Theoretic insights on the nature of performance synergies in human resource systems: Toward greater precision

Synergy is a central tenet of the organizational level approach to human resource management (HRM). However, current theoretic treatments of synergy in the HRM literature are too inspecific to offer much insight about its essential characteristics in HRM systems. To move the treatment of synergy toward greater precision, this paper describes three different theoretic approaches to synergy in HRM systems: virtuous overlaps, independent effects, and efficient complementarities. Each of these approaches to synergy is better fitted to some contingencies than to others and is operationalized by different methodologies. Recognizing these different varieties of HRM system synergy allows researchers to better understand and estimate the impact of HRM systems on organizational performance. Moreover, the theoretic perspectives on synergy described here apply to many types of systems beyond HRM. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.