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date: 06 July 2022

Abstract and Keywords

The search for causal links between strategic HRM and business performance has dominated both academic and practitioner debate for over two decades. This article poses fundamental questions such as what is meant by performance, how an HR system is to be configured, how the causal chain between HR practices and performance outcomes is to be modeled, and what this means for research in the area. Most importantly, it challenges what we mean by human resource management. Recent research is reviewed to argue that culture, leadership, line manager behaviour, and operational management all need to fall within this area of interest. Before getting into the substance of these points, the article says something about the type of problems that have bedeviled research in the area.

Keywords: business performance, HRM, HR system, HR practices, performance outcomes, operational management, manager behavior

John Purcell

John Purcell is Associate Fellow of the Industrial Relations Research Unit at Warwick Business School, University of Warwick. He is Deputy Chairman of the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) and an Acas arbitrator. His main publications include Human Resource Management in the Multi-divisional Company (Oxford University Press, 1994) and Strategy and Human Resource Management (written with Peter Boxall) (Palgrave, 3rd edition, 2011) and the Oxford Handbook of HRM (Oxford University Press, 2007) edited with Peter Boxall and Patrick Wright. Recent research has been on the effect of people management practices on business performance, the role of front line managers in the delivery of effective people management, contingent workers and temporary work agencies and the impact of the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations. His book, written with Mark Hall, Consultation at Work: Regulation and Practice was published by Oxford University Press in 2012.

Nicholas Kinnie

Nicholas Kinnie is Reader in Human Resource Management in the School of Management at the University of Bath. His research concerns the links between HRM and organizational performance, the role of people management practices in professional service firms, and HRM in customer response centers, and he is the co-author of Understanding the People and Performance Link: Unlocking the Black Box (CIPD) with John Purcell, Sue Hutchinson, Bruce Rayton, and Juani Swart.

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