Call for Papers

Abstract

Submission deadline: September 30, 2009

Special issue will be published in 2011

Given the contradictory results regarding the effects of HRM on employee performance there has been a wave of interest in exploring the processes that lie between HR strategy, policy and outcomes. New perspectives require a focus on HR relationships and processes, and in this regard the major players include line managers and their HR counterparts at various organizational levels. In this special issue, we contend that it is the relationship between HR and line managers, including the context in which this occurs, that provides a key to understanding HR practice implementation and employee perceptions of the organization's people practices more generally. This in turn is likely to affect employees' organizational commitment, satisfaction and well being. Bowen and Ostroff's (2004) HR theory concerning the characteristics of HR systems is useful in elaborating this perspective. For this special issue we ask for papers concerning the issue that the collaborative and consensual relationship between line and HR managers is likely to promote a strong HR climate that will be reflected in favorable employee responses. However, consensus is only one possibility. A key question investigated for this special issue is how these relationships vary and their consequent impact on employee perceptions of HR practice and on employee responses.

Keywords:

• HR professionals
• HR systems and employee outcomes
• line managers
• relationships between HR and line managers

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Karin Sanders

Guest Editors: