High Performance Work Practices in Ibero-America

Philadelphia

Congreso; AOM Conference 2014; 2014

AOM

Specific Human Resources Management (HRM) systems called ?high performance work practices (HPWPs)? have been adopted by organizations all over the world in order to improve their operational and financial performance (Arthur, 1992, 1994; Huselid, 1995; Delaney and Huselid, 1996, Youndt, Snell, Dean and Lepak, 1996, Guest, 1997; Posthuma, Campion, Masimova and Campion, 2013). Researchers have found several categories among those HPWPs that improved organizational performance. These categories were: compensation and benefits, job and work design, training and development, employee relations, communication, performance management and appraisal, and promotions (Posthuma et al., 2013). For example, Delaney and Huselid (1996) found that practices related to training and compensation enhanced organizational performance. Pfeffer (1995) established that recruiting and selection practices were very important if a company wanted to achieve success. In the literature, there are several factors that can influence the adoption of these HPWPs. The country?s economic factors, sector activity and national culture are some of them (Caudron, 1994; Pichault and Nizet, 2000; Posthuma et al., 2013). However, most of the studies focused on Anglo-American, Confucian, Latin Europe, Southeast Asian and Eastern Europe country cluster (Posthuma et al., 2013). There is still a gap regarding studies integrating Ibero-American countries in those terms. Therefore the key questions that motivate this study are: How are Ibero-American HPWPs categories designed?, What is the impact of country economic factors over Ibero-American HPWPs?, Is there an influence of the sector activity over Ibero-American HPWPs?, and What are the relevant cross-cultural differences in the implementation of HPWPs across Ibero-American countries? Based on a theoretical contingency approach (Lawrence and Lorsch, 1967; Delery and Doty; 1996; Youndt et al., 1996), which suggests that organizations develop their HPWPs depending on their strategy, tasks and environmental conditions, and on the results of an empirical study in six Ibero-American countries, we contend that national culture, economic stability and sector activity stand as essential factors to develop HPWPs in that context. This article is organised in the following way. First, a review of the literature is developed under a contingency-based theory point of view. Three main factors that can influence HPWPs are analysed (national culture, economic stability and sector activity) and a significant research gap in this respect is revealed. Second, the research methodology is described. Third, we develop the research model. Then, the results of our study comparing Ibero-American countries are presented, looking particularly at outcomes in terms of cultural differences, country economic stability and business activity. Finally, in the discussion and conclusion section, the situation of Ibero-America countries is compared to highlight the importance of factors indicated here above in the implementations of HPWPs. We include some implications in terms of strategic management, the limitations of the study are drawn and future research directions are proposed.