We are grateful for valuable comments from Stephen R. Barley, Olav A. Kvitastein, and three anonymous ASQ reviewers as well as for the financial support of the Norwegian Research Council and the Ministry of Labor in Norway. Our names are listed in alphabetical order. This paper tests predictions from institutional and rational perspectives about the adoption of organizational practices through a comparative study of human resource management in firms located in six European countries. Distinguishing between calculative practicesaimed at efficient use of human resources-and collaborative practices-aimed at promoting the goals of both employees and employer-the paper predicts differences in adoption across countries. Results show that institutional determinants, as indicated by the national embeddedness of firms, have a strong effect on the application of both calculative and collaborative human resource management practices. Firm size, a rational determinant, has a considerable impact on calculative practices, whereas the effect of industrial embeddedness is quite modest for both practices.' Despite their very different assumptions, both rational and institutional explanations of organizational structure and management practices predict similarity among firms that operate in the same industry within the context of a single country. From a rational perspective, firms pursue economic advantage through decision making and actions guided by unambiguous preferences and bounded rationality. Although one may expect differences between industries, within industries firms will implement organizational practices that promote the maximization of economic goals. Thus, discounting sluggishness in the diffusion of best practices, it would be reasonable to expect that intraindustry management systems are to a large degree uniform.Although new institutionalism in organizational theory implies a rejection of rational actor models, emphasizing instead the pressures for acquiring and maintaining legitimacy in relation to the environment (see, e.g., DiMaggio, 1983; DiMaggio and Powell, 1983; Powell and DiMaggio, 1991), it shares the broad expectation that uniform pressures will lead to uniform intraindustry structure and organizational practices. Through various mechanisms of coercion, normative regulations, and imitation, organizations sharing the same environment are believed to become structurally similar as they respond to like pressure; that is, they will demonstrate isomorphism. Since these early formulations, a number of theoretical and empirical studies examining isomorphism and diffusion processes have been conducted, most of which have been carried out within discrete organizational fields or sectors.The two models' predictions diverge radically, however, when the setting is broadened to comprise different countries. While the rational model assumes that organizational practices are universal across national borders, institutionalism is sensitive to the possibility of cross-national institutional differences, which in turn...
Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. AbstractThe aim of this study was to determine the degree to which welfare state regime characteristics explained the proportional variation of self-perceived health betweenEuropean countries, when individual and regional variation was accounted for, by undertaking a multilevel analysis of the European Social Survey (2002 and
This article presents a study of the degree to which national institutional settings impact on the application of management practices in foreign subsidiaries of multinational companies. Applying the national business systems approach our study centres on the use of calculative human resource management (HRM) practices by subsidiaries of US multinational companies in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Denmark/Norway and Australia, respectively, in comparison with these countries’ indigenous firms.The analysis indicates that while US subsidiaries adapt to the local setting in terms of applying calculative HRM practices, they also diverge from indigenous firm practices.
This study aimed to contribute to the validation of the 30-item Quality of Life Questionnaire developed by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Study Group (EORTC QLQ-C30). The sample consisted of 177 cancer patients with heterogeneous diagnoses. A series of scales representing various dimensions of quality of life were tested, including those proposed by the EORTC Study Group. Mokken's non-parametric latent trait model for unidimensional scaling was used as the basic scaling procedure. This model gives coefficients of scalability in addition to reliability coefficients. In terms of scalability measured by Loevinger's H, all EORTC Study Group scales, except the cognitive functioning scale were found to be quite satisfactory. The cognitive functioning scale and the role functioning scale were below the satisfactory level in terms of reliability (internal consistency). In total, our study strengthens the external validity of the EORTC QLQ-C30 and confirms that it may be used on cancer patients with various diagnoses.
The relationship between HRM practices and perceived firm performance was analyzed in 3,281 firms located in European Union countries using data derived from the Cranet data set.A factor analysis of 80 different HRM practices resulted in 15 bundles of HRM practices which were then further categorized as being either "calculative", "collaborative" or "intermediary". While controlling for contingency factors, firm strategy, firm size, market conditions and degree of unionization, as well as controlling for industry and country, the resulting analysis indicates that while five of the six calculative practices and two of the three intermediary practices have a significant impact on performance none of the six collaborative practices has. Significantly it was further noted that the overall effect of HRM on performance was relatively modest.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.