PhD Defence: Crossing Borders with HRM

Should we copy the American way of doing business? Have we learned enough from research conducted in the manufacturing sector to effectively manage our human resources in other sectors like the service sector? In her PhD dissertation entitled ‘<link doctoral-programme phd-in-management phd-projects detail>Crossing Borders with HRM: An Inquiry of the Influence of Contextual Differences in the Adoption and Effectiveness of HRM’, Daina Konter looks into the relevance of context in the adoption and effectiveness of HR practices.

This dissertation deals with two different types of fit regarding HR practices, each relating to one half of the study. The first part deals with the measurement of HRM, focussing on the main principle of internal fit, which is that a combination of HR practices is expected to have a greater influence on performance than any single isolated HR practice. There are different ways in which the bundling of HR practices can be approached, which means that there is not one consistent way in which HR bundles are constructed.

Two ways of bundling proved useful for further analyses: HRM bundled from a numerative perspective and HRM bundled from a classification perspective. The first way of bundling represents an amount measurement of HRM (more is better). This is a quantitative approach to bundling.

The second approach to bundling is a qualitative approach. Cluster analyses provided a meaningful classification of HRM into five different clusters, labelled as Extensive HRM (widespread), Relational HRM (strong relationships), Basic HRM (orderly & customary), Accommodating HRM (person centred) and Sophisticated HRM (formal and advanced). A distinctive feature of relational HRM, for example, is that ‘personal contact’ is considered to be important in the recruitment of all staff categories (senior management, middle management as well as operational staff).

In the second part of this dissertation the adoption and effectiveness of HRM are examined. This part is based on the concept of environmental fit, which designates a fit between HR practices and the organization’s (institutional) environment. Results indicated differences in the adoption of HRM bundles are present across different business systems as well as sectors. For example, the research shows that accommodating HRM (person centred) is mainly found in compartmentalized business systems (e.g. USA) as well as collaborative & highly coordinated business systems (e.g. the Netherlands).

Konter’s findings support the hypothesis that the effectiveness of HRM bundles varies between business systems as well as between sectors. She therefore concludes that valuable research could be conducted on contextual differences in effectiveness of HRM bundles.

The main conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that relationships in specific contexts (such as the manufacturing industry or the USA or UK) will not always hold in other contexts as well. It is therefore worthwhile to consider the institutional context in which an organization operates. It is in this spirit that a debate of ‘best practice’ versus ‘best fit’ is suggested in the concluding parts of the dissertation.

Konter defended her dissertation at Erasmus University Rotterdam on Friday 24 January, 2014. Her supervisor was <link people jaap-paauwe>professor Jaap Paauwe and her co-supervisor was Dr. L.H. Hoeksema. Other members of the Doctoral Committee were professor Riccardo Peccei (King’s College London), <link people roy-thurik>professor Roy Thurik, and professor Bert van der Knaap (both of Erasmus University Rotterdam).

About Daina Konter

Daina Konter (Leiderdorp, the Netherlands,1975) received her Masters of Science degree in business economics, ´organisation and management´ from Rotterdam school of economics (Erasmus University Rotterdam) in 2000. During her studies she worked as a student assistant at the department of Organisation. Due to her study as well as her work for the department she became enthusiastic about researching. She pursued her fascination with the topic Human Resource Management (HRM) and performance. While completing her PhD, the focus of her research switched from an investigation of time lagged effectiveness to the (institutional) context of HRM. The increased global connectivity urges us to look across borders. International research represents a challenging undertaking. This kind of large-scale research therefore benefits from partnership between researchers and practitioners. A partner was found in the IBM Business Consulting Services, Human Capital Management Practice. IBM regurlarly collects benchmarking information. Daina has presented papers at various international conferences, including the Academy of Management and the International Conferences of the Dutch HRM network. She has also been involved in thesis supervision at both graduate and undergraduate level and has tought courses on organization, human resource management and consultancy. Daina currently works as a business consultant to the Deputy Secretary General at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.

Abstract of Crossing Borders with HRM: An Inquiry of the Influence of Contextual Differences in the Adoption and Effectiveness of HRM

The increased global connectivity urges us to look across borders, for previous boundaries may have been broken down or on the contrary have become more visible. In this thesis we explore what it means to cross borders with human resource management (HRM). Many believe in the virtues of the American way of doing business, but does this also mean that the American way of doing business is applicable in other countries? Human resource studies furthermore started in the manufacturing sector, while considerable differences can be expected for other sectors like the service sector. By moving research from Anglo-American countries and the manufacturing sector to a broader context, national and sector borders are crossed. On both the national and the sector level formal institutions have a crucial role in the adoption and effectiveness of HR practices. We have examined whether organizations across different institutional contexts embrace different ways of managing human resources and whether different results can be achieved. Even though our research provides support for the relevance of a fit of HRM with its context, the importance of best practices can not be discarded. Both aspects are important to consider in future research when studying HRM and performance in a globalizing world. By providing useful insights for practitioners this research can finally also crossover from academia back to practice.

Photos: Chris Gorzeman / Capital Images