Bundles of HRM practices in family and non-family firms: the impact on enhancing performance

Abstract

This paper analyzes how ability, motivation and opportunity bundles of HRM practices affect enhanced manufacturing performance in family firms (FFs) and non-family firms (NFFs). Five hypotheses were proposed and tested using data from a unique survey of 301 manufacturing plants located in Uruguay and Argentina. Estimations indicate that coherent bundles comprising HRM practices aimed at enhancing abilities (A) and giving workers the opportunity to participate in the decision-making process (O), individually and interactively, have a positive effect on manufacturing performance in FFs. A motivational bundle of HRM practices (M) has a positive effect on enhanced performance in NFFs. The study therefore establishes the existence of hierarchies among bundles, which vary with company ownership.

Keywords:

• Bundles of HRM practices
• AMO framework
• family firms
• manufacturing performance
• Uruguay
• Argentina

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (HYPERLINK “http://www.unavarra.es/pdi/?uid=6577&dato=proyectos&index=0”ECO2013-48496-C4-2-R) and from the AECI- Spanish Agency of International Cooperation.

Notes

1. Manufacturing industry is precisely defined as in the National Classification of Economic Activity (NACE) in each country.