HRM System Strength and HRM Target Achievement—Toward a Broader Understanding of HRM Processes

• Author: Nina Katrin Hansen,Dorothea Alewell,Sven Hauff
• Published date: 01 September 2017
• Date: 01 September 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21798

Human Resource Management, September–October 2017, Vol. 56, No. 5. Pp. 715–729

© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).

DOI:10.1002/hrm.21798

Correspondence to: Dorothea Alewell, University of Hamburg, Faculty of Business Administration, Von-Melle-Park 5,

20146 Hamburg, Germany, Ph: 0 04940428384101, Fax: 004940428386358, dorothea.alewell@uni-hamburg.de

HRM SYSTEM STRENGTH AND HRM

TARGET ACHIEVEMENT—TOWARD

A BROADER UNDERSTANDING OF

HRM PROCESSES

SVEN HAUFF, DOROTHEA ALEWELL, AND NINA KATRIN

HANSEN

For some time, HRM researchers have paid attention to the process dimensions

of HRM systems, especially to the question of how HRM system strength impacts

on HRM outcomes. However, contributions tend to be theoretical, and empiri-

cal analyses are still rare. This article contributes to the discussion on HRM sys-

tem strength by empirically analyzing the links between HRM system strength

and HRM target achievement. We differentiate between single components of

strength and their partial effects on two HRM target groups: the targets focus-

ing on employee attitudes and the targets focusing on availability and effec-

tiveness of human resources. Findings from a German data set with more than

1,000 observations indicate that HRM system strength has a positive infl uence

on average HRM target achievement. Expectations regarding the differentiated

effects of single components of HRM system strength are only partially sup-

ported. Nevertheless, our analyses give reason to consider a broader concep-

tion of HRM system strength than what has been explored to date. ©2016 Wiley

Periodicals, Inc.

Keywords: HRM system, HRM system strength, HRM target, process approach,

target achievement

Introduction

Research on strategic HRM has largely

focused on the content perspective, that

is, the question of how single HRM prac-

tices, or HRM systems as consistently

designed bundles of HRM practices, affect

HRM outcomes and firm performance ( Jackson,

Schuler & Jiang, 2014; Jiang et al., 2012 ) (for

an overview on HRM systems approaches, see,

e.g., Alewell & Hansen, 2012; Kaufman, 2013;

Lepak, Liao, Chung, & Harden, 2006). Some

HRM researchers have questioned this approach

and have begun to focus on the process dimen-

sions of HRM systems and, within this perspec-

tive, on how an HRM system’s strength impacts

on HRM outcomes and firm performance (e.g.,

Bowen & Ostroff, 2004; Ostroff & Bowen, 2000)

(for an overview, see Sanders, Shipton, & Gomes,

2014). Building on Bowen and Ostroff (2004),

HRM system strength is usually referred to as a

situation in which “unambiguous messages are