Moving HR Systems Research Forward

HR systems are sets of separate but interconnected HR practices, such as selection, training, performance appraisal, and rewards, designed to help organizations to achieve their objectives. The HR system is proposed to affect performance outcomes because certain combinations of HR practices work in concert to enhance employees’ abilities, motivation, and opportunity to contribute to organizational goal attainment, enhancing performance at different levels. Existing evidence provides initial meta-analytic support for this as HR systems tend to be more strongly related to performance than individual HR practices. While there seems to be growing consensus on the importance of HR systems, researchers simultaneously indicate that there are several important conceptual and methodological issues that need to be addressed to make further headway in the field. For example, conceptually, there is little agreement on which practices should be included in an HR system, and how these practices should be measured or co...