The whole is more than the sum of its parts? How HRM is configured in NPOs and why it matters

authored by: Hans Gerd Ridder, Alina Mc Candless Baluch, Erk P. Piening
Abstract: A greater emphasis on demonstrating effectiveness and efficiency has emerged as nonprofit organizations (NPOs) seek to improve performance and face the increased demand for services while spending fewer resources. Human Resource Management (HRM) is claimed to play an important role in enhancing the performance of NPOs. Research suggests that the effects of HRM do not stem from single HR practices alone but from the configuration of interrelated HR practices within the organization's HR architecture. The nonprofit literature, however, investigates mainly into the relationship between single HR practices and their effects. Therefore, this paper aims to conceptualize about how and why HR practices are configured into an HR architecture in NPOs and how and why such HR architectures affect HR outcomes and organizational performance. Drawing on the theoretical perspectives of the strategic and the resource based approaches, a typology of ideal HR architectures in NPOs is introduced that considers the specific characteristics of NPOs. We advance a conceptual model that captures the relationship between the types of HR architectures and performance in NPOs. According to this model, theoretical propositions are developed that explain how strategic and HR orientations shape the HR architectures in NPOs. Furthermore, we propose that the relationship between these HR architectures and organizational performance is mediated by HR outcomes. As a result, this paper contributes to the nonprofit literature by providing a better understanding of the configuration of HR practices into HR architectures in NPOs and their effects.
Organisation(s): Institute of Human Resource Management and Organizational Behavior
Type: Paper
Publication date: 2011
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Management Information Systems, Management of Technology and Innovation, Industrial relations
Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2011.11.001 (Access: Closed)