Fiona Edgar

HRM practice and employee attitudes: different measures – different results

Purpose – To test the relationship between HRM practice and employee work‐related attitudes and examine whether different approaches to measurement of HRM gives different results.Design/methodology/approach – HRM practice was measured in three ways: additive measures of numbers of HRM practice, employer reports and employee reports of strength of practices. Employee attitudes were measured using organisational commitment, job satisfaction and organisational fairness scales. Matched data sets tested the relationships.Findings – Statistically significant results were obtained between HRM practice and employee attitudes, but only when employee reports of the strength of HRM practice were used to measure HRM.Research limitations/implications – This study emphasises that care must be taken in HRM research to use suitable data sources, with employees being a valuable, but under‐used, source.Practical implications – Effective HRM policies and practices should be measured by their perceived quality, not simply by...

Realising competitive advantage through HRM in New Zealand service industries

An emerging source of competitive advantage for service industries is the knowledge, skills and attitudes of their employees. Indeed, achievement of a ‘service quality’ culture, considered imperative for competitive advantage in service organisations, supposedly results from the use of best practice human resource management (HRM), and from a strategic approach to their implementation. This paper empirically explores the use of these dimensions of HRM as a source of competitive advantage. It finds high-performing service organisations actively engage best practices across the areas of recruitment and selection, training and development, communication and team working. Evidence of a strategic approach to the implementation of these practices is also found.

Factors influencing university research performance

This research extends our understanding of research productivity by examining features of managerial practice and culture within university departments. Adopting a robust comparative research design, capturing both interview and survey data sourced from multiple stakeholders from New Zealand universities, we seek to identify factors associated with superior research performance. The findings show that autonomy and egalitarianism, along with a strong cultural ethos supporting achievement and individualism are characteristics of high functioning departments. These comprise core features of commitment-oriented work settings, but we find them to be largely absent from the work environments of low performers. This disparity leads us to consider whether certain managerial practices, when coupled with a supporting set of cultural characteristics, are crucial to influencing research performance outcomes. Management and academics in higher education settings should consider these findings of interest and benefit, as universities in a number of countries approach further rounds of research performance assessment.

Inside the “black box” and “HRM”

Purpose - This paper has two objectives. The first is to see whether “shared values” is an important intermediary, or part of the “black box” (along with organisational commitment and job satisfaction), between HRM practices and firm performance. The second is to assess whether the use of multiple levels of respondents produces different results compared with the usual practice of using senior HRM managers or, in lieu, another senior manager. Design/methodology/approach - A survey methodology is used to obtain perceptual data on HRM practices and a variety of work-related attitudes. The sample comprises managers, supervisors and workers from 27 New Zealand firms. Statistical analysis, using SPSS, was performed at the firm and individual level. Findings - At group-level there are wide differences in attitudes towards HRM activities. The desirability of using as many respondents as possible, and also respondents from different levels within organisations, was confirmed. “Shared values” is also deemed worthy of inclusion in the “black box” as it relates significantly to perceptions of HRM practices. However, organisational commitment and job satisfaction appear to have a stronger role. Research limitations/implications - Current writings suggest that certain HRM practices can foster a system of shared values amongst the workforce. The study finds this indeed to be the case at the individual level. However, the supposition that a shared value system significantly contributes to the promotion of other desirable attitudinal outcomes has not been supported by the studys findings. A limitation of the study is that it did not explore the HRM-firm performance relationship in its entirety. Further research exploring all linkages in this relationship is now required. Practical implications - The paper concludes that practitioners should be wary of pursuing an agenda that sees the development of a shared value system as the key to superior firm performance. Instead, it is suggested that the values of the organisation should be considered as the foundation from which a set of mutually reinforcing and supportive HRM practices is developed. Originality/value - The paper provides much needed empirical data on shared values and their role in the HRM-performance relationship.

Employee voice on human resource management

Empirical research on human resource management (HRM) practice has mainly assessed and evaluated the activity from an employer’s perspective. Concern has been expressed about the lack of empirical analysis conducted from the employees’ perspective. This exploratory study begins to fill this gap in the literature by examining the current views that 626 New Zealand employees have about HRM in their organisations. It identified those aspects of HRM that are important to an employee in the employment relationship today, and highlighted a number of shared concerns about practices in their organisations. This study found that, from an employee’s perspective, training and development is becoming an increasingly important issue. Employer investment in this area may have the greatest potential to contribute beneficially to organisational performance.These findings suggest that not all HRM practices are equally beneficial in terms of the outcomes they produce, and practitioners may need to identify and implement th...

Well-being and performance: measurement issues for HRM research

The more recent focus on the link between HRM practice and organisational systems has been on the potential benefits of mutuality in employment relationships. The key to this notion of mutuality is the connection between worker well-being and performance. Although a common area of study for psychology, this relationship has received limited attention from HRM scholars. However, these initial endeavours have raised some concerns about measurement. First, there appears little consensus about which particular facet of well-being is most crucial to determining performance and, second, concern has been expressed over the validity of the different approaches taken to assessing performance. Our study addresses these issues by exploring the relationships between three different measures of well-being and two different measures of performance amongst a student cohort. Results show that life satisfaction shares a significant, positive relationship with objective performance ratings, while attentiveness, a facet of positive affect, shares a significant positive relationship with subjective performance. We explore the reasons why these different facets of well-being might be related to our different performance assessments and then, in giving consideration to these findings, discuss their implications for the measurement of well-being and of performance in workplace studies.

Exploring the ideological undercurrents of HRM: workplace values and beliefs in Ireland and New Zealand

Despite hints of more pluralist undercurrents, workplace values and beliefs have rarely been surfaced to inform our understanding of HRM. This paper examines management and employee workplace values and beliefs in the national contexts of Ireland and New Zealand. The findings indicate (a) a divergence of managerial beliefs at the level of society and at the level of their own workplace, (b) an overall pluralist orientation among employees. These findings highlight the importance of greater sensitivity to ideological orientation and more pluralist understandings of HRM.

Reactions to HRM: An Employee Perspective from South Africa and New Zealand

The aim of this paper is to provide a representation of the employee viewpoint on emerging issues related to HRM practices associated with the ‘new employment relationship’. Data obtained from employees across two studies in two very different countries – South Africa and New Zealand has been used to represent the employee perspective. Interestingly, a number of shared perceptions about these HRM practices are found to exist between employees from South Africa and New Zealand, suggesting the problems employees currently experience with the HR practices in the workplace that aim to promote this new relationship could be more widely shared. The areas of shared concern highlighted by employees were mainly related to the implementation of HRM practices. For example, insufficient line management commitment, unfairness and inconsistency in the application of HR policies were all issues that were commonly raised, as was poor communication. Employees attributed these problems to the inadequate skills of those responsible for the implementation of HRM, and tended to be of the view that they could effectively be resolved through the HR department playing a more central role in the implementation of HRM in an organisation, training of line managers to carry out their HR responsibilities more effectively and increased consultation with employees. Employees participating in these studies appeared to demonstrate a surprisingly high level of awareness and cognisance in identifying problems with HR practice and more significantly how these problems might be rectified. This would support the importance of accessing the employee perspective in both the implementation and research into HRM in practice. Based on the issues highlighted by the employees, increased co operation between line management, the HR department and employees is suggested to facilitate the effective design and implementation of HRM practice in this era of new employment relations.

An employee-centred analysis: professionals' experiences and reactions to HRM

A key premise underlying research efforts about human resource management (HRM) is that it leads to improved performance through bolstering employee attitudes. The value of assessing employee reactions to HRM practices is now widely recognised. Using process models of strategic HRM, we adopt an employee-centred focus to explore the perceptions of a sample of New Zealand professionals with regard to HRM practice, attitudes, reactions and performance. Our findings provide support for some elements in this model, but not all. Although the relationship between practices and attitudes is strong, the relationship between reactions and performance is not. We conclude that the employee experience of practice is still a murky concept and suggest greater clarity about what this means, and how this could, and indeed should, be assessed is urgently required.

The changing dynamic of leading knowledge workers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate, from the perspective of knowledge workers (KWs), the factors which underpin worker performance. Although a broad array of factors is examined, the role played by the front-line manager (FLM) appears pre-eminent. Design/methodology/approach – Using data collected in 2012 from a sample of 73 New Zealand KWs, the authors adopt a phenomenological approach to understanding how the FLM influences their performance motivations. A two-pronged research design was employed; stage 1 involved a paired statement exercise, which was immediately followed by stage 2, an in-depth interview. Findings – The behaviour and support afforded to KWs by their FLM emerged as an important influence on their individual performance. Specifically, behaviours which convey value, trust and respect, and afford support, recognition and an appreciation for work completed seemingly empower and motivate KWs to superior performance. Research limitations/implications – The distinctive qual...