According to W. Edwards Deming, American companies require nothing less than a transformation of management style and of governmental relations with industry. In Out of the Crisis, originally published in 1982, Deming offers a theory of management based on his famous 14 Points for Management. Management's failure to plan for the future, he claims, brings about loss of market, which brings about loss of jobs. Management must be judged not only by the quarterly dividend, but by innovative plans to stay in business, protect investment, ensure future dividends, and provide more jobs through improved product and service. In simple, direct language, he explains the principles of management transformation and how to apply them.

Out of the Crisis

Using a unique international data set from a 1989–90 survey of 62 automotive assembly plants, the author tests two hypotheses: that innovative HR practices affect performance not individually but as interrelated elements in an internally consistent HR “bundle” or system; and that these HR bundles contribute most to assembly plant productivity and quality when they are integrated with manufacturing policies under the “organizational logic” of a flexible production system. Analysis of the survey data, which tests three indices representing distinct bundles of human resource and manufacturing practices, supports both hypotheses. Flexible production plants with team-based work systems, “high-commitment” HR practices (such as contingent compensation and extensive training), and low inventory and repair buffers consistently outperformed mass production plants. Variables capturing two-way and three-way interactions among the bundles of practices are even better predictors of performance, supporting the integrati...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2524483.pdf

Human resource bundles and manufacturing performance: organizational logic and flexible production systems in the world auto industry

Theory building has lagged on the intermediate linkages responsible for the relationship between HRM and firm performance. We introduce the construct “strength of the HRM system” and describe the meta-features of an HRM system that result in a strong organizational climate, analogous to Mischel's “strong situation,” in which individuals share a common interpretation of what behaviors are expected and rewarded. The strength of the HRM system can help explain how individual employee attributes accumulate to affect organizational effectiveness.

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

Recognizing, that not all employees possess knowledge and skills that are of equal strategic importance, we draw on the resource-based view of the firm, human capital theory, and transaction cost economics to develop a human resource architecture of four different employment modes: internal development, acquisition, contracting, and alliance. We use this architecture to derive research questions for studying the relationships among employment modes, employment relationships, human resource configurations, and criteria for competitive advantage.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/259035.pdf

The Human Resource Architecture: Toward a Theory of Human Capital Allocation and Development

This study examines two alternative views—universal and contingency—of the human resources (HR)-performance relationship in manufacturing settings. Results from a survey of 97 plants primarily support a contingency approach to human resource management (HRM). An HR system focused on human capital enhancement was directly related to multiple dimensions of operational performance (i.e., employee productivity, machine efficiency, and customer alignment), but subsequent analysis revealed that this main effect was predominately the result of linking human-capital-enhancing HR systems with a quality manufacturing strategy. Other manufacturing strategies also moderated the HR-performance relationship.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/256714.pdf

Human resource management, manufacturing strategy, and firm performance

Should we do away with HR? In recent years, a number of people who study and write about business--along with many who run businesses--have been debating that question. The debate arises out of serious and widespread doubts about HR's contribution to organizational performance. Dave Ulrich acknowledges that HR, as it is configured today in many companies, is indeed ineffective, incompetent, and costly. But he contends that it has never been more necessary. The solution, he believes, is to create an entirely new role for the field that focuses it not on traditional HR activities, such as staffing and compensation, but on business results that enrich the company's value to customers, investors, and employees. Ulrich elaborates on four broad tasks for HR that would allow it to help deliver organizational excellence. First, HR should become a partner in strategy execution. Second, it should become an expert in the way work is organized and executed. Third, it should become a champion for employees. And fourth, it should become an agent of continual change. Fulfilling this agenda would mean that every one of HR's activities would in some concrete way help a company better serve its customers or otherwise increase shareholder value. Can HR transform itself on its own? Certainly not--in fact, the primary responsibility for transforming the role of HR, Ulrich says, belongs to the CEO and to every line manager who works with the HR staff. Competitive success is a function of organizational excellence, and senior managers must hold HR accountable for delivering it.

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A new mandate for human resources.

Human resource champions

A review of key research in strategic human resource management. Our "Routledge Companion to Strategic Human Resource Management" (Storey, Wright and Ulrich 2009) mapped the field in a fairly comprehensive manner. In this new, short-form, book we develop the argument that one of the crucial elements of organizational performance is the way work is organized. By ‘organized’ here we refer to the array of: skill/talent packages both within an organizations boundary and across global competency clusters; skill development, reward, talent flow, culture, etc. Second, we focus on current and emergent challenges. The ‘package’ of HR approaches has changed over time and patterns can be observed. Each age brings its own challenges and recipes for meeting those challenges. Hence, this new volume pays special regard to the HR implications arising from radically altering contexts – economic, social and technological.

Strategic Human Resource Management: A Research Overview

Many talk about measuring human resources (HR), but get lost because the issues are confusing. What to measure? How to measure it? When to measure? Where to measure? These questions make measurement of HR difficult. This article reviews the history of HR measurement; summarizes how HR measures may be done for professionals, practices, and functions; and offers specific guidelines for improving HR measures. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Dave Ulrich

Papers

A new mandate for human resources.

Human resource champions

Strategic Human Resource Management: A Research Overview

Measuring human resources: an overview of practice and a prescription for results

High-impact learning: Building and diffusing learning capability