Three Essays on the Performance Effects of Human Resource Practices
Buch in deiner Nähe kaufen
Beschreibung
This doctoral thesis is about determinants of firm performance and consists of three empirical studies on the performance effects of certain managerial practices. As will be documented separately in each study, these practices have recently emerged and become widespread. The first study examines the impact of temporary agency work on firm performance. Thereby, special attention is devoted to the question, whether there are performance differences between firms using temporary agency workers as a buffer stock (flexibility strategy) and firms testing them for regular positions (screening strategy). The second study investigates the internal organisational fit between workplace organisation and human resource management. More precisely, the aim of this study is to identify human resource practices that are complementary to the decentralisation of decision-making authority. The third study estimates the direct performance effects of delayering, i.e. the removal of management levels.
These studies cover a wide range of interrelated topics. First, temporary agency work (and other forms of temporary employment) may well be used as an isolated strategy for various purposes, but they can also play a role within a system of complementary practices. Second, delegating decision rights down the hierarchy may lead to the redundancy and, consequently, to the removal of certain management levels. Third, the practices considered in the present thesis can be thought of as enhancing a firm’s flexibility at several levels: in human resource management, in workplace organisation and in organisational structure. The use of temporary agency workers increases the external numerical flexibility, i.e. the possibility of an adjustment of the workforce number through workers from outside the firm. Decentralisation fosters the internal functional flexibility because decisions are made by those employees that have the necessary local information and knowledge. Flatter organisations can quickly execute a given business strategy. Therefore, delayering allows fast reactions to changes in the business environment.
The topics and results of the studies in this thesis are of interest from the perspectives of personnel and organisational economics, labour economics and industrial organisation. First, there are huge and persistent productivity disChapter persions between firms within industries both in a country and across countries. Such productivity dispersions lead to output reallocations as well as entries and exits of firms in and out of markets, which has implications for economic growth and employment. Perhaps managerial practices can explain parts of these productivity dispersions (Bloom and van Reenen 2011). Second, the notion of skill-biased organisational change posits that innovative organisational practices such as, e.g., teamwork, job rotation or the decentralisation of decision rights lead to an increased demand for skilled workers, rising skill premia in wages and productivity synergies through the combination of skilled labour with such practices (Caroli and van Reenen 2001). Parts of the present thesis may contribute to establish empirical evidence of this notion. Third, the effects on firm performance documented in this thesis are evidence that management matters in general. In particular, human resource practices matter for firm performance, as the following management implications demonstrate.
The first study finds an inverse U-shaped relationship between the share of temporary agency workers and firm performance. Moreover, firms following the screening strategy perform significantly better than firms following the flexibility strategy. Hence, it can be concluded that firm performance can be increased by a modest use of temporary agency employment. At the same time, firms act in their own interest, if they avoid implementing a system of first- and second-class employees. The second study identifies statistically significant complementarities between decentralisation on the one hand and incentive pay, qualified personnel and temporary employment on the other. Therefore, the combined use of these practices is more productive and more efficient than an isolated implementation. The third study finds that delayering significantly increases subsequent firm performance. It can be concluded that flatter hierarchical structures seem to enable firms to better realise their competitive advantage in today’s fast moving and knowledge-intensive market environment. The results are discussed in more detail in the respective conclusion section of each chapter.
Autor*in
Dieter Kuhn
Themen in »Three Essays on the Performance Effects of Human Resource Practices«
complementarities delayering firm performance temporary agency work