Abstract

This paper presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of the relationship between human resource management (HRM) and organizational performance. Theoretically, we discuss the importance of HRM for the development of resources and its impact on business performance. Empirically, we evaluated articles published on Brazilian academic journals that addressed such relationships. The results showed a lack of studies conducted at this intersection. From the universe of 2,469 articles, only 16 (0.6%) sought to relate HRM and organizational performance. We observed a dominance of isolated HR practices, which does not consider HRM as a system, and of operational performance measures, relative to financial and efficiency variables. Most studies show a positive relationship between HRM practices and performance, in line with the literature. However, we point out some methodological issues, such as the difficulty of isolating the HR practices from its context, the failure to consider the temporality of this relationship, and the comparison between companies from different industries.

Highlights

  • One of the main themes in the field of business strategy concerns the competitiveness and determinants of organizational performance (BESANKO et al, 1996; GHEMAWAT, 2002)

  • Amongst the main theoretical strands seeking to explain business competitiveness, the Resource Based View (RBV), which focuses on the development and exploitation of valuable, rare, and non-imitable resources, gives base to the hypothesis about the importance of human resource management (HRM) to companies’ competitiveness (BARNEY, 1991; BARNEY; WRIGHT, 1998)

  • 2 BUSINESS STRATEGY AND HUMAN RESOURCES The heterogeneity of the organizational performance can be explained by the choice and positioning in a given sector (PORTER, 1985), by the development of valuable, rare and nonimitable resources (BARNEY, 1991), or by the development of routines and dynamic capabilities (TEECE; PISANO; SHUEN, 1997)

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

One of the main themes in the field of business strategy concerns the competitiveness and determinants of organizational performance (BESANKO et al, 1996; GHEMAWAT, 2002). Specialized human resources are valuable and potentially rare asthey detain tacit knowledge built by socially complex mechanisms Imitating these resources is challenging, since its relationship with organizational performance is uncertain and imprecise or, in other words, because they contain a causal ambiguity (BARNEY; WRIGHT, 1998; COFF, 1997). Practices that promote employee motivation and effort, knowledge, skills, and abilities, and opportunities for employee’s contribution (JIANG et al, 2012) generate favorable conditions for the development of resources and capabilities that create value for organizations (BARNEY; WRIGHT, 1998), contributing to their performance and to the emergence of sustained competitive advantages (HUSELID, 1995; WRIGHT; MCMAHAN; MCWILLIAMS, 1994) This set of practices has been called, among other denominations, high-performance work systems (HPWS), following a line of study initiated by Huselid (1995). We discuss the results and the evidence of the impact of HRM on strategic resources development and its effect on organizational performance

BUSINESS STRATEGY AND HUMAN RESOURCES
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES
Motivation and effort
ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HRM AND PERFORMANCE
METHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURES
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
Practices and Results
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
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