ILPC 2027

This paper argues that HRM systems are inherently vulnerable to losing both their soft outcomes for employees and their performance enhancing outcomes for employers. We attempt to show this through a detailed analysis of strategic HRM systems at a market leading UK food retail organisation. Implementation of HRM practices at the lower management level are vulnerable to poor and compromised implementation, which reduce their impact and go against the grain of theorised strategic fit. Pragmatic determination of HRM systems at the middle management level are driven by cost saving activity and affect employees to the extent that commitment focussed outcomes are reduced or lost all together. Together, these findings develop understanding of the many contexts in which strategic HRM systems fail. Delivery of HRM requires careful strategic planning and fitting to organisation requirements (Verburg et al., 2007), while problematic line manager implementation frequently hinders the effectiveness of HRM systems (Purcell and Hutchinson, 2007; Whittaker and Marchington, 2003), which raises questions over how HRM might suffer as a result, for both parties in the employment relationship. Similarly, decisions around HRM strategy are influenced by market and cost imperatives (Thompson, 2011; Boxall and Mackay, 2009), which may subsequently lead to the erosion of soft outcomes and subsequent commitment from employees (Cook et al., Forthcoming). Strategic HRM may therefore be vulnerable to losing both well-being outcomes for employees, and performance outcomes for employers in certain contexts, which begs exploration of the processes through which this happens. Data was collected through a single embedded case study of the inner workings of a high performance work system at a leading UK retailer. Fifty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted across eight sites in the north of England with store managers, HR managers, line managers, shop floor employees, trade union officials and representatives. These data were supplemented with analysis of company HR policy documents and a union partnership agreement. Our analysis found that, despite HR policy directing strategic alignment towards employee well-being and enhanced performance through commitment, practices were typically vulnerable to becoming subjugated to more immediately pressing operational requirements. Aspects of the HR strategy which were dependent on managers interacting with shop floor employees were typically missed or underperformed. These included training (both operational and safety), team based communication systems designed to foster involvement and employee voice. The omission or partial undertaking of these practices eroded both the commitment of workers, and potential to increase their performance, while simultaneously withering positive employee outcomes. At middle management level, internal labour markets were constrained while higher level tasks were devolved to shop floor workers, against HR policy, to meet short term financial targets through labour cost reduction. In the longer term this eroded perceptions of opportunity and thus morale and commitment. We develop these aggregate findings to show how HRM systems are vulnerable to losing the very outcomes they intend to achieve.