Mostly Discussed Research areas in

Human Resource Management (HRM)

A Literature Reviewsystematic Approach

ABSTRACT
This field of HRM is still in its evolutionary phase and it is difficult to identify
any crystal clear framework to retrofit the existing strewn perspectives.
Available literature shows that HRM is a system that strives to achieve a
dynamic balance between the personal interests and concerns of people
and their economic added value. In this study all those papers which are
published in prominent HR journals were scanned and those published
during last five year period were kept under sharp focus. Papers pertaining
to the field of HRM and organizational performance were categorized and
examined in detail. Categorization of the literature according to various
dimensions enabled the researcher to explore new areas that are not
adequately covered in the literature; hence this study is a structured
overview covering significant aspects. It was found that HRM is an area that
continues to evoke a lot of debate and body of work in HRM is relatively
small, and most of the questions are sorely in need of further attention.
Keywords: Human Resource Management(HRM) , Organizational Objectives,
HR Outcomes, standardize, organizational knowledge, HRM framework

1. INTRODUCTION
Human resource management (HRM) is making the best possible use of individuals for achieving
the organizational objectives. The definition was developed in late twentieth century; thereafter
employee motivation and job satisfaction came under focus instead of mere rational
administration (Hartel , Fujimoto, Strybosh and Fitzpatrick 2007). In present day world
organizations all over the world are facing critical challenges and survival has been linked with the
development of new capabilities. There is a need to find opportunities through these emerging
challenges like globalization, change management, investment in human capital, growth etc.
Human resource strategies can be used as a vibrant tool vital towards success. Strategic
alignment of human capital can best be achieved through effective HR practices. Management of
the human capital has assumed added significance after realization of the fact that people are
assets of strategic importance. The concept of personnel management is no more relevant in the
context after evolution of strategic concept of human resource management. After this paradigm
shift of the emphasis human resource policies are being aligned with business strategies.
According to resource-based view organizations can attain competitive advantage with the help of
value created by them which is exceptional and perfectly inimitable (Baker, 1999). Sources like
economies of scale, technology, natural resources etc are often considered vital towards achieving
competitive advantage but resource based view states that these can be easily imitated. In this
backdrop HR practices may prove to be a major cause of sustainable competitive advantage (Lado
& Wilson, 1994).Analyses of available literature on the subject provides critical insights and shows
that HR practices if employed appropriately can prove to be a vibrant tool towards enhancing the
level of organizational performance. Most organizations operate on a piecemeal basis, responding
to sudden emergent pressures, and are subject to a

 variety of powerful internal political pressures which contribute to inconsistencies

among their policy choices. Most of the literature in the area of human resource
strategies ignores the actual process by which the strategies are formed and
concentrates instead on the chosen policies and practices. This is an important
gap. In fact, most researchers in this field measure the firms plan of action purely
by its choice of HR practices; indeed, that is typically how they represent the HR
strategy itself (i.e. different HR objectives are very often ignored). In other words,
researchers tend to focus exclusively on the combination of individual HR practices
that a firm does or does not adopt; it is a particular combination of practices which
assigns the firm to one strategy category or another; the specification of strategic
objectives, the problems of policy implementation, and the nature of the
arguments that might link policies to objectives are usually not explored in any
depth. In this study researcher will focus on available literature in various journals
pertaining various HR practices and organizational performance with a view to
facilitate future research by identifying significant areas and gaps in the body of
knowledge. Available literature reveals that, HRM is entire system of values,
policies and practices which focuses on maximizing the performance of people in
organizations, with a view to achieving a dynamic balance between the personal
interests and concerns of people and their economic added value.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Author

Year

Source/jo
urnal
abstract

Findings and conclusion

Steinmetz

2011

Human
resource
managem
ent
review

There is a need to standardize the process of research

particularly in the field of HR.Researchers need to
develop a process in which development of
questionnaire, administration of questionnaire and
structuring of comparable measures should follow the
same way. Results of such a research cannot be
generalized without a process which is close to
uniformity.

Minbaeva

2008

Internation
al
Business
Review

Study concluded that if HRM practices are used to develop

competencies that are firm specific and creation of organizational
knowledge than these can also contribute to sustained
competitive advantage.

Turner,
Huemann
and Keegan

2008

International
Project
Management

For optimum performance project assignments should be linked

with career development so that employees may feel that specific
project assignments are likely to create opportunities for
development.HRM practices in contemporary organizations most of
the times overlook needs of stake holders in favour of the
organization. Fairness and justice assume added significance
towards HRM practices.(Greenwood,2002)

Gooderham
and
Nordhaug

2010

Human
Resource
Manageme
nt

Institutional context is highly relevant in Practices of HRM. HRM

framework is essentially required which should be able to incorporate contextual factors in

Few suggest are:-1. Culture

2. Legisation3. Role Of The State 4. Trade Union
Representation institutional context
question. Few suggested are

LITERATURE REVIEW

Maxwell
and
Farquharson

2007

Employee
Relations
journal

Bowen and Ostroffs (2004) concluded that the strength

of the
HRM system affect organisational effectiveness. HRM is
said to
have a central role in business performance as per the
theory
(Richard and Brown Johnson, 2001). Thus HRM strategies
are deep
rooted in business needs with a firm integration with
business
strategy.

Harris

2007

Employee
Relations
journal

Developing HR practices meant to make the most of individual

performance have never been accorded significance in public
service. There are ill-defined boundaries about HR responsibilities
of managers at various levels and specializations each with different
perspectives

2007

Employee
Relations
journal

Relationship of HRM practices is comparatively stronger with

management orientation than competitive strategy. Strategy can be
manipulated or changed with more ease than orientation of the
management. Therefore HRM practices can contribute to a great
extent towards organizational performance orientation remains in

20010

The
Internation
al
Journal of
Human
Resource
Manageme
nt

2011

The
International
Journal of
Human

Othman and
Poon
Tissen and
others

Keegan,
Huemann and

In the recent past a wide range of studies suggested a positive

relationship between HRM and the performance of organizations
(including Guest 1989; Clark 1993; Paauwe and Richardson 1997;
Guest 1997; Gelade and Ivery 2003). The majority of this literature
is increasingly regarded as being outdated. It is viewed as first
generation research in which the importance of HRM is recognized,
yet little or no attention is placed on what is known as the causal
process between HRM and the functioning of the organization.

Various HRM responsibilities of managers especially in

project oriented companies is a concern that is not given the
attention by HRM literature. More clear and specific
elaboration of responsibilities in contemporary organizations
can increase performance at each level manifolds.

Review enabled the researcher in

developing the following understanding
2.1 This field is still in its evolutionary phase and it is difficult to identify any crystal clear framework to
retrofit the existing s
2.2 Business performance will be improved only when the right fit between business strategy and HR
practices is achieved
2.3 Specific combinations of HR practices can be identified which generate higher business performance but
these combinations will vary by organizational context.
2.4 Claims that a universal best practice HR strategy has been identified are premature. It is unlikely that
adopting a specified set of HR policies is the high road to organizational success. Even the large amount of
empirical work that has been done has not identified all the general components such a set of policies would
contain
2.5 How something is done is often more important than what is done, and we need to pay much more
attention to how clusters of HR polices are adopted and implemented as well as to the specific contexts in
which policy innovation is attempted
2.6 The way in which organizations treat their employees is at the heart of their success
2.7 HR function is no more being taken as administrative activity rather it has assumed a central role in
overall organizational activities. It is one of the main pillars which supports entire organization
2.8 True essence of context needs to be understood for firm implementation of HR policies. Contextual
factors are being given more importance by researchers all over cattered perspectives.
2.9 It is imperative to have a strategy for any organization but at the same time even the best crafted
strategy
cannot ensure success. Chances of success increase manifolds when there exists a vibrant and realistic
implementation mechanism. Success comes through interplay of numerous factors with dominant role of HR.

3. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY

In this research all those ten papers which are published in

prominent HR journals were scanned and those published
during last five year period were kept under sharp focus.
Papers pertaining to the field of HRM and organizational
performance were categorized and examined in detail.
Papers were qualitatively classified in accordance with
selected dimensions. Process enabled the researcher to
carry out a systematic review and explore new dimensions
and those not adequately covered in the existing literature.
It is a structured overview adequately reflecting upon
salient and most pertinent aspects.

4. FINDINGS/RESULTS
A deep analysis of available literature enabled the researcher
to explore new dimensions which are real contribution to the
body of knowledge. It has been found that there is an
increasing trend towards integratingtraditional HR functions
into wholesome strategic approach to human capital
management. Some integration opportunities include:4.1
Aligning employee goals with corporate goals
4.2 Linking reward and recognition programs to performance
4.3 Targeting learning and development toward performance
gaps
4.4 Identifying skills and competencies of top performers for
retention and succession planning OTHER SIGNIFICANT
FINDINGS ARE AS UNDER: -

5.1 Past research amply reflects that impact on performance will be far greater when HR practices are used in
conjunction with each other instead of employing these in isolation. In other words, bundles of practices will
result into more dramatic changes.
5.2 The strongest impact of HR practices can be observed in those organizations that have strong leadership
able to differentiate between performances and give performance messages
5.3 It is imperative to carryout an ongoing goal review and get feedback from managers. The goals can be
manipulated keeping in view various organizational and contextual factors.
5.4 Organizations usually operate on a piecemeal basis, by resorting to inconsistent choices of policies as a
result of various pressures. Most of the literature in the area of human resource strategies ignores the actual
process by which the strategies are formed and concentrates instead on the chosen policies and practices. This is
an important gap.
5.5 Concept of fit is central to literature; several HR policies can only form an HR strategy provided it has an
internal and external fit. Internal fit refers to consistency among set of HR policies in question and external fit is
their congruence with firms policy apart from HR.
5.6 It is important to engage the employees with motivation and ability in discretionary behavior through
consistent HR policies.
5.7 Effectiveness of HRM policies largely depend on organizational culture, that requires a managerial style
which is decentralized and expertise or

6. CONCLUSION
The clear point made by management scholars who are deeply
involved in organizational study is that good
should not be considered as good enough as that line of thinking
leads the organizations towards a state of
decline and blocks the road to greatness. The challenge for todays
managers is to move from effectiveness
to greatness to increase the potential of the modern organization.
HRM is an area that continues to evoke a
lot of debate body of work in HRM is relatively small, and most of the
questions are sorely in need of further
attention. It is fashionable to raise questions about the viability of
HRM because the research stream had mixed
results. Criterion measures of HRM have not fully evolved fully
therefore these cannot be utilized to compare
organizations and evaluate the effects of HR practices

RECOMMENDATIONS
An effort has been made in this research to close gap in research by examining the effectsof HR practices. Theresults assist
managers in finding appropriate HR practices. Few pertinent recommendations are7.1 Significance of SHRM as an important tool
of successful organizations when suitably aligned with
organizational goals stands affirmed. Bundling of HR practices should facilitate the attainment of strategic
objectives which are in larger organizational interest. In other words employees may be used as source of
strategic competitive advantage.
7.2 It is imperative to build supportive organizational culture for HR practices, focusing on enhancing
performance.
7.3 There is a need to narrow down the scope of ongoing research to those components of HR practices
identified as feasible for organizational functioning and further refine the mechanics of their application.
7.4 Test of leadership lies in resorting to those HR practices that are likely to raise the performance to a
new height. Therefore leadership should have clear vision and communicate these visions to the employees.
7.5 Concept of fit as perceived by researchers as highly pertinent, but how to achieve that particular fit
needs further exploration .Synergetic effects of internal and external fit will equal the desirable level of
organizational effectiveness.
7.6 In order to further the frontiers of knowledge it is recommended that some standardized framework
accepted all over be evolved while making an effort to strike a kind of uniformity among key contextual
factors. This will further expand the generalizability of results.
7.7 It is recommended that there is a need for research methods which offer remedies to the two major
problems of the past:
7.7.1 Practitioners' access to and use of relevant research findings,
7.7.2 Researchers' access to and experimentation with "real world" situations.
7.8 More realistic relationships between researchers and practitioners would create a larger, more
interactive community of interest among the producers and consumers of organizational research in the field
of HRM. This could be achieved through researcher/practitioner partnerships based on mutual understanding of the benefits to
be derived from research with engineering of effectiveness as its focal point

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