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Why organizations adopt some human resource management practices and reject others: An exploration of rationales
Author(s) -
Subramony Mahesh
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
human resource management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.888
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1099-050X
pISSN - 0090-4848
DOI - 10.1002/hrm.20104
Subject(s) - imitation , business , human resources , human resource management , knowledge management , contrast (vision) , resource (disambiguation) , marketing , economics , management , psychology , computer science , social psychology , computer network , artificial intelligence
This article explores reasons why organizations adopt or reject human resource practices. Four theoretical approaches are brought to bear on this issue. According to the economic approach, organizations adopt HR practices that are economically beneficial to them. Similarly, the alignment approach views firms as adopting HR practices if these practices are aligned with strategic objectives. In contrast, the decision‐making approach invokes a constrained‐ra‐tionality model of managerial judgment, and the diffusion approach attributes the adoption/rejection decision to institutional pressures that encourage imitation. Literature in these areas is reviewed and the implications for HR research and practice are discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.