Theoretical and Empirical Challenges in Studying: The HR Practice - Firm Performance Relationship

Over the past 10 years a plethora of research has been conducted seeking to establish a relationship between human resource (HR) practices and firm performance. While this research has demonstrated promising results, a significant number of problems exist. This paper seeks to identify the theoretical and empirical challenges facing researchers who wish to further establish the impact of HR practices on firm performance. We conclude with some recommendations for future research in this area that might more accurately assess this relationship in ways that will be useful for both researchers and practitioners

ILR Impact Brief - Affective Commitment Links Human Resource Practices and Voluntary Turnover

[Excerpt] Motivation- and empowerment- enhancing human resource (HR) practices are positively associated with employees’ collective emotional attachment to, and identification with, a company and its goals; this affective commitment, in turn, is negatively associated with the aggregate of employee decisions to exit an organization. Thus, collective affective commitment mediates the relationship between these two sets of HR practices and voluntary turnover. Practices that enhance workforce skills, however, are not mediated by collective affective commitment; rather, they are directly and positively associated with increased voluntary turnover

The Politics of Reversal: The Seventh Circuit Reins in a District Court Judge’s Wayward Employment Discrimination Decisions

In the span of four months, the Seventh Circuit reversed the same district court judge, Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan, in three separate employment discrimination opinions. In all three cases, the district court had granted the employers’ motions for summary judgment in their entirety. However, the Seventh Circuit held that the majority of these rulings were improper due to the district judge’s inattention to critical details in the record and his misplaced reliance on minor technical rulings that sidestepped the cases’ glaring issues of credibility and contested fact. This Comment reviews the common themes in the Seventh Circuit’s criticisms of the district judge and questions whether these critiques harbor a broader meaning. In light of the fact that the district judge was recently appointed by President George W. Bush, who is often criticized for his disregard for employment discrimination rights, this Comment first explores whether the Seventh Circuit’s opinions contain a political subtext. Rejecting this hypothesis due to the tempered language of the Seventh Circuit’s criticism and the conservative makeup of the panels that decided and authored these opinions, this Comment concludes that the Seventh Circuit’s criticisms can be explained as a form of socialization of a newly appointed district court judge. In that sense, these criticisms can be understood as an attempt to bring a district judge more in line with the tendencies of the Seventh Circuit’s employment discrimination jurisprudence

Essentially Reasonable?: Why the Ninth Circuit’s Decision in \u3cem\u3eNative Village of Point Hope\u3c/em\u3e Strays from the Purpose of NEPA

In Native Village of Point Hope v. Jewell, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management did not have to include information on animal populations in its environmental impact statement (“EIS”) at the lease-sale stage of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act oil and gas development program. Federal agencies are required to complete an EIS before conducting a major federal action. This process ensures that decision-makers take a hard look at adverse environmental impacts. The Ninth Circuit concluded in Native Village of Point Hope that coverage of animal populations is not “essential” in an early-stage “programmatic” EIS, but may be appropriate at a later stage. This Comment argues that the Ninth Circuit should have followed the lead of its own precedent in holding that the missing information about animal populations is “essential” in early-stage programmatic EIS, in order to maintain consistency, transparency, and predictability in the federal courts. Moreover, it would have ensured that agencies fully evaluate the environmental impacts of offshore oil production before making critical decisions

A new black pantheon: Kwezi as an epic of African postmodernity

Abstract: A recent special issue of Journal of African Cultural Studies focusing on the African superhero attests to a continent-wide desire for new imaginings of African identity. As Duncan Omanga notes in that collection, these superheroes are not merely appropriations of American pop culture, but rather syncretic adaptations of the genre for local cultures. This paper examines the South African superhero comic strip Kwezi in this context. Kwezi, I argue, stages a series of entanglements between different forms of black identity in a ‘post-transitional’ South Africa in which the metanarrative of black emancipation has receded from primacy. I show how the series’ array of black superheroes and supervillains functions as a contemporary pantheon of competing versions of black identities – predatory, transformative, traditional – that range from the hypermodern to the ‘ethnic’. I then place the strip within the traditions of black modernity that arise from panAfricanism, arguing that by reference to a deep past that peripheralizes white presence on the continent, the series attempts to construct black identity affirmatively and selfreferentially. At the same time, its dispensing with a progressive narrative of modernity centred on the nation-state leads me to characterize this as a ‘postmodern’ rather than ‘modern’ narrative of blackness

Retrofiting LID Practices into Existing Neighborhoods: Is it Worth It?

Low impact development (LID) practices are gaining popularity as a way to manage stormwater close to the source. This reduces infrastructure requirements and helps to maintain hydrologic processes close to predevelopment conditions. Studies have shown LID practices to be effective in reducing runoff and improving water quality. However, little has been done to aid decision makers in selecting the most effective practices for their needs and budgets. To this end, the L-THIA LID model has been applied. Using readily available data sources, multiple scenarios can quickly be examined, and then analyzed to determine the cost of implementation and the approximate period needed to see a return on the investment. This has been demonstrated by modeling four neighborhoods in greater Lafayette, Indiana using the L-THIA LID model to estimate the levels of runoff reduction that could be achieved through retrofitting LID practices. Based on LID practice cost of implementation, the payback period was determined for each practice. Depending on the LID practice and adoption level, 10 to 70 percent reductions in runoff volumes could be achieved. Cost per cubic meter of runoff reduction was highly variable depending on the LID practice and the land use it was applied to, ranging from around $3.00 to almost$600.00. In some cases the savings from reduced runoff volumes paid back the LID practice cost with interest in less than 3 years, while in other cases it was not possible to generate a payback. This information can help decision makers establish realistic goals and make informed decisions regarding LID practices before moving into detailed designs, thereby saving time and resource

The Impact of Human Resource Practices on Business-Unit Operating and Financial Performance

This study examined the impact of HR practices and organizational commitment on business-unit operating performance and profitability. Using a predictive design with a sample of 50 autonomous business-units within the same corporation, the study revealed that both organizational commitment and HR practices were significantly related to operational measures of performance as well as operating expenses and pre-tax profits

High Performance HR Practices And Customer Satisfaction: Employee Process Mechanisms

This research examined organizational commitment and customer focus as mediators between HR practices and customer satisfaction of seventy-one work units from twenty-five business units from a single firm in the food service industry. Customer satisfaction was assessed by ratings from multiple customers eighteen months after HR practices and process mechanisms were assessed from unique groups of employee respondents. Results suggest that employee commitment and customer focus partially mediate the relationship between HR practices and customer satisfaction

The HR-Firm Performance Relationship: Can it be in the Mind of the Beholder?

This study examined whether respondents’ implicit theories of performance could impact their responses to surveys regarding HR practices and effectiveness. Senior Human Resource and Line Executives and MBA, graduate Engineering, and graduate HR students read scenarios of high and low performing firms and were asked to report on the prevalence of various HR practices and effectiveness of the HR function in each firm. Results indicated that all four groups of respondents held implicit theories that high performing firms were characterized by extensive HR practices and had highly effective HR functions relative to low performing firms. Subjects with substantial work experience reported greater differences between and high and low performing firms than did subjects with relatively little work experience. The implications of these results for research on the HR Practices – Firm Performance relationship are discussed