Lee Dyer

Human resource strategies and firm performance: what do we know and where do we need to go?

This research review focuses on the links between human resource strategies and organizational effectiveness. It is likely that bundles of, or configurations of, activities are more important in enhancing labour productivity than any single activity. However, studies are typically limited in theoretical rigour, have quite small samples and are typically non-cumulative. The empirical basis of strategic human resources management is thus circumscribed.

Right from the Start: Exploring the Effects of Early Team Events on Subsequent Project Team Development and Performance

This study examines if high- and low-performing project teams differ with respect to how they are mobilized and launched and the effects of their mobilization and launch activities and outputs on subsequent team progress and performance. Comparisons of three high- and three low-performing teams drawn from five major corporations showed that the high performers mobilized relatively quickly, used comprehensive rather than limited mobilization strategies, and conducted participatory rather than programmed launch meetings. This combination of activities produced a constellation of salutary outputs: more time for the teams to do their work, team members with essential task-related competencies and sufficient time to contribute to their projects, and complete rather than partial performance strategies. In turn, the three salutary outputs formed a constellation of key inner resources that propelled the high-performing teams on a virtuous path of reinforcing activities and outputs that, despite difficulties, ultimately led to success, whereas the absence of one or more of these resources led the low-performing teams down a vacuous path of accumulating confusion and inactivity from which they never recovered.

New models of strategic HRM in a global context

Although strategic human resource management began to emerge as a domain of study around 1980, many of the fields major theoretical and empirical strides have occurred during the last decade or so. By and large these have emanated from communities of scholars operating within specific countries or, in some cases, regions of the world. The next generation of contributions, however, is beginning to emerge on a global basis. This special issue fosters the broader development of our field by bringing together a set of papers written by a cadre of scholars from various spots around the world who recently gathered at Cornell University to share thoughts and perspectives. While viewpoints vary, overall the collection offers a wealth of specific insights and suggestions for moving the field forward on the inevitable path of globalization.

Toward a strategic human resource management model of high reliability organization performance

In this article, we extend strategic human resource management (SHRM) thinking to theory and research on high reliability organizations (HROs) using a behavioural approach. After considering the viability of reliability as an organizational performance indicator, we identify a set of eight reliability-oriented employee behaviours (ROEBs) likely to foster organizational reliability and suggest that they are especially valuable to reliability-seeking organizations that operate under ‘trying conditions’. We then develop a reliability-enhancing human resource strategy (REHRS) likely to facilitate the manifestation of these ROEBs. We conclude that the behavioural approach offers SHRM scholars an opportunity to explain how people contribute to specific organizational goals in specific contexts and, in turn, to identify human resource strategies that extend the general high performance human resource strategy (HPHRS) in new and important ways.

A Model of Organizational Change in the Context of Union-Management Relations

Since ABS has had little to say about the role of unions and the part they play in OD, this paper takes a first step in developing a model of change involving union-management relations, which takes into consideration the special issues of goals, power, and conflict peculiar to each party. A set of testable propositions having to do with stimuli and forces encouraging or inhibiting commitment to embark on and to maintain joint change efforts is presented, followed by a short discussion of the implications of the uses of such a modelfor behavioral scientists.

Managing transformational change: the role of human resource professionals

In the past decade human resource management issues featured prominently in debates over the competitiveness and human resource professionals were expected to ascend to positions of greater influence in corporate strategy making and implementation. Despite numerous calls for a paradigm shift towards a more ‘strategic’ focus for human resource management research, developments in both practice and research fell far short of expectations. Thus, the process of transforming human resource policy into a strategic asset for employees, individual firms or the American economy is not yet complete. The paper suggests that the ‘strategic’ human resource management models of the 1980s were too limited and reactive in character because they depended so heavily on the values, strategies and support of top executives and line managers. A model capable of achieving sustained and transformational change needs to incorporate more active roles of other stakeholders in the employment relationship, including government, empl...

Key competencies for a transformed human resource organization: Results of a field study

As human resource organizations transform, staff competency requirements alter significantly. The question is: to what? The present study attempts to answer this question using data gathered within a single firm and employing a unique future-oriented, role-focused methodology. The results suggest a competency model with three parts: a relatively small number of core competencies, an even smaller number of leverage competencies applicable to half or more (but not all) of the roles, and a much larger number of competencies that are role-specific. This methodology can be readily replicated in an abbreviated form in virtually any organization.

Due process for non-union employees: The influence of system characteristics on fairness perceptions

This article examines fairness perceptions associated with alternative dispute resolution systems. Collaborating with seven Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies sponsors, data collected from 450 non-union, non-management employees were analyzed. The major finding is that alternative dispute resolution systems that are regarded as credible, accessible, and safe (i.e., no retaliation) influence perceptions of fairness which, in turn, influence the likelihood to use the system. Implications are drawn for practice and research.

The motivational impact of a compensation system on employee performance

Abstract Using expectancy theory as a frame of reference, a review of the literature indicated that the impact of perceptions about compensation systems on employee performance has not been adequately tested. Through the design and analysis employed in the present study, an effort was made to more appropriately examine this issue. Objective performance data and information about three perceptual variables (valence of pay, instrumentality, and expectancy) were obtained from a sample of 124 incentive-paid blue collar workers. The results offered some support for the hypothesized relationships. Valence and expectancy were significantly related to performance while instrumentality was not. An additive combination of the three variables explained a significant proportion of the variance in performance (R = .39). The hypothesized interaction among the variables, however, did not significantly increase the variance explained.

Linking Human Resource And Business Strategies

In preparing for this talk, I tried to recall the number of speeches I have heard on this subject. I probably missed a few along the way but 1 came up with 13; seven at HRPS conferences and six elsewhere. So I said to myself, “What on earth can I possibly add to what those other 13 already have said without offending the people who gave the previous talks?” After thinking about it for a while I decided to report on some recent research with which I have been involved over the last couple of years under the sponsorship of the Society. It involves a series of case studies at American Hospital Supply, Corning Glass Works, IBM, Merck, and Ontario Hydro. I will use these studies (as well as some supporting consulting experiences) to identify what seem to me to be major issues in the linkage process and to point out where I think the major linkage points are. I will then report briefly on a short survey I have done with personnel and other managers who have been successful in making this linkage work.