Individualism and collectivism

Drawing on the ability-motivation-opportunity model, this meta-analysis examined the effects of three dimensions of HR systems—skills-enhancing, motivation-enhancing, and opportunity-enhancing—on p...

How Does Human Resource Management Influence Organizational Outcomes? A Meta-analytic Investigation of Mediating Mechanisms

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.

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Commonalities and contradictions in HRM and performance research

Change management experts have emphasized the importance of establishing organizational readiness for change and recommended various strategies for creating it. Although the advice seems reasonable, the scientific basis for it is limited. Unlike individual readiness for change, organizational readiness for change has not been subject to extensive theoretical development or empirical study. In this article, I conceptually define organizational readiness for change and develop a theory of its determinants and outcomes. I focus on the organizational level of analysis because many promising approaches to improving healthcare delivery entail collective behavior change in the form of systems redesign--that is, multiple, simultaneous changes in staffing, work flow, decision making, communication, and reward systems. Organizational readiness for change is a multi-level, multi-faceted construct. As an organization-level construct, readiness for change refers to organizational members' shared resolve to implement a change (change commitment) and shared belief in their collective capability to do so (change efficacy). Organizational readiness for change varies as a function of how much organizational members value the change and how favorably they appraise three key determinants of implementation capability: task demands, resource availability, and situational factors. When organizational readiness for change is high, organizational members are more likely to initiate change, exert greater effort, exhibit greater persistence, and display more cooperative behavior. The result is more effective implementation. The theory described in this article treats organizational readiness as a shared psychological state in which organizational members feel committed to implementing an organizational change and confident in their collective abilities to do so. This way of thinking about organizational readiness is best suited for examining organizational changes where collective behavior change is necessary in order to effectively implement the change and, in some instances, for the change to produce anticipated benefits. Testing the theory would require further measurement development and careful sampling decisions. The theory offers a means of reconciling the structural and psychological views of organizational readiness found in the literature. Further, the theory suggests the possibility that the strategies that change management experts recommend are equifinal. That is, there is no 'one best way' to increase organizational readiness for change.

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A theory of organizational readiness for change.

We review and reconceptualize “intuition,” defining intuitions as affectively charged judgments that arise through rapid, nonconscious, and holistic associations. In doing so, we delineate intuition from other decision-making approaches (e.g., insight, rational). We also develop a model and propositions that incorporate the role of domain knowledge, implicit and explicit learning, and task characteristics on intuition effectiveness. We close by suggesting directions for future research on intuition and its applications to managerial decision making. The human brain can be a magnificent synthesizer of disparate pieces of nebulous information, and often formal techniques and procedures thwart and inhibit this mysterious mechanism from operating efficiently (Raiffa, 1968: 272).

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Exploring Intuition and its Role in Managerial Decision Making

Although intuitive processes are critical for effective strategic decision making, there is little in the way of applied research on the topic. Apart from many popularized treatments of intuition in the literature today, there are only a handful of serious scholarly works on the subject. The majority of them are essentially theoretical in nature; field research in management settings is virtually nonexistent. This study examined this neglected but important process in strategic decision making. We surveyed senior managers of companies representing computer, banking, and utility industries in the United States and found that intuitive processes are used often in organizational decision making. Use of intuitive synthesis was found to be positively associated with organizational performance in an unstable environment, but negatively so in a stable environment.

The Role of Intuition in Strategic Decision Making

Brain drain: inclination to stay abroad after studies

Employee turnover is giving sleepless nights to HR managers in many countries in Asia. A widely-held belief in these countries is that employees have developed 'bad' attitudes due to the labour shortage. Employees are believed to job-hop for no reason, or even for fun. Unfortunately, despite employee turnover being such a serious problem in Asia, there is a dearth of studies investigating it; in particular studies using a comprehensive set of variables are rare. This study examines three sets of antecedents of turnover intention in companies in Singapore: demographic, controllable and uncontrollable. Singapore companies provide an appropriate setting as their turnover rates are among the highest in Asia. Findings of the study suggest that organisational commitment, procedural justice and a job-hopping attitude were three main factors associated with turnover intention in Singapore companies.

Explaining employee turnover in an Asian context

We see two major streams of research in the strategic human resource management literature: (1) the link between strategy and human resource (HR) practices and (2) the link between HR practices and firm performance. There is a plethora of theoretical perspectives on the first link. Unfortunately, there is not much empirical work. The second link has seen a spate of empirical studies. However, most of them embrace the universal perspective and the role of strategy as a contingency has not been adequately addressed. This could potentially result in the underestimation of the impact of HR practices on organizational performance. This study addressed the above two weaknesses in previous research in the strategic HR management field. Using a sample of about 200 of the largest companies representing all major industries in Singapore, we found that organizational strategy affects HR practices. Moreover, findings suggest that the strategy-HR interaction accounts for more variation in firm performance than the mai...

Managing human resource for competitive advantage: a study of companies in Singapore

Background A prevailing blame culture in health care has been suggested as a major source of an unacceptably high number of medical errors. A just culture has emerged as an imperative for improving the quality and safety of patient care. However, health care organizations are finding it hard to move from a culture of blame to a just culture. Purpose We argue that moving from a blame culture to a just culture requires a comprehensive understanding of organizational attributes or antecedents that cause blame or just cultures. Health care organizations need to build organizational capacity in the form of human resource (HR) management capabilities to achieve a just culture. Methodology This is a conceptual article. Health care management literature was reviewed with twin objectives: (a) to ascertain if a consistent pattern existed in organizational attributes that lead to either blame or just cultures and (2) to find out ways to reform a blame culture. Conclusions On the basis of the review of related literature, we conclude that (a) a blame culture is more likely to occur in health care organizations that rely predominantly on hierarchical, compliance-based functional management systems; (b) a just or learning culture is more likely to occur in health organizations that elicit greater employee involvement in decision making; and (c) human resource management capabilities play an important role in moving from a blame culture to a just culture. Practice implications Organizational culture or human resource management practices play a critical role in the health care delivery process. Health care organizations need to develop a culture that harnesses the ideas and ingenuity of health care professional by employing a commitment-based management philosophy rather than strangling them by overregulating their behaviors using a control-based philosophy. They cannot simply wish away the deeply entrenched culture of blame nor can they outsource their way out of it. Health care organizations need to build internal human resource management capabilities to bring about the necessary changes in their culture and management systems and to become learning organizations.

Naresh Khatri

Papers

The Role of Intuition in Strategic Decision Making

Brain drain: inclination to stay abroad after studies

Explaining employee turnover in an Asian context

Managing human resource for competitive advantage: a study of companies in Singapore

From a blame culture to a just culture in health care.