Research Linking HRM Systems with Firm Performance

Number

Study

Year

Level of Analysis

Ahmad & Schroeder

2003

Allen, Shore & Griffeth

2003

3
4
5

Applebaum, Bailey, Berg, & Kalleberg

Appleyard & Brown
Agarwala

2000
2001
2003

Manufacturing plants
employee (sales and
insurance agents)
Plant and individual;
40 plants; 4374 workers
Semiconductor firms
firm (Indian)

6
7
8

Bacon & Blyton

Bae & Lawler
Ballou, Godwin, & Shortridge

2001
2000
2001

Employees (Mfg firms)

Firm (Korean)
Firm (100 best to work for)

Banker, Field, Schroeder, & Sinha

1996

Establishment

10

Banker, Lee, Potter, & Srinivasan

1996

Firm (one retailer)

11
12

Barnard & Rodgers

Barrette & Ouellette

2000
2000

Firm (Singapore)

13
14
15

Bartel
Bartel, Freeman, Ichniowski, & Kleiner

16
17
18
19

Batt
Batt, Colvin & Keefe
Bayo-Moriones & Huerta-Arribas
Becker & Huselid

2002
2002
2002
1996

Service and Sales establishmen

Telecommunications firms
Manufacturing plants
Firm

20
21
22
23

Becker & Huselid

Becker & Huselid
Berg, Appelbaum, & Bailey
Berman, Wicks, Kotha & Jones

1998
1999
1996
1999

Firm
Find this
Firm (apparel)
Fortune 100 firms

62

Batt

2000 Bank branches

Find this
Find this
1999 1 firm (customer service reps)

Sample

HPWS Indicator

operational performance
107
HRM Practices
215 sales;
perceived organizational
197 insurance agents support (HR practices) voluntary turnover
Quality, productivity
labor costs; ee outcomes
45-3622
HRM Systems
productivity, defects
23 fabs
Employment System
Org commitment
7
HR Practices
attitude to change;
teaming
job satisfaction
401
138
HRM Strategy
Perceived performance
110
Quality of work life
Stock Price
Quality, productivity
labor costs; ee outcomes
328 periods
Team program
sales, profitability,
customer satisfaction
2618 store months Incentive pay
Internally oriented
Successful implementation
HR Practices
of HPWS
105
3 branches
(63-150 ee's)
Find this
202
270
302
719
check
548 - 699
Find this
117-131 ee's (2 firms)
81

HR practices; ee attitudesSales growth

Find this
Find this
TQM; self-managed team Sales
HR Practices
Sales growth; turnover
HR practices (emp voice) Quit rate
HR Practices
Incentives
HRM Systems
Profitability, stock value
HRM systems
Find this
HR Policies
Stakeholder Relations

Profitability, stock value

Find this
Work team quality
ROA

HRM Systems

Subjective assessment
foreign parent's satisfaction
w/performance

24

Bjorkman & Xiucheng

2002

Firm (manufacturing)
Chinese/Western joint
ventures & subsidiaries

25
26

Black & Lynch

Black & Lynch

1997
2000

Establishment
Private establishments

1621
1621

find this
HPWS

27
28

Black & Lynch

Boslie, Paauwe & Jansen

2001
2001

Private establishments
Review

1621

HR Practices

29
30

Boxall & Steenveld

Brynjolfsson& Hitt

1999
1998

Professional service firms

Firm

6
380

31

Brynjolfsson, Hitt & Yang

Firm

1031

32

Brynjolfsson, Hitt, Yang, Baily & Hall

2002

Firm (large)

1216

33
34
35

Burton & O'Reilly

Cabrera& Cabrera
Caligiuri & Stroh

2000
2000
1995

High technology startups

Banks
Multinational firms

101
4
46

36

Cappelli & Neumark

1999

Establishment

8/14/2003

find

Performance
Measure

433; 201; 660

HR Strategy;
HRM practices
Org Design
Computer capital;
work practices
Computer investment;
work practices
HR practices;
leadership values
HR practices
HR Practices
Work practices

Effect
Main Effect? InteractionSize
Weak

NA

yes

Yes

Yes
Mixed
Yes

NA

NA
NA
Partial

NA
NA
na

No
Yes
Yes

NA
NA
NA

NA
NA
NA

Yes

Yes

NA

Yes

Weak SuppNA

Mixed

Yes
Find this
Mixed
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Find this
Yes
Mixed

NA

na

16-26% increase
deposits & loans
NA
Find this
Find this
Weak
9.3% sales/ee
46% lower TO;
16.3% sales grth
Partial
NA
NA
NA
NA
check
find out
$63K mkt value;
$4752 GRATE
Yes
Find this Find this
NA
NA
Yes
NA

Yes

NA

Productivity
Productivity
Productivity (Cobb-Douglas
Production Function)

Yes
Yes

Mixed
Yes

NA
If all HPWS, +20%
productivity
NA

yes

NA

NA

Industry leadership
Information technology

N
Yes

NA
Yes

Stock price

Yes

Mixed

market/book

Yes

NA

NA
NA
+$1 installed computer
capital->+$5 mkt value
+$1 computer
investment=> $10 mv

Yes
NA
Mixed

Yes
NA
NA

NA
NA
NA

Weak

Yes

NA

IPO
HR strategy
Strategy
Efficiency (labor costs &
productivity)

Research Linking HRM Systems with Firm Performance

Number

60
61

HPWS Indicator
Hr Practices;
knowledge creatiion
Collins, Smith, & Stevens,
2001 High technology firms
78
Colvin, Batt & Katz
2001 establishment (telecom)
242
HR Practices
Conyon & Read
1998 Firm
139
HRM Practices
Profit sharing plans
Cormier, Magnan & St-Onge
2001 Bank SBU's
95 - 1148
perception of profit
sharing
Coyle-Shapiro, Morrow, Richardson & Dunn
2002 employee (Engineering)
141
D'Arcimoles
1997 Firms
61
HR Policies
Das, Handfield, Calantone & Shosh
2000 Manufacturing firms
290
Quality Management
Deery & Iverson
1999 Bank branches
460 banks; 1145 ees IR climate
Delaney
1997 find this
find this
find this
Delaney & Huselid
1996 Firm (34 industries)
590
HR practices
Delery & Doty
1996 Firm (banks)
101
HR practices
Delery, Gupta, Shaw, Jenkins, & Ganster
2000 Trucking Cos
379 HR Practices
Dunlop & Weil
1996 Business Units
42
Modular production
Work practices (TQM
teams)
Eriksson
2001 Firm (Denmark)
1605
Fernie & Metcalf
1995 find this
find this
find this
Fey & Bjorkman
2000 Subsidiaries (in Russia)
101
HRM practices
Fey, Bjorkman, & Pavlovskaya
2000 Firms (Russia)
101
HRM practices
Freeman, Kleiner, & Ostroff
1997 Firm
260
Employee Involvement
Fynes & Voss
2001 Manufacturing plants (Ireland)
200
Quality practices
Gant, Ichniowski, & Shaw
find this
find this
find this
find this
HR practices;
org citizenship
Gardner, Moynihan, & Wright
2002 Business Unit
40 (one firm)
219 orgs; 70,684
observations
Gerhart & Milkovich
1990 BU's and firms
Human capital
Gould-Williams
2003
HR practices;
effectiveness
Guest, Michie, Conway, Trenberth, McDonald 2001 Firm (mfg & service)
237
Guest & Pecci
1997
Partnership Organizations
54
partnership practices

62

Guest & Pecci

2001

63

Guthrie

2001

Firms

64
65

Guthrie
Guthrie, Spell & Nyamori

1999
2002

Firms (New Zealand)

Firms (New Zealand)

66

Harel & Tzafrir

1999

Firm (Israel)

67

Harel, Tzafir & Baruch

2003

Firm (Israel)

68
69

Harris & Ogbonna

Hitt, Bierman, Shimizu, & Kochhar

2001
2001

Firms (UK)
Law firms

70
71
72
73
74

Hoque
Huang
Huang
Hunter & Hitt
Hunter & Lafkas

1999
2000
2001
Unpub
2003

75
76

Huselid
Huselid & Becker

1995
1995

37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59

8/14/2003

Study

Year

Level of Analysis

members of IPA

Hotels
Firms (Taiwan)
Firms (Taiwan)
Retail banks and branches
Bank branches
Firm
Firm

Sample

54

164

164
137 - 165
76

partnership practices

Performance
Measure
Sales growth
Manager Pay
Productivity
ROA
Org commitment;
trust in management
Firm performance
ROA, sales growth
productivity
find this
Perceived performance
Profitability
Quit rate
Lead time, profitability

yes
Mixed
Yes
Yes
find this
Yes
Yes
Mixed
Weak Support

na
na
NA
NA
Mixed
NA
Yes
NA
find this
find this
Weak SuppNA
Weak SuppNA
NA
NA
NA

Productivity
find this
Performance
Performance (subjective)
Productivity
Quality
find this

Yes
find this
Weak
Yes
Weak Support
Yes
find this

Mixed
find this
NA
NA
NA
NA
find this

NA
find this
NA
NA
NA
NA

Mixed
Yes
Yes
Yes

Mixed
NA
NA
Yes

NA
NA
NA
NA

find this

quality; profitability

Yes

NA

17% incr profitability

Org performance

Yes

NA

NA

Yes
Mixed

NA

Firm perf; productivity; quality

Subjective org perf.
productivity,
employee attitudes

HR practices

Productivity; ee retention

HIWP
HIWP

Retention; productivity
performance
org perf perception;
market performance

indiv. HR Practices
HR practices and
fairness in promotion
102
SHRM(mkt. orientation
as mediator)
342
93 (252 observations) Human capital

Effect
Main Effect? InteractionSize

Org effectiveness
Subjective Performance
(sales growth, market share)
Firm performance
commitment; job satisfaction;
209
High commitment practiceproductivity, quality; perf.
Subjective firm performance
315
HRM Practices
Subjective firm performance
315
HRM Practices
35 branches (101 banksFlexibility; commitment productivity; sales
303
Work practices
Wages
Turnover, stock value
profitability
816
HRM Systems
628
HRM systems
Market value

NA
NA

yes

Yes

Yes

Yes
Yes
Weak
Trng only

Yes
Yes

na
high HIWP= + $184K
productivity
Low HIWP= -$89K
high HIWP= + $184K
productivity
Low HIWP= -$89K
na

NA

NA

Partial

Yes

na

Yes
Mixed

NA
weak

NA
NA

Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

NA
Mixed
Mixed
Yes
Weak

Yes
Yes

na

NA

NA
NA
NA
**********
NA
7% TO; $27K sales
Weak Supp$19K mv; $4K profits
NA
$38K - $73K market valu

Research Linking HRM Systems with Firm Performance

Number

Study

Year

Level of Analysis

77
78

Huselid & Becker

Huselid & Becker

1996
1997

Firm
Firm

79
80
81
82

Huselid, Jackson, & Schuler

Ichniowski
Ichniowski & Shaw
Ichniowski, Shaw, & Prennushi

1997
1990
1999
1997

83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98

Ittner & Larcher

Jayaram, Droge & Vickery
Katz, Kochan & Gobeille
Kelly
Khatri
Khatri
Koch & McGrath
Konrad & Mangel
Koys
Lahteenmaki, Storey, & Vanhala
Lam & White
Laursen
Laursen & Foss
Lee & Chess
Lee & Miller
Lepak & Snell

1999
1999
1983
1996
1999
2000
1996
2000
2001
1998
1998
2001
2003
1996
1999
2002

Firms
Business Unit
41 steel productions
36 steel production lines
individual (customers of
telecommunications co.)
First tier suppliers
Automotive plants
Establishment (mfg plants)

99
100

Lepak, Takeouchi & Snell

Lewin

101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108

Li
Lieberman, Lau & Williams
Liouville & Bayad
Lowe, Delbridge, & Oliver
MacDuffie
Martell & Carroll

Firm (Singapore)
Business unit
Firm
Restaurant chain
Firm (Finland)

218
548

HPWS Indicator
HRM Strategy
HRM Systems

293
176
2594 monthly periods
2190 line periods

HRM Effectiveness
HRM Systems
HRM Systems
HRM Systems

2491
57
18 (176 observations)
301-1301

customer satisfaction
HRM Practices
IR systems
Group participation

Financial performance
Subjective mfg. Performance
Quality and efficiency
Hours per unit of output

194
318-319
658 (195 public)
28
428

HR Practices
HRM Sophistication
Work life programs
EE attitudes & behaviors
Hr policies; HR bundles

Performance
Productivity
Productivity
Profitability
Subjective performance

726
1884
48
138
148

Innovation
Innovation Performance
Firm performance
Financial performance
HR configurations

MNEs (China)
296
Motor vehicle manufacturers
6
find this
find this
Plant
71
Establishment (auto assembly)
57
Business Units
115

McNabb & Whiffield

2003
1990
1998
1997
1995
1995
1996
1997

Establishment

587

flexibility, teamwork

109
110
111

McNabb & Whiffield

Mendelson
Meyer & Smith

2001
2000
2000

Establishment
ROVA
individual

688-703
63
281

112
113

Michie & Sheehan

Michie & Sheehan-Quinn

1998
2001

Firm

114
115
116
117
118
119

Michie & Sheehan

Miller & Lee
Montemayor
Moriones & deCerio
Morishima
Patterson, Wall, & West

2003
2001
1996
Unpub
1998
find

120
121
122

Patterson & West

Patterson, West, Lawthorne, & Nickell
Richard & Johnson

8/14/2003

In Press firm
2002 Firm; BU; plant;field office

find
1997
2001

Manufacturing and service

sector firms (UK)
Firm (Korean)
Find this
Factory (Spanish)
Firm (Japanese)
Firm (manufacturing)

Firm (manufacturing)
Firm (manufacturing)
banks

Performance
Measure
Profitability, stock value
Profitability, stock value
Firm performance;
productivity
Productivity, firm value
Quality, productivity
Quality, productivity

HRM practices
HRM Practices
High involvement mgt
Org commitment
Employment modes
Employment modes/
flexibility
HIWP
higher pay, long-term
employment policy
Labor utilization
find this
HR Practices
HRM policies
Executive HRM practices

Martell, K., Gupta, A. & Carroll

Firm (Danish)
Firm (Danish)
Mfg firms (Korean)
Firm (Korean manufacturing)
firm

Sample

148
249 - 457

487

HR practices
Organizational IQ
HRM practices
HRM practices

HRM Practices, flexible

work practices
Org commitment
Find this
Find this
965
HRM practices
1054
HRM practices
80
Integrated manufacturing
Employee attitudes
(job sat; org commit,
42 firms (3977 ee's) mental health)
67
HR practices
73
SHRM effectiveness
361
129

Firm performance
Performance
turnover, productivity,
profitability(ROA, sales/ee)
Productivity
find this
productivity
Production
Performance
Financial Performance
subjective financial
performance
ROS, ROVA, Growth
Employee commitment
Innovative activities:
R&D, new technology

Effect
Main Effect? InteractionSize
+1sd HPWS= +q14%
& GRATE + 13-28%
Yes
NA
Yes
NA
+1sd HPWS= $41000
sales $44K; MV: $9K;
cash flow $9673
Mixed
NA
Yes
NA
NA
Yes
NA
Na
Yes
Yes
NA
Mixed
Yes
Mixed
Yes

NA
NA
NA
NA

NA
NA
NA
NA

Yes
Yes
Weak
NA
Weak

NA
NA
NA
NA
NA

Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes

NA
NA
No
Yes
na

NA
NA
NA
NA
NA

Yes
Mixed

NA
NA

NA
NA

NA
find this
NA
Yes
NA

NA
find this
NA

mixed

NA

yes
Yes
Mixed

Yes
NA
NA

na
na
NA

Yes

NA

NA

NA
Yes
Find this
NA
NA
NA

NA
NA
Find this
NA
NA
NA

Yes
Yes
mixed

NA
NA
na

Modest
Yes
Weak
No
Weak

Mixed
Yes
find this
Mixed
Yes
Mixed
Yes

Innovation activities
Firm performance
Find this
Efficiency, quality, time
Performance
Productivity; performance

Yes
Weak
Find this
Mixed
Yes
Yes

Productivity; performance
Productivity; performance
productiviey; turnover

Yes
Yes
Mixed

NA

Research Linking HRM Systems with Firm Performance

Number
123

Study
Rogg, et al

Year
2001

Canadian and Chinese firm

Sample
351

124

Schuster

125
126
127

Schuster, Dunning, Morden, Hagan, Baker, &

Sesil
Shaw, Delery, Jenkins, Jr., & Gupta

1997
1999
1998

Firm
Mfg Establishments (UK)
Firm (trucking)

1
118
141-148

128

Shaw, Gupta & Delery

2002

Plant; Firm (trucking)

141; 379

129
130
131
132
133

Sheppeck
Sheppeck & Militello
Snell & Youndt
Spell, C.S.
Storey

1998
2000
1995
2001
2002

Firm
Theory piece
Firm
Employees
Middle sized companies

134
135
136

Takeuchi
Teo & Waters
Tier

2002
2002
find

Employees
White collar employees
Review

137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152

Tregaskis
Vandenberg, RIchardson & Eastman
Varma, Beatty, Schneier, & Ulrich
Voos
Way
Welbourne & Andrews
Welbourne & Cyr
West, Borrill, Dawson, Scully, Carter, Anelay,
West & Patterson
West, Patterson & Dawson
West, Patterson, Pillinger, & Nickell
Whiffield & Poole
Whitener
Wilkinson, Godfrey & Marchington
Wilmalasiri
Wood

1997
1999
1999
1987
2002
1996
1999
2002
1999
find
1999
1997
2001
1997
1995
1999

153
154
155
156
157
158

Wright, McMahan, McCormick, & Sherman

Wright, McMahan, Snell, & Gerhart
Yang
Youndt & Snell
Youndt, Snell, Dean & Lepak
Zheng

1998
1999
1998
1999
1996
2001

Petrochemical factories
Petrochemical factories
Firms
Find this
Establishment (mfg plants)
Firm (small and medium)

8/14/2003

find

Level of Analysis
Small business firms

2 (pilot studies)

106
102
139
314

HPWS Indicator
HR practices
Employee-centered
mgt (HR Index)
Employee-centered
mgt (HR Index)
ee involvement
HRM practices
Voluntary turnover;
HRM Investment
HRM practices;
mgt support for HRM

Firm
Firm
Firm
Bargaining units
Firm (small business)
IPO Firms
IPO Firms

269
109
NA
531 French;
879 U.K.
49 (3579 ee's)
39
343
446
82
360

HRM control systems

HRM Strategies
Education, trng, dev
Commitment-oriented
HR philosophy
HR Practices
NA
HR practices;
HRM strategy
HR practices
culture, HR practices
Profit sharing plans
HR practices
HR "values"
Senior HRM executives

Firm
Top management teams
Firm (manufacturing)
Review
Credit unions
establishment
1 publishing co.
Review

>100
42
81
NA
180 (1689 ee's)
9
151 employees
NA

HRM practices
Team processes
training
NA
HR practices
HR Practices
HRM Practices
NA

86
38
105

HR effectiveness
HR practices
HR practices
Find this
HR practices
HRM practices

Find this
97
74 (Chinese)

Performance
Measure
Customer satisfaction

Effect
Main Effect? InteractionSize
Yes
Yes
NA

Operating Income

Yes

NA

NA

Operating Income
ROS, ROA
Turnover

Yes
Yes
Yes

NA
NA
Yes

NA
NA
NA

Productivity; financial perf

Yes

Yes

NA

Org effectiveness

Yes

mixed

NA

Yes
Limited
Weak

mixed
NA
NA

NA
NA
NA

Yes
NA
NA

NA
NA
NA

Employee development
Yes
Org effectiveness
Yes
Fin & operational perf
Yes
Yes
quality; productivity; labor cost
turnover; productivity
Mixed
Profitability, IPO price
Weak Support
Stock price growth
No

Yes
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
Mixed

NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA

Productivity, performance
Yes
Productivity, performance
Yes
Innovation; firm performance
Yes
NA
NA
Org commitment
Yes
TQM
Non-empirical
Work performance
Yes
NA
NA
Perceived HR effectiveness
Financial performance
Mixed
Financial performance
Mixed
Sales/employee
Mixed
Find this
Find this
Perceived performance
Mixed
Firm performance
Mixed

NA
NA
NA
NA
Yes
Find This
NA
NA

NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
Find this
NA
NA

ROA, sales growth

Developmental Activities
4 economic perfomances
Org climate; OCB
Stress
NA

Mixed
Yes
NA

No
NA
Yes
NA
Yes
NA
Find this Find this
Weak SuppFind this
Yes
NA