Options‐based HRM,intellectual capital,and exploratory and exploitative learning in law firms' practice groups

The current study intends to uncover the strategic contribution of human resource management by introducing a unique construct of options‐based (vis‐à‐vis project‐based) HRM and examining its links to intellectual capital and exploratory and exploitative learning in the context of law firms' practice groups. Empirical results show that options‐based HRM is positively related to the practice group's explorative and exploitative learning. The intellectual capital mediates the relationships between options‐based HRM and the practice group's learning for exploration and exploitation. This study makes a valuable contribution to the HRM literature by establishing the mechanisms by which HRM enables organizational learning and extending the scope of HRM research to professional service firms. Our findings also provide valuable implications for the literature of organizational learning. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Incorporating employee resourcing requirements into deployment decision making

Employee resourcing is the process of matching human resource capabilities to the strategic and operational needs of the organization. This is exceptionally problematic in project‐based organizations due to the competing priorities of the project, the individual employee, and the wider succession needs of the organization. This article presents the findings of research examining the human resource management practices that form the key components of the resourcing process. These included, inter alia, human resource planning, recruitment and selection, team deployment, performance management, and human resource administration. Current practices were examined in seven leading construction firms, all of which faced dynamic resourcing priorities. Within an inductive methodology, semistructured interviews were carried out with senior executives, human resource management (HRM) specialists, senior operational managers, and project‐based staff. Based on a synthesis of the promising practices extracted from the case‐study organizations, an innovative approach to project resourcing was developed that aims to balance organizational, project, and individual employee requirements. Team deployment resides at the center of resourcing process for the project‐based organization as it determines the success of the project, which in turn determines the competitiveness of the organization. Long‐term planning and employee involvement enable team deployment to integrate with other elements of HRM effectively and thus help to balance the organizational strategic priorities, project requirements, and individual employee needs and preferences.     

Strategic human resources management is irrelevant when it comes to highly skilled professionals in the Canadian new economy

The goal of this paper is to explain the commitment behaviour of highly skilled professionals in Canadian business-to-business (B2B) technology services companies that do not have a formal and explicit managerial commitment strategy and to emphasize the need to take the organizational context into consideration when developing a theory that seeks to account for differences in employee's organizational commitment. Our contribution is to reappraise the relevance of the traditional organizational commitment definition in this organizational context, a new organizational form. We demonstrate that in the companies which are different from the traditional bureaucratic organizational forms and which employ highly qualified professionals, the employment relationship is based on a psychological contract that is not accounted for in the strategic HRM theory.

Indeed, the basic principles of strategic HRM dictate that an organization's most valuable asset is its employees; it is therefore incumbent on management to do whatever is necessary to retain its workforce, readily described as a key resource, and to use human resources management (HRM) practices as tools to elicit commitment. In a study of highly skilled workers in Canadian business-to-business (B2B) technology services companies belonging to the so-called ‘new economy’, we observed that although the competitive advantage enjoyed by these companies depends to a large degree on the creativity and innovativeness of their workforce, these companies barely have any official HRM policies, and the HR department plays a very unobtrusive role. Yet, no one could say that the employees in these firms are not committed – on the contrary! This situation has several implications in terms of career for these professionals, in terms of HR practices for the employers.

Nevertheless, until now, existing theoretical models of organizational commitment have shown little interest in highly skilled workers in general and even less in new economy professionals.     

Co‐determination and strategic integration in German firms

Looking at the economic development and importance of German companies in Europe, one might expect that an important aspect of a good economic performance is a well‐functioning HR system. Although a number of scholars claim this, the empirical evidence seems to point to the opposite. Several comparative studies have found that HRM in German companies is less strategically integrated and proactive than that of comparable firms in other countries. This article argues that the empirical results reported fail to grasp the essence of HRM in German firms. This lacuna is partly due to the co‐determination structure. HRM in large German firms has to be evaluated within the co‐determination structure, with the Betriebsrat (works council) being an important actor. For German firms co‐determination might even be a strategic resource. By examining this issue within such a framework, a more favourable picture of HR integration in German firms emerges.     

Workplace innovation,employment relations and HRM: two electronics companies in South Korea

Analysing two electronics companies (unionized LG Electronics and non-union Samsung SDI) in Korea, the present paper investigates the impact of union status on workplace innovations and the effects of workplace innovations on organizational performance. Both case firms are considered highly innovative, model companies in terms of their sophisticated human resource management (HRM) and cooperative employment relations (ER). We first provide a conceptual framework and generate three propositions. The framework is composed of three main components: input, organizational system and output. The major findings include: (1) the adoption of high performance work organizations (HPWO) is highly dependent upon top management and union/employee representatives; (2) the two case firms adopted two different production modes (a team production mode in LG Electronics and a lean production mode in Samsung SDI); and (3) alignment among organizational design and work processes, ER systems and HRM systems would lead to high organizational performance. We also discuss the transferability of HPWO to other cultural settings in a universalism-contingency context.     

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.     

Constructing an index for comparing human resources management sustainability in Europe

Assuming that a company's institutional context influences its sustainability approach and its human resources management (HRM), this article compares firms' sustainable HRM systems across countries. Despite the presence of a supranational government, different social models exist in Europe according to the level of social protection in each country. The article compares the engagement of companies with sustainable HRM across Europe and develops an index with which to compare HRM sustainability in countries that present significant institutional differences: Germany, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The index is constructed based on a formative measurement model, which reflects the implementation levels of sustainable HRM in 106 western European firms. The index reveals significant differences between companies from the four countries and between liberal and coordinated market economies, indicating the need to address the impact of the national institutional context on firms' HRM sustainability.     

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.     

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.     

Enhancing knowledge exchange and combination through HR practices: reflexivity as a translation process

Knowledge‐intensive firms need to encourage their employees to engage in knowledge exchange and combination (KEC) so as to create the new knowledge that is core to their success. HRM has the potential to play a key role in encouraging KEC, but relatively little is known about the micro‐processes through which HRM and KEC are linked. Based on a sample of 498 knowledge workers in 14 knowledge‐intensive firms in the pharmaceutical and information and communications technology sectors in Ireland and the UK, this study focuses on the knowledge workers themselves and their perceptions of how HR practices influence KEC. In so doing, we drill down into the micro‐foundations of the proposed linkages between HRM and knowledge creation, proffering reflexivity as a translation process in understanding these linkages.     

The impact of culture on HRM styles and firm performance: evidence from Japanese parents,Japanese subsidiaries/joint ventures and South Asian local companies

This paper investigates national and organizational cultural influences among managers in three types of companies: Japanese companies in Japan, South Asian domestic companies and Japanese subsidiaries/joint ventures in South Asia. The findings suggest that a Japanese parent company's culture tends to have a much stronger influence with Japanese companies operating in Japan. Japanese parent company culture tends to have less influence than the South Asian national culture in shaping the HRM styles and practices in Japanese subsidiaries/joint ventures operating in South Asia. While some South Asian firms are in the initial stages of learning about participative HRM from foreign companies, most still tend to maintain their national culture and traditional ways in the operating systems of their organizations.     

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.     

Evaluating levels of strategic integration and devolvement of human resource management in India

This paper analyses the levels of 'integration' of human resource management into corporate strategy and 'devolvement' of responsibility for HRM to line managers in India. The findings are based on a large questionnaire survey run in 137 firms in six manufacturing industries. The survey results are further supplemented by twenty-four in-depth interviews in the same companies. Results show a low level of integration and devolvement practised in Indian organizations. A number of contingent variables and organizational policies were found to determine the levels of integration and devolvement in Indian organizations. India is mapped on the integrationdevolvement matrix of ten European countries, showing similarities with the UK, Italy and Germany.     

Organizational context and human resource management strategy: a structural equation analysis of Hong Kong firms

Previous studies to explain why companies utilize particular human resource management (HRM) strategies have not adequately addressed the influence of contextual variables such as size, location, ownership, competitive pressure, technological change, age and growth. In this study, we investigate the extent to which these contextual variables are related to HRM strategy in seventy-six private-sector firms located in Hong Kong. Our analysis uses structural equations to examine the relationships among contextual variables and HRM strategy to develop and retain managers. The results show that contextual variables have both direct and indirect effects on an organization's HRM strategy. The indirect effects occur through the top management involvement of the HR function within an organization. Use of a human capital development HRM strategy reduces organizational uncertainty about having an adequate supply of managers to meet firm objectives. Contrary to our expectation, in Hong Kong firms, greater reliance on internal development and promotion tends to increase uncertainty and greater competition tends to reduce training investment. Both of these unanticipated relationships may reflect the high mobility of managers peculiar to the Hong Kong labour market.     

Organizational Learning in Project‐Based Companies: A Process Thinking Approach

Although a traditional project model is clearly useful for laying out the patterns of relationships surrounding a project, it does not provide the temporally embedded accounts that enable us to understand how organizational learning takes place. The process thinking perspective offers a means to solving this problem. This article provides an analysis of how different processes interact dynamically in order to benefit project‐based companies' organizational learning. Two findings from this study are: (1) organizational learning is a dynamic concept that emphasizes the continually changing nature of a project‐based company and (2) sensemaking and negotiation of meaning are ongoing processes in project‐based companies.     

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.     

HRM in entrepreneurial firms: A systematic review and research agenda

This review aims at synthesizing and assessing the literature on human resource management (HRM) in entrepreneurial firms. Our review over the time period 2004–2020 is relevant as entrepreneurial firms have a central role in the economy and are important for technological advancement and employment. Furthermore, managing entrepreneurial firms differs significantly from managing established firms. Using a systematic review method, we develop a framework of HRM in entrepreneurial firms, in which we present the current state of the literature, accounting for antecedents, outcomes, and the organizational context. Importantly, we also offer a compelling research agenda for future work on HRM in entrepreneurial firms.     

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.     

How and when matter: Exploring the interaction effects of high‐performance work systems,employee participation,and human capital on organizational innovation

Existing research on the relationship between high‐performance work systems (HPWS) and organizational innovation has paid insufficient attention to the boundary effects of employee participation and human capital. Bridging the human resource management (HRM) and employment relations literature, this study contributes to the contingency view of HRM and China‐specific research by investigating how human capital and employee participation, direct voice mechanism, and corporate governance participation jointly moderate the relationship between HPWS and organizational innovation. We test our three‐way interaction model using a sample of 108 firms and 1,250 employees in China. The results suggest that HPWS are positively associated with organizational innovation when employees with relatively less human capital are coupled with more direct voice mechanism or less corporate governance participation. In contrast, HPWS are negatively related to organizational innovation when employees possessing greater human capital are coupled with more direct voice mechanism. The theoretical and managerial implications and future research directions are discussed.     

Managerial perceptions of the role of the human resource function in Sri Lanka: a comparative study of local,foreign-owned and joint-venture companies

As debates on HRM continue, we contend that a number of important issues have not been given the adequate attention they deserve. One of the neglected issues, which we seek to explore in this paper, is the question of whether HRM models are being practised in developing countries. The specific context for the research is Sri Lanka. Therefore, the central objective of this paper is to explore one main research question, which is: To what extent does HRM play a significant role in organizational strategy processes in Sri Lankan organizations? The research is guided by four hypotheses. The hypotheses are based on the assumption that local Sri Lankan organizations will differ from MNCs in the way they deal with and practice HRM. The findings from the investigation reveal no significant differences between MNCs and local companies in relation to the research questions. The implications of the findings are discussed within the context of diffusion and convergence of management practices and the role of drivers of globalization.