Shedding New Light on Strategic Human Resource Management: The Impact of Human Resource Management Practices and Human Resources on the Perception of Federal Agency Mission Accomplishment

Abstract

We assess the resource-based view in the study of strategic human resource management in public agencies. We mainly examine the impact of both human resource management (HRM) practices and actual human resources on the perception of federal agency mission accomplishment. We show that all types of goal-aligned and performance-based HRM practices (including rewards, training, appraisal, and recruitment) positively affect perceived agency mission accomplishment. In addition, certain types of human resources (including the percentage of career senior executive service members and organizational size) contribute to perceived agency mission accomplishment although others (including the percentage of professionals and noncareer senior executive service members) make negative contributions. Strategic knowledge, regarding an organization’s valuable, rare, inimitable, and nontradable resources—in both HRM practices and human resources—can help improve perceived federal agency mission accomplishment.

Keywords

strategic human resource management (SHRM)resource-based view (RBV)federal agency mission accomplishment

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Anderson

J. A.

(1984). Regression and ordered categorical models. Journal of the Royal Statistics Society, 46, 1-30.

Anthony

W. P.

Kacmar

K. M.

Perrewe

P. L.

(2009). Human resource management: A strategic approach. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Ayers

R. S.

(2013). Building goal alignment in federal agencies’ performance appraisal programs. Public Personnel Management, 42, 495-520.

Ayers

R. S.

(2015). Aligning individual and organizational performance: Goal alignment in federal government agency performance appraisal programs. Public Personnel Management, 44, 169-191.

Bain

J. S.

(1956). Barriers to new competition: Their character and consequences in manufacturing industries. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Ban

Gossett

C. W.

(2010). The changing roles of the human resource office. In Condrey

S. E.

(Ed.), Handbook of human resource management in government (pp. 5-25). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Barney

J. B.

(1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 17, 99-120.

Barney

J. B.

(2010). Gaining and sustaining competitive advantage. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Barney

J. B.

Clark

D. N.

(2007). Resource-based theory: Creating and sustaining competitive advantage. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

10.

Boxall

(1996). The strategic HRM debate and the resource-based view of the firm. Human Resource Management Journal, 6, 59-75.

11.

Bozeman

Straussman

J. D.

(1990). Public management strategies: Guidelines for managerial effectiveness. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

12.

Brown

T. L.

Potoski

(2003). Managing contract performance: A transaction costs approach. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 22, 275-297.

13.

Burack

E. H.

Burack

M. D.

Miller

D. M.

Morgan

(1994). New paradigm approaches in strategic human resource management. Group & Organization Management, 19, 141-159.

14.

Cascio

(2015). Managing human resources: Productivity, quality of work life, profits. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

15.

Caves

R. E.

Porter

M. E.

(1977). From entry barriers to mobility barriers: Conjectural decisions and contrived deterrence to new competition. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 91, 241-261.

16.

Chun

Y. H.

Rainey

H. G.

(2005). Goal ambiguity in U.S. federal agencies. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 15, 1-30.

17.

Colby

P. W.

Ingraham

P. W.

(1981). Civil service reform: The views of the senior executive service. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 1, 75-89.

18.

Conner

K. R.

(1991). A historical comparison of resource-based theory and five schools of thought within industrial organization economics: Do we have a new theory of the firm? Journal of Management, 17, 121-154.

19.

Cummings

L. L.

Huber

G. P.

Arendt

(1974.). Effects of team size and spatial arrangements on group decision making. Academy of Management Journal, 17, 460-475.

20.

Daley

D. M.

(2002). Strategic human resource management: People and performance management in the public sector. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

21.

Daley

D. M.

Vasu

M. L.

(2005). Supervisory perceptions of the impact of public sector personnel practices on the achievement of multiple goals: Putting the strategic into human resource management. The American Review of Public Administration, 35, 157-167.

22.

Daley

D. M.

Vasu

M. L.

Weinstein

M. B.

(2002). Strategic human resource management: Perceptions among North Carolina county social service professionals. Public Personnel Management, 31, 359-375.

23.

Delery

Doty

(1996). Modes of theorizing in strategic human resource management: Tests of universalistic, contingency, and configurational performance predictions. Academy of Management Journal, 39, 802-835.

24.

Dessler

(2014). Human resource management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

25.

Dolan

(2000). The senior executive service: Gender, attitudes, and representative bureaucracy. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 10, 513-530.

26.

Executive Office of the President of the U.S. (2001). The President’s management agenda. Washington, DC: Author.

27.

Favero

Bullock

J. B.

(2015). How (not) to solve the problem: An evaluation of scholarly responses to common source bias. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 25, 285-308.

28.

Fernandez

Moldogaziev

(2013). Employee empowerment, employee attitudes, and performance: Testing a causal model. Public Administration Review, 73, 490-506.

29.

Grant

R. M.

(1991). The resource-based theory of competitive advantage: Implications for strategy formulation. California Management Review, 33, 114-135.

30.

Hamel

Prahalad

C. K.

(1990). The core competence of the corporation. Harvard Business Review, 68, 79-91.

31.

Harrison

E. F.

(1975.). The managerial decision-making process. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

32.

Hays

S. W.

Kearney

R. C.

(2001). Anticipated changes in human resource management: Views from the field. Public Administration Review, 61, 585-597.

33.

Heclo

(1977). A government of strangers: Executive politics in Washington. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.

34.

Heinrich

C. J.

Lynn

L. E.

Milward

H. B.

(2010). A state of agents? Sharpening the debate and evidence over the extent and impact of the transformation of governance. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 20(Suppl. 1), i3-i19.

35.

Hill

G. W.

(1982). Group versus individual performance: Are n+1 heads better than one? Psychological Bulletin, 91, 517-539.

36.

Jackson

S. E.

(1992). Consequences of group composition for the interpersonal dynamics of strategic issue processing. In Shrivastava

Huff

Dutton

(Eds.), Advances in strategic management (pp. 345-382). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.

37.

Jacobson

W. S.

Sowa

J. E.

(2015). Strategic human capital management in municipal government: An assessment of implementation practices. Public Personnel Management, 44, 317-339.

38.

Kettl

D. F.

(1988). Government by Proxy: (Mis?)managing federal programs. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly.

39.

Kim

(2010). Strategic human resource practices: Introducing alternatives for organizational performance improvement in the public sector. Public Administration Review, 70, 38-49.

40.

Klingner

D. E.

(1993). Reinventing public personnel administration as strategic human resource management. Public Personnel Management, 22, 565-578.

41.

Klingner

D. E.

Nalbandian

Llorens

(2010). Public personnel management: Contexts and strategies. New York, NY: Routledge.

42.

Hur

(2014). The impacts of employee benefits, procedural justice, and managerial trustworthiness on work attitudes: Integrated understanding based on social exchange theory. Public Administration Review, 74, 176-187.

43.

Lee

S. Y.

Whitford

A. B.

(2013). Assessing the effects of organizational resources on public agency performance: Evidence from the US federal government. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 23, 687-712.

44.

Lewis

D. E.

(2007). Testing pendleton’s premise: Do political appointees make worse bureaucrats? The Journal of Politics, 69, 1073-1088.

45.

Lewis

G. B.

(1991). Turnover and the quiet crisis in the federal civil service. Public Administration Review, 51, 145-155.

46.

Lewis

G. B.

Cho

Y. J.

(2011). The aging of the state government workforce: Trends and implications. The American Review of Public Administration, 41, 48-60.

47.

Light

P. C.

(2008). A government ill executed: The depletion of the federal service. Public Administration Review, 68, 413-419.

48.

Long

J. S.

Freese

(2006). Regression models for categorical dependent variables using Stata. College Station, TX: Stata Press.

49.

Mahoney

T. A.

Deckop

J. R.

(1986). Evolution of concept and practice in personnel administration/human resource management (PA/HRM). Journal of Management, 12, 223-241.

50.

Maranto

(1998). Thinking the unthinkable in public administration: A case for spoils in the federal bureaucracy. Administration & Society, 29, 623-642.

51.

Mello

J. A.

(2011). Strategic human resource management. Mason, OH: South Western.

52.

Mesch

D. J.

Perry

J. L.

Wise

L. R.

(1995). Bureaucratic and strategic human resource management: An empirical comparison in the federal government. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 5, 385-402.

53.

Milward

H. B.

Provan

(2003). Managing the hollow state collaboration and contracting. Public Management Review, 5, 1-18.

54.

Newbert

S. L.

(2007). Empirical research on the resource-based view of the firm: An assessment and suggestions for future research. Strategic Management Journal, 28, 121-146.

55.

Nicholson-Crotty

Fernandez

(2016). Performance and management in the public sector: Testing a model of relative risk aversion. Public Administration Review. Advance online publication. doi:10.1111/puar.12619

56.

Penrose

(1959). Theory of the growth of the firm. New York, NY: John Wiley.

57.

Perry

J. L.

(1993). Strategic human resource management. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 13(4), 59-71.

58.

Perry

J. L.

Mesch

D. J.

(1997). Strategic human resource management. In Ban

Riccucci

(Eds.), Public personnel management: Current concerns, future challenges (pp. 21-34). New York, NY: Longman.

59.

Perry

J. L.

Miller

T. K.

(1991). The senior executive service: Is it improving managerial performance? Public Administration Review, 51, 554-563.

60.

Perry

J. L.

Rainey

H. G.

(1988). The public-private distinction in organization theory: A critique and research strategy. Academy of Management Review, 13, 182-201.

61.

Peteraf

M. A.

(1993). The cornerstones of competitive advantage: A resource-based view. Strategic Management Journal, 14, 179-191.

62.

Pitts

(2009). Diversity management, job satisfaction, and performance: Evidence from U.S. federal agencies. Public Administration Review, 69, 328-338.

63.

Poister

T. H.

Pitts

D. W.

Edwards

L. H.

(2010). Strategic management research in the public sector: A review, synthesis, and future directions. The American Review of Public Administration, 40, 522-545.

64.

Poister

T. H.

Streib

(2005). Elements of strategic planning and management in municipal government: Status after two decades. Public Administration Review, 65, 45-56.

65.

Pynes

J. E.

(2013). Human resources management for public and nonprofit organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

66.

Rainey

H. G.

Backoff

R. W.

Levine

C. H.

(1976). Comparing public and private organizations. Public Administration Review, 36, 233-246.

67.

Rainey

H. G.

Steinbauer

(1999). Galloping elephants: Developing elements of a theory of effective government organizations. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 9, 1-32.

68.

Rourke

F. E.

(1984). Bureaucracy, politics, and public policy. Boston, MA: Little, Brown.

69.

Sanders

R. P.

(1994). Reinventing the senior executive service. In Ingraham

Romzek

(Eds.), New paradigms for government (pp. 215-238). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

70.

Shaw

M. E.

(1981.). Group dynamics. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

71.

Stigler

G. J.

(1968). The organization of industry. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

72.

Stillman

R. J.

(1999). Preface to public administration: A search for themes and direction. Burke, VA: Chatelaine Press.

73.

Stillman

R. J.

(2004). The American bureaucracy: The core of modern government. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.

74.

Tompkins

(2002). Strategic human resources management in government: Unresolved issues. Public Personnel Management, 31, 95-110.

75.

U.S. General Accounting Office. (2002). A model of strategic human capital management. Washington, DC: Author.

76.

U.S. Office of Personnel Management. (1998). Strategic human resource management: Report of roundtable discussion. Washington, DC: Author.

77.

U.S. Office of Personnel Management. (1999a). Strategic human resource management: Discussion of key terms and concepts. Washington, DC: Author.

78.

U.S. Office of Personnel Management. (1999b). Strategic human resource management: Aligning with the mission. Washington, DC: Author.

79.

U.S. Office of Personnel Management. (2005). Human capital standards. Washington, DC: Author.

80.

U.S. Office of Personnel Management. (2010). A new day for the civic service: Federal employee viewpoint survey 2010. Washington, DC: Author.

81.

U.S. Office of Personnel Management. (2012). 2012 federal employee viewpoint survey results: Employees influencing change. Washington, DC: Author.

82.

van Wart

(2013). Lessons from leadership theory and the contemporary challenges of leaders. Public Administration Review, 73, 553-565.

83.

Wamsley

G. L.

Zald

M. N.

(1973). The political economy of public organizations. Public Administration Review, 33, 62-73.

84.

Wernerfelt

(1984). A resource-based view of the firm. Strategic Management Journal, 5, 171-180.

85.

Whitford

A. B.

Lee

S.-Y.

Yun

Jung

C. S.

(2010). Collaborative behavior and the performance of government agencies. International Public Management Journal, 13, 321-349.

86.

Wright

P. M.

McMahan

G. C.

(1992). Theoretical perspectives for strategic human resource management. Journal of Management, 18, 295-320.

87.

Wright

P. M.

McMahan

G. C.

McWilliams

(1994). Human resources and sustained competitive advantage: A resource-based perspective. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 5, 301-326.