Does intellectual capital mediate the relationship between HRM and organizational performance? Perspective of a healthcare industry in Taiwan

Previous studies indicate that the linkage between human resource management (HRM) practices and organizational performance is tenuous. Some key intermediate elements evidently have not been accounted for. In an era where intangibles have become the source of wealth and progress, intellectual capital could be one of the missing links. Therefore, this study predicts that the three components of intellectual capital, namely, human capital, relational capital, and organizational capital, mediate the relationship between HRM practices and organizational performance. Data from 277 hospitals, with a response rate of 56%, confirm the mediation role of intellectual capital in explaining the effect of HRM practices on organizational performance.     

The role of organizational culture and HRM on training success: evidence from the Canarian restaurant industry

This research aims to analyse the influence of organizational culture and human resources management (HRM) practices on the success of training at restaurants. Effective training is especially important for modern restaurants that aim to gain competitive advantage by means of good quality service and performance of their employees. To achieve this objective, an empirical study was conducted on 137 restaurants in the Canary Islands. Results show that organizational culture does not influence the success of the training programmes unless HRM practices that support the training process are implemented. Specifically, the study reveals the full mediating role of HRM practices between a continuous learning culture and effective training.     

Caring human resources management and employee engagement

Research on employee engagement has demonstrated that human resource management (HRM) practices and systems are positively related to employee engagement. However, it is not clear what HRM practices or system of practices is most important for employee engagement or the theoretical mechanisms that intervene and explain the link between HRM and employee engagement. In this paper, I provide answers to these two important questions by developing a model of caring HRM and employee engagement based on the engagement, organizational climate, and strategic HRM literatures. The model indicates that a system of caring HRM practices (job design, training and development, flexible work arrangements, work-life balance, participation in decision making, health and safety, career development, and health and wellness programs) will result in an organizational climate of care and concern for employees that employees will respond to by caring for the organization which they will enact with higher levels of engagement. This model provides many avenues for future research and practice on HRM and employee engagement and introduces the notion of a caring HRM system and an organizational climate of care and concern for employees to the literature on employee engagement.     

Engaging workers in resource-poor environments: the case of social enterprise in Vietnam

Abstract

How do social enterprises acquire and retain employees in resource-poor environments? This paper presents findings from a study examining human resource management (HRM) practices in transitional economy social enterprises, where research on HRM remains underexplored. Drawing on social exchange theory and employing a multiple-case study design, we examine the ways in which four well-established social enterprises in Vietnam use high-involvement work practices (HIWPs) to acquire, retain and support the performance of workers. The findings suggest that HIWPs increase the social exchange value of social enterprise employment but raise questions about business sustainability. We identify evidence of a unique bundle of HIWPs, which comprise four dimensions of the original model: information, knowledge, power, and rewards, and one new dimension, namely family-building practices.     

The impact of human resource management practices on intention to leave of employees in the service industry in India: the mediating role of organizational commitment

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of a bundle of eight human resource management practices on intention to leave, and to examine the mediating effect of organizational commitment on the relationship between the HRM practices and intention to leave of employees of a service organization in India. Most of the prior HRM practices–employee turnover studies have been from the HR manager's point of view. This study took a different approach and studied this relationship from an employee's point of view. Internet survey questionnaires were used to collect the data from 183 employees working in a service company in India. Multiple linear regression and hierarchical linear regression analysis were conducted to test the hypotheses. The study found not only that the HRM practices lower employee intentions to leave, but also that this relationship is partially mediated by organizational commitment. The results of the study not only supported that organizations should focus on employee perceptions of the organizations' HRM practices but also indicated that human resources should go beyond establishing policies and procedures to providing an employee-friendly work environment (Biswas and Varma 2007).     

Exploring the power dimensions of the human resource function

While a large body of literature has investigated the content of human resource management (HRM) practices, this research explores the process through which the HRM function impacts on organisational performance. Specifically, the research explores the reasons for the success or failure of HRM initiatives that have been associated with organisational outcomes and classifies the reasons as dimensions of HRM power. Based on 26 interviews conducted in Australia with senior HRM executives, top management team (TMT) executives and two management consultants, we found that, in order to contribute to organisational performance, HRM professionals can effectively utilise three dimensions of power, namely power of resources, power of processes and power of meaning. The findings offer new insights to the relationship between dimensions of HRM power and organisational performance.     

The labour relations heritage and lean manufacturing at Fiat

The objective of the paper is interpreting, from an evolutionary perspective, recent developments of work organization and human resource management policies at Fiat Auto, one of the world's largest automobile manufacturers, which achieved a successful restructuring in the early 1990s. Building on a heritage of adversarial labour relations and ‘mass production’ organizational principles, Fiat developed an original and to some extent hybrid version of ‘lean’ human resource management practices (teamwork, flexible compensation, multi-skilling, etc.).

The paper analyses this process of organizational change from an evolutionary perspective based on the concept of dynamic capabilities. From this standpoint, IR. HRM and work organization practices are the result of a learning process, based on original development, imitation, analogical replication, combination and selection of organizational capabilities; organizational capabilities have a cumulative and path-dependent nature; workplace innovations are also rooted in organizational absorptive capacities, that is, the ability of firms to exploit new (and often extramural) organizational and HRM developments; the existence of complementarities among organizational competencies, assets and choices in term of HRM are likely to push toward the adoption of a set or system of (rather than single and insulated) innovations in work organization, HRM practices and industrial relations policies.

The data provided in the paper show that the process of innovation of workplace practices at Fiat Auto (summarized by the concept of the Fabbrica Integrata) is curiously non-linear. The newly designed HRM policies have, on the one hand, been resisted by the unions (who have not been involved in the design process) and by segments of the work-force; on the other hand, they have been hindered by existing organizational features and personnel practices which, in turn, were key success factors during the 1980s. This inertia is significantly lower at the new greenfield plant of Melfi. On the whole, the restructuring process was successful from the competitive and financial standpoint, and represents the basis on which management and the unions can develop a new co-operative model of industrial relations.     

Aligning strategic human resource management and person–environment fit

Strategic human resource management addresses the need to create vertical linkages of human resource management (HRM) attributes with corporate strategy as well as horizontal linkages that integrate practices among HRM functions. Most models commonly focus on either vertical or horizontal linkages. This paper utilizes three categories of person–environment fit to create both vertical and horizontal linkages. Based on a strategic contingency framework, it demonstrates how person–environment fit relates to organizational competencies that supports corporate strategy. Furthermore, it demonstrates how person–environment fit can be used to promote internal alignment of HRM practices. Implications of this approach to strategic human resource management are then discussed.     

The impact of socially responsible human resource management on employees' organizational citizenship behaviour: the mediating role of organizational identification

Based on insights from social exchange and social identity theories, this paper examines the influence of three dimensions of socially responsible human resource management (SR-HRM), namely legal compliance HRM, employee-oriented HRM and general CSR facilitation HRM, on employees' organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB). Structural equation modelling of dyadic data collected from Chinese employees and their direct supervisors in three phases revealed that whilst organizational identification fully mediated the relationship between employee-oriented HRM and employee OCB, general CSR facilitation HRM had a direct effect on employee OCB. In contrast, legal compliance HRM neither influenced employee OCB directly, nor indirectly through organizational identification. The findings highlight the important but complex role played by SR-HRM in eliciting positive employee work outcomes, and contribute to our knowledge of the mechanisms underlying this relationship.     

Beyond the line: exploring the HRM responsibilities of line managers,project managers and the HRM department in four project-oriented companies in the Netherlands,Austria, the UK and the USA

The topic of what human resource management (HRM) responsibilities are devolved from the HRM department to line managers has attracted much interest in recent years. We report findings from a study on the devolution of HRM practices in four project-oriented companies (POCs) and argue that although HRM practices are carried out beyond the HRM department, they are also carried out beyond the line. While the literature on devolving HRM responsibilities to line management is burgeoning, the HRM responsibilities of managers beyond the line organization are neglected. We make two contributions to the literature. Firstly, our study reveals that some HRM practices are the domain of the project manager rather than either the line manager or the HRM department. The complex interplay of the roles of the HRM department, line management and project management creates challenges and pitfalls where people are managed across the boundaries of the permanent and temporary organization. We identify a potentially powerful role for the HRM department in both monitoring and guiding the different players from the line and the project organizations, and in protecting the well-being of employees whose work traverses these organizational boundaries. Our second contribution is that we map the diversity of practices in different POCs for managing the interplay between the three main parties delivering HRM practices and offer project orientation as a contextual indicator that contributes to diversity in HRM practices.     

Human resource management and performance in a developing country: the case of Eritrea

This study investigates the relationship between human resource management (HRM) practices and organizational performance. Results based on a sample of 82 organizations from private and public sectors in Eritrea indicate that some of the practices have a significant impact on employee turnover, absenteeism, grievances and productivity. While compensation was the only independent variable found to be statistically significant in affecting grievances, employee selection had no effect across all performance measures. However, the study's results offer support for the assertion that investments in HRM practices results in better organizational performance.     

Content vs. Process in the HRM‐Performance Relationship: An Empirical Examination

This study investigates the impact of a human resource management (HRM) system, which integrates both content and process of human resource (HR) practices, on organizational performance, through collective employee reactions. The analysis is based on a sample of 1,250 Greek employees working in 133 public‐ and private‐sector organizations, which operate in the present context of severe financial and economic crises. The findings of the structural equation modeling suggest that content and process are two inseparable faces of an HRM system that help to reveal a comprehensive picture of the HRM–organizational performance relationship. Based on the findings that collective employee reactions mediate the HRM content (i.e., organizational performance relationship) and HRM process moderates the HRM content (i.e., employee reactions relationship), the study has several theoretical and practice implications. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Dynamizing human resources: An integrative review of SHRM and dynamic capabilities research

Human resource management (HRM) systems have been extensively analyzed in academic research yet limited attention has been paid to the role of HRM dynamic capabilities (DC) and their impact on resources and practices, employee well-being and firm performance. Our study bridges this gap by defining a new categorization of HRM DC based on their ultimate aims: building knowledge, advancing social integration and developing reconfiguration-enhancing mechanisms. In parallel, we offer an integrative framework to shed light on how strategic human resource management (SHRM) can accelerate HRM DC development. Through this conceptual process model and typology of capabilities, we deepen the discussion around the core components of HRM systems, HRM DC, and their effects on resources and practices, employee well-being and performance. In practical terms, HRM DC represent a promising driver of sustainable long-term organizational growth by enabling firms to boost their strategic agility and capacity to navigate in the presence of environmental dynamism.     

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.     

Promoting organizational learning and self‐renewal in Taiwanese companies: The role of HRM

This study identifies key characteristics of human resource management (HRM) practices that contribute to promoting positive learning attitudes and creating a self‐renewal organizational climate. We use a behavioral perspective to develop a framework to show the relationships among learning‐oriented HRM, positive learning attitudes, and a self‐renewal organizational climate. Structural equation analysis is applied to empirically test the relationships and the path model suggests that a learning‐oriented HRM plays an important role in either directly creating a self‐renewal organizational climate or indirectly facilitating positive learning attitudes that foster organizational self‐renewal. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Dynamic and customer-oriented workplaces: implications for HRM practice and research

Changes in competitive environments are resulting in changes to the nature of work. We present job structure changes and a heightened customer orientation as two primary examples of changes that necessitate adaptation of human resource management (HRM) practices. The level of success in light of these organizational changes will largely be determined by how effectively people are managed in the new organizational environments. HRM practices that adapt to the new organizational conditions can add tremendously to the business and be a key to long-term competitiveness. We examine the implications of these changes for HRM practice and research, with particular attention to psychological contracts, job analysis, selection, and performance appraisal. The thrust of the article is to identify and describe research directions that have the potential for contributing to the future relevance and success of HRM.     

Using theory on authentic leadership to build a strong human resource management system

Prior work has questioned whether human resource management (HRM) lives up to the organizational benefits it espouses. The intentions underlying human resource (HR) practices often differ from how they are implemented by line managers or how they are ultimately perceived by followers, thus undermining the strength of the HR system in influencing organizational outcomes and with them the overall reputation of HRM. We argue that line managers, specifically those who display authentic leadership behaviors, can strengthen an HR system (i.e., aligning intended, actual, and perceived HR policies and practices) by implementing HR practices in a way that they are perceived as distinct, consistent, and reflecting consensus. Authentic leadership theory departs from more traditional, top-down fit perspectives in strategic HRM to consider the dynamic way in which individuals within an organizational context co-create felt and perceived authenticity in interaction with others. In other words, by providing a more dynamic approach to creating alignment in HRM, authentic leadership helps HRM attain more authenticity and credibility in the organization.     

A dominant archetype of the HRM system in Russian industrial companies in post-recession times

Russian human resource management (HRM) practices remain durable even with the onslaught of economic change and exposure to global HRM practices and international competition. Based on survey results of 201 CEOs of domestic industrial companies located in central regions of Russia we identify the resilient archetype of Russian HRM system. Even companies that have achieved high levels of profitability or those that engage in innovations continue to practice retrograde HRM techniques left over from an earlier era. We are able to identify strategic misfits that are a direct result of the continuation of rigid HRM system that prevents the development of an organizational climate to support innovative or dynamic firms.     

Human Resource Management Practices and Trust in Public Organizations

Abstract

Trust has been acknowledged as a valuable managerial resource within organizations. Working as a lubricant of organizational functioning, trust reduces opportunistic behaviours while it increases voluntary compliance to organizational norms and rules as well as enhancing individual and organizational performance. Considering the importance of trust, it is worthwhile to explore what factors may help build trust within organizations. This research investigates whether perceptions of several human resource management (HRM) practices are associated with trust in government organizations. According to social exchange theory, HRM practices signal management's commitment to employees which in turn leads to greater trust in the organization. Using data from an employee survey conducted for the Georgia Department of Transportation in 2007, this research tests how employee perceptions of HRM practices are related to trust in three distinct levels of management in a large department of state government: trust in department leadership, trust in one's leadership team, and trust in one's supervisor. Binary logit analyses suggest that perceptions of HRM practices focusing on autonomy, compensation, communication, performance appraisal, and career development are associated with trust in public organizations. According to the result, those practices present variation in their leverage on trust in leadership at different levels.