The effects of HRM approach on quality management techniques and performance

Abstract

Using data from 250 companies from Brazil and Denmark, this study aims to investigate the effects of commitment- and control-oriented human resource management (HRM) on the relationship between four QM technique groups, namely goal setting (GS), continuous improvement (CI), measurement (MS) and failure prevention and control (FPC) techniques, and performance. Both HRM approaches affect the QM techniques and performance positively. However, the association with control-oriented HRM has a stronger performance effect for three QM techniques groups (CI, MS and FPC) than the association with commitment-oriented HRM. Only for the GS techniques, the effects of control- and commitment-oriented HRM on performance are not statistically significantly different. These results show that HRM practices may contribute to enable QM techniques to have a positive effect on performance. Additionally, the results demonstrate that control-oriented HRM supports the QM techniques better in improving performance than commitment-oriented HRM for most groups of QM techniques studied. These findings suggest an important duality: while previous studies suggest that QM practices thrive in a commitment-oriented HRM environment, this research shows that QM techniques are best supported through control-oriented HRM. Further research, going beyond the two country samples, is needed to explore the implications of this duality.