Getting Inside the HRM – Performance Relationship

This paper argues that employee attitudes and behaviour need to be explicitly incorporated into models of HRM and performance and into related empirical studies if we are to improve our understanding of the HRM – performance relationship. At the same time, employee concerns have been neglected in the stream of research on HRM and performance. A simple model is presented and two large-scale crosssectional empirical studies conducted in Britain are reported. Both provide some support for the role of employee attitudes and behaviour, confirming their value as explanatory variables. However they also raise new methodological issues and these are also discussed. Introduction: The Case for Getting Inside the HRM – Performance Relationship Research on the relationship between human resource management (HRM) and performance, which burgeoned in the 1990s, has now begun to develop in a number of directions. One important and influential focus addresses strategic contingencies (Jackson and Schuler, 1995, Wright and Snell, 1998), seeking to link the fit between HR practices and aspects of the external environment and related business strategy to performance. Another, which builds on what has been termed the universalistic model (Delery and Doty, 1996) is more concerned to identify a set of HR practices which are common across organizations and which are consistently associated with superior performance. 1 This paper was presented to the Academy of Management Conference, Toronto, August, 4-9, 2000. The results reported in this paper form part of a research project on “Workplace Reorganization, HRM and Corporate Performance” funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council under its Future of Work programme. Additional financial support has been provided by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. We gratefully acknowledge the support of both organizations. The project is jointly directed by Professor Jonathan Michie of Birkbeck, London University, Professor David Guest of King’s College, London and Dr Maura Sheehan of Queen’s University, Belfast. Researchers on the project are Dr Neil Conway and Dr Linda Trenberth.