A meta-analytical study on the association of human resource management practices with financial, market and operational performance

Purpose: This article draws on the meta-analysis technique to systematically analyse and compare the association of human resource management (HRM) practices with financial, market and operational performance. Design/methodology/approach: An exhaustive search of HRM-performance link resulted in a final sample (k) of 24 independent studies. For this purpose, Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (Version 3.0) software was used. Heterogeneity of the studies was determined using Q-statistic with a p-value, I2, T2 and Tau. As the degree of heterogeneity was very high, random effects model was selected to estimate the mean of effects. Lastly, publication bias was studied using graphical and statistical methods. Findings/results: The results revealed the average correlational (r) association of HRM practices with financial performance, market performance and operational performance as 0.305, 0.434 and 0.311, respectively. More specifically, HRM practices have the strongest association with market performance. Practical implications: The results statistically quantify the association between HRM practices and organisational performance measures for developing desired knowledge, skills and abilities to generate higher and improved performance. The results of this study provide HR managers with evidence that right investment in human resources does significantly contribute to the bottom line; they should make better and higher allocation of the resources for HRM. Originality/value: To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to meta-analytically examine the varying association of HRM with three distinct organisational performance measures.