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).”

“…cite this article as: Brewster, C., et al., Crossing the streams:HRM inmultinational enterprises and comparative HRM,Human Resource Management Review (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2016.04.002 which in turn, go towards creating strong/weak organisational climates (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004).”

“This is unfortunate, as job performance is one of the most important variables in organizational behavior and is critical for organizational success (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004).”

“…– are crucial to achieving ambidexterity, considering that HR practices serve to guide, govern and control the behavior of employees so that they accomplish the firm’s goals according to the corporate strategy (e.g. Bowen & Ostroff, 2004; Lepak, Liao, Chung, & Harden, 2006; Wright & Snell, 1998).”

“Nonetheless, in terms of practical relevance, we can follow the logic of those in social science generally (Coleman, 1990), and HRM in particular (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004), in arguing that the approach presented offers a useful and pragmatic basis for understanding the development of dynamic capabilities for innovatio…”

“Third, peer controls that make prescribed behaviors more salient heighten team members’ awareness and direct their attention to these behaviors (Bowen and Ostroff 2004).”

“Bowen and Ostroff (2004) assert that climate constitutes a key mediating factor in the HR–performance relationship.”

“Secondly, we acknowledge the further shift towards strong HRM systems premised on HRM bundles and sets of integrated practices as well as their outcomes for individuals and organizations (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004).”

“Bowen and Ostroff (2004) argue that when employees perceive HRM as distinctive and consistent and perceive consensus, this results in a strong organisational climate in which individuals share a common interpretation of what behaviours are expected and rewarded.”

“Bowen and Ostroff (2004) have developed these arguments further, by claiming that HRM practices are a means for management to communicate substantive and symbolic messages that employees use to make sense of their work environment.”

“The respondents are chosen based on their contribution to HRD practice and resource allocation (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004; Järlström et al., 2018).”

“Bowen and Ostroff (2004) classic work on HR system strength draws concepts such as visibility, distinctiveness and consistency, all of which have great applicability to the smaller firm context e.g. by accommodating informality, examining the function of HR practices and capturing concentrated…”

“In general, the HRM and individual outcomes research area has focused on short-term effects with little research that takes into account longitudinal effects (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004).”

“It helps in achieving the organization’s goals (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004).”

“Research on strategic human resource management (SHRM) has suggested that high-performance work systems (HPWS) enable firms to become more effective and gain core competitive advantage (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004; Takeuchi et al., 2007; Liao et al., 2009).”

“…to HR practices, we answer the call to go beyond simple descriptions of how organisations are implementing Lean Thinking , that is characteristic of operations management accounts, and provide more depth to orthodox assessments of Lean Thinking (Bowen and Ostroff 2004; Kehoe and Wright 2013).”

“Because employees’ perceptions of HRM practices play an important role in translating HRM practices into desired organizational outcomes (Bowen and Ostroff 2004; Nishii, Lepak, and Schneider 2008), there may be a discrepancy between HRM practices intended by the organization and those actually experienced by employees…”

“…et al., 2020), our second contribution is that our study engages in theory-building by developing a conceptual framework based on insights from the dynamic P-E fit lens (Sylva et al., 2019), the work stressor framework (Podsakoff et al., 2007), and the HRM-climate debate (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004).”

“Therefore, in light of the aforementioned gap and suggestions given by contemporary scholars (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004; Chang and Chen, 2011; Obeidat et al., 2016), this research explicates the roles of three AMO-derived elements, namely human capital, motivation and voice, as mediators in the HPWS–innovation relations…”

“The strategic perspective of HRM and the systems approach of designing HR practices are the two most dominant research approaches on HRM-firm performance linkage (Bowen and Ostroff 2004).”

“Following that rationale of Bowen and Ostroff (2004), we hypothesise that: Hypothesis 1: The more employees perceive HRM systems as being distinctive (H1a), consistent (H1b), and achieving consensus (H1c), the more employees show affective commitment.”

“The consistency dimension assessed here is a key factor in HRM effectiveness (Baron & Kreps, 1999; Bowen & Ostroff, 2004).”

“…not merely on either HRM professionals (Rynes, Colbert, & Brown, 2002), managers (Nehles et al., 2006; Op de Beeck et al., 2016), or employees (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004; Nishii et al., 2008), but on the role of all organisational actors (managers at several organisational levels, HRM…”

“…academic commentaries have emphasized, unique insights into the interaction of HR practices with knowledge mobilization are likely to be gleaned from the study of employees, rather than the HR function itself (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004; Kehoe & Wright, 2013; Piening, in press; Wright & Boswell, 2002).”

“This line of reasoning assumes that satisfaction with HR practices is viewed by employees as organization’s commitment towards them, which is then reciprocated back to the organization by employees through positive behaviors (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004; Kinnie et al, 2005) like employee engagement.”

“In the psychological contract theory, managers are often seen as representatives of the organization giving signals to employees about the state of the psychological contract (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004).”

“HR activities serve a signaling function; they communicate what an organization values by demonstrating how issues related to human resources are prioritized and addressed (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004).”

“The field of HR has awoken to the potential of attribution theory to advance our understanding of employees' responses to workplace practices (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004; Nishii et al., 2008).”

“Considering employees’ attitudes and behaviors are generated on the basis of their perception (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004), some research calls for considering the effect of employees’ HR perceptions (Boxall, 2012; Guest, 2011; Kehoe & Wright, 2013).”

“Consistent with previous research, we further confirm that when confronted with the same HR practices, different employees may respond differently (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004).”

“…role of social capital-enhancing HRP Human resource management practices typically refer to a set of consistent policies and practices within an organization that is designed to ensure that the organization’s human capital contributes to achieving its business goals (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004).”

“Further on, consistent HR practices help developing similar cognitive maps and common interpretations among employees (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004), that also facilitate exchange and recombination of existing knowledge and maintain the boundaries of the knowledge domain as relatively narrow.”

“…is also likely to reinforce and strengthen the effects of diversity climate by providing salient evidence of the overall support for diversity in an organization and consequently reinforcing employees’ perception of effective diversity management (e.g., Bowen & Ostroff, 2004; Ross & Nisbett, 1991).”

“As previously noted, climate perceptions are shaped by the policies, practices, and procedures that direct employee behavior at work, including HR practices used by the organization, the behaviors exhibited by managers, and the ways in which jobs are designed (Bowen and Ostroff 2004).”

“This is consistent with Bowen and Ostroff’s (2004) contention that both the content and processes of communicating HR practices (and related attributions) influence employee interpretations.”

“…between HRMP and EVLN Given a desired content, the HRM system may still not elicit appropriate collective behaviors needed for effectiveness, because individuals will interpret the HRMP, forming psychological climate perceptions (Bowen and Ostroff 2004), and then choose their responses.”

“…& Ostroff (2004), who claim that a strong human resource management system has a signalling effect about ‘what is important and what behaviours are expected and rewarded’ (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004, p. 205), and assume that the same signalling effect can be applied to the case of intellectual capital.”

“For instance, some phenomena within the “black box” only manifest at the unit-level, such as conflict, climate, and cohesiveness (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004; Wech, Mossholder, Steel, & Bennett, 1998).”

“If the aim of HR practices within organizations is to increase employee commitment, then well-designed HR practices will send signals to employees through giving a strong perception of organizational support (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004).”

“As evidence accumulates on the beneficial effects of HR systemwith firm performance (Huselid, 1995; see Lepak, Liao, Chung and Harden, 2006 for a review), scholars also begin to explore why HR systems may enhance organizational outcomes (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004).”

“…relationship, employee perceptions of human resource (HR) practices of their employing organization influence their commitment to the organization (Kinnie, et al., 2005), which, in turn, influences their organizational citizenship behaviour (Van Dyne et al., 1994; Bowen & Ostroff, 2004).”

“Thus, in accordance with the signaling theory of HRM and the process-based approach to HRM (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004; Sanders and Yang, 2016), it may be argued that performance appraisal, as perceived by employees, might act as an important signal in digitally transforming organizations subject to an…”

“This topic is of great importance in many models that seek to improve employee well-being [27] and organisational efficiency [28].”

“When organizations adopt employee-friendly HR practices, employees consider it as the organization’s commitment towards them which they try to reciprocate through their supportive actions (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004; Kinnie, Hutchinson, Purcell, Rayton, & Swart, 2005), that is, employee engagement.”

“SHRM focuses on issues such as the fit between human resource practices and organizational strategic management, the involvement of the HR function in senior management teams, the devolvement of HR practices to line managers and the value that is added to organizational performance by HRM (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004).”

“Research has continued to emphasize the value that can be added when there is consistency, complementarity or connection between HRM areas and the problem that can occur when this is not the case (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004).”

“…preoccupied with empirical techniques, the nature of the causal mechanisms and processes that may govern the relation between HRM and performance (e.g. Bowen & Ostroff 2004; Boxall 2003; Elias & Scarbrough 2004; Edwards & Wright 2001; Harney & Dundon 2006; Murphy & Southey 2003; Pauwe 2003 &…”

“For example, some are strategic while others are more general (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004).”

“Formal HRM practices stimulate employees’ job attitudes such as job satisfaction, and subsequently their performance.(38,52) This is widely supported by norms of reciprocity that imply that favors gained in the form of supportive behavior from the boss, fair rewards, and feedback on performance satisfy employees, and…”

“…1991) organisational commitment (Saunders et al., 2008; Organ, 1988; Eisenberger, 1990; Wayne et al., 1997) HRM performance (KnightTurvey, 2005; Bowen and Ostroff, 2004; Delaney and Huselid, 1996) and finally organisational performance (Neal et al., 2005: Collins and Smith, 2006; Kangis et…”

“Bowen and Ostroff (2004) argued that “an organizational climate can act as a strong situation when employees develop a shared interpretation of the Perceived investment in permanent”