Abstract[Excerpt] Strategic human resource management (SHRM) has emerged as a, if not the, major paradigm among scholars and practitioners in many parts of the world. This is apparent from the recent literature on international human resource management (e.g., Schuler, Dowling, and De Cieri, 1993), as well from recent reviews of trends in the U.S. (Dyer and Kochan, 1994), Canada (Betcherman, McMullen, Leckie, and Caron, 1994), and the U.K (Lundy, 1994 Strategic human resource management (SHRM) has emerged as a, if not the, major paradigm among scholars and practitioners in many parts of the world. This is apparent from the recent literature on international human resource management (e.g., Schuler, Dowling, and De Cieri, 1993), as well from recent reviews of trends in the U.S. (Dyer and Kochan, 1994), Canada (Betcherman, McMullen, Leckie, and Caron, 1994), and the U.K (Lundy, 1994).SHRM's spreading popularity owes much to an explicit promise of enhanced organizational effectiveness which can be achieved, according to the dominant models, by developing internally consistent bundles of human resource practices --human resource strategies --which are properly matched or linked to extant organizational contexts, most notably business strategies (Dyer and Kochan, 1994; Milliman, Von Glinow, and Nathan, 1991.The veracity of this promise is explored here. First, we briefly examine the logic of the underlying theories or assumptions and, then, review the applicable, albeit limited, research.The idea is to provide answers to the following questions:(
THE LOGIC AND PREVALENCE OF BUNDLINGHuman resource practices are said to be bundled when they occur in fairly complete, mutually reinforcing or synergistic sets (Dyer and Holder, 1988;Dyer and Kochan, 1994). The logic in favor of bundling is straightforward. First, since employee performance is a function of both ability and motivation, it makes sense to have practices aimed at enhancing both. Second, since employee performance is an "over-determined phenomenon" (Hackman, 1985), it is most likely to be maximized when influenced by non-independent activities which are deliberately redundant (MacDuffie, in press). Thus, best results should be obtained when there are several ways for employees to acquire needed skills (e.g., careful selection, on-and off-the-job training, Page 3 Begin's (1991) carefully crafted set of five "employment policy systems"; and Dunlop's (1994) elaboration of eight strategic types. (For a fuller review of this literature, see Dyer and Kochan, 1994).Similarly, the logic of bundling has inspired a small number of survey studies designed to derive taxonomies of human resource strategies (and to uncover the antecedents and consequences of the resulting configurations). Those of which we are aware are briefly described in Exhibit 1.
Exhibit 1: Characteristics of Significant Studies
AUTHOR SAMPLE METHODOLOGY ARTHUR (1994)30 steel minimills in the U.S. covers production and maintenance employeesData collected by surveying HR managers (except business strate...
