Understanding Competitive Advantage Through HRM: Looking Beyond the Use of Effective HR Practices

Abstract

Strategic human resource management (SHRM) scholars and practitioners have long recognized the importance of HRM as a source of competitive advantage (e.g., Boxall, 1998; Coff, 1997; Wright, McMahan, & McWilliams, 1994), demonstrating that systems of effective and interconnected HR practices enhance the abilities, motivation, and opportunities of employees to meaningfully contribute to value creation in their employing organizations (Jiang, Lepak, Hu, & Baer, 2012; Lepak, Liao, Chung, & Harden, 2006). This literature has traditionally focused on the link between HRM and organizational performance, with a frequent emphasis on the alignment of HR practices – or HR content – as a coherent system (e.g., horizontal alignment) that supports the requirements of an organization’s environment (e.g., vertical alignment). More recently, some SHRM scholars have begun to explicitly examine additional factors that may influence the effectiveness of HRM, including HR processes within the focal organization (e.g., Bowen & Ostroff, 2004), key organizational members (e.g., Jackson & Schuler, 2003), and changes in the external environment (e.g., Combs, Liu, Hall, & Ketchen, 2006). One key insight which has emerged from these research efforts has concerned the importance of considerations beyond the use of effective HR practices in addressing the question of how to achieve competitive advantage through HRM. The purpose of the present symposium is to advance this insight by bringing together research that explicitly investigates factors beyond the use of effective HR practices that further our understanding of how and when HRM contributes to competitive advantage. Our symposium is comprised of papers examining a broad range of such factors, including the roles of the dynamics characterizing organizational environments, internal HR actors, and the activities of external competitors as they contribute to (or hinder) organizations’ abilities to achieve a human resource-based competitive advantage in different ways. The benefits of such a symposium are two-fold. First, this symposium will allow for a richer discussion regarding the contexts and mechanisms through which HRM creates and maintains the competitive advantage of organizations. Specifically, the papers included here span research concerning the achievement of HR alignment via an agentic and process-based model (Kim & Kehoe), the value and benefits of HR functions and HR executives (Bentley & Choudhury; Chadwick & Jo), and the impact of peer companies on HR practice effectiveness and adoption (Jiang, Takeuchi, & Jia). We aim to transcend the HR practice-oriented perspectives adopted in prior studies. Second, the symposium will offer insights into how organizations might best achieve competitive advantage through HRM. The papers aim to investigate the theme “looking beyond the use of effective HR practices”, articulating the considerations relevant to HRM optimization with which an organization must contend. Our goal is to provide a glimpse into some of the current research being conducted by SHRM scholars whose focus transcends the use of effective HR practices. Focusing on the “How” of HR Alignment: An Agentic and Process-Based Model Presenter: Joonyoung Kim; Cornell U. Presenter: Rebecca Rheinhardt Kehoe; Cornell U. Value of the Formal HR Function Presenter: Clint Chadwick; U. of Kansas Presenter: Jinhwan Jo; U. of Kansas When and How Firms Benefit from Having an HR Executive: A Longitudinal Analysis Presenter: Frederick Scott Bentley; Binghamton U.-State U. of New York Presenter: Anwesha Choudhury; Binghamton U.-State U. of New York Impact of Peer Companies on the Adoption and the Effects of High-Investment Human Resource Systems Presenter: Kaifeng Jiang; Ohio State U. Presenter: Riki Takeuchi; U. of Texas at Dallas Presenter: Yingya Jia; Shanghai U.