Does alignment elicit competency-based HRM? A systematic review

Internationally, human resource practice is committed to competency-based HRM. HR practitioners and management consultants expect the outcomes of competency-based HRM to include improved employee and organizational performance. However, research indicates that a commitment to the use of competency-based HRM does not automatically guarantee these outcomes. Therefore, HR practitioners have called for academic work to enhance our understanding of the process of effective competency-based HRM. This paper addresses this call by systematically reviewing the existing body of evidence. The conducted systematic review indicated that the effectiveness of competency-based HR depends on the degree of several types of alignment. More specifically, we first identified four crucial types of alignment in this process: (1) vertical alignment, (2) internal alignment, (3) alignment of line managers, and (4) alignment of employees. Subsequently, based on these drivers of effectiveness and drawing from the HRM literature, we developed a process model of competency-based HRM. This process model interlinks the identified types of alignment and acknowledges the conditions in which this process occurs.