Patterns and determinants of human resource management change in Korean venture firms after the financial crisis

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to analyze the changing patterns of human resource management (HRM) systems of Korean venture firms. This study is an extension of Bae and Yu's (2005) research in its inclusion of the second data set. This research was conducted in two phases. In phase I, the changing patterns of HRM in venture firms were descriptively analyzed between 1998 and 2001 using 251 Korean venture firms. In phase II, hypotheses on determinants of changes were tested based upon organizational theoretical perspectives. In the results, several findings were derived. First, Korean venture firms widely changed their HRM systems, 58.4% of a total of 231 firms. Second, the most dominant pattern of change was from a control-based HRM system to a high-performing HRM system. Third, four explanatory factors (i.e. blueprint, inertia, strategic choice and unavoidable choice) had different effects on ‘the changer’ and ‘the keeper’ of control-based and high-performing HRM systems. In conclusion, several implications from this study were discussed: (1) the effect of resource availability, (2) comparison with large corporations in Korea, (3) comparison with the US venture firms and (4) lessons for other Asian countries.