Business Strategy, Participative Human Resource Management and Organizational Performance: The Case of South Korea

Abstract

Empirical research on strategic human resource management is in infancy. Little is known about the approaches companies use to link their strategic choices with human resource practices to achieve superior financial perform ance. Moreover, the studies conducted to date have used data from US com panies, raising a question about the generalizability of these findings to other countries. In contrast, the current study empirically tests typology of compet itive strategy, dimensions of participative human resource management and their impact on firm performance by using a data set from South Korean manufacturing firms. While competitive strategy types showed differential firm performance effect, the performance effect of participative human resource management types and their interactions with strategy were limited. Also, per formance effects of sixteen different competitive strategy/participative human resource management matches have been explored.