Understanding HRM–Firm Performance Linkages: The Role of the “Strength” of the HRM System

“Considerable evidence indicates that individuals desire consistency in organizational life (e.g., Kelley, 1973; Lidz, 1973; Siehl, 1985).”

“Consistent with the notion of such configurations, there is theoretical work focusing on HRM system strength (Bowen and Ostroff 2004) which proposes that the consistent communication and implementation of HRM practices help create a strong HRM system.”

“Second, this double-bind communication involving two separate, contradictory messages, may result in cognitive dissonance, creating a stressful and uncertain situation for employees (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004).”

“Individuals are recognized and rewarded for their ideas and encouraged by HRM practices that signal that innovation is important and valued (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004).”

“As a test of our hypotheses, we selected the more prominent outcomes of interests to climate scholars (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004; Burke et al., 1992; Ostroff & Bowen, 2000; Ostroff et al., 2003; Schneider, Ehrhart, Mayer, Saltz, & Niles-Jolly, 2005; Schneider, White, & Paul, 1998); these include job…”

“However, not only is the HR practice–effectiveness relationship lacking investigation in existing studies (Bowen and Ostroff 2004), but a cross-level model combining HR practices and individual behavioral outcomes has rarely been proposed (e.”

“…2018 Australian HR Institute Research has suggested that a high-performance work system (HPWS) serves as an important component that enables firms to become more effective and gain core competitive advantages (Aryee et al. 2012; Bowen and Ostroff 2004; Liao et al. 2009).”

“This logic can be explained on the basis of Bowen and Ostroff (2004) propositions.”

“Sometimes heterogeneity is considered a sign of a poor emergence process (e.g., weak climates; Bowen & Ostroff, 2004); other times it is desired (e.g., when KSAOs are complementary to each other as in a surgery team).”

“Talent and leadership development practices may be described as performance-oriented practices rather than control-oriented practices and are more likely to be associated with important discretionary behaviours (Lado and Wilson 1994; Bowen and Ostroff 2004).”

“In general, for example, mean unit-level HR perception scores may be positively related to employee job satisfaction, but the strength of the relationship may depend on the consistency in HRM perceptions across individuals within groups (i.e., HRM strength; Bowen & Ostroff, 2004).”

“More specifically, employees' attitudes and behaviours in a response to the HRM system depend on how individuals perceive the practices in their working context (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004) rather than on what a manager says has been implemented.”

“These results lend credence to Cohen and Prusak (2001) and other researchers' largely prescriptive contentions that an association exists between OISC and beneficial work-related outcomes.”

“In addition, questions are raised as to whether these practices are universal (best practices) or contextual (best fit) and, if the latter, which are appropriate for achieving fit to the various contexts (Bowen and Ostroff 2004; Ferris et al. 1999).”

“…organisational support in the relationship between HPWS and employee creativity Perceived organisational support refers to employees’ evaluation of the extent to which their organisation values their contribution and cares about their well-being (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004; Eisenberger et al., 1986).”

“…align with the key components of employee commitment such as shared values and emotional bond between an individual and his/her employing organization, because they relay positive signals about the extent to which employees are integral to organizational success and growth (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004).”

“We posit that the distinct organizational social constituents may interact, simultaneously shaping employees’ collective perceptions of the social context and creating an overall effect that is greater than the sum of the individual facets (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004).”

“Bowen and Ostroff (2004) also argued that relevance is a function of perceived power to influence the work situation.”

“The two themes pertain to the conceptualization of HRM as a single or combination of practices and as a system of practices and have been extensively reported in the literature (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004; Lengnick-Hall et al., 2009).”

“In this we draw upon the theorization of Bowen and Ostroff (2004).”

“According to the author of [38], the impact of HRM practices on business execution can be seen in two ways.”

“…knowledge sharing The strategic human resource management (SHRM) literature suggests that a cohesive HR system shapes employees’ shared experiences (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004; Kehoe & Wright, 2013) and supports performance through the development of required employee capabilities and motivations…”

“In this context, there is likely to be less ambiguity with regard to the employees’ perceptions of the organisation, namely concerning the standards, policies, practices, procedures and goals (Bowen and Ostroff 2004; Dickson et al. 2006).”

“…preoccupied with metrics and measures, the nature of the causal mechanisms and processes that may govern any alleged empirical HRM-P link (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004; Dooreward and Melhuizen, 2000; Edwards and Wright, 2001; Elias and Scarbrough, 2004; Folger and Turillo, 1999; Hendry et al., 2000;…”

“This builds on the notion of horizontal and vertical fit of HRM systems (Paauwe & Farndale, 2017) as well as on the concept of HRM system strength (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004).”

“…perceptions of whether a HRM system is implemented out of a concern for organizational justice or only as a means to attract and retain qualified employees shape their attitudes, behaviours and performance at work in different ways (Bowen and Ostroff 2004; Nishii, Lepak and Schneider 2008).”

“Previous literature has roposed systems-based views of human resource manaement (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004), organisational talent anagement (King, 2015a) and of global talent management Collings et al., 2018).”

“In recent years, many suggestions have been made regarding the nature of this ‘black box’ [14,16], but most scholars emphasize the perceptions and experiences of employees as the main linking mechanism [12].”

“…& Wright, 1998) Top management support Needs limited support (e.g. Case E – only engage in incremental HRMIs due to limited support) Needs high level of support (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004; Elenkov & Manev, 2005; Khilji & Wang, 2006) Outcomes Conveys small but continuous performance improvements…”

“In the previous studies of HRM practices and organizational performance, employee retention, one of HRM Outcomes components has not been adequately covered (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004 and Collins & Smith, 2006).”

“Only in ‘strong HRM systems’, which send consistent messages, can individual mindsets ultimately become a shared and strong aggregate organizational climate (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004).”

“We recognize that a range of functions and stakeholders would ideally need to be investigated in order to adopt a multilevel firm-wide systems approach (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004; Wright & Haggerty, 2004), which our paper does not directly consider.”

“…(Lepak, Liao, Chung, & Harden, 2006), there is more agreement in the literature that strategically aligned HRM practices reflect the strategic objective(s) that such practices intend to achieve (e.g., see Becker & Huselid, 1998; Bowen & Ostroff, 2004; Chuang & Liao, 2010; Lepak et al., 2006).”

“…employees (De Simone, Hatsoploulos, O’Brien, Harris, & Holt, 1995), develop a climate of innovation (Abbey & Dickson, 1983; Anderson & West, 1998; Bowen & Ostroff, 2004), or generate new product ideas and new ways of doing tasks (Matthews, 2010) through employee voice and creativity, should see…”

“In understanding the effects of HR practice on individual outcomes, commentators have begun to recognize the importance of climate as a key explanatory variable (c.f. Bowen and Ostroff 2004).”

“The first of these subgroups includes the following 10 documents, all of which are research papers except for the work of Becker (1964): Bowen and Ostroff (2004), Wright, Gardner, Moynihan, and Allen (2005), Osterman (1994), Walton (1985), Wright and Boswell (2002), Gerhart, Wright, Mahan, and…”

“Group members develop a common interpretation regarding behaviors that are expected and rewarded (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004; Mischel, 1973, 1977).”

“On the contrary, HR practices that are well-aligned with each other and follow clear strategic goals are believed to show a particularly powerful joint effect (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004; Minbaeva, 2013; Foss et al., 2015).”

“Bowen and Ostroff (2004) describe a strong HR system as one that unambiguously creates an environment that endorses certain kinds of behavior.”

“In light of Kelley’s (1973) covariation model of attribution, some scholars, among whom Bowen and Ostroff (2004) pioneered, have underscored the importance of employees’ perceptions towards the strength of the HR system in triggering their engagement and behaviours.”

“, 2001) and organizational climate (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004) mediating effects between HRM activities and company performance.”

“2018), the theoretical grounding of HRM implementation research so far has been based either on very HRM-specific frameworks such as HRM system strength (Bowen and Ostroff 2004) and intended– actual–perceived (Wright and Nishii 2013), or on much broader theories such as social exchange or sensemaking.”

“Theory and research linking HR activities and performance inherently assumes multilevel relationships (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004), and both a networks lens and relational identity theory allow for a multilevel exploration of HR’s impact on work relationships.”

“As Bowen and Ostroff (2004) argue, the visibility of the strategic practices in question (i.e., the degree to which the HSMS are salient and readily observable) is a basic prerequisite for worker interpretation and sensemaking of the strategy.”

“One way in which fuller implementation of HR practices might be achieved has been proposed by Bowen and Ostroff (2004) who have outlined the conditions necessary to enact what they describe as a ‘strong HR system’.”

“Experts postulate that features that define organisational social climate affect personal attitudes and behaviours and, as a result, organisational performance [184-186].”

“…competitive pay, morale, labor productivity, customer satisfaction It is commonly believed that investing in employees can yield positive performance-related outcomes for organizations (Becker & Huselid, 2006; Bowen & Ostroff, 2004; Heskett, Sasser, & Schlesinger, 2003; Likert & Bowers, 1969).”

“The results of our study are in line with the HRM literature that suggests that consistency of signals that are sent from both HRM systems and processes and leadership behaviour, are important for employees’ reactions and attitudes (cf., Bowen & Ostroff, 2004).”

“This framework has been successfully applied to understand HR (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004; Sanders & Yang, 2016) and organizational change issues (Nguyen et al., 2019; Sanders & Rafferty, in press).”

“Similarly, Sanders and Yang (2016) found high-commitment HR practices were related 1 Although not consistent with Bowen and Ostroff (2004), we follow Ostroff and Bowen (2016, p. 197) and refer to distinctiveness, consistency, and consensus as the metafeatures and to visibility, understandability,…”

“As employee response, in terms of attitudes and of behaviour, is generated on the basis of their perception (Bowen and Ostroff 2004), there have been calls in the literature for further work to take these perceptions into consideration (Kehoe and Wright 2013; Nishii and Wright 2008).”

“…behaviour in the workplace is a key driver of business success;78 (2) Green HRM practices’ factors predict how they will influence workers’ actions (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004; Nishii et al); and (3) In the workplace, green HRM practices may affect employee outcomes through certain basic mechanism,30…”