TRANSFORMING HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT INTO A STRATEGIC PARTNER

Abstract

This thesis, in particular, includes three distinct qualitative and quantitative studies that examined different forms of HRM such as high-performance work practices and HR systems on various outcomes across levels within organizations. For example, corporate entrepreneurship and employee retention at the organizational level and employee creativity at the individual level. These studies were carried out using diverse research methods that encompass systematic literature review (1st study), fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (2nd study), and mixed method (3rd study) (e.g., questionnaire survey and multiple-case studies). All of these methods yielded valuable theoretical insights that advance our understanding of the topics covered. Further, practical implications were offered to help managers and practitioners to achieve success and competitive advantage. The first research paper analyzes empirical studies that explicitly examined the role of human resources management in fostering corporate entrepreneurship to determine the most effective HRM practices that enhance firms\u2019 entrepreneurship with an emphasis on the underlying mediating mechanisms and boundary conditions that moderate this relationship. A total number of 27 empirical research papers were identified in English peer-reviewed. Review analysis unfolded four high-performance work practices; selective staffing, extensive training, intensive compensation and rewards, and employee empowerment and participation. These practices were widely reported to have the strongest effects on encouraging corporate entrepreneurship. Furthermore, based on the extant empirical evidence, we suggested a theoretical moderated mediation model that explains the relationships between HRM, corporate entrepreneurship, organizational learning capability, and represents the entrepreneurial culture as a boundary condition. Theoretical contributions and implications along with future research paths are discussed. While the second study adopts a configurational perspective and applies fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis on a dataset of 232 Austrian and Hungarian manufacturing firms to explore how high-performance work practices combine to enhance employee retention. Results uncover five equifinal configurations of different high-performing skill, motivation, and opportunity-enhancing practices that could help companies and managers to retain employees effectively. The resultant configurations have been interpreted in terms of how each configuration fits different companies\u2019 HR strategies and policies. Our study raises advanced theoretical insights about the synergetic effects of HPWPs on employee retention through the configurational approach and fsQCA. Whereas the third study developed a multilevel model to examine the cross-level effects of interactions between HR systems and relational climates in predicting contexts for employee creativity. Using a mixed-method design and drawing on data obtained from survey questionnaires 282 employees nested in 69 teams and two exploratory case studies, our findings suggest noteworthy insights that the interactions effect between commitment-HR and communal-sharing climate are non-significant for employee creativity. Likewise, the interaction between compliance-HR and market-pricing climate. However, only a commitment-based HR system has been shown to be important to boost employee creativity. Nonetheless, based on the case studies findings, it is not sufficient by itself, instead, the relational climate that permeates the workplace is also vital for creative ideas generation.ENGLIS

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