High performance human resource management in Ireland and the Netherlands: adoption and effectiveness

Does high performance human resource management deliver superior organisational performance and if so, how would this come about? Do these practices make a difference to employee work performance and cooperation? Could all companies, regardless of their context, benefit from these HR practices and what factors are associated with the take-up of high performance human resource management? In this study each of these questions is examined using a matched establishment survey in two European countries, Ireland and the Netherlands. Firstly, it tackles the question of whether high performance HR management effects are exerted at several levels of the company. Particular consideration is given to the relationships among the practices, drawing out the implications of this inter-play for mobilising employee performance. Secondly, the study explicates the role played by the company's business strategy as a condition under which improvements made by high performance HR management at the employee level can be translated into improvements at the production and corporate levels. Thirdly, the study discriminates between factors that facilitate or inhibit the diffusion of high performance human resource management practices. Finally, there is a discussion of the role played by the socio-economic and cultural contexts of the countries in which companies implement high performance human resource management.