Organisational Value Systems and HRM Systems: A Configurational Study

The relationaship between organisations' value system and their human resource management (HRM) system is investigated surveying human resource managers in 443 Australian organisations. Organisations were grouped into four main value types - Elite, Leadership, Meritocratic and Collegial, according to a typological theory of organisational values. MANOVA and discriminant analysis identified significant differences in HRM configurations between the four value types confirming theoretical expectations. The implications for using a configurational approach to study variability in HRM systems is discussed.