Shedding New Light on Strategic Human Resource Management: The Impact of Human Resource Management Practices and Human Resources on the Perception of Federal Agency Mission Accomplishment

• Author: Tae Kyu Wang,Seunghoo Lim,Soo-Young Lee
• DOI: 10.1177/0091026017704440
• Published date: 01 June 2017
• Date: 01 June 2017
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026017704440

Public Personnel Management

2017, Vol. 46(2) 91 –117

© The Author(s) 2017

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DOI: 10.1177/0091026017704440

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Article

Shedding New Light on

Strategic Human Resource

Management: The Impact

of Human Resource

Management Practices and

Human Resources on the

Perception of Federal Agency

Mission Accomplishment

Seunghoo Lim1, Tae Kyu Wang2, and Soo-Young Lee3

Abstract

We assess the resource-based view in the study of strategic human resource

management in public agencies. We mainly examine the impact of both human

resource management (HRM) practices and actual human resources on the

perception of federal agency mission accomplishment. We show that all types of goal-

aligned and performance-based HRM practices (including rewards, training, appraisal,

and recruitment) positively affect perceived agency mission accomplishment. In

addition, certain types of human resources (including the percentage of career senior

executive service members and organizational size) contribute to perceived agency

mission accomplishment although others (including the percentage of professionals

and noncareer senior executive service members) make negative contributions.

Strategic knowledge, regarding an organization’s valuable, rare, inimitable, and

nontradable resources—in both HRM practices and human resources—can help

improve perceived federal agency mission accomplishment.

1International University of Japan, Minamiuonuma, Japan

2Catholic Kwandong University, Korea

3Seoul National University, Korea

Corresponding Author:

Soo-Young Lee, Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University, 599 Gwanakro,

Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea.

Email: soo3121@snu.ac.kr

704440PPMXXX10.1177/0091026017704440Public Personnel ManagementLim et al.

research-article2017

92 Public Personnel Management 46(2)

Keywords

strategic human resource management (SHRM), resource-based view (RBV), federal

agency mission accomplishment

Introduction

Public service agencies have attempted to respond to challenges posed in the informa-

tion age by aggregating professional workers with knowledge and expertise. Thus, the

U.S. federal agencies have tried to introduce a variety of governmental reform policies

including human resources reform policies; however, it is not easy to conclude that

these reforms achieved their purpose in terms of the citizens’ expectations about high

performance in government. In these circumstances, one possible alternative is to

strengthen strategic human resource management (SHRM), which helps public agen-

cies maintain their competitive advantage by emphasizing human capital and enhanc-

ing organizational performance. The SHRM model differs significantly from the

traditional model, which is more likely to neglect human resources embedded in pub-

lic agencies and focus on specific personnel administration practices without consider-

ing strategic interests (Daley, 2002). The shift to SHRM has been accelerated in public

agencies to exploit sustained competitive advantages and to enhance performance

through the contribution of both valuable, rare, inimitable, and nontradable (VRIN)

human resources and goal-aligned and performance-based human resources manage-

ment (HRM) practices.

An extensive body of literature in the public sector has investigated public person-

nel management issues in SHRM perspectives. For example, Mesch, Perry, and Wise

(1995) compared the influences of bureaucratic HRM and SHRM on federal employ-

ees’ job satisfaction and organizational effectiveness. Daley, Vasu, and Weinstein

(2002) analyzed the perception of North Carolina county public officers on SHRM. In

a similar vein, Daley and Vasu (2005) investigated the impacts of SHRM practices on

the county’s social welfare reform performance in North Carolina. In addition, Kim

(2010) examined the relationship between SHRM practices and perceived organiza-

tional performance using data from public servants in Georgia and Illinois. Recently,

Jacobson and Sowa (2015) studied the degree to which municipal governments have

implemented SHRM practices in Colorado and North Carolina.

However, most previous studies have addressed SHRM issues in state or local gov-

ernments, not in the federal government. In addition, the relationship between imple-

menting a strategic HRM and organizational performance in the federal agencies has

not been systematically and empirically studied. Therefore, we intend to investigate

the relationship between SHRM and organizational performance in the federal govern-

ment. In addition, this study aims to answer the following research question in that

almost all previous studies in the public sector have concentrated on perceptions of

SHRM practices rather than the actual human resources1:

Research Question 1: What kinds of differential impacts do distinct HRM prac-

tices (e.g., individual perceptions of reward, training, appraisal, and recruitment)