An interorganizational investigation of human resource management practices: The relationship between business strategy, job and task characteristics, and human resource management practices

Over the past decade there has been a dramatic shift in emphasis in the field of human resource management. This shift has broadened the focus of human resource (HR) research from the more micro analytic research that dominated the field to a more macro or strategic perspective. A strategic perspective of HR has grown out of the desire to demonstrate the importance of HR practices to the performance of the organization.; The present study attempted to move beyond previous research efforts by investigating both interorganizational differences and intraorganizational differences in HR practices. Specifically, the impact of business-level strategy and job/task characteristics on the use of HR practices is examined. It was proposed that both business-level strategy and job/task characteristics have a direct influence on the types of employment systems used in organizations.; The hypotheses were tested using data obtained from questionnaires sent to a stratified random sample of 1050 U.S. banks. In all, the results of this study were inconclusive. They showed that bank strategy was, to a degree, related to a number of HR practices, but this effect was only significant for the job of loan officer. Specifically, strategy was related to the staffing, training, and job security practices for the job of loan officer. Banks that followed a business strategy that more closely resembled the prospector strategy were more likely to have well defined internal career paths, have formalized training programs, and were less likely to provide job security for their loan officers than banks following a strategy that more closely resembled the defender. The findings in regards to staffing and training are in direct opposition to the hypothesized relationships. However, the findings in regards to job security are consistent with the proposed theory.