MODES OF THEORIZING IN STRATEGICHUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT:

TESTS OF UNIVERSALISTIC, CONTINGENCY,AND CONFIGURATIONAL

PERFORMANCE PREDICTIONS

JOHN E. DELERY & D. HAROLD DOTY

Three perspectives of SHRM Studies

• Universalistic Perspective– Strategic HR practices– Best practices of HRM– Universalistic predictions, generally supported– Hypothesis 1: There will be a positive relationship

between financial performance and (a) the use of internal career ladders, (b) formal training systems, (c) results-oriented appraisal, (d) performance-based compensation, (e) employment security, (f) employee voice, and (g) broadly defined jobs• Empirically supported? (Yes)

• Contingency Perspective– A strategic contingency– Contingency predictions– Hypothesis 2: The relationship between human

resource practices and financial performance will be contingent on an organization's strategy• Empirically supported? (not really)

• Configurational Perspective– The Arguments

• Configurational Perspective draw on the holistic view of analyzing HR systems

• Multiple unique configurations of the relevant factors can result in maximal performance

– Employment systems• Table 1

– Strategic configurations– Alignment of employment systems and strategic configurations– Configurational predictions

• The three different configurational arguments relating the employment systems to organizational performance

– Hypothesis 3: The greater the similarity to the ideal-type employment system that is most similar to an organization's employment system, the higher the financial performance• Empirically supported? (not really)

– Hypothesis 4: An employment system's similarity to the one ideal-type employment system that is appropriate for an organization's strategy will be positively related to financial performance• Empirically supported? (not really)

– Hypothesis 5: An employment system's similarity to the one hybrid employment system that is appropriate for an organization's strategy will be positively related to financial performance• Empirically supported? (not really)• Market-Type employment system are superior compared to other two

systems

Conclusions and discussions

• Which perspectives of SHRM you like or believe in? Why?

• How can a company construct a good HR system for their company?