Human resource management practices and the HRM-performance link in public and private sector organizations in three Western societal clusters

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to explore HRM practices and HRM-performance (HRM-P) link in public and private sector organizations across three societal clusters: the Anglo, the Germanic, and the Nordic European. Design/methodology/approach – The article is based on international Cranet HRM survey data collected from large private and public organizations. Findings – According to results, HRM is more advanced in private companies than in public sector organizations, even across three societal clusters. Instead, the analyses related to HRM-P link in private and public organizations refer to interesting similarities but also differences between organizational sectors (public versus private) and societal clusters. Research limitations/implications – The main limitation is retaining in those performance indicators that are applicable in both private and public organizations: subjective measures of productivity and service quality, only. Performance measures relevant especially in the public sector (e.g. qualitative targets, attaining budget frames) were not available, and the operationalization of HRM as an index covering the main areas of HRM may have reduced differences between public and private organizations. More in-depth research designs are needed in public sector HRM-P research. Originality/value – The paper contributes to HRM-P research by showing that the level of HRM and the HRM-P relationship varies to some extent according to sector and across Western societal clusters.