Nancy J. Adler and Susan  Bartholomew, “Managing Globally Competent People,” Academy of Management Executive, August, 1992, 6(3), pp. 52-65.

Human resource management (HRM) has become an important focus of top management attention, especially in multinational enterprises.  Transnational firms need transnational HRM systems.  Changes are recommended in global HRM at 2 levels: individual and systematic.  Transnationally competent managers require a broader range of skills than traditional international managers.  These skills include: 1.  a global perspective, 2.  transition and adaptation, and 3.  foreign experience.  The development of such managers depends upon a firm's ability to design and manage transnational human resource systems that recruit, develop, retain, and utilize such transnational managers and executives.  For a transnational human resource system to be effective, it must exhibit 3 characteristics: 1.  transnational scope, 2.  transnational representation, and 3.  transnational process.   

Jeffrey B. Arthur, “Effects of human resource systems on manufacturing performance and turnover,” Academy of Management Journal, June, 1994, 37(3), pp. 670-687.

The concept of the congruence, or fit, between diverse sets of organizational policies and practices has recently emerged as an important subject of study for human resources management researchers.  Using an empirical taxonomy identifying 2 types of human resource systems, control and commitment, a study tests the strategic human resource proposition that specific combinations of policies and practices are useful in predicting differences in performance and turnover across steel minimills.  The mills with commitment systems had higher productivity, lower scrap rates, and lower employee turnover than those with control systems.  In addition, human resource system moderated the relationship between turnover and manufacturing performance.   

Johngseok  Bae and John J. Lawler, “Organizational and HRM strategies in Korea:  Impact on firm performance in an emerging economy,” Academy of Management Journal, June, 2000,  43(3), pp. 502-517.

To examine the effects of organizational strategic variables, such as management values regarding human resource management and the sources of competitive advantage, a model is developed and tested with data from 138 firms in Korea. The workers studied were nonmanagers. Firms with high scores on valuing HRM and people as a source of competitive advantage were more likely to have high-involvement HRM strategies. These variables also had positive effects of firm performance. In addition, firms with high-involvement HRM strategies had better performance.

Lotte  Bailyn, “Patterned chaos in human resource management,” Sloan Management Review, Winter, 1993, 34(2), pp. 77-83.

Patterned chaos is a relatively new system human resource professionals are using to handle the competing pressures of organizational demands and employee needs and concerns.  As people and their needs differ, so should their work be organized in different ways.  One aspect of chaos theory is called the butterfly effect, also known as sensitivity to initial conditions.  To accommodate the different ways of living with work, organizations should take a more chaotic approach to their employees.  Companies can meet the needs of the changing workforce without sacrificing the competitive needs of US industry by following the 3 principles of chaos, which are: 1.  Reevaluate the organization's definitions of time and commitment.  2.  Test the current assumptions of career continuity - continuity vs.  discontinuity, uniformity vs.  variety, and prespecification vs.  self-design.  3.  Change the boundaries of the organization, which involves a looser link between organization and employee and a closer link between public and private life. 

Lloyd Baird and Ilan Meshoulam, “Managing Two Fits of Strategic Human Resource Management,” Academy of Management Review, January, 1988, 13(1), pp. 116-128.

Technological, economic, and social changes are causing organizations to depend more heavily upon human resources to accomplish their objectives.  However, there is no overall model that explains how human resource practices and procedures can be managed to meet the needs of business.  It has been suggested that 2 strategies must be managed with regard to the human resources function: 1.  an external fit in which the unit's structure, systems, and management practices must fit the organization's state of development, and 2.  an internal fit, in which these elements must complement each other.  A model is proposed that incorporates both internal and external fit.  The Human Resource Strategic Matrix incorporates the stages of organizational development: 1.  initiation, 2.  functional growth, 3.  controlled growth, 4.  functional integration, and 5.  strategic integration.  The model's implications for human resource management are discussed.   

Peter Bamberger and Avi Fiegenbaum, “The role of strategic reference points in explaining the nature and consequences of human resource strategy,” Academy of Management Review, October, 1995,  21(4), pp. 926-958.

A study examines how managers use strategic reference points (SRP) or benchmarks to guide their strategic decision making with regard to human resource (HR) issues and how these benchmarks can affect the performance-based consequences of such decisions.  After describing the reference points that are relevant to the HR system, the study develops propositions regarding the likely configuration of such reference points and their impact on the nature of HR policies and practices.  It also explains how the management of SRP fit and consensus can reduce the likelihood that HR policies and practices will have a negative effect on a firm's performance.   

Melissa W. Barringer and George T. Milkovich, “A theoretical exploration of the adoption and design of flexible benefit plans:  A case of human resource innovation,” Academy of Management Review, April, 1998,  23(2), pp. 305-324.

Theoretical explanations of managers' decisions about flexible benefit plans are explored.  The adoption and design of flexible benefit plans are examined through 4 theoretic lenses: 1.  institutional, 2.  resource dependence, 3.  agency, and 4.  transaction cost.  The relevant insights gained from these theories are integrated into a more complete model and derive propositions for future research.  The research generalizes the insights gained from exploring a specific innovation to broader questions surrounding decisions about other human resource innovations.   

James N. Baron and David M. Kreps, “Consistent human resource practices,” California Management Review, Spring, 1999, 41(3), pp. 29-53.

The role of consistency in human resource practices is explored.  Different forms of consistency and why they are valuable in managing human resources are explored and explained:  consistency among different aspects of human resource policy, such as integrating compensation, recruitment, and promotion policies; consistency in how human resource policies affect different classes of employees (should scientists and engineers be treated similarly, for instance, and what about clericals?); and consistency of human resource policies over time.  In the context of the second sort of consistency, both the span of consistency and manufactured distinctions that facilitate distinctive treatment to different employees are explored.  The problem of measuring consistency is discussed and examples illustrating consistent and inconsistent human resource practices are provided.   

Brian Becker and Barry Gerhart, “The impact of human resource management on organizational performance: Progress and prospects,” Academy of Management Journal, August, 1996,  39(4), pp. 779-801.

A study describes why HR management decisions are likely to have an important and unique influence on organizational performance.  The study identifies key unresolved questions in need of future study and makes several suggestions intended to help researchers studying these questions build a more cumulative body of knowledge that will have key implications for both theory and practice. 

Renae  Broderick and John W.  Boudreau, “Human Resource Management, Information Technology, and the Competitive Edge,” Academy of Management Executive, May, 1992,  6(2), pp. 7-17.

Information technology can improve human resources (HR) administrative, operational, and planning decisions.  However, the competitive potential of many investments in HR information technology has not been fully exploited.  A framework is proposed that can help managers see the ways in which different types of computer applications can help achieve competitive objectives.  The 3 primary areas of HR competitive objectives considered are cost leadership, quality and customer satisfaction, and innovation.  These objectives are matched with different computer applications to show the way that such matches offer competitive benefits.  Three specific applications are considered: 1.  transaction processing, reporting, and tracking systems, 2.  expert systems, and 3.  decision support systems.   

Kenneth R.  Brousseau, Michael J. Driver, Kristina  Eneroth and Rikard Larsson, “Career pandemonium:  Realigning organizations and individuals,” Academy of Management Executive, November, 1996, 10(4), pp. 52-66.

Widespread internal changes in organizations are wreaking havoc on traditional careers.  Many people are experiencing major difficulties in their attempts to adapt to the uncertainties of career life.  Increasingly, organizations are seen as freed from the responsibility of managing careers in the efforts to remain flexible and ready to shift with environmental changes.  However, both individuals and organizations have needs for stability and for change.  Organizations are better advised to adopt a pluralistic approach to career management that embraces different definitions of career success.  In doing so, they will be better able to support the diverse needs of their employees and enable the organization to reward and maintain diverse competencies in their workforces.   

Peter Cappelli, “A market-driven approach to retaining talent,” Harvard Business Review, Jan/Feb, 2000.  78(1), pp. 103-111.

To adopt a new strategy of retention, you first have to accept the new reality: the market, not your company, will ultimately determine the movement of your employees. Some elements which should be considered when adopting a new retention strategy are: 1. compensation, 2. job design, 3. job customization, 4. social ties, 5. location, and 6. hiring.

Sarah Cliffe, “Human resources:  Winning the war for talent,” Harvard Business Review, Sep/Oct, 1998,  76(5), pp. 18-19.

Corporate America has recently been having trouble filling key positions at all levels.  The rapid pace of economic development is squeezing the labor market.  Securing and holding on to talent is more important than ever for several reasons, including: 1.  the knowledge economy, 2.  hypercompetition, and 3.  employee mobility.  A recent survey shows that executives do not know some of the most basic and most important facts about their companies' talent.  Companies regularly mismanage talent development tasks.  An employee value proposition can help management attract and retain the talent they need.

Russell W. Coff, “Human assets and management dilemmas:  Coping with hazards on the road to resource-based theory,” Academy of Management Review, April, 1997,  22(2), pp. 374-402. 

Resource-based theorists argue that human assets can be a source of sustainable advantage because tacit knowledge and social complexity are hard to imitate.  However, these desirable attributes cause dilemmas that may prevent firms from generating an advantage.  A framework for analyzing and coping with these challenges is developed.  Although the problem arises from the strategy literature, the solutions are drawn from the organizational behavior, human resource management, human capital, and professions literatures.   

John T. Delaney and Mark A. Huselid, The impact of human resource management practices on perceptions of organizational performance,” Academy of Management Journal, August, 1996,  39(4), pp. 949-969.

In 590 for-profit and non-profit firms from the National Organizations Survey, researchers found positive associations between HR management practices, such as training and staffing selectivity, and perceptual firm performance measures.  Results also suggest methodological issues for consideration in examinations of the relationship between HR management systems and firm performance.   

John E. Delery and Harold  Doty, “Modes of theorizing in strategic human resource management:  Tests of universalistic, contingency, and configurational performance predictions,” Academy of Management Journal, August 1996, 39(4), pp. 802-835.

The field of strategic HR management has been criticized for lacking a solid theoretical foundation.  An article documents that, contrary to this criticism, the SHRM literature draws on 3 dominant modes of theorizing:  1.  universalistic, 2.  contingency, and 3.  configurational perspectives.  Seven key strategic HR practices are identified and used to develop theoretical arguments consistent with each perspective.  The results demonstrate that each perspective can be used to structure theoretical arguments that explain significant levels of variation in financial performance.

Peter  Drucker, “Knowledge-worker productivity:  The biggest challenge,” California Management Review, Winter, 1999, 41(2), pp. 79-94.

The most important contribution of management in the 20th century was to increase manual worker productivity fifty-fold.  The most important contribution of management in the 21st century will be to increase knowledge worker productivity - hopefully by the same percentage.  So far it is abysmally low and in many areas actually lower than it was 70 years ago.  So far, almost no one has addressed it.  Yet it is known how to increase - and rapidly -  the productivity of knowledge workers.  The methods, however, are totally different from those that increased the productivity of manual workers. 

Charles R.  Greer and Timothy C. Ireland, “Organizational and Financial Correlates of a "Contrarian" Human Resource Investment Strategy,” Academy of Management Journal.  35(5): 956-984.  1992 Dec.

The "contrarian" human resource management strategy of countercyclical hiring involves selective hiring during downturns or recessions that occur before a definite upturn in economic activity.  The relationships between this strategy, organizational characteristics, and financial performance are examined in order to increase understanding of countercyclical hiring.  Much of the data came from 3 surveys.  Five variables are shown to be significantly related to at least 2 measures of countercyclical hiring: 1.  planning to avoid personal shortages, 2.  age distribution, 3.  development and career planning, 4.  financial performance, and 5.  cost.  Companies that emphasize planning tend to be more likely to hire countercyclically.  Maintenance of a regular age distribution also appears to be an important incentive for hiring managers, whether replacements or nonreplacements, and retaining managers during economic downturns.   

Charles R. Greer, Stuar A. Youngblood and David A. Gray, “Human resource management outsourcing:  The make or buy decision,” Academy of Management Executive, August, 1999, 13(3), pp. 85-96.

Just-in-time human resource management, sell and lease-back human resource programs, and do-it-yourself HR - all of these phrases characterize how companies manage outsourced HR functions.  Results of interviews conducted with senior HR executives and professionals in 25 organizations are reported to identify outsourcing rationales and consequences.  Companies were found to use HR outsourcing for both operational and strategic reasons.  Based on these findings, guidelines for selecting vendors, managing the outsourcing transition, managing vendor relations, and monitoring vendor performance, are presented.  HR outsourcing is not a fad, and it can enhance the HR value chain as well as support the development of HR as a business partner and strategic contributor to the organization's goals.   

Mark A. Huselid, “The impact of human resource management practices on turnover, productivity, and corporate financial performance,” Academy of Management Journal, June, 1995,  38(3), pp. 635-672.

A study comprehensively evaluated the links between systems of High Performance Work Practices and firm performance.  The results, based on a national sample of nearly 1,000 firms, indicate that these practices have an economically and statistically significant impact on both intermediate employee outcomes (turnover and productivity) and short- and long-term measures of corporate financial performance.  Support for predictions that the impact of High Performance Work Practices on firm performance is in part contingent on their interrelationships and links with competitive strategy was limited.   

Mark A.  Huselid, Susan E.  Jackson and Randall S. Schuler, “Technical and strategic human resource management effectiveness as determinants of firm performance,” Academy of Management Journal, February, 1997, 40(1), pp. 171-188.

A study evaluated the impact of human resource managers' capabilities on HR management effectiveness and the latter's impact on corporate financial performance.  For 293 US firms, effectiveness was associated with capabilities and attributes of HR staff.  It also found relationships between HR management effectiveness and productivity, cash flow, and market value.  Findings were consistent across market and accounting measures of performance and with corrections for biases.   

Brent Keltner and David Finegold, “Adding value in banking:  Human resource innovations for service firms.,” Sloan Management Review, Fall, 1996, 38(1), pp. 57-68.

A number of banks have created new human resource policies that are designed to motivate, develop, and keep employees.  The have developed competence-based career ladders for entry-level employees to lower staff turnover, training programs for high-skill positions that alternate work experience with training courses, and internal promotion to increase employees' knowledge about their bank and its products.  By establishing education cooperatives and a new employee contract banks and other service firms can meet customer demand for quality service.   

Augustine A.  Lado  Mary C. Wilson, “Human resource systems and sustained competitive advantage: A competency-based perspective,” Academy of Management Review, October, 1994,  19(4), pp. 699-727.

Drawing on the theoretical insights from the resource-based view of strategic management, the potential of human resource systems to facilitate or inhibit the development and utilization of organizational competencies is explored.  These competencies - managerial, input-based, transformational, and output-based - are presumed to yield sustained competitive advantage for a firm.  The competency-based perspective, by focusing attention the human resource activities, functions, and processes that enhance or impede competency accumulation and exploitation, complements the behavioral perspective and, thus, potentially enhances the understanding of strategic human resource management. 

Cynthia A. Lengnick-Hall and Mark L. Lengnick-Hall, “Strategic Human Resources Management: A Review of the Literature and a Proposed Typology,” Academy of Management Review, July, 1988, 13(3), pp. 454-470.

In the past, efforts to relate the management of human resources to a firm's business strategy have taken 3 approaches: 1.  matching managerial style or personnel activities with strategies, 2.  forecasting manpower needs given certain environmental conditions or strategic objectives, and 3.  offering means for the integration of human resources management into the overall effort to match strategy and structure.  The literature on each of these approaches is reviewed, and a typology is presented that hypothesizes a reciprocal interdependence between a firm's business and human resources strategies.  The proposed typology rests on 3 assumptions: 1.  The choice of strategy has not been made.  2.  The management of human resources should contribute directly to strategy formulation and implementation.  3.  As strategic conditions vary, the fundamental questions to be addressed also must vary.  A Growth/Readiness matrix is presented with 4 quadrants under which representing conditions strategy is formulated.   

David P.  Lepak and Scott A. Snell, “The human resource architecture:  Toward a theory of human capital allocation and development,” Academy of Management Review, January, 1999,  24(1), pp. 31-48. 

Recognizing that not all employees possess knowledge and skills that are of equal strategic importance, the resource-based view of the firm, human capital theory, and transaction cost economics are drawn upon to develop a human resource architecture of 4 different employment modes:  1.  internal development, 2.  acquisitions, 3.  contracting, and 4.  alliance.  This architecture is used to derive research questions for studying the relationships among employment modes, employment relationships, human resource configurations, and criteria for competitive advantage.

Fred  Luthans and Alexander D. Stajkovic, “Reinforce for performance:  The need to go beyond pay and even rewards,” Academy of Management Executive, May, 1999, 13(2), pp. 49-57.

Perhaps the most talked about, if not actually implemented, practical solution for making human resources more productive is pay for performance.  However, many researchers and practitioners doubt the true effectiveness of this approach.  To help solve this controversy, it is suggested that one draw from reinforcement theory and behavioral management.  This approach can be used to explain the simple statements: You get what you reinforce, but you do not necessarily get what you pay for.  The traditional pay for performance practices is reviewed, and the question of whether rewards, not reinforcers, do more harm than good is addressed.  The behavioral management steps of organizational behavior modification (OB Mod) are outlined.  When OB Mod has been systematically applied over the years using both monetary and nonmonetary reinforcers, the recent meta-analysis found that performance on average increased 17%.  The contingencies and practical implications of this behavioral management approach that advocates reinforce for performance instead of pay or even reward for performance are discussed.   

Vitor M. Marciano, “The origins and development of human resource management,” Academy of Management Journal, (Best Papers Proceedings 1995), pp. 223-227. 

Human resource management (HRM) has become a major component of business schools and is quickly becoming a dominant focus of management research.  However, discussions of HRM's history are very limited.  HRM's origins and development are traced by examining: 1.  the concepts developed by the 2 ignored originators of HRM, Peter F.  Drucker (1954) and E.  Wight Bakke (1958), and 2.  the evolution of HRM's definition. 

Frances J.  Milliken, Luis  Martins and Hal  Morgan, “Explaining organizational responsiveness to work-family issues:  The role of human resource executives as issue interpreters,” Academy of Management Journal, October, 1998, 41(5), pp. 580-592.

A multitheoretical approach was used to explore why organizations vary in the degree to which they have adopted policies designed to help employees manage their work and family lives.  The findings indicate that: 1.  significant differences existed across industries in work-family responsiveness, 2.  the percentage of women employed by a company did not explain unique variance in responsiveness, and 3.  organizations were more likely to offer benefits when work and family issues were salient to senior human resource staff and thought likely to impact the organization's performance if unaddressed.   

John  Milliman, Mary Ann Von Glinow and Maria Nathan, “Organizational Life Cycles and Strategic International Human Resource Management in Multinational Companies: Implications for Congruence Theory,” Academy of Management Review, April, 1991, 16(2), pp. 318-339.

To extend the understanding of congruence of "fit" theory in strategic human resource management (HRM), an organizational life cycle (OLC) model of international HRM for multinational companies is developed.  International and longitudinal dimensions provide several contributions to congruence theory as it relates to international HRM: 1.  Two additional international HRM-context fits should be considered in strategic human resources.  2.  The need for flexibility in strategic international HRM is explored in greater detail.  3.  The concepts of fit and flexibility are explored in complement by examining their relationship over the entire OLC.  Several propositions are formulated concerning the relationship of fit and flexibility to organizational effectiveness in multinational companies.   

Philip H. Mirvis, “Human resource management:  Leaders, laggards, and followers,” Academy of Management Executive, May, 1997, 11(2), pp. 43-56.

Most American companies face intense competition, have had to cut costs, and see a continuing need to improve quality and customer service.  In response, they have trimmed their work forces and expanded operations overseas.  Those companies that rank as human resource leaders have combined downsizing with restructuring, reengineering, employee involvement programs, and team-based work redesigns.  They have retrained and redeployed twice as many workers as the human resource laggards, are more apt to sponsor private-public partnerships with schools, offer employees flexible work arrangements, and conduct diversity training and mentoring programs.  Neither leaders nor laggards, HR followers are hampered by short-term pressures, indifferent middle management, and other barriers to change; such companies wait for innovations to take hold in their industries.  Because HR executives are generally not well-positioned to promote innovation in their companies, the gap between leaders, followers, and laggards, may widen in the years ahead.   

Jone L. Pearce, “From Socialism to Capitalism: The Effects of Hungarian Human Resources Practices,”  Academy of Management Executive, November, 1991,  5(4), pp. 75-88.

The Hungarian human resource management practices of weak performance pressures, substantial pay-at-risk compensation systems, promotion-through-connections, and ambiguous responsibilities result in numerous dysfunctions.  These dysfunctions include excessive bargaining between supervisors and subordinates, pervasive distrust, the de-legitimation of managers, and responsibility avoidance.  These practices are changing slowly under economic reform.  The acknowledgement of dysfunctions carried from the past is important for local managers in reforming and former communist countries.  Another problem faced by local managers is their tendency to let foreign bosses assume responsibility because they are not used to assuming responsibility themselves. 

Jeffrey Pfeffer, “Seven practices of successful organizations,” California Management Review, Winter, 1998,  40(2), pp. 96-124. 

In this excerpt from his recently published book, The Human Equation: Building Profits by Putting People First, the author argues that many managers continue to overlook the extent to which the more effective management of people can improve a firm's economic performance.  Firms that seek to produce enhanced economic performance through the management of their human capital have adopted a number of common personnel practices.  These include the provision of employment security, the selective hiring of new personnel, decentralized decision making, high compensation contingent on organizational performance, extensive training, minimal status distinctions and barriers, and the extensive sharing of financial and performance information throughout the firm.   

Jeffrey Pfeffer, “Competitive advantage through people,” California Management Review, Winter, 1994,  36(2), pp. 9-28.

Sustainable competitive advantage has proved elusive for companies in the 1990s.  While making enormous investments in technology, research and state-of-the-art marketing, many of today's managers continue to ignore the single most important factor in achieving and maintaining competitive advantage: people.  Traditional sources of success, such as product and process technology, can still provide competitive leverage, but to a lesser degree, leaving organizational culture and capabilities, derived from how people are managed, as comparatively more vital.  One of the most obvious implications of the changing basis of competitive success is the growing importance of having a work force with adequate skills.  It is important to build a work force that has the ability to achieve competitive success and that cannot be readily duplicated by others.  Ironically, the recent trend toward using temporary help, part-time employees and contract workers flies in the face of the changing basis of competitive success.  The costs of contingent employees can be high.   

Jeffryey Pfeffer, Toru Hatano and Timo Santalainen, “Producing sustainable competitive advantage through the effective management of people,” Academy of Management Executive, February, 1995, 9(1), pp.  55-72.

Achieving competitive success through people involves fundamentally altering how one thinks about the work force and the employment relationship.  It means achieving success by working with people, not by replacing them or limiting the scope of their activities.  It entails seeing the work force as a source of strategic advantage, not just as a cost to be minimized or avoided.  Firms that take this different perspective are often able to successfully outmaneuver and outperform their rivals.  Thirteen practices for managing people are discussed.  These are: 1.  employment security, 2.  selectivity in recruiting, 3.  high wages, 4.  incentive pay, 5.  employee ownership, 6.  information sharing, 7.  participation and empowerment, 8.  self-managed teams, 9.  training and skill development, 10.  cross-utilization and cross-training, 11.  symbolic egalitarianism.  12.  wage compression, and 13.  promotion from within.  Two executive commentaries are included.

Karen Roberts, Ellen Ernst Kossek, and Cynthia  Ozeki, “Managing the global workforce:  Challenges and strategies,” Academy of Management Executive, November, 1998, 12(4), pp. 93-106.

The globalization of the workplace has become a fact of life for a substantial segment of US companies, bringing a dramatic expansion of the scope of workforce management and a whole host of new organizational challenges.  Using the data collected from interviews with international human resource managers in eight large companies, three practical challenges to managing the global workforce are identified and four strategies for meeting those challenges are discussed.  The three challenges are: deployment, knowledge and innovation dissemination, and talent identification and development.  The four strategies are; aspirational careers, awareness-building assignments, SWAT teams, and virtual solutions.  A diagnostic framework for each challenge is provided that indicates when to use which strategy and basic implementation points are presented.   

Randall S. Schuler, “Repositioning the Human Resource Function: Transformation or Demise?” Academy of Management Executive, August, 1990, 4(3), pp. 49-60.

The human resource (HR) department is being presented with an opportunity to become a significant player on the management team.  Environmental changes are confronting organizations with people issues of great importance and uncertainty, which is causing people issues to be formulated as significant business issues.  One result is that line managers are reaching out to take control and ownership over the HR function.  This is being facilitated by many HR departments that remain focused on issues involving functional expertise rather than business-relatedness.  However, there are examples of companies in which the HR departments are seizing the opportunity to become vital members of the management team and are working with line managers to tackle the people-related business issues.  Doing so appears to require a virtual repositioning of the HR department, which involves new roles, new competencies, new relationships, and new ways of operating for both HR and line managers.  The result is an HR department that is a management team player with a business issue, a customer focus, and a bottom-line orientation. 

Randall S. Schuler and Susan E. Jackson, “Linking Competitive Strategies with Human Resource Management Practices,” Academy of Management Executive, August, 1987, 1(3), pp.  207-219. 

Recently, there has been an increased awareness that the abilities, skills, values, personalities, and perspectives of top managers need to match a firm's business strategies.  Three major strategies that companies use to gain competitive advantage are: 1.  innovation strategies, which involve encouraging employees to experiment and work creatively, 2.  cost-reduction strategies, which attempt to increase productivity per person, and 3.  quality improvement strategies, which require workers to be more committed to and involved in quality.  When a company's appropriate competitive strategy has been identified, based on customer wants and the nature of the competition, then the human resource management (HRM) practices to be connected with each type of strategy can be considered.  Each strategy affects a different aspect of HRM: 1.  recruiting, 2.  establishing either broad or narrow career paths, 3.  creating one or several promotion ladders, 4.  socializing the new employee, and 5.  determining the degree of openness in staffing policies.  Moreover, some organizations may need to have multiple and concurrent competitive strategies.  This practice can result in the challenge of stimulating and rewarding different role behaviors while also managing the conflicts that the new behaviors generate.   

David M. Schweiger, John M.  Ivancevich and Frank R. Power, “Executive Actions for Managing Human Resources Before and After Acquisition,” Academy of Management Executive, May 1987, 1(2), pp. 127-138.

Through structured interviews, the perceptions, emotions, and behaviors of 166 employees from 6 acquired Fortune manufacturing and service organizations were examined.  Interviews were conducted with 35 managers and employees who were involuntarily terminated, 71 who voluntarily quit, 42 who remained in the same or a better position, and 18 who were placed in lower paying positions.  The interviews revealed the following employee concerns: 1.  a loss of identity, 2.  anxiety and a lack of information, 3.  an obsession with self-survival, 4.  the loss of talent through the loss of coworkers, and 5.  family repercussions.  Effective managerial actions that can soften the human expense of acquisition included: 1.  remaining committed to employees and displaying companionship, 2.  being honest, 3.  showing sincere understanding for employee concerns, 4.  refusing to permit political behavior, 5.  handling terminations and outplacements in a dignified manner, and 6.  actively managing the aftermath of the acquisition. 

Richard J.  Schonberger, “Human resource management lessons from a decade of total quality management and reengineering,” California Management Review, Summer, 1994,  36(4), pp. 109-123.

Total quality management (TQM) and its high-powered sidekick, business process reengineering (BPR), require extensive changes in human resource management, as demonstrated by the experiences of leading-edge companies.  These changes fall into 4 categories: 1.  people and their roles (the process improvement baton passes from experts and managers to everyone else), 2.  performance, recognition and pay (activities and results are put on display in the workplace and the foundation for reward and recognition expands), 3.  the role and responsibilities of the human resource (broadened jobs, expanded involvement in training, and mentally active employees cut the size of the human resource staff and department), and 4.  corporate decision making and strategy (specialists come out of isolation and join cross-functional teams for interactive decision making). 

Scott A. Snell and James W. Dean Jr., “Integrated Manufacturing and Human Resource Management: A Human Capital Perspective,” Academy of Management Journal, August, 1992,  35(3): 467-504.

A study examined the relationship between integrated manufacturing, defined as the use of advanced manufacturing technology (AMT), just-in-time (JIT) inventory control, and total quality management (TQM), and human resource management from a human capital perspective.  Data were from 102 operations managers, 109 quality managers, 97 production control managers, and 90 human resource managers, plus nonmanagers.  AMT was found to be positively related to selective staffing, comprehensive training, developmental appraisal, and externally equitable rewards for operations employees and to selective staffing for quality employees.  TQM was positively related to these same human resource practices in quality and was related also to the comprehensiveness of training for operations employees.  JIT was negatively related to selective staffing in operations and to performance appraisal in quality and positively related to staffing in quality.  The 2- and 3-way interactions have negative effects.     

Scott A. Snell, “Control Theory in Strategic Human Resource Management: The Mediating Effect of Administrative Information,” Academy of Management Journal, June, 1992,  35(2), pp. 292-327. 

The relationship between strategic context, viewed in terms of product-market variation, work flow integration, and firm size, and executive use of human resource management control systems, including input, behavior, and output controls, was examined.  Data were collected from 140 presidents and 175 vice presidents of firms with assets and revenues over $10 million and at least 250 full-time employees.  Data from executives in these 102 firms showed: 1.  a positive relationship between product-market variation and the use of behavior control, mediated by the presence of managers' knowledge of cause-effect relations and the crystallization of standards of desirable performance, 2.  a negative relationship between work flow integration and behavior and output control, mediated by crystallization of performance standards, and 3.  a positive relationship between firm size and input control that is independent of administrative information.     

Brian D.  Steffy and Steven D.  Maurer, “Conceptualizing and Measuring the Economic Effectiveness of Human Resource Activities,” Academy of Management Review, April, 1988,  13(2), pp. 271-286.

A comprehensive model is presented for conceptualizing and measuring the economic impact of human resource activities drawn from work on firm-specific human capital (FSHC) theory, human resources accounting, and utility analysis.  FSHC theory provides a framework for assessing the effect of institutional and market forces on the degree to which increases in individual use value result in actual asset creation.  It also provides a theoretical framework for conceptualizing the valuation issue.  Changes in individuals' use value as a continuous, linear function of the measured effectiveness of individul personnel activities are measured by utility analysis.  Because human resource accountants have developed strategies to measure employee future service potential, their work is valuable.  Dollar valuation and system dynamics are intertwined closely, and it is suggested that the valuation base should be addressed through the use of ex ante and ex post concepts.  Time-related issues and system dynamics, plus constraints on human asset creation are discussed.     

Thomas H. Stone and Jack Fiorito, “A Perceived Uncertainty Model of Human Resource Forecasting Technique Use,” Academy of Management Review, July, 1986, 11(3), pp. 635-642.

Although human resource forecasting (HRF) is basic for determining many human resource strategies, little is known about why organizations use the particular HRF techniques they do.  A new HRF model is proposed that is based on Hogarth and Makridakis' (1981) model of the human judgment process.  The new model, the perceived uncertainty model, explains the use of HRF techniques in terms of the interaction between a decision maker's perceptual and cognitive processes and the objective characteristics of the individual's environment.  The decision processes and outputs often are affected by the organizational environment.  The model generates 6 predictions related to HRF technique.  The first 3 predictions relate levels of perceived uncertainty to technique use.  The next 2 relate environmental variables, such as organizational size and labor supply, to technique use.  The last prediction relates changes in perceived uncertainty schema to variations in technique use.  The proposed model permits multiple use of HRF techniques and explains digressions from the evolutionary pattern. 

Scully Taylor, Schon Beechler and Nancy  Napier, “Toward an integrative model of strategic international human resource management,” Academy of Management Review, October, 1996,  21(4), pp. 959-985.

A study builds on previous work in international human resource management by drawing on concepts from the resource-based view of the firm and resource dependence to develop a theoretical model of the determinants of strategic international human resource management (SIHRM) systems in multinational corporations.  The study then offers propositions concerning the relationships between a number of key determinants and the multinational corporation's overall SIHRM approach, the design of a particular affiliate's HRM system, and the HRM system for critical groups of employees within the affiliate.

Mary B. Teagarden, Mary Ann Von Glinow, David E. Bowen, Colette A.  Frayne, “Toward a theory of comparative management research: An idiographic case study of the best international human resources management project,” Academy of Management Journal, October, 1995,  38(5), pp. 1261-1287. 

Complexity, cost, time commitment, and methodological challenges are among the impediments to cross-cultural management research.  An idiographic study documents the evolution of a multinational, multicultural, interdisciplinary research consortium that sought to remedy a lack of rigor in a best practices project investigating international human resource management practices.   Identified are key learning points derived from the project, and a conclusion is made with the rudiments of a midrange theory of a comparative management research methodology.   

Noel M. Tichy, Charles J. Fombrun and Mary Anne Devanna, “Strategic Human Resource Management,”  Sloan Management Review, Winter, 1982, 23(2), pp. 47-61.

Recent attacks on American business have emphasized the short-run financial perspective of its management and its unfeeling treatment of workers; Japanese organization is seen as the model of the future with its worker-loyalty-centered planning systems.  However, rather than evaluating the Japanese organization, the focus should be on human resource management and its strategic role in the formulation and implementation of long-run plans.  Human resource management is related to general strategic management, and some current applications of human resource management as a strategic tool in accomplishing corporate goals are described.  Human resource management is a key influence in directing organizational performance.  Neither US businesses' lack of a long-term perspective in management, nor its lack of skill in managing people can be changed without a corresponding change in the human resource activities inside American organizations.  Human resource activities have a major effect on individual performance, and thus, on productivity and organizational performance.  The cycle of human resource activities is extremely interdependent.   

Barbara Townlwy, “Foucault, power/knowledge, and its relevance for human resource management,” Academy of Management Review, July, 1993, 18(3), pp. 518-545.

Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault, it is argued that human resource management (HRM) may be best understood as a discourse and set of practices that attempt to reduce the indeterminacy involved in the employment contract.  After rereading HRM practices from a Foucauldian power-knowledge perspective it is suggested that this provides an avenue to reorient contemporary, historical, and comparative analyses of the area.  A Foucauldian perspective presents an alternative way for perceiving and ordering material.  Rather than thinking in functional terms of recruitment, appraisal, renumeration, and so on, in this perspective an emphasis is placed on how HRM employs disciplinary practices to create knowledge and power.

Sandy J. Wayne, Isabel K. Graf and Gerald R.  Ferris, “The role of employee influence tactics in human resources decisions,” Academy of Management Journal, (Best Papers Proceedings 1995), pp. 156-160.

A model was tested on how employee influence tactics affect 3 human resources decisions: 1.  performance rating, 2.  salary progression, and 3.  promotability.  A random sample of 1,413 exempt employees of a Fortune 500 company participated in the study.  Structural equation modeling results suggested that subordinates' use of reasoning, assertiveness, and favor rending positively influenced, and bargaining negatively influenced, managers' perceptions of subordinates and human resources decisions.   

Theresa M.  Welbourne and Alice O.  Andrews, “Predicting the performance of initial public offerings:  Should human resource management be in the equation?”  Academy of Management Journal, August, 1996, 39(4), pp. 891-919.

Population ecology is used to explain the role of HR management in enhancing the performance of initial public offering companies.  The determinates of structural inertia were examined, and hypotheses on the relationship between HRM and organizational performance were developed.  The results indicate that 2 HR resource variables, HR value and organization-based rewards, predict initial investor reaction and long-term survival.  The rewards variable negatively affects initial performance but positively affects survival.      

Patrick M.  Wright and Scott A. Snell, “Toward a unifying framework for exploring fit and flexibility in strategic human resource management,” Academy of Management Review, October, 1998,  23(4), pp. 756-772.

This article presents a framework for studying the concepts of fit and flexibility of strategic human resource management, focusing on HRM practices, employee skills, and employee behaviors, and review past conceptual and empirical work within that framework.  Presented is a model of strategic HRM, which is used to explore the concepts of fit and flexibility as they apply to strategic HRM.  After applying the concepts of resource and coordination flexibility to strategic HRM, the implications of the framework for both the practice of and research on strategic HRM is discussed.   

Mark A. Youndt, Scott A.  Snell, James W. Dean Jr., David P.  Lepak, “Human resource management, manufacturing strategy, and firm performance,” Academy of Management Journal, August, 1996, 39(4), pp. 836-866. 

A study examines 2 alternative views - universal and contingency - of the HR-performance relationship in manufacturing settings.  Results from a survey of 97 plants primarily support a contingency approach to HR management.  An HR system focused on human capital enhancement was directly related to multiple dimensions of operational performance (i.e., employee productivity, machine efficiency, and customer alignment), but subsequent analysis revealed that this main effect was predominantly the result of linking human-capital-enhancing HR systems with a quality manufacturing strategy.  Other manufacturing strategies also moderated the HR-performance relationship.     

Abraham Zaleznik, “What's Wrong with HRM,” Harvard Business Review, Nov/Dec, 1988,  66(6), pp. 170-171.

The job of human resource management (HRM) is to identify and develop people who have the talents and imagination companies need to compete in the current environment.  Therefore, HRM should be the most important task in every business.  However, human resource managers do not understand human beings because they will not confront aggression.  Aggression, which is the force that drives talent, is a potent factor in productive work.  For an organization to remain healthy, the people within it must feel that employee relations are determined justly and equitably.  The faster an organization advances people, the more people come to expect rapid promotion.  This can lead to feelings of dissatisfaction with what, from other people's perspective, is a good deal.  In this setting, the human resource department's contribution to justice and equity is too often restricted to negatives, i.e., maintaining an environment of deprivation.  Line executives need HRM executives who are independent, plainspoken, and directly involved in the substance of the organization's business.

Michael  Zigarelli, “Human resources and the bottom line,” Academy of Management Executive, May, 1996, 10(2), pp. 63-64.

Mark Huselid of Rutgers University studied the connection between human resources (HR) practices and firm performance.  He examined the strategic impact of what he called high performance work practices - those that improve employees' knowledge, skills and abilities and those that address employee motivation.  What he found strongly affirmed the bottom-line contribution of HR.  After collecting data from 968 large and medium-sized firms in 35 US industries, Huselid found a connection between HR practices, employee turnover and employee productivity.  He found that a one standard deviation increase in the deployment of high performance work practices reduced turnover by 7% and increased sales per employee by more than $27,000 per year.

Case Studies

Mary B. Teagarden, Mary Ann Von Glinow, David E. Bowen, Colette A. Frayne, “Toward a theory of comparative management research: An idiographic case study of the best international human resources management project,” Academy of Management Journal, October, 1995,  38(5), pp. 1261-1287.

Complexity, cost, time commitment, and methodological challenges are among the impediments to cross-cultural management research.  An idiographic study documents the evolution of a multinational, multicultural, interdisciplinary research consortium that sought to remedy a lack of rigor in a best practices project investigating international human resource management practices.   Identified are key learning points derived from the project, and a conclusion is made with the rudiments of a midrange theory of a comparative management research methodology.