What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

Although there is growing evidence that high performance work practices (HPWPs) affect organizational performance, varying sample characteristics, research designs, practices examined, and organizational performance measures used has led extant findings to vary dramatically, making the size of the overall effect difficult to estimate. We use meta-analysis to estimate the effect size and test whether effects are larger for (a) HPWP systems versus individual practices, (b) operational versus financial performance measures, and (c) manufacturing versus service organizations. Statistical aggregation of 92 studies reveals an overall correlation that we estimate at .20. Also, the relationship is stronger when researchers examine systems of HPWPs and among manufacturers, but it appears invariant across performance measures. We use our findings as a basis to offer 4 suggestions intended to shape research practices such that future meta-analyses might answer today's emerging questions.

/pdf/how-much-do-high-performance-work-practices-matter-a-meta-4etlfdy6p4.pdf

How much do high-performance work practices matter? a meta-analysis of their effects on organizational performance

There is a growing body of evidence supporting an association between what are termed high performance or high commitment human resource management (HRM) practices and various measures of organizational performance. However, it is not clear why this association exists. This paper argues that to provide a convincing explanation of this association we need to improve our theoretical and analytic frameworks in three key areas. These are the nature of HRM, and especially the rationale for the specific lists of HR practices; the nature of organizational performance; and the linkage between HRM and performance. A model is presented within which to explore these linkages. The existing literature on HRM and performance is reviewed in the light of this analysis to identify key gaps in knowledge and help to focus further the research priorities.

Human resource management and performance: a review and research agenda

This is an overview of what the authors believe to be every empirical research article into the linkages between HRM and performance published in pre-eminent international refereed journals between 1994 and 2003. The analysis covers the design of the study, including the primary level of analysis and the identity of the respondents; the dominant theoretical framework(s) informing the article; how HRM is conceived and operationalised; how performance is conceived and operationalised; and which control and/or contingency variables are incorporated. Finally, the article examines how each study depicts the so-called 'black box' stage between HRM and performance. It reports wide disparities in the treatment of these components, but also some welcome commonalities and indicative trends that point towards a gradual convergence on how future research into this complex relationship might usefully be conducted. The findings are compared with previous reviews of the literature. The analysis should illuminate the ongoing debate about the linkages between HRM and performance, and prove valuable for future research designs.

/pdf/commonalities-and-contradictions-in-hrm-and-performance-1mbxzpyrdr.pdf

Commonalities and contradictions in HRM and performance research

Taking a relational perspective on the employment relationship, we examined processes (mediation and moderation) linking high-performance human resource practices and productivity and turnover, two indicators of organizational performance. Multilevel analysis of data from hotels in the People's Republic of China revealed that service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) partially mediated the relationships between high-performance human resource practices and both performance indicators. Unemployment rate moderated the service-oriented OCB-turnover relationship, and business strategy (service quality) moderated the service-oriented OCB-productivity relationship. Copyright of the Academy of Management, all rights reserved.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/20159873.pdf

High-Performance Human Resource Practices, Citizenship Behavior, and Organizational Performance: A Relational Perspective

This article examines the relationship between human resource management and performance in the UK hotel industry. Using data from over 200 hotels, the results demonstrate, first, that the relationship between HRM and performance is dependent upon the business strategy the hotel is pursuing; second, that hotels pursuing an HRM approach coupled with a quality focus within their business strategy perform best; and, finally, that HRM is more likely to contribute to competitive success where it is introduced as an integrated and coherent package, or bundle of practices.

Human Resource Management and Performance in the UK Hotel Industry

Although the productivity and survival of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) may be enhanced if they adopt human resource management (HRM) practices, there is a far greater degree of informality in employment practices in SMEs than in larger workplaces. The aim of this paper is to assess the extent to which a range of factors both internal and external to the workplace predict the extent to which HRM practices have been adopted in SMEs. Using data from the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey, the analysis reveals that differences in workforce skill-mix, unionization and the customer base are important influences, with the first of these influences being particularly strong. As such, we suggest SMEs may lack the capability to develop HRM practices, but they are more likely to adopt such practices if they employ highly skilled employees and are networked to other organizations

HRM in the SME sector: valuable employees and coercive networks

This article evaluates the nature and incidence of equal opportunities (EO) policies in the UK using data from the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey (WERS 98).The article identifies the types of workplaces that are more likely to adopt formal gender, ethnicity, disability and age policies. It then assesses whether the policies are ‘substantive’ or merely ‘empty shells’: first, by evaluating the extent to which workplaces that have adopted EO policies have also adopted supporting EO practices; and second, by evaluating the proportion of employees who have access to EO practices in workplaces where they have been adopted. On balance, the ‘empty shell’ argument is more convincing. Smaller workplaces, private sector workplaces and workplaces without an HR or personnel specialist are identified as being more likely to have an ‘empty shell’ policy.While unionized workplaces are more likely to have a formal policy, those policies are no less likely to constitute ‘empty shells’. Finally, the policy, econom...

Equal opportunities policy and practice in Britain : evaluating the 'empty shell' hypothesis

David Guest, who is Professor of Occupational Psychology at Birkbeck College, and Kim Hoque, who is Research Officer in the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics and Political Science, draw on a postal survey of nearly 350 new establishments to consider their propensity to unionise, to adopt practices associated with HRM, and to deliver a number of performance outcomes. Key findings are that not only were there examples of the ‘good’, the ‘bad’ and the ‘ugly’ so far as practice generally was concerned, but also that those establishments which used HRM practices extensively tended to report better results in terms of a number of both employee relations and performance outcomes.

The good, the bad and the ugly : employment relations in new non-union workplaces

Over the past decade, important changes have occurred in the occupational mix of the non-standard workforce, with a rising number of professionals and managers entering part-time and temporary forms of employment. However, while this shift is widely acknowledged, there remains some confusion regarding its consequences. One strand in the literature argues that, at higher occupational levels, the tendency for non-standard employees to experience marginalization at work will be far less pronounced or non-existent. A second strand argues that, regardless of occupational level, workers on part-time and temporary contracts will be treated unequally in various ways. In this article our aim is to explore this matter, drawing on data from the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey. The analysis reveals that managers and professionals on non-standard contracts do become marginalized in terms of training opportunities and consultation at work, and that these outcomes are especially strong in the case of women. Finally, the managerial, national-level training policy and legal implications of the findings are discussed.

Kim Hoque

Papers

Human Resource Management and Performance in the UK Hotel Industry

HRM in the SME sector: valuable employees and coercive networks

Equal opportunities policy and practice in Britain : evaluating the 'empty shell' hypothesis

The good, the bad and the ugly : employment relations in new non-union workplaces

Non-Standard Employment in the Management and Professional Workforce: Training, Consultation and Gender Implications