Strong signals in HR management: How the configuration and strength of an HR system explain the variability in HR attributions

Madleen Meier‐Barthold; Torsten Biemann; Kerstin Alfes

doi:10.1002/hrm.22146

Strong signals in HR management: How the configuration and strength of an HR system explain the variability in HR attributions

Madleen Meier‐Barthold¹; Torsten Biemann¹; Kerstin Alfes²

¹ Department of Management University of Mannheim Mannheim Germany · ² Chair of Organisation and Human Resource Management ESCP Business School Berlin Berlin Germany

Human Resource Management 2023

AbstractIn explaining the effectiveness of a human resource (HR) system within an organization, scholars have turned their attention to HR attributions, which capture employees' perceptions about the intentions behind their organization's HR practices, and have demonstrated that an HR system's content and process of communication drive employees to form specific HR attributions. However, current research has not yet explained why HR attributions differ among employees. We investigate the variability in HR attributions among individuals and the organizational factors that influence this variability. Using signaling theory and the concept of situational strength, we argue that employees' HR attributions vary less when signals sent by HR management are unambiguous and the conveyed information is consistent. Using an online scenario‐based experiment with 760 participants, our findings reveal that the configuration and the strength of an HR system as well as their combination have significant effects on the variability in HR attributions among employees, and these effects differ for the different HR attributions.

DOI: 10.1002/hrm.22146
Volume: 62 (2)
Pages: 229-246
Language: en
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