Abstract
The purpose of this Chapter was to assess the impact of human resource management (HRM) practices adopted by 205 Australian dairy farmers on their business performance. Factor analysis extracted ten factors out of sixty items that represented all possible HRM practices in the farming context. Ten HRM practice factors were subsequently entered into multiple regression analysis as explanatory variables; these were formal selection process, hiring procedure, training, performance reviews, communication process, career opportunities, risk management of occupational health and safety (OHS and herd health measured by percentage of cows treated for mastitis, culled and death rates due to poor health conditions. Four business strategies (i.e. cost reduction, product quality, technology innovation and people management) were used as control variables. Regression results show a clear link of HRM to farm performance, despite several formal HRM practices (i.e. validated hiring, selection and training) negatively related to dairy farms’ financial outcome however positively related to herd health. The results also show that informal HRM practices (i.e. daily & peer performance review, communication and social interaction) played more significant roles in improving financial outcome; whilst HRM practices integrating with business strategies (i.e. product quality, technology innovation and people management) predicted better herd health in dairy. Implications of these results are discussed.
Published Version
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