Modelling the impact of performance management practices on firm performance: interaction with human resource management practices

The paper draws on resource orchestration theory to investigate whether and how performance management (PM) practices interact with human resource management (HRM) practices in organisations as well as how this interaction affects firm performance. The proposed theoretical model was tested through a survey of 192 UK firms using Partial Least Squares approach for structural equations modelling. The findings show that the effect of PM practices on firm performance is better explained when the interaction between these practices and other organisational practices is considered. In particular, we examine the extent to which the interaction between PM practices and commitment-based HRM practices affects performance. We find that when HRM practices and PM practices are misaligned, their effect on performance can be negative. This is the first paper in the PM literature that establishes the relationship between PM and HRM practices in organisations and demonstrates the effect of this relationship on firm performance.     

The impact of timely information on organisational performance in a supply chain

Information produced by ERP systems is termed JIT-information, since it is provided at the right time in the right place with a minimum of waste. The JIT-information construct is defined and described and a measurement scale is developed. A JIT-information performance model is proposed and assessed using a structural equation modelling methodology. The results indicate that the model fits the data well: (1) supply chain management strategy positively impacts JIT-information, (2) JIT-information directly impacts both logistics and organisational performance, and (3) logistics performance directly impacts organisational performance.     

The impact of information sharing in supply chains on organisational performance: an empirical study

Information sharing has been cited as one of the major means to enhance supply chain performance. It allows companies to better coordinate their activities with their supply chain partners that lead to increased performance. This study conceptualises and assesses several factors that influence the degree of information sharing in supply chains, namely integrated information technologies, internal integration, information quality and costs–benefits sharing. The relationship between the degree of information sharing and organisational performance is then tested. Data from 150 manufacturing companies were collected and proposed relationships are examined using structural equation modelling. The results show that integrated information technologies and information quality have positive influence on the intensity of information sharing. However, internal integration and costs–benefits sharing do not relate to the intensity of information sharing. This study finds that information sharing does not directly relate to organisational performance. Its relationship is mediated by collaboration practices with supply chain partners. This suggests that information sharing is essential but insufficient by itself to bring significant performance improvements.     

HRM系统、竞争战略与企业绩效关系的实证研究

战略人力资源管理理论认为人力资源管理(HRM)系统和企业竞争战略之间的匹配关系会对企业绩效产生影响.通过类型学和分类学两条主线归纳并总结了关于 HRM 系统及其与企业绩效关系的研究,提出了 HRM 系统、竞争战略与企业绩效关系的假说,并以133家样本企业为研究对象,对理论假说进行了检验.研究发现,采取内部型 HRM 形态的企业的绩效高于采取市场型 HRM 形态的企业;环境特征(产业技术变革、劳动力市场竞争)对 HRM 系统形态与企业绩效关系的调节效应仅得到部分支持,而企业规模的调节效用没有得到支持;企业的竞争战略对人力资源战略选择的影响很小;HRM 系统与竞争战略匹配企业的绩效高于没有匹配企业的假说没有得到支持.最后,对研究结论进行了讨论,分析了其局限性和未来研究建议.     

The internationalization of human resource management

As we enter the new millennium, we are witnessing the rapid appreciation for and development of all aspects of global and international activities and issues associated with and affected by human resource management. In order to understand the internationalization of human resource management, this paper reviews three recently published works by Poole (1999), Schuler and Jackson (1999), and Storey (2000) to map out past research and emerging areas within this field of study.     

Human resource management and performance

The study of human resource management (HRM) has been invigorated by the promise that there is a best-practice, high-involvement management (HIM) that can guarantee superior organizational performance. None the less, there remain concerns that contingency theory still rules, that is, that the fit between the human resource systems and their context, and particularly the organization's business strategy, is all important and, thus, that HIM will only outperform other systems in certain circumstances. In the 1990s, there has been a spate of research that has sought to test whether HIM is indeed universally relevant. This paper reviews these studies. The paper first introduces the conceptual dimensions of the debate concerning HRM and performance. This shows that the issues go beyond a simple competition between universalism and contingency theory. There are more complicated hypotheses linking human resource practices beneath the surface of the recent literature. The second part of the paper overviews the studies in the light of these hypotheses, revealing that they present an uneven picture. Firstly, there are conceptual differences underlying the studies and, secondly, the results vary between them, and the effects of HIM vary between performance measures even in particular studies. Though a fair number of the studies claim to support universalism, their claims are not always unequivocally supported by their research evidence, and it is premature to conclude in its favour. If anything, there is more support for the 'lean production' argument that stresses the interaction effect between HIM and total quality management on performance.     

关于管理研究及其理论和方法的讨论

继续作者关于中国管理学科定位和发展方向的学术讨论,从管理学的研究动机,研究对象,以及理论和方法选择方面,讨论作者个人的一些初步想法.其基本观点主要有:1)学术研究的终极动力应该是对科学真理的追求;2)这种追求的一个重要特点就是勇于创新,勇于挑战现有的范式;3)这种创新必须基于严格的训练和严密的设计;4)这种严密的设计必须考虑到研究对象与理论和方法的匹配;5)中国管理学研究应该鼓励多种理论,多种学说,多种方法共同发展,取长补短,在借鉴国外主流管理学科发展的经验和教训的基础上,发挥中国管理学者的特长,解释和预测中国遇到的管理问题和现象,为整个管理学科的发展做出贡献.     

The impact of knowledge management and strategy configuration coherence on SME performance

According to recent literature, effective knowledge management should be coherent and based on the firm’s strategy. Prior empirical research, in contrast, tries to evaluate the impact of knowledge management initiatives directly on performance but finds inconsistent results and not allows the understanding of knowledge management contribution to competitive advantage generation. In this study we aim to investigate the impact of knowledge management and strategy configuration coherence on SMEs innovation and organizational performance through a quantitative analysis carried out on a sample of 60 manufacturing SMEs in northeast Italy. Our findings reveal that a significant coherence exists between knowledge management and strategy configurations. Most of the SMEs with a prospector and defender strategy adopt, in turn, an aggressive and conservative knowledge management. Moreover, we find that such coherence has a significant impact on the overall performance. This is particularly interesting since it suggests that the inconsistency in the results of prior studies on the impact of knowledge management on performance (Kalling in J Knowl Manag 7(3):67–81; 2003) may be due to the lack of consideration of knowledge management and strategy configuration coherence.     

The organisational environment’s impact on the servitization of manufacturers

The transformation of product-centric businesses towards service provision is claimed to be a viable strategy for manufacturers across industries and sectors. However, previous research on servitization has not paid sufficient attention to explicitly investigating its suitability for manufacturers operating in different organizational environments. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to establish propositions on the contingency factors in the organizational environment that affect the servitization of manufacturers at the industry level. Drawing on the theory of organisational ecology, the propositions include the effects of population density, competing populations, resource dependency, institutional linkages, technology, and political forces. Our study suggests that the operating environment explains at least part of the difficulties in the servitization process, which have been identified in previous studies, but whose causes have remained without full explanation. The study adds to the current understanding of the contingencies of transformation toward service provision and contributes to the managerial decision-making processes related to servitization.     

Information technology project outcomes: user participation structures and the impact of organization behavior and human resource management issues

Despite considerable research examining user participation in information technology (IT) project implementation, the findings are equivocal concerning how beneficial IT user participation is for project outcomes. Likewise, evidence concerning the management of various forms of user participation is also mixed. This study posits an integrated user participation structure composed of a combination of steering committees, cross-functional teams and project champions performing different functions and supporting each other during the course of project implementation. The study builds a research model that identifies the impact of various organization behavior and human resource management (OB/HRM) issues on the ability of the user participation structure to influence IT project outcomes. It presents the results of field research in the form of nine case studies to identify various OB/HRM factors that can discriminate between different IT project outcomes. The field study leads to a revised research model that emphasizes the role of processes and dynamics within the user participation structure, as well as the role of OB/HRM variables, in influencing the relationship between user participation structures and IT project outcomes.     

组织支持对人力资源措施和员工绩效的影响

通过两项研究,对中国企业情境下员工感知到的组织支持、人力资源管理措施和个人绩效的关系进行了探讨.采用因子分析和回归分析等方法对来自合资,国有,私有等企业的员工及其主管的问卷调查结果进行了数据分析.结果表明:这些企业的人力资源管理措施可以分为保健措施和激励措施两大类.保健措施包括:员工福利、工作环境改善、工作保障、员工薪酬、员工关怀计划;激励措施包括员工培训、职业发展规划.保健措施和激励措施与感知到的组织支持存在交互作用,共同影响员工个人绩效.保健措施对员工绩效的正向影响作用在低水平感知到的组织支持下更显著,激励措施则在高水平感知到的组织支持下具有更显著的正向影响.     

The influence of top management support for ICTs on organisational performance through knowledge acquisition,transfer, and utilisation

This research analyses, first, whether top management support for information and communications technologies has positive consequences for knowledge management by analysing the specific influence of top management support for ICTs on each of the knowledge management processes (knowledge acquisition, transfer, and utilisation). Second, it analyses the influence of each knowledge management process on organisational performance. The theoretical model is tested using data collected from March to May 2010 from 201 CEOs in Spanish technology organisations. The results indicate that the stage-based disaggregation of the knowledge management process into knowledge acquisition, transfer, and utilisation, and the three-stage management process are the mediating mechanisms in the relationship between top management support for ICTs and organisational performance. CEOs should thus support the information and communication technologies necessary to improve all of the interrelated stages of knowledge management as a mechanism for achieving better organisational performance. Various strategic actions should be stimulated within the organisation to intensify the interrelation between these stages of acquisition, transfer, and utilisation of knowledge.     

The impact of supply chain management practices on competitive advantage and organizational performance

Effective supply chain management (SCM) has become a potentially valuable way of securing competitive advantage and improving organizational performance since competition is no longer between organizations, but among supply chains. This research conceptualizes and develops five dimensions of SCM practice (strategic supplier partnership, customer relationship, level of information sharing, quality of information sharing, and postponement) and tests the relationships between SCM practices, competitive advantage, and organizational performance. Data for the study were collected from 196 organizations and the relationships proposed in the framework were tested using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that higher levels of SCM practice can lead to enhanced competitive advantage and improved organizational performance. Also, competitive advantage can have a direct, positive impact on organizational performance.     

The impact of organisational politics and trust in the top management team on strategic decision implementation success: A middle-manager's perspective

The implementation of strategic decisions is a complex and demanding process that requires an open and lateral communication of free-flowing information to make sense of and champion a firm's intended changes. For the process to be effective, middle managers need to operate within an environment that nurtures a pro-social mindset and helps to cope with stressors caused by the possibility of harm done by the intended changes to their vested interests. Drawing from the job demands-resources model, we argue that organisational politics represent an organisational demand, which may hinder the implementation of strategic decisions. To cope with this demand, implementers recruit organisational resources (i.e. trust in the top management team) that may moderate the negative effects of dysfunctional politics. To test our hypotheses, we drew on a sample of 228 middle managers from 114 private Greek firms with more than 100 employees across various industries. We found that when organisational politics were high during the implementation process, implementation success diminished. However, their negative impact was reduced when trust in the top management team was high. Conversely, when organisational politics were low, middle managers reported a higher implementation success regardless of how highly the top management team was trusted. Our study is the first to test the influence of organisational politics on the success of the implementation process from a middle manager's perspective. In addition, we show that implementation success can be viewed through a demands-resources lens, which provides a meaningful contribution to research on strategy implementation.     

Future of European human resource management: A contingent approach

The ability to cope with an increasingly open European Market, enhanced mobility between nation states and the threat of competition from the Far East will be highly prized organisational skills in the third millenium. Many commentators have argued that ‘Europeanisation’ (broadly defined) is an irreversible process and companies will have to cope proactively with this or perish. However, in this article we argue that many of these predictions are based on an uncritical acceptance of the ‘internationalisation’ thesis, and on subjective assessments of possible future trends — rather than on sound empirical research within strong theoretical frameworks. Accordingly, this article takes a critical look at some widely-held assumptions about internationalisation, Europeanisation and the (potential) development of European Human Resource Management (EHRM). It then goes on to suggest a framework of research which will be more able to capture future developments in EHRM and thereby facilitate more robust exchanges on strategic HRM with those companies operating in a European setting.     

The impact of a stress management programme on staff well-being and performance at work

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate whether employees experience emotional drain when they witness unpleasant interactions between coworkers. This was tested in a sample of staff in a UK hospital department, which included nurses, doctors, specialists and administrative staff. The study used a diary method in which participants recorded their reactions to over 1000 interpersonal interactions between coworkers across 15 work days. Multilevel analyses indicated that staff felt significantly more emotionally drained after witnessing unpleasant interactions compared to pleasant ones. This effect was mediated both by what the staff felt in response to what they witnessed and by the extent to which they controlled their feelings. Staff felt more emotionally drained when they took the perspective of the target to a greater extent and when they witnessed interactions directly (first-hand) rather than indirectly (hearsay). Witnesses appear to be vulnerable to emotional depletion because they experience an affective reaction and self-regulate their own emotional response to what they have seen or heard. This third-party effect on the witnesses of unpleasant interactions has the potential not only to have a negative effect on the individual but to pervade the organisation.     

Manufacturing flexibility and advanced human resource management practices

This article analyses the connection between the use of advanced human resource management (HRM) practices, individually and as a system, with manufacturing flexibility. The results show a positive relationship between the implementation of advanced HRM practices and manufacturing flexibility. While most of the advanced HRM practices analysed show higher levels of implementation in flexible firms, no differences are observed in training efforts. Flexible firms are more prone to implement systems of advanced HRM practices.     

The effects of human resource systems on operational performance in mass customisation manufacturing environments

This study empirically examines the impact of two human resource management (HRM) systems on operational performance in two distinct mass customisation manufacturing (MCM) environments. Using the survey data collected electronically from 148 mass customisation manufacturers in the USA, moderated hierarchical multiple regression was employed to test the research hypotheses. Results suggest that operational performance significantly increases when a bundle of complementary basic HRM practices are integrated in MCM contexts that emphasise module and process standardisation. This finding indicates that these types of mass customisation manufacturers are capitalising on the opportunity to improve operational performance by strategically combining several different, but supportive, traditional HRM practices with a finite MCM system.     

Financial performance and global start-ups: the impact of knowledge management practices

This paper investigates how knowledge management (KM) practices improve the financial performance of global start-ups (GSs). Using a database of 114 global innovative Italian start-ups, this study is based on the principal component analysis – data envelopment analysis (PCA-DEA) method. In particular, a survey was conducted to investigate KM practices and secondary data was used to evaluate financial performance. This research highlights that the adoption of different knowledge management practices (i.e., acquisition, documentation, creation, transfer and application) has a positive impact on the financial performance of global start-ups. The study contributes to the literature on international entrepreneurship, shedding light on the consequences of KM practices for global start-ups' financial performance, and provides guidelines for business owners, enabling them to understand better how knowledge management can facilitate the achievement of high levels of financial efficiency.