Human resource strategy to improve organizational performance: a route for firms in Britain?
基于现有实证证据，探讨英国企业是否采用高路或低路人力资源管理策略来提升劳动生产率，并指出高路HRM可能带来更好绩效，但受英国雇佣关系的历史、社会与制度背景限制，企业未必选择此策略。
Performance, in the context of organization, is not only a broad concept which has been used synonymously with productivity, efficiency, effectiveness and, more recently competitiveness, it has also been a subject of study for social scientists from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives. More recently, efforts have been made by human resource management (HRM) theorists to try to establish a causal link between HRM and performance. This has led to a growing number of studies which examine the potential contribution that good human resource policy can make to improving organizational performance. This paper is not concerned with the conceptual debate of HRM and performance. Rather, it explores whether adopting good HR practices to improve performance is a practicable approach to organizations in the UK. Drawing on existing empirical evidence from other studies, the paper reviews the strategies British firms deploy to improve labour productivity. In particular, the issue of whether they use the ‘high‐road’ HRM or ‘low‐road’ HRM strategy to enhance performance is investigated. This paper concludes by suggesting that high‐road HRM may lead to better organizational performance, but it may not be a strategy that firms opt for, given the historical, social and institutional context of employment relationships in Britain.