From personnel management to SHRM
Wright and McMahan define SHRM as the pattern of planned HR deployments and activities intended to enable an organisation to achieve its goals, shifting attention from individual functions to bundles of practices and organisational performance.
Three approaches
- Universalistic (best practice): some practices, such as employment security and selective hiring, work everywhere (Pfeffer).
- Contingency (best fit): practices must match strategy; Schuler and Jackson linked cost-leadership and innovation strategies to different role behaviours.
- Configurational: internally consistent bundles drive performance.
Vertical and horizontal fit
Vertical fit aligns HR with strategy; horizontal fit makes practices reinforce one another.
RBV and high-performance work systems
Under Barney's resource-based view, valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable human capital yields sustained advantage. Huselid found high-performance work practices associated with lower turnover and higher productivity and financial performance. The AMO model treats performance as a function of ability, motivation and opportunity to participate.
References
- Wright, P. M., & McMahan, G. C. (1992). Theoretical perspectives for strategic human resource management. Journal of Management, 18(2), 295-320.
- Delery, J. E., & Doty, D. H. (1996). Modes of theorizing in strategic human resource management. Academy of Management Journal, 39(4), 802-835.
- Barney, J. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 17(1), 99-120.
- Huselid, M. A. (1995). The impact of human resource management practices on turnover, productivity, and corporate financial performance. Academy of Management Journal, 38(3), 635-672.
- Schuler, R. S., & Jackson, S. E. (1987). Linking competitive strategies with human resource management practices. Academy of Management Executive, 1(3), 207-219.