Linking employer branding orientation and firm performance: Testing a dual mediation route of recruitment efficiency and positive affective climate

Faced with competitive labor markets, firms increasingly use employer branding to build a qualified workforce and engage their employees. However, our understanding of the impact of employer branding orientation on firm performance and the theoretical firm-level mechanisms underlying this potential impact is very limited. To address this gap, we integrate brand marketing theory with human resource management (HRM) research to develop a model explicating how employer branding orientation is linked to firm performance through a dual route by enhancing both recruitment efficiency (i.e., external route: applicants) and positive affective climate (i.e., internal route: incumbent employees). The results of a multisource study (i.e., top management, human resource managers, employees) with 93 firms show employer branding orientation is positively related to firm performance through positive affective climate but not recruitment efficiency. Using a brand equity approach to HRM, our results advance the literature by demonstrating the generalizability of employer branding effects independent of concrete brand attributes and explaining the firm-level mediating mechanisms linking it to firm performance.     

Multiple Stakeholder Orientation in UK Companies and the Implications for Company Performance

Orientation to the diverse interests of stakeholder groups is central to strategic planning, and failure to address the interests of multiple stakeholder groups may be detrimental to company performance. However, some companies may be unable to address all these interests, owing to a scarcity of resources, and the impact of multiple stakeholder orientation may be influenced by the environment. Despite calls by leading writers in the literature, there is no empirical evidence about the potential association of orientation to multiple stakeholders with company performance. The results of a study of UK companies designed to elucidate this association are reported in this paper. Although the results give some support to the proposition that orientation to multiple stakeholders is positively associated with performance, such associations are contingent on the external environment, as they are moderated by competitive hostility, after controlling for the intervening effects of market growth.     

Conditional altruism: Effects of HRM practices on the willingness of host‐country nationals to help expatriates

The assistance of host‐country nationals (HCNs) both within the workplace and in the external environment plays a significant role in expatriate adjustment and work performance on international assignments. Extant research exploring antecedents of HCNs' attitudes and behaviors toward expatriates focuses on personal and intrapersonal factors but overlooks organizational contextual effects. In this study, we propose and test a model that HCNs' willingness to help expatriates is influenced by HRM practices in international subsidiaries of multinational enterprises (MNEs). Results of analyzing data collected from Chinese subsidiaries of South Korean MNEs showed that high‐commitment HRM practices directly and indirectly influence HCNs' willingness to help expatriates through the mediation of perceived organizational support (POS). Socially responsible HRM indirectly influences the criterion variable through the mediation of organizational identification. Moreover, POS and organizational identification sequentially mediate the effect of high‐commitment HRM on HCNs' willingness to help expatriates. These findings shed some light on organizational antecedents that go beyond personal and intrapersonal factors of HCN attitudes and behavior toward expatriates.     

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.     

Competition

This article examines the adoption of strategic Human Resource Management (HRM) by for-profit and non-profit knowledge-intensive health services (HS) organizations in the Australian context. Survey data collected from senior executives are used to test the relationships between a strategic HRM model and firm performance. Path analysis found that for HS firms, irrespective of whether for-profit or non-profit, adopting strategic HRM could increase organizational performance. Strategic HRM could be achieved through the cultivation of an external orientation to customers' demands and a commitment to employees. Building an external orientation with internal structural dimensions such as commitment to employees, allows HS organizations to develop a strategic HRM approach with human capital-enhancing HRM practices. Public and non-profit organizations in the HS industry facing or undergoing health sector reform need to be aware of both of these orientations in order to adopt strategic HRM and improve their performance.     

Strategic HRM in China: Configurations and competitive advantage

The strategic HR literature suggests that a firm will perform better through internal appropriate fit among HRM practices (the configuration fit) and through external appropriate fit between a firm's HRM practices and business strategy. The present study adopts a configuration approach to identify unique patterns of HR practices and business strategy that are posited to be maximally effective. The proposed relationships were empirically tested by surveying with a sample of 241 business firms in Guangzhou, South China, to find out the extent that four HR configurations could be successfully adopted in the Chinese context. The results revealed that HR configurations are significantly related to effect in predicting overall outcome performance and turnover, but not significantly related to effect on sales growth and profit growth rates. Research findings showed not only competitive strategies are significantly related to effect on HR configurations. The results also showed significant interaction effects between HR configurations and business strategy in their effect on profit and sales growth. These results further extended support for a contingency perspective in strategic HRM to the Chinese context, with significant practical implications for managing HRM in China. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A conceptual framework for leveraging team composition decisions to build human capital

Twenty-first century organizations often rely on teams to enact their strategy and to enhance their flexibility in interacting with their external environment over time. Team composition, or the configuration of team member attributes, can influence team effectiveness and is an important consideration in the management of teams. To date, however, there is limited guidance on how seemingly smaller team composition decisions can contribute to organizational effectiveness and competitive advantage. We draw on strategic human resource management (HRM), HRM, and industrial and organizational psychology literatures to develop a conceptual framework for strategic team composition decisions. We describe how organizations use teams to enact their strategy (i.e., fit), and use adaptive teams and networks of teams to achieve fit in a dynamic environment (i.e., flexibility). Using the concepts of fit and flexibility, we develop four guiding principles for strategic team composition decisions.     

Firms' human resource in information system and sustainable performance: does their organizational identity matter?

Research suggests that firms' human resource management (HRM) in information technology (IT) may have a positive effective effect on their strategies of sustainable development. Based on the perspective of organizational identity orientation, we argue that firms' collectivistic orientation may moderate the relationship between the HRM and the implementation of the strategy. Focusing on firm performance in environmental protection, we test our predictions with empirical data from China's manufacturing industry. The results show a significant direct effect of the HRM and a significant moderating effect of identity orientation on the dependent variable, i.e. performance in sustainable development.     

Leveraging green HRM for firm performance: The joint effects of CEO environmental belief and external pollution severity and the mediating role of employee environmental commitment

The topic of green human resource management (HRM) has drawn increasing attention of HRM scholars in the past decade. Recent research has called for more studies to identify the antecedents of green HRM used in organizations and explore the mediating mechanisms through which green HRM is related to performance outcomes. This study represents an effort to address these research needs by examining the joint effects of chief executive officer (CEO) environmental belief and external pollution severity on the use of green HRM and testing the mediating role of employee environmental commitment in the relationship between green HRM and firm performance. Drawing upon data collected from multiple sources (i.e., survey data from chief executive officer (CEOs), chief financial officers (CFOs), HR managers and employees, and archival data from government statistics), we found that CEO's environmental belief is significantly related to the use of green HRM, especially for companies operating in locations with severer pollution. Green HRM in turn has a positive relationship with the firm's environmental and financial performances via employee commitment to the environment. The findings highlight the often-overlooked role of in the strategic HRM literature pertinent to environmental management and clarify the antecedents and influential mechanisms of green HRM at the firm level of analysis. We also discuss theoretical and practical implications in this study.     

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.     

Interrelationships between human capital,HRM and innovation in Belgian start-ups aiming at an innovation strategy

Research on the impact of human resource management (HRM) on firm performance has increased since the end of the nineties. Despite the pile of studies and results, critical assessments of this literature stream point to several empirical and theoretical gaps. We focus on two empirical gaps. First, there is a lack of attention to innovation as a measure of firm performance outcome. Most articles use financial (e.g., return on assets (ROA)), organisational (e.g., productivity) and employee related (e.g., commitment) performance measures. Yet, Western knowledge economies consider innovation to be a driving force of economic growth, and international competitive advantage. Moreover, innovation is a function of a firm's ability to create, manage and maintain knowledge. Because knowledge is created by and stored within individuals, human resources as well as HRM may play an important role as drivers of innovation. Second, HRM is considered to be a large company phenomenon. Yet, small businesses provide a great environment to study the HRM-performance relationship because of their transparent nature and the small distance between an individual's and a company's performance. Next, human resources and HRM are crucial to small businesses because they have less tolerance for inefficiency. We examine a sample of small start-ups that aim for an innovation strategy, but are not necessarily successful in terms of innovative output. We expect start-ups with superior human resources and HRM to produce more innovative output. The results show that both human capital (of owners/managers and employees) and HRM are important determinants of innovation in start-ups.     

HRM and performance—The role of talent management as a transmission mechanism in an emerging market context

This paper investigates the link between HRM practices, talent management (TM), and firm performance and examines the role of HRM/business strategy alignment in an emerging market context. Through survey evidence gathered from 198 respondent firms, this study shows that TM, when focused on a series of practices aimed at developing workforce networks and social capital, is a key transmission mechanism mediating the relationship between HRM and firm performance. HRM strategy and business strategy alignment increases these performance impacts but is not an essential component in the HRM‐TM‐performance link.     

Human Resource Strategy and Competitive Advantage: A Longitudinal Study of Engineering Consultancies

Concepts associated with the resource-based view of the firm are increasingly finding their way into the strategic HRM debate. Drawing on this literature, this paper reports one of the first industry-based, longitudinal investigations into the relationship between human resource strategy and competitive advantage. Set in New Zealand, but in an internationally oriented sector, the study examines one of the more neglected spheres of professional services: engineering consultancies. The results indicate that the consultancy firms that survived the major business traumas of the late 1980s and early 1990s adopted similar structural, competitive, operational and HR responses associated with their evolving 'industry recipe'. In interpreting the relationship between HRM and firm performance, then, it is important to distinguish those features of a firm's HRM which are strategic to ongoing viability from those that might form the basis of a relatively enduring form of competitive advantage. While there is insufficient evidence to conclude that any of the primary subjects in this study have established an enviable form of superiority, the study suggests that opportunities do exist for professional service firms to develop industry leadership through superior HRM. The analysis has implications for the wider work of theory-building in strategic HRM.     

Is Competition Engaging? Examining the Interactive Effects of Goal Orientation and Competitive Work Environment on Engagement

Contemporary work environments are growing increasingly competitive. However, some employees may “fit” with such environments better than others. This study examined how the relationship between employees’ goal orientations (learning, proving, and avoidance) and engagement is influenced by the competitive environment of their workplace. By investigating the interactive effect of goal orientation and competitive work environment, this research expands our understanding of factors leading to engagement. We tested our model using a sample of 345 working adults from a variety of organizations across several different industries. Results indicate that learning goal orientation was positively related to engagement while avoidance goal orientation was negatively related to engagement. Competitive work environment (CWE) interacted with learning orientation and proving orientation to predict engagement. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our results for human resource management. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

HRM and performance: what next?

The last decade of empirical research on the added value of HRM, also known as the ‘HRM and performance’ debate, demonstrates evidence that HRM does matter (Huselid, 1995; Guest et al, 2003; Wright et al, 2003). Unfortunately, the relationships are often statistically weak and the remlts ambiguous. This article reviews and attempts to extend the theoretical and methodological issues in this debate. Its aim is to build an agenda for future research in this area. A brief overview of achievements to date is followed by the theoretical and methodological issues related to what constitutes HRM, what is meant by the concept of perfomzance and the nature ofthe link between these two. In the final section, it is argued that research designs should start from a multi‐dimensional concept of performance, including the perceptions ofemployees; and build on the premise of HR systems as an enabling device for a whole range of strategic options. This implies a reversal of the strategy‐HRM linkage.     

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 relationship between human resource management practices,business strategy and firm performance: evidence from steel industry in Taiwan

The primary objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between human resource management (HRM) practices, business strategy and firm performance. We examined the following HRM practices: training and development; teamwork; compensation/incentives; HR planning; performance appraisal; and employment security. We surveyed 236 managers working at steel firms in Taiwan to explore their perceptions on the impact of HRM practices and business strategy on firm performance. The results of this study are summarized as follows: (1) HRM practices will be positively related to firm performance; (2) there is a close linkage between HRM practices and business strategy; (3) business strategies will be positively related to firm performance; (4) integrating HRM practices with business strategies will be positively related to firm 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.     

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.     

Concepts,contexts, and mindsets: Putting human resource management research in perspectives

Why is context important in human resource management (HRM) research? What and how contextual factors may be studied when investigating an organisational phenomenon? Against a positivist trend of decontextualisation in HRM research, this paper addresses these questions by situating them in an international context. It argues that context is important in making sense of what is happening at workplaces in order to provide relevant solutions. It also outlines three layers of context and draws on an empirical story to illustrate how the utilisation and conceptualisation of context may be underpinned by the researcher's intellectual and social upbringing and theoretical orientation. The paper calls for more qualitative studies to redress the imbalance in HRM research. It also calls for a more open‐minded, inductive, and inclusive approach to indigenous research that may present very different contexts, ways of contextualising, and knowledge paradigms from the dominant discourses prevailing in HRM research.