Implicit human resource management theory: a potential threat to the internal validity of human resource practice measures

Abstract

Since the publication of Huselid's (1995) paper examining the relationship between HR practices and firm performance, there has been an explosion of published papers examining the empirical relationship between HR practices and various measures of firm performance. This study examines the possibility that informants typically providing data about organizational HR practices may be biased by an implicit theory of human resource management. Our findings suggest the responses from subjects typically providing data about HR practices may be biased in their reporting by the performance of the organization. The generalizability of these results is considered and implications for future studies of the HR-firm performance relationship reviewed.

Keywords:

• construct validity
• mental models
• research methods
• strategic human resource management

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies at Cornell University for generous financial and other assistance in the completion of this project. We would also like to thank Barry Gerhart and Don Schwab for comments on an earlier draft of this article.