The origins of synergies in strategic human resource systems

This study investigates a fundamental question about human resource systems: where performance synergies amongst human resource practices originate. The existence of synergies is a central tenet of the strategic, organization level approach to Human Resource Management. Venkatraman (1989) makes the methodological point that different operationalizations of fit (e.g., interaction terms in hierarchical regressions, factor analysis, deviation from ideal profiles) can have markedly different statistical results in the same data set. Until now, this important observation has been treated as methodological caveat. However, these different operationalizations of fit can be linked to different theoretical rationales for how internal fit (or synergy) occurs in an organizational system. Thus, observations about statistical differences across operationalizations of fit in the same data set allow researchers to draw inferences about the validity of various theoretical explanations for synergies. After extensively comparing many different fit methodologies, the analysis points strongly to additive approaches as the fit methodologies that are most likely to accurately capture the influence on organizational performance attributed to human resource systems. This result points to a related theoretic perspective about interactions among human resource practices which suggests that the strategic value of human resource systems lies in the independent effects of different HR practices that are pointed toward a common goal