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Does Hrm Contribute to Organisation Performance

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Submitted By scabo33
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Critically evaluate the research evidence that suggests HRM can (and does) contribute to improvements in organisational performance

The distinctive feature of HRM is its assumption that improved performance is achieved through the people in the organization.’ (Guest, 1997) important therefore for performance improvement is that the organisation makes policies that would facilitate Human Resources at work, it could be assumed that Human Resource would have a substantial impact on the business performance.
When the Human Resource Management journal was launched in 1990, Guest (2007) claims “it was able to capture a rising wave of interest in human resource management and in particular the relationship between human resource management (HRM) and performance”. Throughout the decade many authors provided sound evidence about a positive link between HRM and performance, including Huselid (1995) and Arthur (1994). Almost a decade later two major reviews of the topic were carried out by Boselie et al (2005) and Combs et al (2006) who both confirmed many of the journals signified an association, but also concluded that evidence of the link between performance and HRM was of an “association rather than a causation” Guest (2007). Both reviews also claimed there was insufficient evidence to explain why there was an association. The major problem as Guest (1997) states we need “a theory about HRM, theory about performance and a theory about how they are linked”.

The aim of this essay is to critically evaluate the evidence around HRM practices and performance emerging from the research. This can help outline possible ideas for future research.

Initially in the UK, first discussions of the link between performance and HRM centred around the differences between HRM and Personnel Management, and on the implications of a unitarist and managerial approach to the

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