Strategic Human Resource Management Capability and Organizational Effectiveness of Hotel Businesses in Thailand

Sananuamengthaisong, Manisara, Ussahawanitchakit, Phapruke, International Journal of Strategic Management

1. INTRODUCTION

The past two decades witnessed an increasing interest of management scholars on strategic human resource management. Numerous theoretical and empirical studies emerged in this field, and there is a consensus among practitioners and scholars that people are valuable resources for business success, and can be the source of sustainable competitive advantage to firm (Schuler and MacMillan, 1984; Ulrich, 1991; Wright and MacMahan, 1992). Strategic human resource management is defined as the pattern of planned human resource activities and policies for effectively deploying and utilizing human resources towards the attachment of organizational goals.

Organizations and companies succeed, or fail are based on the quality and effectiveness of their employees. Today's successful firms recognize that to compete in global markets, human resource, the managers are the active participants in strategic and operational decision. The goal of strategic management in an organization is to deploy and allocate resources in order to provide the management with a competitive advantage. It goes without saying that two out of three classes of resources (organizational and human) correlated with the human resource functions. Towards maximum effect, human resource management functions must be integrally involved in the company's strategic management process.

Strategic human resources management researchers have increasingly looked to concepts associated with the resource-based view of the firm in their attempts to build models of the ways in which human resources contribute to the basic viability, and relative performance, of firms (Coff, 1997; Kamoche, 1996; Lado and Wilson, 1994; Mueller, 1996; Snell et al. 1996; Wright et al.1994). The resource-based view of the firm is an increasingly popular perspective on strategic management which emphasises the role of internal capabilities, developed historically in firms, in explaining business outcomes (Barney, 1991; Peteraf, 1993; Wernerfelt, 1984). The resource-based view provides the logical link between the theory of human resource management (HRM) and the theory of strategic management.

Strategic human resources management is the result when human resource management is vertically integrated with strategic planning and horizontally integrated with other human resource functions including training and development, compensation and benefits, recruitment, selection, and labor relations (Pynes,1997). Strategic human resources management provides viable means to bring organizational effectiveness to the police organizations of today and tomorrow. It is a practical approach and one that will allow for adaptability to meet the individual organizations.

In addition, this study investigates the influence of four dimensions of strategy human resource management capability: recruitment and selection intelligence; career path progressiveness; human resource development excellence; and performance appraisal efficiency on working enthusiasm, organizational loyalty and employee commitment. The research questions are as follows:

* How does the four dimensions of strategic human resource management capability: 1) recruitment and selection intelligence 2) career path progressiveness 3) human resource development excellence 4) performance appraisal efficiency affect working enthusiasm, organizational loyalty and employee commitment?

* How does the working enthusiasm affect organizational loyalty?

* How does the employee commitment affect organizational loyalty?

* How do the working enthusiasm, employee commitment and organizational loyalty affect organizational effectiveness?

* How does the organization awareness for human capital affect strategic human resource management capability?

* How do top management support and organizational climate moderate the relationship between organization awareness for human capital and the strategic human resource management capability?

The organization of the study is as follows: The second section provides the theoretical framework. Literature reviews and hypothesis development are presented in the third section. The fourth section describes the research design, sample and procedure, and variable measurement of each construct. The fifth section shows the results and discussion. The sixth section indicates the contributions of this study and suggestions for future research. The conclusion is presented in the last section.

2. THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK

This study applies a concept of the resource-based view and the institutional theory to help clearly understand the relationship among variables in the conceptual model. Barney (1991) explains resource-based views of the firm (RBV) which determine that competitive advantage is obtained from resources and capability that it is controlled to be valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable. The resources and capability are viewed as tangible and intangible assets, including managerial skills, organizational operation process and routine, and knowledge its controls. RBV is confirmed with various researches in many disciplines, it shows that the resources and capabilities relate to competitive advantage under variety configuration, such as human resource management, e-commerce (Finney et al., 2008), economics and finance, marketing (Finney et al., 2008), and international business (Barney, 2001). The resource based view explains how firm resources and capabilities driver difference in firm performance. Resources and capabilities of the firms are keys to create, sustained competitive advantage and achieving superior performance (Barney, 1991; Grant, 1996). Thus, this study proposes organization awareness for human capital and strategic human resource management capability as resource and capability to create and sustainable competitive advantage. Firms with more strategic human resource management capability (recruitment and selection intelligence, career path progressiveness, human resource development excellence, performance appraisal efficiency) will have more competitive advantage and lead to greater organizational effectiveness.

Institutional theory focuses on the deeper and more resilient aspects of social structure. It considers the processes by which structures, including schemas, rules, norms, and routines, become established as authoritative guidelines for social behavior. Different components of institutional theory explain how these elements are created, diffused, adopted, and adapted over space and time. Powell and DiMaggio (1991) define an emerging perspective in organization theory and sociology, which they term the 'new institutionalism', as rejecting the rational-actor models of classical economics. Institutional theory considers the processes by which structures, including schemas, rules, norms, and routines, become established as authoritative guidelines for social behaviour. Institutions are social structures that have attained a high degree of resilience. Institutions are composed of cultural-cognitive, normative, and regulative elements that, together with associated activities and resources, provide stability and meaning to social life.

3. LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT

The research model underlying the study is presented in Figure 1.The research model of the study, the conceptual model link among strategic human resource management capability and organizational effectiveness. The four dimensions of strategic human resource management capability are recruitment and selection intelligence, career path progressiveness, human resource development excellence, and performance appraisal efficiency, which lead to increase organizational effectiveness through organizational loyalty, working enthusiasm and employee commitment. This full conceptual model is presented in figure 1.

…

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information: Article title: Strategic Human Resource Management Capability and Organizational Effectiveness of Hotel Businesses in Thailand. Contributors: Sananuamengthaisong, Manisara - Author, Ussahawanitchakit, Phapruke - Author. Journal title: International Journal of Strategic Management. Volume: 10. Issue: 1 Publication date: February 2010. Page number: 89+. © 2008 International Academy of Business and Economics. COPYRIGHT 2010 Gale Group.

This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.