HRM and Performance: Achievements and Challenges

“‘Does HR enhance organizational success?’ is a question every organization leader, policy-maker, employee and management scholar must consider. This book is important reading, because it describes what decades of research tells us – and what it does not, featuring a worldwide group of the most respected and widely-published scholars in the HR field.”
—John Boudreau, University of South Carolina, South Carolina, USA

“This is a very timely book by an impressive array of international scholars. Here we have – in one neat package – the intellectual impetus and insights that will take the HR strategy literature to the next level.”
—Lee Dyer, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA

“This is a must read book for everyone researching the subject of human resource management and performance. Paauwe, Guest and Wright (three of the leaders in the field) have put together an excellent volume with an outstanding international cast of authors; it is a lucid and cogent coverage of the current state of research and sets up a rich agenda for future scholary endeavour. It will become the standard reference in this research area.”
—Adrian Wilkinson, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

The effective and sustainable management of employees has seldom before been more important. In the context of today’s challenging economic times this landmark international volume draws together the current global evidence about the relationship between human resource management (HRM) and organizational performance. Organizations have choices about how to manage all their resources and these include choices about both the priority they give to managing human resources and the strategy they adopt to manage their employees.

Current research consistently shows that irrespective of business strategy and context, there is a positive association between the adoption of more ‘progressive’, ‘high performance’; or ‘high commitment’ HR practices and organizational outcomes. The challenge, as the chapters in this book show, lies in providing a convincing explanation of this association so that we are in a good position to offer evidence-based advice about how organizations should manage employees to achieve the greatest benefits.

The volume provides a wealth of insight, richly illustrated by examples from a range of cultures and industries, into the ways in which human resource policy impacts upon organizational performance. The recurring themes highlighted by the book include debates about ‘human capital’, high-performance work systems, the role of implementation; and firm size and ‘fit’. The implications for policy and practice and priorities for future theory development and research are of interest to a broad range of stakeholders.

The Authors
The contributors include some of the leading international experts in the development of theory and research in the field of human resource management.

David Guest is Professor of Organizational Psychology and Human Resource Management in the Department of Management at King’s College London.

Jaap Paauwe is Professor of Human Resource Management at Tilburg University in The Netherlands.

Patrick Wright is Professor of Human Resource Management in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University.