The Relationship between HR Practices and the Employee Performance in Various
Organizations
Definition of Terms
Human resources (HR) Practices: these are the activities carried out by the HR
department (Tiwari, 2011). Examples of HR practices are performance appraisal,
compensation, promotion, recruitment, and orientation.
Human Resource Management (HRM): there refer to the formal systems devised for
the purpose of managing employees in a company or organization (Nadda et al., 2014).
Informant: study subjects who take part in the research study as participants. They are
interviewed through in-depth interviews. They are key individuals who will provide
necessary data to address the research question (Venkatesh, Brown & Bala, 2013).
Perceived employee performance: this refers to the way a staff member carries out his
or her job tasks in the workplace (Khatibi et al., 2012).
Social Change: a deliberate process that is used to create and apply ideas, actions and
strategies for the purpose of promoting the development, worth and dignity of societies,
cultures, institutions, organizations, communities and individuals (Walden University, 2016).
Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations
Assumptions
An assumption refers to factors that are possibly influential to the research for which
the investigator lacks hard data or may not ever know. In other words, an assumption is a fact
the investigator assumes to be true but cannot really be proven (Venkatesh, Brown & Bala,
2013). One assumption is that all the research participants who would be interviewed would
give truthful answers to the interview questions. To mitigate this assumption, the researcher
will ask the participants to give only honest answers. Furthermore, because a sample would
be chosen, the researcher will assume that the selected sample would actually be
representative of the population to which the researcher wishes to make inferences. To
mitigate this second assumption, the researcher will select participants from organizations
that operate in different industries so that the findings could be generalized across various
sectors and industries.
Limitations
A limitation refers to an element the investigator does not have control over
(Venkatesh, Brown & Bala, 2013). The limitations for this study are: firstly, as opposed to
random sampling, the researcher will select the sample population using the purposive
sampling method in which the informants are selected basing on the judgment of the
researcher (Guarte & Barrios, 2011). This implies that the study findings may not be applied
generally to a bigger population. Secondly, the study focuses only on HR managers in
Colorado and thus the findings cannot be applied to other professions. The third limitation is
time. The period of time set for the research study may not be adequate. However, to ensure
the study is satisfactory, the researcher will make good use of the limited time frame.
Delimitations
A delimitation refers to the scope or bounds of the study or things the investigator has
control over (Venkatesh, Brown & Bala, 2013). The delimitations are in the researcher’s
control. In this study, the delimiting factors consist of the choice of the research question, and
the adopted theoretical frameworks as opposed to those which could have been used. Since
this is a study about how HR practices relate to perceived employee performance in
American companies in Colorado, the findings would not essentially be applied to other
professions.
Significance of the Study
Contribution to Business Practice
Business organizations nowadays are faced with the new epitome of the need to
uphold effective human resource practices for exceptional organizational performance.
(Wood, 2011). This research is of great significance to HR managers across the globe as the
findings would provide essential information with regard to HR practices and how they affect
perceived performance of workers. By following recommendations from this research, which
will be based on real-life experiences of human resource managers in three national
companies based in the state of Colorado, HR managers may improve their HR practices to
enhance perceived employee performance. In essence, this study will bring about an
improvement in the job performance of workers which would in turn help increase
organizational profitability.
Implications for Social Change
There are quite a few social change implications associated with the research. Firstly,
there would be enhanced psychosocial well-being of employees when organizations adopt
friendly HR practices. In other words, staff members would have a feeling of contentment
and satisfaction with their jobs when they see friendly human resource management practices
being used by their organizations. Secondly, there would be better quality products and
services for customers following improved employee performance. When the HR
professionals in the company utilize friendly HR practices, employee job performance would
improve which would consequently lead to the production of better quality services and
products. On the whole, when workers notice that effective and friendly HR practices being
utilized, they would be motivated to improve their job performance and produce services and
products of improved quality.
A Review of the Professional and Academic Literature
This subsection contains an extensive and thorough review of existing literature. The
strategy for searching the literature is searching literature published over the last 5 years,
published in the English language, and literature that pertains to the research topic. Moreover,
the literatures are searched in recognized electronic scholarly databases including Ebscohost
and Proquest. Students and researchers alike utilize these databases extensively. The content
of the literature covered relates to HR management practices and employee performance and
includes some studies that looked into the relationship between HR practices and
performance of employees. Human resource management (HRM) is a coherent and strategic
approach to managing a company’s most important assets, that is staff members, who jointly
and individually contribute to the attainment of the company’s goals as well as objectives
(Nada et al., 2014). HR practices in any organization include HR planning, training and
development, staffing, compensation, labour relations, performance assessment,
compensation, promotion, recruitment, orientation, job analysis and selection. Quite a few
researchers have looked into the influence of human resource practices on the performance of
workers and some studies have shown a positive relationship between HRM practices and
performance of workers (Innocenti, Peluso & Pilati, 2012). However, many previous research
studies have focused on just one or 2 HR practices rather than a host of HR practices. The
present research will fill this gap by focusing on a host of HR practices.
Human resource practices, as Guest (2011) pointed out, are very essential tools that
have the ability to influence employees’ behaviour and attitudes, and their work performance.
In their study of how HR practices affect perceived employee performance in a number of
hospitals in Iran, Khatibi et al. (2012) found out that promotion and compensation related
positively to employee work performance. However, performance appraisal negatively
related to the work performance of workers. With regard to compensation, an attractive
compensation package helps in improving workers’ job performance (Kehoe & Wright,
2013). Overall, workers who believe that their company actually compensates them well are
inclined to be very much committed to their company. Guest (2011) reported that committed
staffs usually demonstrate a high perceived job performance. Given that promotion practices
have a positive influence on job performance of workers, they should be used in helping
workers develop their professional careers (Scheel, Rigotti & Mohr, 2014).
Recruitment and selection practices also have an effect on the workers’ perceived job
performance, though this effect is really not very big (Kehoe & Wright, 2013). The HR
practice of employee training has been shown to have a positive association with work
performance of workers. Tiwari (2011) noted that employee training is critical in producing
the human capital which the firm requires. As a result of training employees, skills in the staff
members that are essential to do their job get developed. Whenever the HR department
invests in employee training, the workers will feel indebted to the company and they would
be able to improve their job performance. Therefore, as a HR practice, training of employees
has a positive impact on the work performance of workers (Tiwari, 2011). Furthermore,
career planning is an essential human resource. It is focused on motivating workers to
accomplish the desired match between their individual aims and the firm’s objectives.
Researchers have reported that career planning develops staffs, enabling them to improve
their perceived work performance (Scheel, Rigotti & Mohr, 2014). This implies that there is a
positive correlation between the two.
Role of the Researcher
In the data collection process, the researcher’s role would be to interview the study’s
participants and obtain data from them that would be used to answer the research question.
After data collection, the other role of the researcher is to analyze the findings and report
them to the relevant stakeholders for use. The researcher will also have the role of mitigating
bias and avoid viewing the collected data through a personal perspective or lens. To reduce
bias, the researcher will ensure that all questions that are asked are in fact posed thoughtfully
and asked in a manner that enables the interviewees to divulge their true feelings with no
distortions (Dodou & de Winter, 2014). Since interviews would be conducted, an interview
protocol would be used which would outline the techniques and procedures for carrying out
the interviews (Johnson, 2016).
Participants
To gain access to the study’s participants who will be 7 in total, the researcher will
first get in contact with a top executive in each of the companies through email
communication or phone call. The researcher will then use this individual to recruit the
relevant HR managers to take part in the study. In essence, the researcher will approach the
company’s top executives and inform them about the research study and its purpose, and why
their HR managers are crucial in helping to complete the study successfully. They will then
be convinced to invite their HR managers to participate in the study. Once access to the
participants has been gained, it would now be important to establish a working relationship
with them.
The researcher will establish a working relationship with the participants by doing the
following: being transparent and honest regarding both the purpose and nature of the study
and not doing the research in a covert manner. The researcher will also develop relationships
of trust and allow the study subjects to raise issues that they would like to talk about, even if
it may not be related to the research study. The researcher would be straightforward and frank
and seek the participants’ help. Moreover, before interviewing any participant, the researcher
will always ask for permission.
To ensure that the ethical protection of participants is adequate, the methods that
would be used by the researcher are anonymity and confidentiality. Confidentiality basically
implies that the identity of the study subjects is known to the researcher but is actually
protected from public exposure (Petrova, Dewing & Camilleri, 2016). The researcher would
not include any identifying information such as addresses or names in the published reports.
Anonymity implies that the investigator is unaware of the participants’ identity (Petrova,
Dewing & Camilleri, 2016). In this study, although the researcher will have the names of the
participants to schedule the interviews, those names would not be disclosed to third parties.
Moreover, the researcher will gain informed consent. The researcher will inform the
study subjects about the nature of the research procedure, the benefits and risks, what they
would be expected to do, their right to withdraw at whichever time, as well as their right to
refuse to take part (Litwin, 2016). The geographical location of the participants is Colorado.
The type of sampling technique that would be used is purposive sampling, which is
essentially the calculated selection of a study subjects because of the attributes that they have
(Guarte & Barrios, 2011). Using this purposive sampling method, 7 human resource
managers in three national companies based in the state of Colorado would be selected and
included in the study as respondents. The informants would be selected because they are HR
managers and they would provide vital information with regard to human resources practices.
References
Cameron, R. (2011). Mixed methods research: The five Ps framework. Electronic Journal Of
Business Research Methods, 9(2), 96-108.
Dodou, D., & de Winter, J. C. F. (2014). Social desirability is the same in offline, online and
paper surveys: A meta-analysis. Computers in Human Behavior, 36(6):487–495
Guarte, J., & Barrios, E. (2011). Estimation under purposive sampling. Communications In
Statistics: Simulation & Computation, 35(2), 277-284.
Guest, D. (2011). Human resource management and performance: still searching for some
answers. Human Resource Management Journal, 21(1), 3–13
Innocenti, L., Peluso, A. M., & Pilati, M. (2012). The interplay between HR practices and
perceived behavioural integrity in determining positive employee outcomes. Journal
Of Change Management, 12(4), 399-415.
Johnson, J. S. (2015). Broadening the application of mixed methods in sales research. Journal
Of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 35(4), 334-345.
Kehoe, R. R., & Wright, P. M. (2013). The impact of high-performance human resource
practices on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. Journal of Management, 39(2), 366-
391.
Khatibi, P., Asgharian, R., Saleki, Z. S., & Manafi, M. (2012). The effect of HR practices on
perceived employee performance: A study of Iranian hospitals. Interdisciplinary
Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, 4(4), 82-98
Litwin, J. (2016). Engagement shift: Informed consent in the digital era. Applied Clinical
Trials, 25(6/7), 26-32.
Nadda, V., Rahimi, R., Dadwal, S., & Bhan Singh, U. (2014). Impact of HR practices on
employee’s performance: Case of UK hotel industry. Journal Of Hospitality &
Tourism, 12(2), 88-111.
Petrova, E., Dewing, J., & Camilleri, M. (2016). Confidentiality in participatory research.
Nursing Ethics, 23(4), 442-454.
Scheel, T., Rigotti, T., & Mohr, G. (2014). Training and performance of a diverse workforce.
Human Resource Management, 53(5), 749-772.
Tiwari, P. (2011). Impact of selected HRM practices on perceived employee performance:
An empirical study. Global Management Journal, 3(1/2), 37-43.
Venkatesh, V., Brown, S. A., & Bala, H. (2013). Bridging the qualitative-quantitative divide:
guidelines for conducting mixed methods research in information systems. MIS
Quarterly, 37(1), 21-54.
Walden University. (2016). Definitions: social change.
Wood, S. (2011). Human resource management and performance. International Journal of
Management Review, 1(4):367–413
