Abstract
This study examines the strategic level of human resource management (HRM) at Taiwanese business firms. It also seeks to determine the extent to which HRM practices differ across organizations and industries, and to cassess the relationship between the strategic level of HRM and organizational perform ance. The firms sampled are separated into three categories: operational (12%), managerial (44%), and strategic (44%). For the purposes of this study, operational firms are designated as those that take little account of human resource when selecting a business strategy and that do not attempt to promote close linkage between HRM and other functions. Strategic firms are defined as those that give careful consideration to human resource factors in their business strategies and that ensure tight linkage between HRM and organ izational goals and priorities. Managerial firms are described as being in transition between the operational and strategic categories. American-owned businesses were discovered to engage in strategic human resource manage ment (SHRM) more frequently than Japanese- or Taiwanese-owned enterprise. A positive relationship was also found between the amount of capital resources available to firms and the extent to which they practised SHRM. Finally, firms engaging in SHRM received a higher rating than other firms on the indices of organizational morale, financial performance, and overall performance. These results are consistent with, and lend support to, SHRM theories.
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