred and four HR managers from the leading companies in the Israeli industrial, service and trade sectors, based on sales and operating revenue, completed questionnaires. Overall, we found that HR managers are more likely to offer training and shape the internal promotion system when trust is high. In addition, we found that firms exhibited higher organizational performance when trust is high. The paper also presents some of the model's implications.     

A meta‐analytic investigation of the relationship between HRM bundles and firm performance

Human resource management bundles consisting of multiple complementary practices are typically considered superior to individual best practices in influencing firm performance. This study investigates the relationship between three such bundles (empowerment, motivation, and skill‐enhancing) and business outcomes (retention, operating performance, financial performance, and overall performance ratings). A meta‐analysis of 239 effect sizes derived from 65 studies reveals that HRM bundles have significantly larger magnitudes of effects than their constituent individual practices, are positively related to business outcomes, and display effect sizes that are comparable to or larger than those of high‐performance work systems. These findings reaffirm the case for firm‐level investments in synergistic HRM combinations and highlight the importance of investing in complementary practices. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

HRM systems between control and commitment: occurrence,characteristics and effects on HRM outcomes and firm performance

In the literature, it is often assumed that traditional, control‐oriented HRM systems are increasingly being replaced by commitment‐based HRM systems because the latter generally result in higher firm performance. However, an HRM system's effectiveness may depend on an organisation's external and internal context, and neither control nor commitment HR systems are without disadvantages. Thus, the empirical validity of this claim is not clear ex ante. This paper analyses the empirical diffusion and determinants of control and commitment HRM systems in Germany as well as their impact on HRM outcomes and firm performance. The findings indicate that between the two extreme forms of high‐control and high‐commitment HRM systems, there are two hybrid forms (long‐term‐oriented control system and regulated commitment system) that combine elements of both ‘pure’ systems. Commitment HRM systems outperform the high‐control HRM system concerning many HRM outcomes and firm performance measures. However, in direct comparison, the high and the regulated commitment HRM systems do not show substantially different outcomes, indicating that there is no one best way.     

HRM professionals and their perceptions of HRM and firm performance in the Philippines

This paper reports the findings of a study conducted in the Philippines that examines the extent of adoption of human capital-enhancing human resource (HR) and industrial relations (IR) practices. Differences between locally owned and other organizations in these practices and their relationship to firm performance were also investigated. Questionnaire responses were obtained from managers and union representatives from 128 organizations located in the Philippines. The results indicated that there was, on average, a fairly high level of adoption of practices consistent with a strategic approach to human resource management (HRM), with foreign-owned firms tending to show a slightly higher level of adoption of such practices. A scale representing the adoption of a more conciliatory and union-friendly IR approach was found to be a significant predictor of perceived firm performance. Surprisingly, the level of strategic integration between HRM and business planning and most human capital-enhancing HR practices were not significant predictors of perceived firm performance. Research and practical implications in relation to the role of HRM in enhancing firm performance are discussed.     

A bridge over troubled water: Replication,integration and extension of the relationship between HRM practices and organizational performance using moderating meta-analysis

Meta-analyses on the relationship between human resource management (HRM) practices, as an aggregate and individually, and organizational performance has yielded mixed results, further fueling the theoretical debate among HRM scholars. To resolve this tension, we conduct a moderating meta-analysis of 89 primary studies to replicate, integrate and extend prior work. Comparing the variance explained by differences in HRM practices versus those explained by contextual and empirical factors indicates that context and research design have a strong influence on the relationship between HRM practices and performance. Despite the voluminous research on this issue, the differences in the relationships of various HRM practices explains only 4% of the variance in performance, whereas, societal context, industry sector and firm size explain 33%, 12% and 8%, respectively. Empirical contingencies including four categories of performance outcomes and four types of participants explain 13% and 9% of the variance in the results, respectively. Thus, our findings provide strong support for the contingency theory. The theoretical and empirical implications for future research in the area are discussed.     

Understanding variation in the relationship between environmental management practices and firm performance across studies: A meta‐analytic review

The relationship between environmental management practices and firm performance has continuously received much attention in academic research. As existing literature on the link of the two constructs is characterized by heterogeneous research characteristics and mixed empirical evidence, one interesting question arises: Do research characteristics affect the magnitude and direction of the relationship between environmental management practices and firm performance? Amassing a database of 92 studies, 199 effect sizes, and 72,258 firms, we examine this question by conducting a meta‐analysis. The characteristics investigated in this study include item number of performance measures, year of data collection, industry type, economic development, and Hofstede's five cultural dimensions. A meta‐regression reveals that environmental management practices are positively associated with firm performance and that the degree of this association depends on these contexts. Specifically, the environmental management practices–performance relationship increases with year of data collection, is stronger with multiple item measures, and is higher for firms in developed countries and in cultures characterized by high power distance, low individualism, low uncertainty avoidance, and low long‐term orientation.     

The relationship between HRM avenues of political influence and perceived organizational performance

This article explores the relationship between the human resource management function's access to avenues of political influence and perceived organizational performance. We examine responses from 441 Australian senior HRM managers who participated in an online survey of a national HRM professional association. Drawing from political influence theory, we develop a model and related hypotheses to investigate the impact of opportunities for the HRM function to manage and control the shared meaning of HRM on perceived organizational performance. Although there was no evidence of a moderating effect of avenues of HRM political influence, CEO support and organizational support for HRM predicted perceived organizational performance. HRM representation on the board of directors appears to serve a symbolic function only. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in response to the identified importance of CEO and organizational support. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The relationship between new venture entry mode and firm performance

Grounded in the knowledge-based view of the firm, this paper compares the performance outcomes from different modes of new venture entry. Data from new hotels entering the United Kingdom between 2006–2010 was used to explore how entry mode (i.e., franchised or independent) impacts post-entry firm performance. Controlling for market demand and market segments, this study found that affiliation with a franchise made it easier for new owners to ramp up revenues in the first six months if the service had a high level of operational complexity (e.g., full-service hotels). After this initial benefit period no significant performance benefit accrued to branded full-service hotels. In contrast, hotels that offered less complex services obtained higher levels of performance when relying on independent status vs. brand affiliation between six and twenty-four months after entry. Implications of the results are offered in the context of determining the value of explicit versus tacit knowledge obtained from external sources versus going it alone as an entrepreneur.     

Paving the road toward eco-effectiveness: Exploring the link between greenhouse gas emissions and firm performance

Climate change has increasingly attracted business attention over the last decade, focusing particularly on the eco-efficiency debate. The goal of this paper is twofold. First, we contribute to the ongoing debate on the effects of environmental strategies on firm performance. We investigate this relationship by considering the relative greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) as a predictor of the eco-efficiency of firms' environmental strategies. GHG emissions are a direct indicator of the environmental performance and effectively measure the firm's efforts in mitigating the impacts related to its processes and products. Second, we investigate the drivers that lead to an increase in the firm's environmental impact under the conditions of increasing market performance by the firm, therefore paving the road to the concept of eco-effectiveness of corporate environmental strategies. To test our hypotheses, we use a sample of worldwide listed companies derived from the S&P 1200 list. A longitudinal analysis is run through generalized least squares regression models over the period 2004–2016. Results offer evidence of the direct relationship between the level of absolute emissions and market performance of the firm. Therefore, the findings have significant implications on the way we conceptualize corporate environmental sustainability and environmental strategies, shedding new light on the relation between environmental pressures and corporate growth.     

A contingency-configurational view of purchasing operations: The mediating role between supplier relationship and firm performance

The literature has considered purchasing and supply management activities from a strategic perspective, but the tactical role of purchasing operations has yet to be explored. Purchasing operations represent the internal modus operandi for transactions with suppliers, comprising three main activities – purchasing transactions, purchasing document management, and purchasing assessment – and supportive activities like purchasing knowledge management. Following the contingency theory, we hypothesize that these internal activities mediate between external supplier relationship management and firm performance (financial, customer and delivery performance). Complementarily, we adopt the configurational theory to hypothesize that this link between external and internal activities can be combined to increase firm performance. To test this contingency-configurational view of purchasing operations, we conducted a quantitative survey with 234 companies. The regression results of the contingency analysis show that purchasing operations activities have a full mediation role in most relationships between supplier relationship management and firm performance, while knowledge management positively moderates the association between purchasing assessment and customer performance. Moreover, the cluster analysis for the configurational analysis shows that supplier relationship management and purchasing operations follow maturity levels of joint implementation of internal and external activities. Our findings shed light on the purchasing operations by defining the activities representing this concept and showing their role in supply management. We also contribute to practice by proposing an integrative system that helps managers organize the firm's purchasing and supply management activities.     

Customer service-focused HRM systems and firm performance: evidence from the service industry in Taiwan

Abstract

This study adopts a resource-based view, attraction–selection–attrition theory and a focused approach to examine the link between service-focused human resource management (HRM) systems and firm performance. Internally, we examine employee competency as the ‘black box’ between service-focused HRM systems and firm performance. Externally, we examine the effect of the interplay of a service-focused strategy and service-focused HRM systems in predicting firm performance. We collect data from different sources (i.e. executives, human resource members, and line managers). Using a final sample included 2120 respondents from 175 firms in the service industry in Taiwan, the results show that customer service-focused employee competency transmitted 53% of the effect of customer service-focused HRM systems on firm performance. In addition, when a firm implements a less service-focused business strategy, service-focused HRM systems leads to significant improvement in firm performance. Implications for research are discussed.     

The effect of performance measurement systems on firm performance: A cross-sectional and a longitudinal study

Performance measurement (PM) systems have been popularized over the last 20 years and the operations management literature is replete with discussion of metrics and measurement systems. Yet, a comprehensive nomological network relating types of PM system uses to organizational capabilities and performance is lacking. Furthermore, there is scant empirical evidence attesting to the explanatory efficacy of PM systems as it relates to organizational performance. We view PM system uses through the lenses of the Resource Orchestration Theory (ROT) and explore specific relationships of underlying variables by relying on the Organizational Information Processing Theory (OIPT). Resting on the extant literature, we identify two types of uses which include Diagnostic Use (the review of critical performance variables in order to maintain, alter, or justify patterns in an organizational activity) and interactive use (a forward-looking activity exemplified by active and frequent involvement of top management envisioning new ways to orchestrate organizational resources for competitive advantage) and relate them along with their interaction (i.e., dynamic tension) to organizational capabilities. We further link capabilities to target performance, which subsequently impacts organizational performance (operationalized through both perceptual and objective financial performance measures). The nomological network is tested via a cross sectional study (386 Italian firms) while the efficacy of PM systems to explain organizational performance is examined by using longitudinal panel data approaches over a 10 year period. There is sufficient evidence to suggest that the use of PM systems leads to improved capabilities, which then impact performance. Contrary to the extant literature, however, we discovered that Diagnostic Use appears to be the most constructive explanatory variable for capabilities. On the other hand, in light of a longitudinal study, we also uncovered that Diagnostic Use experienced depreciating returns as far as objective financial measures are concerned. Also, when high levels of Diagnostic Use were coupled with low levels of Interactive Use, they produced the lowest levels of organizational capabilities. Conversely, high levels of both types of PM system use generated extraordinary high levels of capabilities. There is sufficient evidence to suggest that organizations cannot rely merely on Diagnostic Use of PM systems. We also learned that the effects of PM systems (measured via adaptation) fade unless high learning rates are applied. We offer detailed recommendations for future research which have theoretical as well as empirical implications.     

营运资本管理与企业绩效关系实证研究

本文研究了营运资本政策与经营绩效的关系,通过对中国零售业、制造业（以家电业为例）、建筑业中的上市公司分不同行业进行实证分析和检验,发现：流动资产、流动负债所占比例与企业绩效的关系分行业有所不同;企业的流动资产周转率与企业绩效的相关性大小,主要取决于总资产周转率封企业业绩的作用大小以及流动资产占总资产的比重;营运资本政策对总资产主营业务利润率的影响较显着;营运资本政策越激进企业绩效也越好。但也有一些例外行业。不同行业的企业所选营运资本政策存在显着的差异性。     

Corporate sustainability and financial performance: Collective reputation as moderator of the relationship between environmental performance and firm market value

Markets value superior corporate sustainability performance in part because investors use a firm's environmental performance as a signal of desirable but difficult-to-observe attributes, such as the firm's integrity capacity. Yet a signaling conflict can arise when a firm belongs to an organizational form that has a collective reputation for being unethical. In such circumstances, the firm's environmental performance may no longer credibly signal its underlying integrity capacity, leading markets to adjust downward the value they would otherwise place on the firm's environmental performance. Using longitudinal data on South Korean firms, we find that improvements in firm environmental performance lead to smaller increases in market values for firms belonging to a poorly reputed organizational form. However, firms can partially recover lost value by adopting firm features that reduce the signaling conflict, thereby restoring the notion of corporate sustainability performance driving firm market values.     

From the British worker question to the impact of HRM: understanding the relationship between employment relations and economic performance

The long‐running UK debate over the relationship between employment relations and economic performance is examined. Its four phases are identified as: British worker question, British economic miracle, ‘what do unions do?’ and Human Resource Management (HRM) and performance. Change in the terms of debate is observed. Important common threads are identified. Recommendations for future research are made.     

Pride,prejudice and performance: relations between HRM,diversity and performance

Today, managing diversity is considered one of the main challenges for HRM in modern organizations. In this article, a framework is developed to suggest that the design and implementation of HRM activities should be influenced by strategic choices on the management of diversity which are themselves shaped by environmental factors. The HRM activities lead to four types of outcomes (affective, cognitive, symbolic and communicative) that affect individual, group and organizational performance. This framework is used to explore the effects of workforce diversity in two cases and to provide answers to three central questions: how does diversity influence the interactions in and the performance of diverse groups, and what is the relation between management diversity and other HRM policies in the two companies? The findings indicate that an organization's strategy for managing diversity influences both the process of meaning formation regarding diversity and the perception of performance effects. The availability of an organizational vocabulary and of instruments to interpret interactions in terms of diversity make a crucial difference. The stories and incidents from the two cases show how diversity affects both the daily interactions and the functioning of diverse groups.     

The longitudinal effect of HRM effectiveness and dynamic innovation performance on organizational performance in Taiwan

This longitudinal study examined whether HRM effectiveness and dynamic innovation performance increase the level and growth rate of organizational performance. In 2002 we sent questionnaires to the top 1,000 manufacturing companies in Taiwan, and 181 valid questionnaires were returned. Otherwise, innovation and organizational performance between 2002 and 2005 were measured by research intensity and labor productivity. Latent growth curve modeling methodology was used to analyze the panel data over the 4-year period. Our results indicated that there was significant individual variability in terms of the intercept and slope factors for research intensity and labor productivity. HRM effectiveness was found to be a significant predictor of the intercept and slope factors of labor productivity. Initially, research intensity had a significant impact on the initial status of labor productivity, and an increasing rate of research intensity could significantly affect the growth rate of labor productivity.     

Shedding new light on the relationship between contextual ambidexterity and firm performance: An investigation of internal contingencies

This research investigates four key factors that influence the relationship between contextual ambidexterity and firm performance: two knowledge exchange elements (i.e., informational justice and task conflict) and two aspects of the internal competitive environment (i.e., resource competition and reward interdependence). These components define a firm's ability to convert its ambidextrous posture into enhanced performance. A sample of Canadian-based firms shows that the contextual ambidexterity–firm performance relationship is amplified at higher levels of informational justice and reward interdependence but suppressed at higher levels of task conflict and resource competition. The authors discuss the study's implications as well as future research directions.     

Exploring the relationship between Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and academic performance: A multilevel analysis for Spain

With the world becoming increasingly digitalized, determining the relationship between the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and educational outcomes takes on special relevance for guiding educational policy decisions in a reasoned way. The objective of this research is to explore the relationship between different types of ICT use at school and at home, students' attitudes towards ICT, and academic performance, as well as to see if these associations differ according to the level of performance of the students. For this purpose, we apply multilevel regression models and quantile regression models with data from the Programme for International Student assessment survey (PISA) 2015. The results show differences in the sign of the association according to the ICT variable analysed. The positive association between ICT use and academic performance is related with its use for entertainment at home, the students’ interest in ICT and an earlier starting age for using ICT. Results also show that higher availability of computers per student in the schools is associated with higher levels of academic performance. However, the use of ICT for schoolwork at home, the use of ICT by students in schools and the importance of ICT as a topic in social interaction for students, are factors negatively associated with academic performance. Finally, our quantile regressions by ability levels suggest that certain types of ICT use appear to be particularly associated with the academic performance of students in the lowest percentiles of performance. These results highlight the need to consider and include ICT as an input into the educational production function. Moreover, public policies should consider the interaction between ICT and the educational performance of underperforming students.     

Lost in translation: exploring the link between HRM and performance in healthcare

Using data collected in 2004 from 132 Victorian (Australia) public healthcare providers, comprising metropolitan and regional hospital networks, rural hospitals and community health centres, we investigated the perceptions of HRM from the experiences of chief executive officers, HR directors and other senior managers. We found some evidence that managers in healthcare organisations reported different perceptions of strategic HRM and a limited focus on collection and linking of HR performance data with organisational performance management processes. Using multiple moderator regression and multivariate analysis of variance, significant differences were found in perceptions of strategic HRM and HR priorities between chief executive officers, HR directors and other senior managers in the large organisations. This suggested that the strategic human management paradigm is ‘lost in translation’, particularly in large organisations, and consequently opportunities to understand and develop the link between people management practices and improved organisational outcomes may be missed. There is some support for the relationship between strategic HRM and improved organisational outcomes. Implications of these findings are drawn for managerial practice.