Strategic Behavioural Advantage: An organisation-wide approach to employee retention

Abstract

As a field Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) focuses on the human resource capital-organisational performance interface, with considerable effort devoted to exploring the ways in which people are managed and how this enhances organisational performance. Importantly however, how SHRM contributes to organisational outcomes and the mechanisms through which this occurs remain a mystery and is referred to as the "black box" problem. The reason the question remains unresolved revolves around the challenges inherent in investigating the problem. For a start, there are the challenges of harnessing the productive capacity of human capital, from hiring the right employees, motivating them to do their best, developing their capabilities, retaining them long enough to make a difference, and the ambiguity of the human resource capital-performance link. Other difficulties revolve around the definition of the variables involved, measurement of both the inputs and performance outcomes, and the inherent practical difficulties of investigating the question. This dissertation takes on these challenges in a real world organisational setting and works through a process to guide the next generation of SHRM research. The approach revolved around understanding the limitations in SHRM research to date, and systematically tackling them to provide a foundation upon which progress can be made. For example, previous research has consistently failed to identify organisational context factors that moderate the human resource capital relationship, let alone take them into account. There has also been limited acknowledgement of, or integration with organisational strategy, both from being a potential restraint on one set SHRM practices, and an enhancer of others. Another key limitation has been the lack of recognition of the importance investigating SHRM at the micro-macro interface, particularly in terms of focusing on behaviour change at the micro-level with the explicit intent of generating macro-level organisational outcomes. Furthermore, adequately defining the criterion has been neglected, let alone providing justification for the selection of the dependent variable as a meaningful indicator to be investigated. To address these gaps not only does there need to be new thinking but also new research methodologies. Utilising a mixed methods multi-phase design within a pragmatic epistemology, this dissertation systematically addresses the weaknesses of past research to pave the way for new insight in understanding the link between SHRM and human resource capital outcomes. The research program started with a diagnostic process to both identify and define the performance criterion, and link it to the organisational environment, strategy, processes, and objectives. A further three studies were then devoted to understanding the drivers of the criterion, as a precursor to developing and deploying interventions to effect change. The second study utilised a quantitative survey, based upon an innovative theoretical approach. The third and fourth studies both expanded and extended the results from the second study by conducting a series of qualitative focus groups and exit interviews over a two-year period. The qualitative process not only triangulated results from the quantitative study but also made independent contributions in terms of understanding the criterion, exploring the mediators of SHRM effectiveness, and integrating the real-world environment into the research process. Results supported the effectiveness of the overall approach, as well as the gaps that remained to confidently articulate and understand the human resource capital value chain. In this regard, the key contribution of the program of work was not just the research process itself, but the proposition of a model to guide further methodological development based upon the research experience. A model specifically designed to open the "black box" and provide a template for both SHRM practice and research.