Cristina Simón

The limits of institutional isomorphism in the design of e-recruitment websites: a comparative analysis of the USA and Spain

The purpose of this study is to run a comparative analysis of the recruitment websites of the largest national companies of two different countries, Spain (companies within the IBEX 35 stock market index) and the USA (companies within the Dow Jones stock market index). Using an e-recruiting taxonomy of best practices with 27 attributes, we test the extent to which the selection of specific functionalities reflects different types of isomorphic relations due to socio-economic, technological or cultural forces. Our results show that (i) there is a high level of homogeneity within the two groups as regards the selection of e-recruitment attributes included in their websites and (ii) there are significant differences between DJIA and IBEX 35 e-recruitment attributes, showing low levels of alikeness among their websites. Results are discussed in terms of the institutional forces that may drive companies toward isomorphism in the design of their e-recruitment attributes and content.

Competitiveness and the employment relationship in Europe: Is there a global missing link in HRM?

Competitiveness is an often ill-defined concept that is key to economic success. This chapter focuses on the links between competitiveness and the employment relationship (ER). It ranks European countries by their specialization in high-technology, skilled labor sectors to yield a competitiveness ranking and examines workers’ values and attitudes to identify common ER features of the “competitive” countries. Results show that workers in competitive countries enjoy greater flexibility and autonomy. Some conclusions are raised regarding what companies can do from the HRM perspective to optimize employee capabilities, leading to more productive and competitive working environments.

A Case Study Approach to Exploring the Relationship between Human Resources Management and Firm Performance

Research in the field of Strategic Human Resource Management (SRHM) has been especially wide and fruitful for the last two decades. Most of the work, however, has long been relied on cross-sectional studies and single respondent survey (SRSM) techniques. Models produced so far hence do not discuss the impact of people management practices over individuals and the relations among employees outcomes and business unit or corporate results. The present paper presents a quantitative case study of a large financial services organization and explores the possible links among HR and individual and business unit levels of performance. Though being highly exploratory, the study raises a set of issues that might challenge some of the SHRM well-established statements such as the assumption of a direct, linear relationship between HR practices and business results, or the use of financial ratios as suitable indicators of the efficiency of people management practices.

An Implementation-Based Approach to SHRM: the Concept of HR Practice Intensity and its Relationship to Individual Performance

The present work intends to open new avenues for research under this implementation-based approach. In an exploratory analysis, we propose and test a type of measure, the intensity of HR practices implementation at the individual level, that has been barely used in the HRM-performance literature (Boselie et al, 2005; Paauwe and Boselie, 2005; Dorenbosch and Van Veldhoven, 2006). To this purpose, we work over the complete ERP-based datasets of two companies from different industries (banking and IT) which comprise the quantification of the impact of a set of HR practices on an individual employee level.

Antecedents of Line Manager Engagement: The Effect of Formal HR Practices on Middle- and Upper-Middle Executives

Using a longitudinal, multi-method study of a sample of 141 managers in 9 companies belonging to the same corporation, this paper examines the role of different dimensions of implementation of HR practices on line managers’ levels of engagement. The study empirically examines the implementation of formal HR practices in terms of their presence, coverage, and visibility, as well as their internal fit and perceived external fit as possible antecedents of employee engagement among middle- and upper-middle level executives (line managers) of a diversified group of companies. The findings suggest that the levels of coverage and perceived external fit of HR practices (i.e., the extent to which such practices directly support the implementation of a company’s strategy) positively relate to managerial engagement. Furthermore, the degree of implementation of opportunity-creating HR practices predicts manager engagement better than motivation-focused HR practices do. We discuss these results in the framework of Social Exchange Theory (SET).

Voluntary Turnover and Unit Performance:Test and Extension of Context-Emergent Turnover Theory

In a partial test and extension of context-emergent turnover (CET) theory, the authors examined the relationship between voluntary turnover rates and unit performance in a longitudinal study of 231 units of an international clothing retailer in Spain. They theorized that the relationship between voluntary turnover rates and unit performance would be stronger when human capital accumulations of departing employees were high and weaker when the human capital accumulations of remaining employees were high. They predicted further that the voluntary turnover rates→unit performance relationship would be stronger when quit patterns are clustered rather than dispersed over time. In a panel design involving 8,316 store-month observations, they found that human capital accumulations of the remaining workforce and dispersed turnover patterns buffered the negative relationship between voluntary turnover rates and unit performance. No support was found for the moderation predication concerning departing employees’ hum...

Unmasking Turnover: Effects of Voluntary and Involuntary Separations on Unit Performance in the Retail Sector

Whereas most previous studies of the effects of employee turnover on performance have used an aggregate measure of total turnover, this paper examines differences in the effects of collective involuntary and voluntary turnover. Analyzing 24-month observations for the stores of an apparel retailer, and using fixed-effects and instrumental variables estimation, we found that voluntary turnover was negatively (although not significantly) related to store performance. In contrast, involuntary turnover due to discharges and terminations of replacements was significantly and positively related to both store productivity and efficiency. These results show that the “functionality of turnover” depends on the nature of employees’ separations. In addition, the results suggest the need to expand the range of methods used for analyzing the link between collective turnover and organizational performance.