Abstract
Exploring the duality and balance research on human resource management (HRM), this study established two different HRM systems or bundles based on distinct guiding principles—the performance-oriented HRM system and the commitment-oriented HRM system. This study investigated whether the performance- and commitment-oriented HRM systems or bundles with different philosophical backgrounds have their own independent and additive effects on organizational outcomes. The relationships between these HRM systems and organizational outcomes were examined with 1735 firm-period samples in the longitudinal setting. The empirical results show that the commitment-oriented HRM systems have independent and additive effects on organizational commitment and human capital. However, the performance-oriented HRM systems have no independent and additive effect on organizational outcomes. Our study also indicates that increasing the performance-oriented HRM practices can be redundant and unnecessary unless firms have sufficiently high levels of the commitment-oriented HRM practices. Given that the definition and measures of commitment-oriented HRM bundles nearly match the characteristics of sustainable HRM, we thus argue that the commitment-oriented HRM systems have more potential to improve not only organizational outcomes and performance, but also human and social sustainability, than the performance-oriented HRM systems.
Highlights
In spite of abundant research on strategic human resource management (HRM), constructing an optimal HRM system as a bundle of practices has still challenged researchers in this study area
This study established two distinctive HRM system bundles based on philosophical differences, namely the performance- and commitment-oriented HRM bundles, and studied their additive and interactive effects on organizational outcomes
The relationships between these HRM systems and organizational outcomes were examined with 1735 firm-period samples in the longitudinal setting
Summary
In spite of abundant research on strategic human resource management (HRM), constructing an optimal HRM system as a bundle of practices has still challenged researchers in this study area. Current studies focused on verifying the effectiveness of arbitrarily selected HRM practices have been exposed to omitted variable bias and misspecification error [3]. This field would have ongoing difficulties in accumulating knowledge with a lack of consensus on content and configurations of HRM systems [4]. The collaborative model, similar to the soft HRM or Harvard model, respects the value of employees in an organization and emphasizes coordination and cooperation mainly under the coordinated market economy [10]. The calculative model, similar to the hard HRM or the strategic HRM model, is based on the culture of individualism and economic rationality mainly under the liberal market economy
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
