The Configurational Approach to Linking Strategic Human Resource Management Bundles with Business Performance: Myth or Reality?

Eleni T Stavrou,Chris Brewster

doi:10.5771/0935-9915-2005-2-186

Abstract

Highlights

Researchers have linked strategic human resource management to competitive advantage and, in turn, to business performance (Ulrich/Lake 1990; Pickles et al 1999)
This study focuses on bundles rather than individual Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) practices and their connection to performance within the European Union (EU)
Six of the bundles are positively and one is negatively connected to performance. These results provide a first step for management in the various EU businesses to see how human resources can be used strategically as a source of sustainable competitive advantage

Summary

Introduction

Researchers have linked strategic human resource management to competitive advantage and, in turn, to business performance (Ulrich/Lake 1990; Pickles et al 1999). Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) provides requisite links between HRM and the strategic management processes of the organization (Taylor/Beechler/Napier 1996). Fundamental to the SHRM perspective is the assumption that firm performance is directly related to the set of HRM practices firms have in place (Huselid/Jackson/Schuler 1997). In practice SHRM seems far from being applied as a competitive tool linked to business performance (Harris/Ogbonna 2001). As examples, Brewster (1995) reports that the integration of human resource management to business strategy is rare even among large organizations; Down et al (1997) report that many management teams have had difficulty transforming human resource management into a strategic function, leaving the human resources department in most companies focused on administrative and clerical tasks

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion