The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 21, No.

5, April 2010, 653675 Abstract A comparative study of the effects of best practice HRM on worker outcomes in Malaysia and England local government
Julian Gould-Williams Cardiff University, Business School, Cardiff, United Kingdom & Rosmah Mohamed Faculty of Business and Management, Open University Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
ISSN 0958-5192 print/ISSN 14664399 online q 2010 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/09585191003658821 http://www.informaworld.com

This paper presents the findings of a cross-cultural comparison of the effects of best practice HRM using employees from a matched sample of local government service departments in England and Malaysia (England n = 569, Malaysian n = 453). The paper tests the universal best practice thesis, and also assesses the perceived level of up-take of HR practices in the two samples. The research also considers the effects of the psychological climate and employees perceptions of trust on five work-related outcomes, namely job satisfaction, motivation, organizational citizenship behaviour, stress and quit intentions. The findings reveal that the Malaysian workers perceived the up-take of HR practices to be higher in comparison to their counterparts in England. A less consistent pattern emerged with regards to perceptions of climate. OLS regression revealed that consistent with the universal thesis, a bundle of HR practices significantly predicted employee outcomes in the hypothesized directions in both samples. Therefore, these findings provide strong support for the universal thesis. Keywords: best practice HRM; employee outcomes; international comparative study; Malaysia and England local government; universal thesis