1 - 2 - Still in Search of Strategic Human Resource Management A Review and Suggestions For Future Research With China As An Example

DOI: 10.1002/hrm.
22029
SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE
Still in search of strategic human resource management?

A review and suggestions for future research with China as
an example
Fang Lee Cooke1 | Mengtian Xiao2 | Yang Chen3
1
Monash Business School, Monash University,
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Abstract
2
School of International Business, Strategic human resource management (SHRM) has been an important strand of
Southwestern University of Finance and
research in the HRM field for over three decades, and has attracted heated debates
Economics, Chengdu, China
3
School of Business Administration, in recent years. One main critique of the state of SHRM research is its increasing
Southwestern University of Finance and detachment from HRM practice, in the pursuit of more theoretical rigor and method-
Economics, Chengdu, China
ological sophistication. Our review article has two main tasks. First, we review SHRM
Correspondence research published in two leading HRM journals—Human Resource Management and
Yang Chen, School of Business Administration,
Southwestern University of Finance and Human Resource Management Journal—in the light of the criticisms on SHRM research
Economics, No. 555, Liutai Road, Wenjiang and use this as a backdrop of our second task. Second, we critically examine SHRM
District, Chengdu, Sichuan 611130, China.
Email: chenyang@swufe.edu.cn, francisnju@ research conducted in the Chinese context by drawing on a systematic review on
gmail.com extant literature. In doing so, we draw on a wider range of HRM journals such as
Funding information Human Resource Management Review, The International Journal of Human Resource
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Management, and so forth. We find that while the trend of psychologization in SHRM
Grant/Award Numbers: NSFC 71832003,
71502142, 71725001 research is gathering pace, the range of theoretical perspectives mobilized to inform
the studies is actually expanding. We call for SHRM research to be more contextual-
ized and more practical phenomenon-driven SHRM research. We indicate several
avenues for future research, using China as an example.
KEYWORDS
bundled HRM, China, contingency approach, high-performance work practices, resource-

based view, strategic HRM
1 | I N T RO DU CT I O N responsive to various settings across nations? Our review study seeks

to address these research questions, with the aim to advance research
Strategic human resource management (SHRM) has been an impor- in this field and make it more relevant to specific societal contexts,
tant strand of research in the HRM field for over three decades, and using China as an example, and more relevant to HRM practices. In
has attracted heated debates in recent years (c.f. Jiang & doing so, we accentuate the importance of engaging with practice and
Messersmith, 2018 for a meta review of SHRM reviews). One main attending to context.
critique of the state of SHRM research is its increasing detachment Relatedly, the aim of reviewing SHRM in the Chinese context is
from HRM practice, in the pursuit of more theoretical rigor and meth- twofold: first, to suggest that SHRM research being conducted in
odological sophistication (Kaufman, 2015a). Has the SHRM research China needs to pay more attention to contextual factors instead of
path been as narrowly treaded as its critics suggest? What theoretical simply adopting existing approaches that have evolved in other cul-
perspectives have been used to inform the studies? And how can tures; and second, to provide suggestions to illustrate how future
future research on SHRM address some of the criticisms and be more SHRM research can engage in a country-specific context more fully to
Hum Resour Manage. 2021;60:89–118. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrm © 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC. 89

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90 COOKE ET AL.
identify what HRM issues are challenging firms and their responding Several critical reviews and controversy pieces have been publi-
HRM strategy, policy and practice. This is because, as some scholars shed which provide insightful analyses of the state of development of
have argued, SHRM in practice does not take place in vacuum; rather, research on SHRM, highlighting issues related to conceptual ambigu-
it is a strategic response to the external and internal environment, and ity, methodological weakness and practical relevance, and illuminating
a product shaped by a wide range of factors and stakeholders in spe- ways forward (Boxall & Mackay, 2009; Guest, Conway, &
cific country and industry contexts (Boxall & Purcell, 2016; Jackson, Dewe, 2004; Jackson et al., 2014; Jiang & Li, 2019; Kaufman, 2015a,
Schuler, & Jiang, 2014; Kamoche, 1994). As such, SHRM may carry 2020; Lengnick-Hall, Lengnick-Hall, Andrade, & Drake, 2009;
distinct institutional and cultural characteristics distinct to specific Paauwe & Boselie, 2003, 2005; Purcell, 1999). In particular, Human
nations as well as generic features that are universally found. How- Resource Management (HRM) and Human Resource Management Jour-
ever, in order to publish in English journals and to gain construct valid- nal (HRMJ), two leading HRM journals, have been at the forefront in
ity, there is a strong tendency for SHRM research, and HRM research publishing the controversy issues (see HRM, volume 54, issue 3;
more generally, conducted in China to adopt/adapt western- c.f. Cascio, 2015; Kaufman, 2015a; Wright, Guest, & Paauwe, 2015;
developed models and constructs and empirically test them, with little and HRMJ, volume 30, issue 1; c.f. Kaufman, 2020; Troth &
reflection of what HRM problems are facing firms in China and the Guest, 2020; also see Budd, 2020; Godard, 2014, 2020).
context within which HRM strategy, policy and practice are formu- Schuler and Jackson (2014, p. 54) eloquently argue:
lated and implemented. Therefore, by revealing the limitations in
SHRM research in the Chinese context, our study demonstrates how After two decades of research investigating “strategic”
researchers may advance the field by adopting a wider range of theo- HRM, we still have little understanding of how effec-
retical approaches and an expanded set of research methods, not least tive organizations use HRM systems to improve their
qualitative ones. financial performance while simultaneously addressing
all of the major concerns of employees, customers,
partner organizations and society (i.e., a multi-
2 | MAJOR C RI TIQU ES ABOU T THE stakeholder approach). Nor do we yet know much
R E S E A RC H D I R E C T I O N O F SH RM about why some firms invest more to acquire and
develop HRs, the conditions under which investment
SHRM has attracted growing interest and has been defined in a vari- in formal HRM systems is worthwhile, or the dynamics
ety of ways by researchers and practitioners with little consensus of that influence the relative salience of employees' con-
what it is specifically (Wright & Boswell, 2002). As Boxall (1996, p. 59) cerns, or any other stakeholder relative to the con-
observed, SHRM is “an area of difficult definitions and contentious cerns of the other stakeholders. Thus, HRM
theory.” For the purpose of this study, we adopt Jackson et al.'s (2014, professionals and scholars can play an important role
p. 2) definition of: in improving our understanding of HRM and OE [orga-
nizational effectiveness] by conducting research
strategic HRM scholarship as the study of HRM sys- together to help reveal further understanding of these
tems (and/or sub-systems) and their interrelationships relationships.
with other elements comprising an organizational sys-
tem, including the organization's external and internal Schuler and Jackson's (2014) view is vigorously echoed by Cas-
environments, the multiple players who enact HRM cio (2015, p. 423) who believes that SHRM research is “too important
systems, and the multiple stakeholders who evaluate for an insular approach,” and Kaufman (2020, p. 49) who uncompro-
the organization's effectiveness and determine its misingly declares, with strong provocation, that “the deadly combina-
long-term survival. tion of psychologization, scientism, and normative promotionalism
takes strategic human resource management down a 30-year dead
We also identify with Jiang and Li's (2019, p. 26) summary of a range end” (see rebuttal from Wright et al., 2015 to Kaufman, 2015a, and
of theoretical perspectives and models, such as the universalistic, con- Troth & Guest, 2020). It should be noted that the aim of these cri-
tingency and configurational perspectives proposed by Delery and tiques is not to deny the important contributions that the psychology
Doty (1996); human capital theory, social exchange theory, social cap- and, more specifically, the organizational behavior (OB) discipline has
ital theory and the ability-motivation-opportunity (AMO) framework made in advancing the field of SHRM research. Rather, critics warn of
for explaining “the relationship between HRM systems and firm per- the danger of the rapid process of psychologization in SHRM research
formance”; and the high-performance work systems (HPWS), includ- and its effect of marginalizing research from other disciplinary per-
ing high-commitment work systems (HCWS) and high-involvement spectives; such perspectives have broader concerns and levels of anal-
work systems (HIWS)—we neglect the debates on the differences in ysis of, for instance, the dynamics of stakeholder interactions, social
these systems here, as they are not the focus of this study. This inclu- values, and structural differences in the power of institutional actors
sive approach allows us to capture different views and orientations in (c.f. Farndale, McDonnell, Scholarios, & Wilkinson, 2020b; see also
the field of SHRM research. Budd, 2020; Kamoche, 1994).
COOKE ET AL. 91
In addition, SHRM has been criticized for being too preoccupied review—a focused review on SHRM research in the Chinese context—
with firms' financial performance, as its definitions indicate. A central to illustrate our argument.
tenet of SHRM, as Pfeffer (1998) asserts, is that people are strategic Data collection for this review consists of two parts of literature
resources that are valuable to firms. Ahlstrom, Foley, Young, and searching, reflecting the foci of our study, as indicated in the Introduc-
Chan (2005, p. 268) go further and argue that “HRM practices can tion. First, we searched for articles published in two leading HRM
enhance firm competitiveness and performance when they are ‘strate- journals, measured by the Academic Journal Guide (2018) by
gic.’” According to Lengnick-Hall et al. (2009, p. 64), SHRM “covers Chartered ABS: HRM and HRMJ (both ranked as 4).1 HRM celebrates
the overall HR strategies adopted by business units and companies its 60th anniversary in 2021, whereas HRMJ celebrated its 30th anni-
and tries to measure their impacts on performance.” versary in 2020. As the field of SHRM started to emerge in the mid-
Our review study illustrates some of the problems identified, 1980s (Kaufman, 2015a), we set the search period from 1980 to the
especially in the Chinese context, where research capacity of HRM is end of 2019 in order to chart the evolution of SHRM scholarship fea-
emerging rapidly, but the tendency of psychologization and deco- tured in these two journals. Since Wiley Online Library allows us
ntextualization appears to be more and more endemic in the absence access to all issues of these two journals, we conducted our data sea-
of a strong pluralistic and interdisciplinary tradition and in the relent- rch in Wiley electronic database with the search strings: “SHRM”;
less pursuit of fast research outputs. “strategic HRM”; “strategic HR”; and “strategic human resource man-
agement.” After filtering short editorial notes, book reviews, and
amendments, there are 1,037 items in HRM, and 569 items in HRMJ.
3 | M E TH O DO LO GY OF D A TA Then, we used key words to screen the content of each article and
C OLL E C TION AN D A N A LY SI S excluded those with search terms only appearing in the section of dis-
cussion, conclusion, or reference lists. We also screened through each
There have been a number of review studies of SHRM. For example, article and filtered out those that only touch upon SHRM (for exam-
readers can refer to Lengnick-Hall et al. (2009, p. 64) for a review of ple, only mentioning SHRM as a recommendation to companies as a
the development of the SHRM literature from a theme-based and solution for their poor HRM practices), rather than being a focused
evolutionary perspective in which the authors “divide the SHRM liter- study of SHRM, or some brief articles that are practice-oriented (these
ature into seven themes that reflect the chronology, directions, and mainly appeared in the early years of publication in HRM). Our final
trends researchers have taken over approximately 30 years of samples included in this part of the review study contain 91 articles
research on the topic.” Readers may also read Jiang, Takeuchi, and published in HRM (marked with * in the reference list) and 54 articles
Lepak (2013) for a systematic review of multi-level analysis and con- in HRMJ (marked with ** in the reference list). Given that HRM has a
ceptual model for SHRM, and Jiang and Messersmith (2018) for a much longer history and published more issues per year than HRMJ,
meta review that highlights some of the main theoretical advance- this numbers suggest that both journals have published a comparable
ments in SHRM research, as well as research directions related to, for proportion of articles related to SHRM. However, their foci differ
example, process and implementation of HRM systems, antecedents somewhat, as discussed in the following (see also Farndale,
of HRM systems, time issue and causality; and Jiang and Li (2019) for McDonnell, Scholarios, & Wilkinson, 2020a for a narrative of the his-
an overview of SHRM models. Other reviews/conceptual pieces on tory of HRMJ which distinguishes it from HRM). Although our main
particular aspects of SHRM can also be found in Human Resource focus of this review is not to compare and contrast these two journals,
Management Review (HRMR). their development trajectory and locations do shore up some differ-
Our systematic review takes two steps. First, we focus on two ences which readers may find interesting in contextualizing the bodies
top-ranked HRM journals—HRM and HRMJ—for review in part, of literature.
because they have been actively leading the debates as indicated ear- A second part of our data collection involved searching for stud-
lier and in part because it is beyond the scope of this study to provide ies of SHRM in the Chinese context (including SHRM in China and
a systematic review that covers all the SHRM studies. However, our Chinese MNCs abroad). We collected English journal articles through
analysis is also informed by articles published in other English journals, a systematic search of the following databases: EBSCO, Emerald,
as explained in the following. Our review complements the scholarly ProQuest, SAGE, Springer, Taylor and Francis, Web of Science, and
reviews of SHRM research that focus on theories, conceptual models, Wiley. Due to time constraints for processing and writing this article,
and methodological issues (Jiang et al., 2013; Jiang & Li, 2019; Jiang & the searching period was set from 1990 to 2018 (some articles publi-
Messersmith, 2018). Our intention is not to repeat these important shed in early views in 2018 were later published in 2019). We com-
elements, but to extend the debates captured in HRM and HRMJ, as bine the “SHRM” or “strategic HRM” or “strategic HR” or “strategic
indicated earlier, by accentuating the necessity for SHRM research to human resource management” with “China” or “Chinese” as our search
engage with practice and embed in the context. Focusing on a specific words. The initial search generated 1,297 results. We then screened
topic published in a small number of top journals for a review of how through the data and excluded articles in which SHRM-related themes
the field has developed over a period of time is an established practice are not the research focus. In addition, given the institutional and cul-
(Kolk, 2016). The review of research published in HRM and HRMJ is tural differences, we removed those studies that only focused on
also to provide a background for the second step of our systematic Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau without mentioning mainland China.
92 COOKE ET AL.
We then went through each article to make sure that every article (i.e., by machine) but require human inputs and decisions (Trilling &
included in this sample focuses on SHRM in the Chinese context. A Jonkman, 2018). Each article was processed via an Excel file, which
total of 144 articles were finally included in our data set for this part records: name of author(s), name of journal, year of publication, type
of the analysis (marked with *** in the reference list), including 19 arti- of study (i.e., empirical or conceptual/review), research method (quan-
cles published in HRM and one published in HRMJ. It is worth noting titative, qualitative, or mixed), sample size, level of study, research tar-
that The International Journal of Human Resource Management (IJHRM) gets, country/countries in which data were collected, ownership forms
is the journal that has published the most studies in this sample, with of the company studied, industry studied, main theories used, thematic
a total of 44. This is in line with the fact that IJHRM has published by foci, antecedents, mediators, moderators, consequences/outcomes,
far the most articles on HRM in the Chinese context compared to any key findings, and our observations. Selecting key phrases or brief sen-
other English journal in the business and management field, based on tences to sort the information into different categories is in line with
our comprehensive database and record of this body of literature. what Miles and Huberman (1994, p. 57) call the use of “descriptive
We acknowledge that our data sets may not have captured every codes.” This task of data coding and preliminary analysis was con-
article relevant for this review. However, we are confident that we ducted by the lead author under the guidance of, and checked by, the
have included the vast majority of them and that our review purpose second author. Coding was mostly carried out by the second author
can be well served. In addition, in order to support our analysis and and cross checked by the other two authors. Differences in the inter-
discussion and to illustrate future avenues for SHRM research, we pretation of information among the three authors were discussed and
screened through articles published in HRMR, one of the main HRM clarified on an on-going basis, and reclassification took place where
journals that specializes in review and conceptual/perspective papers. deemed necessary. This double coding approach enhances the reliabil-
We identified nearly 30 articles that contain strategic HRM/strategic ity and consistency of the data processing and interpretation of the
human resource management in the title. We draw on this body of qualitative data (Miles & Huberman, 1994).
the literature to highlight some of the conceptual/theoretical develop-
ment in SHRM which we believe can be taken up more extensively
for future empirical studies. We also bring to readers' attention some 4 | SHRM RESEARCH IN HRM AND HRMJ:
of the debates and arguments advanced in HRMR. W H A T H A S BE E N P U B LI S H E D A N D W H A T
We adopted a manual content analysis approach and qualitative MAY BE THE GAPS
coding method to analyze the selected journal articles for the review
study (Miles & Huberman, 1994; see also Pisani, Kourula, Kolk, & 4.1 | Demographic profile of studies published
Meijer, 2017). The manual content analysis approach, an approach that
remains commonly used in social sciences, was used because many of For both journals, it is clear that the number of publications on SHRM
the entries (as outlined in the following) we needed to inform our anal- has risen since the mid-2000s, though this is by no means a steady
ysis cannot be processed by automated content analysis methods upward trajectory (Figure 1). As Table 1 indicates, 85% of the sample
F I G U R E 1 Number of SHRM articles published in HRM (N = 91) and HRMJ (N = 54), and the number of articles on SHRM in the Chinese
context (N = 144) by year of publication. Note: The search period for HRM and HRMJ was set for December 2019, whereas for SHRM in the
Chinese context it was set for December 2018 (including three initially in early view published in 2018 at the time of the data search, which were
later published in 2019 and cited so); 19 articles published in HRM and one article in HRMJ are included in the analysis of SHRM in the Chinese
context
COOKE ET AL. 93
TABLE 1 Number of articles by year of publication, research methods, and geographic coverage
Journal
HRM (N = 91) HRMJ (N = 54)
Empirical Empirical
Review/ Total Review/ Total
conceptual Quant Qual Mixed (%) conceptual Quant Qual Mixed (%)
Year of publication
1984–2005 3 3 8 0 14 (15) 8 5 4 0 17 (31)
2006–2019 11 57 6 3 77 (85) 6 28 2 1 37 (69)
Total 14 60 14 3 91 14 33 5 1 54
Level of study
Institutional 0 0 3 0 3 (3) 3 0 1 0 4 (7)
Organizational 14 33 11 3 61 (67) 9 13 3 0 25 (46)
Unit/plant 0 6 0 0 6 (7) 0 4 0 0 4 (7)
Individual 0 11 0 0 11 (13) 0 8 0 1 9 (17)
Multiple 0 10 0 0 10 (10) 2 8 2 0 12 (23)
Total 14 60 14 3 91 14 33 6 1 54
Source of data
Single source 0 28 6 0 34 (44) 0 22 0 0 22 (55)
Multiple source 0 32 8 3 43 (56) 0 11 6 1 18 (45)
Total 0 60 14 3 77 0 33 6 1 40
Time point of data
collection
Single 0 43 12 2 57 (74) 0 28 4 1 33 (83)
Multiple 0 17 2 1 20 (26) 0 5 2 0 7 (17)
Total 0 60 14 3 77 0 33 6 1 40
Country/region of study
Europe 0 15 1 0 16 (17) 0 21 5 0 26 (48)
North America 1 22 8 1 32 (35) 0 3 0 0 3 (6)
Asia Pacific 2 20 3 2 27 (30) 0 3 1 0 4 (7)
Multiple 1 3 2 0 6 (7) 2 4 0 1 7 (13)
Not clear 10 0 0 0 10 (11) 12 2 0 0 14 (26)
Total 13 60 14 3 91 14 33 6 1 54
articles in HRM and 69% in HRMJ were published since 2006, respec- explained by three main factors. One is that this pattern to some extent
tively. In comparison, studies published in HRM seem to be more sophis- reflects the general trend of HRM research, which has focused more on
ticated and diverse in terms of research design, measured by level of developed economies, in large part due to the much stronger pool of
study (institutional, organizational, unit, individual, or multiple level), data research expertise in these countries. Another is that less developed
source (single or multi-source), and time point (single time or multi-time). countries, many of which are located in Africa, south/southeast Asia,
In terms of locale of the study, North America and Asia Pacific are and South America, are considered to be less strategic in their people
the two main regions for studies published in HRM (making up 35% and management in general (Cooke & Kim, 2018; Tarique, 2020). A third
30% of the total respectively), whereas Europe was by far the most factor is that, while empirical research of SHRM has been conducted in
studied region (48%) for articles published in HRMJ. For HRM, United the less published countries identified earlier, these studies might not
States (28 studies), China (16), and UK (7) are the most studied coun- have found their way to the top HRM journals.
tries, whereas UK (9), The Netherlands (6), and United States (4) appear
to be the most featured countries for HRMJ. For both journals, it is clear
that South America and Africa have been significantly under-explored. 4.2 | Research foci
It is also important to note that Asia, with the notable exception of
China in HRM, has also been less well covered; in particular, South and As indicated in Figures 2 and 3 and Tables 2 and 3, practices in HPWS,
Southeast Asian countries are hardly featured. This lacuna may be HCWS, HIWS, and bundles of HRM practices are the main HRM
COOKE ET AL.
An illustrative summary of articles published in HRM by research foci in SHRM FIGURE 2

94
COOKE ET AL. 95
FIGURE 3 An illustrative summary of articles published in HRMJ by research foci in SHRM
practices studied for both articles in HRM and HRMJ, although HRM work, compared with studies that aim at examining strategic
appears to have a wider spread. choices of HRM (Tables 2 and 3). Moreover, although studies in
There is a relatively larger number of studies that aim at both HRM and HRMJ make efforts to explore consequences of
identifying antecedents from different levels of analysis, that is, SHRM, studies in HRMJ focus more on the mechanisms that
establishing what will be necessary for the HRM practices to influence the individual level, whereas studies in HRM pay more
96 COOKE ET AL.
TABLE 2 Profile in brief of quantitative studies of SHRM published in HRM
Thematic category Theoretical framework Specific domain of SHRM Underpinning mechanism Example of reference
Antecedents: Strategic choice of HRM system
Institutional factors Resource dependency • High-performance work Moderating mechanism Arthur, Herdman, and
• Origin of parent theory; institutional system • Ownership Yang (2016); Becker and
company theory; contingency • High-commitment work • Industry Huselid (1999); Chen,
• Regulatory policies approach; system • Managerial philosophy Lawler, and Bae (2005);
• Local competition configurational • High-involvement work and values (e.g., HR Ciavarella (2003);
• International business approach; corporate system philosophy, top Demirbag, Tatoglu, and
scope governance; strategic • HRM system alignment management HPWS Wilkinson (2016);
Organizational attributes choices theory; values) Heneman and
• Ownership organizational life cycle • Business strategy Milanowski (2011);
• Culture theory; upper-echelons Konrad et al. (2016);
• Organizational theory; Laroche and
development stage Motivation theory; voice Salesina (2017); Lepak,
• Business strategy model for employee Taylor, Tekleab,
• Organizational relationship Marrone, and
structure (e.g., team Cohen (2007); Mitchell,
structure) Obeidat, and
HR-related factors Bray (2013); Mullins,
• Employee groups Brandes, and
• Managerial values Dharwadkar (2016);
• HR strategic role (e.g., O'Neill, Feldman,
top management HR Vandenberg, DeJoy, and
cause-effect beliefs) Wilson (2011); Ouyang,
• Employee Liu, Chen, Li, and
representation Qin (2019); Schmidt,
• Workforce diversity Pohler, and
Willness (2018); Wang
and Verma (2012)
Phenomena: Adoption of HRM system or practices
Intended-implemented Process model of SHRM SHRM process • Organizational ability Piening, Baluch, and
gap of HR and employee Ridder (2014)
expectation of HR
practices can moderate
the gap between
intended and
implemented HR.
The implementation of Institutional-political General SHRM • Most American Cooke and Saini (2010);
SHRM perspective; power companies adopted Cooper, Bartram, Wang,
perspective; historical SHRM approach in their and Cooke (2019);
lens business practices. Martell and
• HR strategy supports Carroll (1995); Sheehan,
the achievements of De Cieri, Greenwood,
organizational strategic and Van Buren (2014);
goals. Xie & Cooke (2019)
• HR professional role
tensions exist, and can
be reduced through
devolving some roles
and changing
psychological contract.
HR role bias led to a
negative interaction
between HR
professionals and TMT.
Perceptions of HR Process model of HRM; General SHRM • Manager's and co- Jiang et al. (2017)
practices social information worker's perceptions of
processing theory HR practices positively
relate with employee's
perceptions.
COOKE ET AL. 97
TABLE 2 (Continued)
• The similarity in terms
of demographic
characteristics and
tenure has moderating
effects.
Consequences: SHRM–performance relationship
Employee outcomes
Employee attitudes AMO model, social • High-performance work Mediation mechanism Alfes, Truss, Soane, Rees,
• Intention to resist exchange theory; system • Psychological cognition and Gatenby (2013);
change conservation of • High-commitment work mechanism (e.g., work Barber, Huselid, and
• Organizational resources theory; system engagement, person- Becker (1999); Boon and
commitment (e.g., configurational • High-involvement work organization fit, Kalshoven (2014); Bulter
affective approach; attribution system affective commitment, and Teagarden (1993);
commitment) theory; process model of • Other strategy-oriented perceived organizational Foss, Pedersen, Reinholt
• Autonomous SHRM; person- HRM systems (e.g., support, perceived Fosgaard, and
motivation to share organization fit; socially responsible organizational identity) Stea (2015); Hoque,
knowledge uncertainty reduction HRM, diversity and Moderating mechanism Wass, Bacon, and
Employee behaviors theory equality management • Organizational climate Jones (2018); Kilroy,
• Innovative work practice bundles) • Leadership style (e.g., Flood, Bosak, and
behaviors • Dimensions of HRM ethical leadership) Chênevert (2017);
Employee well-being systems • Task proficiency McCowan, Bowen,
• Emotional • Interaction of types of • Job design Huselid, and
exhaustion HR practices • Employee attribution of Becker (1999);
• Depersonalization • General HR practices HR practices Messersmith, Kim, and
• Work-related • Employee perceptions Patel (2018); Neves,
disability of HR practices Almeida, and
disadvantage • HRM system strength Velez (2018); Sanders
Employee performance and Yang (2016); Shen,
• Task performance Kang, and
Dowling (2018)
Unit/team/group
outcomes
• Unit performance Contingency approach; • High-performance work • Business strategy (e.g., Han, Liao, Taylor, and
• Group learning motivation theory system adaption and efficiency Kim (2018); Kang, Snell,
• High-involvement work orientation) and Swart (2012); O'Neill
system • Leadership style (e.g., et al. (2011)
transformational
leadership)
• Unit-wide achievement
values
• Intellectual capital
Organizational outcomes
Overall firm performance AMO model; resource- • High-performance work Mediating mechanism Akhtar, Ding, and
Operational performance based view; dynamic system • Organizational Ge (2008); Armstrong
• Labor productivity capability theory; social • High-commitment work capability and capital et al. (2010); Benson,
• Innovation exchange theory; agency system (e.g., absorptive Young, and Lawler
• Firm effectiveness theory; process model of • High-involvement work capacity, intellectual III (2006); Chadwick and
• Organizational SHRM; configurational system capital, social capital) Li (2018); Chen, Jiang,
learning approach; social capital • Other strategically • Organizational flexibility Tang, and Cooke (2018);
• Organizational theory; social network oriented HR practices (e.g., ambidexterity, HR Cook and Ferris (1986);
entrepreneurship theory; social power and (e.g., intellectual capital- flexibility) Fu et al. (2017); Greer,
HR-related outcomes influence; expectancy enhancing HR, diversity • Organizational strategy Carr, and Hipp (2016);
• Racial diversity in theory; knowledge- and equality (e.g., proactive Hauff, Alewell, and
managers based perspective management practices, environmental Katrin Hansen (2017);
• Women's HR-line-connecting strategies) Hong, Jiang, Liao, and
representation HRM systems) • Operational outcomes Sturman (2017); Iverson
in HR • HR strength (e.g., service and Zatzick (2011); Kang
• Employee turnover • Inner customers' performance, et al. (2012); Klaas,
perceptions of HR innovation, Semadeni, Klimchak, and
(Continues)
98 COOKE ET AL.
TABLE 2 (Continued)
• HR role (e.g., HR environment Ward (2012); Kirn, Rucci,
managers' role, HR management routine) Huselid, and
strategic • HR-related outcomes Becker (1999); Kim, Su,
participation) (e.g., Turnover, and Wright (2018);
• Human capital employee effort, Martell and
• HR effectiveness knowledge sharing, Carroll (1995); McClean
and availability middle managers' and Collins (2011);
• Work-life balance innovative behavior) Messersmith and
programs • Employee perceived Guthrie (2010); Mitchell
• Employee's attitude organizational support et al. (2013); O'Neill
(e.g., willingness to Moderating mechanism et al. (2011); Pichler,
help expatriates) • Firm size, ownership, Simpson, and
Financial performance culture, climate Stroh (2008); Richard,
Market-related • Business strategy Roh, and Pieper (2013);
performance • Industry dynamism and Schmidt et al. (2018);
• Analysts' forecasts growth Shen, Kang, and Dowling
• HR role and function (2018); Soo, Tian, Teo,
(e.g., existence of HR and Cordery (2017);
department, perceived Wang and Verma (2012);
HR strategic Way, Wright, Tracey,
importance) and Isnard (2018); Zhou,
• Managerial philosophy Fan, and Son (2019);
and values (e.g., Zoogah (2018)
consideration for
employees' morale and
welfare)
• Managerial
characteristics (e.g.,
TMT effectiveness, line
manager devolvement,
management and
ownership alignment,
leader communication
patterns, leader's HR
background, corporate
governance
participation, direct
voice mechanism)
• Leadership type (e.g.,
CEO charismatic
leadership)
• Internal interaction of
different bundles of HR
practices
• Work–family conflict
Abbreviations: AMO, ability-motivation-opportunity; OCB, organizational citizen behavior; SHRM, strategic human resource management; TMT, top man-
agement team.
attention to those that influence the organizational level, relatively limited compared with that of moderators. Jiang
reflecting in part a comparatively more sophisticated research et al. (2013, p. 1469) call for future research to “explore a more
design than those in HRMJ. Relatedly, while employee-related complete mediation model in which HR systems can mediate the
outcomes and organizational outcomes (many of which are HR- influence of organizational characteristics, including business
related) feature quite prominently in studies in HRM, studies in strategy, on employee outcomes which may further lead to firm
HRMJ focus more on employee-related outcomes and less on performance.” We identified five studies published in HRM
organizational outcomes. that explore the mediating role of the HR systems between orga-
While a range of mediating and moderating mechanisms nizational contexts and firm outcomes, but no study was found
have been used in these studies, the use of mediators is in HRMJ that examine the “full story of contribution of HR
COOKE ET AL. 99
TABLE 3 Profile in brief of quantitative empirical studies of SHRM published in HRMJ
Antecedents: Strategic choice of HRM system
Institutional factors
• Collective labor Contingency and • High-commitment work _ Hutchinson, Purcell, and
agreement configurational approach; system Kinnie (2000); Moore,
• Government institutional theory; • Other strategy-oriented McDonald, and
regulatory policies process model of SHRM; HRM system (e.g., Bartlett (2017); Pas,
• Social expectations AMO framework family-friendly HR Peters, Doorewaard,
Organizational practices, disability Eisinga, and Lagro-
attributes inclusive HR practices) Janssen (2011)
• Organizational
culture and climate
• Business strategy
• Organizational
structure
Phenomena: Adoption of HRM system or practices
The implementation of HR role typology High-performance work The role of HR specialists Glover and Butler (2012)
HPWS system undertaken in the
process of HPWS
implementation
Consequences: SHRM–performance relationship
Employee outcomes
Employee attitudes Social exchange theory; job • High-performance work Mediating mechanism
• Organizational demands-resources, system • Psychological cognition Agarwal and
commitment process model of SHRM; • High-commitment work (e.g., psychological Farndale (2017);
• Quit intention self-determination system capital, psychological Andreeva and
• Job satisfaction theory; role theory • High-involvement work safety, HR attribution, Sergeeva (2016); Beltrán-
• Vigor system organizational justice, Martín, Bou-Llusar, Roca-
Employee behaviors • Other strategy-oriented person-organization fit, Puig, and Escrig-
• Knowledge HRM systems (e.g., affective commitment, Tena (2017); Conway and
sharing behaviors family-friendly HR experienced job Monks (2009); De
• Proactive practices) demands and resources) Voorde and
behaviors • Dimensions of HRM • Motivation (e.g., intrinsic Beijer (2015); De Voorde,
• OCB systems (e.g., ability- and extrinsic motivation) Veld, and Van
Employee well-being enhancing, motivation- Moderating mechanism Veldhoven (2016);
• Emotional enhancing, and • Individual differences Gilbert, De Winne, and
exhaustion opportunity-enhancing (e.g., trust in Sels (2015); Gong, Chang,
• Depersonalization HR practices) management, career and Cheung (2010);
• Job strain • General HR practices stage, age, Heffernan and
• Work pressure • Employee perceptions organizational Dundon (2016);
• Working hours of HR practices identification) Innocenti, Pilati, and
Employee performance • HRM system • Organizational culture Peluso (2011); Kilroy
• Creativity configuration and climate (e.g., et al. (2017); Kinnie,
implementation institutional collectivism) Hutchinson, Purcell,
• Managerial philosophy Rayton, and
and values (e.g., family- Swart (2005); Kooij and
friendly workforce Boon (2018); Mostafa,
philosophy) Bottomley, Gould-
Williams, Abouarghoub,
and Lythreatis (2019);
Pas et al. (2011)
Unit/team/group
outcomes
• Plant manufacturing AMO model, • High-involvement work Mediating mechanism Bello-Pintado (2015);
performance configurational approach system • Organizational capability Chang (2015);
• Unit-level • Dimensions of HRM and capital (e.g., unit Flinchbaugh, Li, Luth, and
organizational systems (e.g., ability- human capital) Chadwick (2016)
ambidexterity enhancing, motivation- • Employee behaviors
enhancing, and (e.g., knowledge sharing)
(Continues)
100 COOKE ET AL.
TABLE 3 (Continued)
• Team service opportunity-enhancing Moderating mechanism
climate HR practices) • Internal interaction of
different HR practices
• Perspective taking
Organizational
outcomes
Overall firm AMO model; • High-performance work Mediating mechanism Andreeva, Vanhala,
performance configurational and system • Operational outcomes Sergeeva, Ritala, and
Operational contingency approach; • Components of HRM (e.g., dynamic innovation Kianto (2017);
performance human capital theory; system (e.g., reward and transition, organizational Chowhan (2016);
• Service climate social capital theory; appraisal HR practices) effectiveness) Christina, Dainty, Daniels,
• Manufacturing organizational culture; • General SHRM • HR outcomes (e.g., Tregaskis, and
performance organizational life cycle human capital) Waterson (2017); Guest
• Ambidexterity theory; job performance • Organizational et al. (2004); Hartog and
• Innovation theory commitment Verburg (2004); Hauff,
• Energy Moderating mechanism Alewell, and
performance • Firm size Hansen (2014); Wright,
HR-related outcomes • Internal interaction of Gardner, and
• Employee different HR practices Moynihan (2003); Wu,
performance • Organizational strategic Hoque, Bacon, and Bou
activities Llusar (2015)
F I G U R E 4 Theoretical foundations most frequently used in SHRM research in HRM and HRMJ. We summarize here only the most popular
theories used in the sample articles rather than a comprehensive list of all the theories used. AMO, ability-motivation-opportunity;
OB, organizational behavior
system to organizations” (Jiang et al., 2013, p. 1469). This is • Diverse, and often implicit, working definitions used by the
clearly an area in which future research can build on to advance authors when they claim their study is on (certain dimensions
the field. of ) SHRM, ranging from HR competency as SHRM to green
A screening of the empirical studies of SHRM shows that the HRM as SHRM;
approaches/foci of the research related to SHRM are diverse, includ- • Approach orientation: A strategic approach to adopting HRM
ing, for example: practices;
COOKE ET AL. 101
• HR input/HRM systems/practices orientation: Strategic HRM prac- these are better theoretical options to establish the link between
tices; some focus on several “strategic” HRM practices, some focus HRM practices and performance. According to Wright and
on one or two (e.g., best practice, best fit, contingency, bundled McMahan (2011, p. 94), the stream of research that seeks to better
HRM practices; HPWS, HIWS, HCWS, strategic training, strategic understand the “black box” between HRM/HPWS practices and
recruitment); performance
• Mechanism orientation: HRM practices as a strategic lever;
• Relationship orientation: Alignment of organizational functions … almost seems an unnecessary detour from and calls
(e.g., alignment of firm's HRM practices with its strategic manage- for a return to a focus on the human capital… Ironically,
ment/strategic goals); while the HR literature focused on HR practices to the
• HR function orientation: Role of the HR function (e.g., are they stra- detriment of human capital, the strategy literature
tegic enough to support the strategic goal of the firm? The answer seemingly discovered human capital.
is often no; then stressing the strategic importance of the HR
function); Wright and McMahan (2011, p. 94) also pointed out that “human capi-
• Outcome orientation: Effective HRM/people management as tal” is much more broadly defined by Becker (1964) as “… the knowl-
SHRM; evaluation of HRM strategy and practices of firms to see if edge, information, ideas, skills, and health of individuals,” than it is
they are strategic or not (most concluded that they are not, and commonly understood by HRM researchers and assessed via subjective
recommend firms to be more strategic). or proxy measures in SHRM research. Wright and McMahan (2011,
p. 94) further warn that if “strategic HRM researchers continue to focus
This diverse range of focus on SHRM confirms the observation solely on HR practices, strategy researchers will fill the void regarding
about the intellectual jungle of SHRM research mentioned earlier the role of human capital in competitive advantage.”
(Boxall, 1996; Wright & Boswell, 2002). Moreover, despite the In a similarly critical and developmental vein, Kaufman (2015b,
growing interest in SHRM research in the last decade, the majority p. 533) contends that RBV of the firm, a major “theoretical pillar of
of studies remain primarily internally focused and have not strategic HRM … developed in the early 1990s in the field of strategic
responded to Schuler and Jackson's (2014) call for a balance of inter- management and subsequently incorporated into strategic HRM … is
nal and external focus. Nor has SHRM research moved holistically, often presented in a partial/truncated form, misinterpreted/mis-
as Boxall (1996, p. 70) appealed, from a “‘positioning’ to a more sys- applied at key points and given a too superficial/uncritical representa-
temic and dynamic conception of strategy … to explore the various tion.” Kaufman (2015b, p. 534) then goes on to examine RBV–
ways in which HRM contributes to the strategic management of strategic HRM by “applying and extending an economics framework”
firms.” While studies are moving increasingly toward measuring and tackled four main problems that he has identified in previous
employees' perceptions and experiences of HRM practices and applications of RBV in SHRM research.
employee-related outcomes, not much progress has been made in However, a few years on, researchers of SHRM appear to con-
adopting a stakeholders' approach. tinue to shy away from the notion of human capital, with a few excep-
tions (Krausert, 2018; Li, Qin, Jiang, Zhang, & Gao, 2015; Zhou
et al., 2019). Delery and Roumpi's (2017) scholarly article goes some
4.3 | Theoretical underpinning distance in explaining the persistent gap between the SHRM and stra-
tegic human capital approaches. According to Delery and
As Figure 4 shows, a range of theories has been mobilized in framing Roumpi (2017), “even though the human capital perspective provides
the studies of SHRM.2 The most used theoretical perspectives compelling arguments, there are some inherent flaws in the underlying
include: strategic theory (26 studies); contingency theory (18); social rationale” (p. 13); and, the “tension between the SHRM and the strate-
exchange theory (15); resource-based view (RBV, 14); AMO (12); insti- gic human capital literature … signifies that RBV has not reached its
tutional theory (10); job-demand resource theory (4); and conserva- potential” (p. 1). Delery and Roumpi (2017, p. 1) further argue that
tion of resources theory (3). Although RBV has been observed as the “HRM practices can contribute to a firm's sustainable competitive
dominant perspective underpinning SHRM research (Boxall, 1996; advantage not only by enhancing employees' ability, and offering
Delery & Roumpi, 2017; Kaufman, 2015b; Paauwe & Boselie, 2003), motivation and opportunities, but also by shaping supply-side and
we find that research on SHRM actually draws on an expanding range demand-side mobility constraints.”
of theoretical perspectives. OB theories are the main theoretical foun- In this section, we have summarized the main critiques about
dations for individual-level mediating mechanisms (see also Jiang and research in SHRM in general, and outlined some indicative trends,
Li, 2019), reflecting the psychological orientation in HRM research characteristics and limitations of SHRM research published in HRM
(Kaufman, 2015a, 2020). and HRMJ. This serves as the backdrop of research in this field for our
Two important studies have made serious attempts to advance next section in which we review SHRM research in the Chinese con-
SHRM research further by directing our attention to the notion of text to examine how country-specific SHRM research may advance
“human capital” through strategic management and labor economics knowledge in general and illuminate our country-specific understand-
(Kaufman, 2015b; Wright & McMahan, 2011). The authors argue that ing and add value to practice. We do so because we argue that
102 COOKE ET AL.
TABLE 4 A brief summary of studies of SHRM in China
Year of publication
Category
1999–2003 2004–2008 2009–2013 2014–2018 Total
Research type
Review/conceptual 0 2 8 7 17
Empirical 8 17 31 71 127
Total 8 19 39 78 144
Research methoda
Quantitative 7 12 23 59 101
Qualitative 1 4 13 17 18
Mixed methods 0 3 3 2 8
Total 8 19 39 78 127
Level of analysisa
Institutional 0 1 3 0 4
Organizational 8 15 20 32 75
Unit/team/group 0 0 1 0 1
Individual 0 1 5 24 30
Multi-level 0 0 2 15 17
Total 8 17 31 71 127
Data sourcea
Single source 7 10 19 59 95
Multiple source 1 7 12 12 32
Total 8 17 31 71 127
Time pointsa
Single 8 17 28 61 114
Multiple 0 0 3 10 13
Total 8 17 31 71 127
Targeted ownership structure
Chinese MNCs abroad 0 0 2 1 3
SOEs, POEs 0 3 5 22 30
Foreign invested enterprises 4 3 7 5 19
Mixed foreign and domestic enterprises 2 11 15 9 39
Others (school) 0 0 0 1 1
Not mentioned 2 2 10 40 54
Total 8 19 39 78 144
a
Refer to empirical studies only.
Abbreviations: MNC, multinational companies; POE, private owned enterprises; SOE, state owned enterprises.
context matters in SHRM research, so does relevance to practice at majority (88%) of English journal articles on SHRM in the Chinese set-
times when the HRM-practice gap seems to continue to expand ting (i.e., SHRM of firms operating in China and Chinese MNCs
(Deadrick & Gibson, 2007; Jackson et al., 2014; Kaufman, 2015a). abroad) are empirical studies. Nearly 80% of the empirical studies
adopt a quantitative method for data collection. There is a salient
trend for empirical studies of SHRM in the Chinese setting to become
5 | S T U D I E S OF SH R M I N TH E C H I N E S E increasingly quantitative. Most of the empirical studies (over 86%) are
C O N TE X T based on a single level, and nearly 60% focused on the organizational
level. The majority of the studies are single sourced and cross-
The first English article on SHRM in China seemed to appear in 1999, sectional in their research design, adopting/adapting established
but it was not until 2008 that the number of publications rose rela- scales and measurements developed in the western context.
tively substantially. In particular, the number of publications has been For the quantitative studies, only a small proportion are contextu-
increasing rapidly since 2016 (Figure 1). As Table 4 shows, the alized in the institutional setting (Ngo, Lau, & Foley, 2008; Wei &
COOKE ET AL. 103
Lau, 2011), or include institutional actors and industrial/employment part of the smart government and smart city digitalization program.
relations as an element of the research, even though employment/ The speed of adoption of artificial intelligence and data analytics to
labor market conditions in China vary significantly across industrial inform government and public service decisions has also been acceler-
sectors and differ between China and other economies, which may ating, including the trial of robot police and so on. What may be the
influence the effect of SHRM practices (Lepak et al., 2007). Yang HRM implications of all these changes? For example, how can we
et al.'s (2019) study that explores the relationships between HPWS, explore the implications of these changes for SHRM on the one hand,
trade unions and employee well-being is one of the few exceptions. and, on the other, how SHRM has been used, if at all, or can be used
Similarly, Zhou, Fan and Son's (2019, p. 253) study of 108 firms and to facilitate the changes? How may the roles of the state as the
1,250 employees offers another good example that bridges the HRM employer, promotor of technological innovation and public service
and employment relations literature by “investigating how human cap- provider be intertwined, and the boundaries of these roles be blurred,
ital and employee participation, direct voice mechanism, and corpo- and what implications may this have for SHRM? How are the expedi-
rate governance participation jointly moderate the relationship tious development and use of data analytic techniques facilitating, or
between HPWS and organizational innovation.” By contrast, qualita- even, for some, transforming firms' SHRM or human capital return?
tive SHRM studies are generally better contextualized (Zhang & And how is this informed by HR analytics for the public sector as well
Albrecht, 2010). as private firms?
In line with studies published in HRM and HRMJ, HPWS/HIWS/ In terms of main theories mobilized to inform the research, again,
HCWS practices and their relations with various outcomes are one of in line with what have been published in HRM and HRMJ, RBV
the main foci for research (we found at least 32 studies on HPWS, remains the dominant theory (22 studies), followed by social exchange
3 HIWS, and 2 HCWS). It is worth noting that there is a growing theory (19), institutional theory (11), contingency theory (10), strategic
amount of interest (more than 10% of the sample) in linking SHRM theory (e.g., strategic fit) (9), AMO (8), human capital theory (6), and so
with employee creativity/innovative behavior/performance (Esch, forth. Earlier SHRM studies in China explored the strategic choice of
Wei, & Chiang, 2018; Jiang, Wang, & Zhao, 2012; Liu, Gong, Zhou, & HRM, informed by indigenous perspectives such as societal culture. In
Huang, 2017). The rising interest in creativity and innovation may the period of 2004–2008, scholars began to address the issue of how
stem from the Chinese government's strong drive to maintain and SHRM could influence organizational outcomes, namely, the mediat-
accelerate the country's economic growth through innovation and ing mechanisms of the SHRM–performance relationship. In the last
creativity in the last decade or so, as evidenced in the heavy focus on decade, a large proportion of the empirical studies have the tendency
innovation in the state-formulated 5-year plans. As Ni and Ye (2018, of decontextualization, using OB theories to explain the individual-
p. 1) observed, “in 2015, the State Council issued three consecutive level mediating mechanism with little reference to practice. Such an
policies that aimed at boosting public innovation and entrepreneur- insular approach means that the opportunity for conceptualizing the
ship.” In 2014, Premier Li Keqiang announced the “Mass Entrepre- nature of SHRM practices in the Chinese context by developing
neurship and Innovation” initiative (Chinese Government insights of how they pan out through in-depth studies is regrettably
Website, 2015). To what extent have these state initiatives and incen- missed.
tives associated with them influenced firms' innovation strategy and However, there are good studies that engage in the context and
SHRM practices that drive creativity and innovation? Yet, few studies uncover unique features with valuable conceptualization. Zhou,
in our sample have been situated within this political context to shed Zhang and Liu's (2012, p. 208) study is one of them in which the
light, for instance, on the potential government-business alliance/col- authors offer an insightful analysis of “the effect mechanisms of
laboration in shaping innovation-oriented SHRM practices, or to commitment-based, control-based, collaboration-based, and
explore the acquisition and utilization of human capital (also often contract-based HRM archetypes in China,” highlighting the differ-
called “talent”) at various levels. There is therefore plenty of scope for ences between the western and Chinese setting, expectations, and
future research to explore this specific phenomenon from broader outcomes of SHRM practices. The authors charted the “paths of
theoretical perspectives such as political economy, governance and HRM evolution taken by China and the West,” and revealed “the
stakeholder theories. This is also an area where human capital theory dynamic logics of fit between macroeconomic institutions (economic
may be particularly useful in measuring the role of SHRM and innova- centralization or laissez-faire) and the organizational tradeoff of
tion performance at various levels. hybrid HRM approaches” (Zhou, Zhang, & Liu, 2012, p. 208). They
It is clear that enterprises (both foreign-funded and Chinese- provided seven well-crafted propositions which future empirical
owned firms) have been the main target organizations for research research can take up to extend our knowledge on how the inter-
(Table 4). Much less attention has been paid to public sector organiza- sectionality of historically embedded but nonetheless evolving insti-
tions. Yet, there is considerable need in public sector organizations for tutional, economic and culturally informed organizational
SHRM to improve performance, public perception of services they management styles may shape types of SHRM practices and their
receive, and employee well-being. There are plenty of topics that can respective effects. Such research endeavor will have strong theoreti-
be researched to link SHRM and public sector changes that have been cal and managerial implications.
occurring in China together. For instance, an increasing number of Similarly, SHRM research in the Chinese context, and indeed
public organizations have been introducing smart public services as other societal contexts, may mobilize Subramony's (2006, p. 195)
104 COOKE ET AL.
theoretical approaches to explore the rationales of why organizations extensive case study program that might lead to a sub-
adopt some HRM practices and reject others: the economic approach stantial breakthrough (original emphasis).
(i.e., organizations adopting HRM practices “that are economically
beneficial to them”); the alignment approach (i.e., firms adopting HRM Three decades on, the trend of psychologization and positivism in
practices “if these practices are aligned with strategic objectives”); the SHRM appears to be accelerating, as Beer (2017, p. 3) observed:
decision-making approach (i.e., “a constrained-rationality model of “Why is it that academics and HRM scholars in particular fail to pro-
managerial judgment”); and the diffusion approach (i.e., attributing duce relevant scientific theories and practices? … It is [because of] the
“the adoption/rejection decision to institutional pressures that positivistic and deductive model of research enforced by norms of the
encourage imitation”). These theoretical approaches help understand academy.” In-depth long-term case studies of SHRM in firms are
the motivation and capacity of organizations in adopting certain HRM fewer and fewer (Xie & Cooke, 2019). This situation has been attrib-
practices, as well as the process and impact of such undertakings. uted, in no small measure, to the discipline-based training and the
Firms' position in the value chain, business sector, and business strat- reward models adopted by business schools that favor U.S.-based
egy are important factors to be considered in the investigation of journals and the OB research paradigm that tends to focus on individ-
these issues, especially in view of the fact that there remain insuffi- ual and team level interactions instead of societal forces and institu-
cient studies that explore SHRM with a supply chain orientation tional power structures (Budd, 2020; Cascio, 2015; Godard, 2014;
(Lengnick-Hall, Lengnick-Hall, & Rigsbee, 2013), or examine business Harley, 2015; Kaufman, 2015a). In their rebuttal to Kaufman (2015a),
strategy and SHRM together (Cooke & Saini, 2010; Xie & Wright, Guest and Paauwe (2015, p. 414) suggested that:
Cooke, 2019). Research along these lines has the potential to extend
Subramony's (2006) typologies of approaches. …once one grasps the brass ring of tenure, academics
gain increased freedom to broaden their research
questions, methodologies, and publishing outlets. We,
6 | D I S C U S S I O N : W HA T CA N B E D O N E T O along with a number of our more senior colleagues,
ADVANCE SHRM RESEARCH WITH have taken such a path. This does not require shunning
PRACTICAL RELEVANCE our academic research efforts, but rather provides an
opportunity to write about them more discursively and
In the preceding section, we take stock of what has been published to supplement them with more grounding in organiza-
and flag some research gaps and avenues in specific areas. In this sectional practice.
tion, we provide further suggestions for future research in terms of
intellectual approaches and indicative thematic areas, as well as ways But perhaps more can be done at the institutional level rather than
to go about them. We draw on China as a country example in order to relying on individuals to establish their career before grounding their
embed our message, and that of other authors, that context is impor- research in organizational practice. For example, the Responsible
tant as an SHRM research backdrop as well as part of the research Research in Business and Management (https://rrbm.network/) cam-
design itself. Our intention is to encourage new researchers in China paign has been gathering momentum to promote research that is rele-
and other developing countries that are building their HRM research vant and impactful to the society. Journal editors and reviewers may
capacity to be more confident in investigating SHRM issues from their also be more receptive to a variety of methods (Harley, 2019). In fact,
own angle to uncover stories and develop conceptual insights. As government funding bodies and universities in the UK and Australia,
Meyer (2006, p. 119) urges, “Asian management research needs more in response to government policy, now place an increasing level of
self-confidence.” We also provide some specific suggestions at the emphasis on research impact to policy decisions, business and society.
end of each sub-section as indicative examples of research areas and In late 2019, the Chinese government also issued policy statements to
questions SHRM researchers may wish to proceed. instruct universities to broaden the academic performance evaluation
criteria rather than focusing primarily on high-ranking journal
publications.
6.1 | Toward a shared understanding? Bridging a For high quality and responsible research, creating a growing
dialogue between approaches body of knowledge of an ever-expanding set of antecedents, media-
tors and moderators and their multi-way interactions that may lead to
Nearly three decades ago, Boxall (1992, p. 76) cogently pointed out: particular desirable and/or undesirable outcomes for employees and
firms may not be sufficient to address broader society concerns.
The publication of microlevel empirical work of strictly Walking the floor is essential for researchers to identify the real prob-
limited objectives on some favorite personnel practice lems that organizations are being confronted with, their complexity,
is still a safer route to academic advancement than and what HR solutions may be possible, or how firms have solved the
anything more ambitious. There are still very few problems effectively and what lessons others can learn from it. A
research groups in HRM conducting the kind of number of influential scholars have repeatedly called for the latter
approach, as noted earlier (Cascio, 2015; Kaufman, 2015a).
COOKE ET AL. 105
Subramony (2006, p. 208) also argues for the role of “scientist-practi- contingent factors, making the universal approach to SHRM increas-
tioners” to bridge the divide of the two worlds of trade practices. Sub- ingly questionable. For instance, “drawing on theories on lifespan
ramony (2006, p. 208) believes that “it is indeed possible to influence development and self-regulation,” Kooij et al.'s (2013, p. 18) study of
the adoption of scientifically grounded HR practices, if both the ratio- three bundles of HRM practices (i.e., development, maintenance, and
nal and nonrational forces influencing the adoption process are under- job enrichment HRM practices) in eliciting well-being and perfor-
stood and harnessed.” mance among aging workers found that “the association between
The continuing divide between research and practice may to development HR practices and well-being … weakens, and that the
some extent be a manifestation of a bigger set of tensions, such as: associations between maintenance HR practices and well-being, and
tension between roles (i.e., academics to advance theories between development HR practices and employee performance,
vs. informing practices); tension between institutional traditions and strengthen with age.” The study also found that “‘job enrichment’ HR
rivalries that lead to, at times, gate-keeping; tension of different practices emerged that elicited higher job performance among aging
values embedded in the researchers that favor a particular approach; workers” (Kooij et al., 2013, p. 18). This study was conducted with a
and tension between ideologies which underpin preferences of large sample of 21,104 public sector employees (predominately male
research designs. workers, which was noted as a limitation of the study by the authors)
in the UK, which has a relatively strong union and collective
bargaining tradition, albeit arguably in decline in recent decades, and
6.1.1 | Suggestions employees' job tasks are relatively well-defined. This is one of the few
studies that examine the likely effect of HRM practices on older
In addition to walking the floor to identify organizational problems employees (see also Stirpe, Trullen, & Bonache, 2018 for another
and examine the effectiveness of SHRM interventions, SHRM informative study of age-differentiated HR strategy and practices). It
researchers have the opportunities to contribute to the responsible is an important study in view of population and workforce aging, but
research agenda by connecting SHRM research with broad social the generalizability may need to be more widely tested (a limitation
issues. For example, how can diversity and inclusion be an integral which the authors noted) in different contexts, especially in the pri-
part of SHRM (see also in the following the role of social policy)? How vate sector where workers are not organized and have limited
can SHRM contribute to the energy transition and green economy bargaining power, individually and/or collectively.
beyond the existing focus of organizational citizenship behavior? Similarly, will these bundles of SHRM practices be applicable to
other societal contexts such as China, where performance appraisal is
predominantly used for reward purposes in Chinese firms, which may
6.2 | Deeper engagement with contexts provide a stronger incentive than training to motivate for higher per-
formance (Cooke, 2012)? In addition, job tasks are not well defined in
A weakness accompanying the positivist studies of SHRM, though it Chinese firms, and even less well adhered to. Instead, employees are
does not have to be, is the tendency of underplaying the role of con- expected to have a maximum level of flexibility, functional, temporal
text in the research design, particularly SHRM studies conducted in and spatial, that is, to perform tasks anytime and anywhere they are
the Chinese setting. China is often mentioned only to note the locale required to do so. Equally, Kooij et al. (2013, p. 30) argue that “aging
where the data were collected. In reality, company background, in employees are increasingly motivated by intrinsic motives… such as
terms of, for example, size, history, ownership form, industrial sector, helping others, they might increasingly value enriched job tasks, such
and nationality, may have profound influence in shaping management as the possibility to serve as a mentor, and reciprocate through higher
strategy, policy and practice. The importance of context in SHRM levels of performance.” Chinese older employees may, arguably, find
research has been well argued by a number of scholars (Cascio, 2015; themselves less willing or able to help others or adapt to the new
Jackson & Schuler, 1995; Jackson et al., 2014; Kaufman, 2015a; see work environment, due to work intensification, job insecurity, and the
also Filippaios, Annan-Diab, Hermidas, & Theodoraki, 2019). For rapid pace of digitalization of production activities for which they are
Paauwe and Boselie (2003, p. 56), “differences in embeddedness and not as well skilled as the younger generation of the workforce. Similar
in institutional settings between, for example, countries affect the arguments may be made for workers in other industrial sectors in the
nature of HRM.” They use the theory of new institutionalism to dem- UK and for workers in developing countries.
onstrate “a better way to understand the shaping of HR policies and
practices in different settings” (Paauwe & Boselie, 2003, p. 56).
Pudelko's (2006) comparative study of the HRM systems of German, 6.2.1 | Suggestions
Japanese and U.S. firms also provides a good example (one of the few
studies of this nature) that places due emphasis on the social- Several review/perspective studies of SHRM have provided useful
economic context. frameworks which future research may adopt to advance the field.
Moreover, certain SHRM practices that work in one group of For example, Boxall's (1992) review of major SHRM perspectives in
employees in one context may not work in another or give the same the earlier studies shows several models that have incorporated a
return of investment to employers, due to internal and external range of external and contextual factors as part of the framework
106 COOKE ET AL.
(Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Quinn Mills, & Walton, 1984; Devanna, in some developed economies amidst the rise of nationalism. With
Fombrun, & Tichy, 1984; Hendry & Pettigrew, 1990; Schuler & this in mind, it will do us no harm to develop a better understanding
Jackson, 1987). Kamoche (1994) and Jackson et al. (2014) also pro- of the roles of this institutional actor in SHRM across different socie-
vide examples of useful frameworks for SHRM research that takes ties, industrial sectors and business settings.
into account external and internal factors/environment at various Equally, more studies can be conducted to shed light on how
levels and the role of stakeholders through a more critical lens. Future organizations adopt SHRM practices in response to social policy and
studies of SHRM in China may incorporate a variety of external and other government initiatives. Here, Moore et al.'s (2017) study offers
internal contextual factors in their research designs. These contextual a good example. Moore et al. (2017, p. 514) examine “how organiza-
factors can be treated as the focus of the study itself rather than as tions respond to the increased demand from people with disability for
factors to be controlled out. Further, some of these contextual factors employment opportunities” and provide “empirical evidence of how
may be better studied through a qualitative approach and framed by SHRM responds to welfare-to-work programs, informs the develop-
theoretical perspectives not traditionally used in SHRM research, as ment of social policy relevant to disability employment and adopts the
discussed in the following. notion of institutional fit as a way of explaining how government
incentives influence HRM diversity strategies.” Like Kooij et al.'s (2013)
study, Moore et al.'s (2017) study focuses on a segment of the work-
6.3 | Bringing back socio-economic-political force that remains under-researched and under-attended to in SHRM,
perspectives though research findings may have important social and practical
implications.
A more intimate engagement with the research context and external
factors necessitates a more conscientious mobilization of other theo-
retical perspectives, notably the critical socio-political perspective, in 6.3.1 | Suggestions
addition to the institutional perspective that has been used in the cur-
rent body of SHRM research. Here, Kamoche's (1994) earlier critique Future SHRM research on China may examine the role of external
of SHRM and proposal of a reformulation is highly relevant, particu- stakeholders, in particular, the role of the state, in greater depth. For
larly in the developing economy context where (some groups of) example, what are the motives of local government intervention that
workers may enjoy less institutional rights in principle and/or in sub- shapes SHRM, even in private firms? How may this be linked to
stance. In this context, “ideology and management control” regional development and regional competition within the country?
(Kamoche, 1994, p. 33) may be central to the adoption of SHRM prac- How does the local government legitimize and embed its intervention
tices, in order to legitimize management control so as to maximize in the firms within its administrative territory? What are firms' reac-
organizational return. How do we capture SHRM practices in real life tions? What incentives do they have to cooperate with the local gov-
operations in these settings? Adopting a more critical, pluralistic, and ernment? How effective is the state intervention in SHRM in
in-depth qualitative approach to explore issues on the ground would improving firm performance? How can the investigation of these
help us develop a more nuanced understanding of these issues issues be informed by socio-economic-political theoretical perspec-
underpinned by “structural power differences” (Budd, 2020, p. 76).3 In tives on the one hand, and extend current theoretical understanding
particular, issues of legitimacy and legitimation may be critical when on the other?
firms introduce SHRM practices that depart from their traditional par-
adigms or are imposed in an authoritarian approach in developing
countries. How do firms legitimize these practices to gain acceptance 6.4 | Stronger links between SHRM and corporate
from their workforce? social responsibility research
It is worth noting that control may be exerted outside the firm. In
developmental states like China where the state plays a role in HRM, As discussed earlier, an inclusive model of SHRM should take into
what role does the state play at various levels in shaping not only the account external and internal factors as well as multiple stakeholders'
SHRM environment but also practices? The role of the state in HRM needs (Jackson et al., 2014). This implies the need for SHRM to
at both macro and micro levels has not gained sufficient attention in address corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues, because increas-
SHRM research, despite the call for attention to this important institu- ingly, organizational performance includes not just its financial perfor-
tional/stakeholder actor in HRM research (Cooke et al., 2015; Martí- mance but also social performance such as its ethnical stance and
nez Lucio & Stuart, 2011). In developmental states and other reputation, which may in turn affect its financial performance and sus-
developing countries, the role of the state may be paramount in tainability. It has been increasingly argued that CSR is and should be
SHRM, including strategic talent management, to fulfill their develop- an integral part of firms' HRM practices, and research in this area has
ment agenda (Vaiman, Schuler, Sparrow, & Collings, 2019). In spite of mushroomed in the last decade (c.f., Jamali, El Dirani, &
the resentment/argument against state intervention from the neolib- Harwood, 2015; Rupp, Ganapathi, Aguilera, & Williams, 2006;
eral perspective, (strong) state intervention is a fact of life in many Voegtlin & Greenwood, 2016; Xiao, Cooke, Xu, & Bian, 2019). Socially
developing countries, and as a matter of fact, appears to be increasing responsible HRM practices include, to name a few, ethical
COOKE ET AL. 107
employment practices, diversity and equality management (DEM) research setting within which to examine the SHRM-CSR issues to
practices, flexible work practices, and work-life balance practices. shed light on societal and organizational differences in the interpreta-
However, only a small proportion of the studies in our sample have tion of what SHRM and CSR mean and how they may be implemented
examined these issues from an SHRM angle (Armstrong et al., 2010; within the IJV and how this may, if at all, affect its alliance quality, suc-
Konrad et al., 2016; Kooij et al., 2013; Moore et al., 2017; Pichler cess and competitive advantages.
et al., 2008; Wang & Verma, 2012). While DEM practices may not be
positively associated with organizational performance universally,
there is ample scope for more studies to investigate what types of 6.5 | More focused research on SHRM sub-
DEM practices may yield positive effects (and what these are) on par- systems and individual practices: Strategic reward as
ticular groups of employees in specific circumstances through certain an example
mechanisms. For example, Avgoustaki and Bessa's (2019, p. 431)
study, based on a sample of 13,834 employees in a British national It has been widely argued that for SHRM practices to be effective,
survey, yielded interesting and mixed findings regarding “the link they need to be implemented in “bundles” (c.f. Subramony, 2009 for
between flexible working arrangements (FWAs) and work effort.” a meta-analysis of 239 effect sizes derived from 65 studies on the
They inferred that “employees appear to use employee-centered relationship between HRM bundles and firm performance.). As such,
FWAs for their intended purpose, that is, to balance life and job the majority of quantitative studies of SHRM practices have been
demands, while they might perceive employer-centered FWAs as preoccupied with identifying and measuring the likely effects of spe-
unfair, resulting in less work effort in an attempt to restore fairness” cific bundles of HRM practices. More recently, however, researchers
(Avgoustaki & Bessa, 2019, p. 431). have suggested that individual HRM practices within the same “bun-
Equally, future research may capture stories and narratives of dle” may not have the same effect and that the effect/strength of
how organizations frame their socially responsible SHRM practices each practice may need to be tested separately (Jiang &
and articulate their human (resource)-oriented corporate values to Messersmith, 2018). To take this argument further, it may be fruitful
their stakeholders. In comparison, employee well-being oriented HRM for future research to examine single SHRM practices to explore
research has been gaining traction in the last few years (Hoque more fully how these practices are shaped, how well, or badly, they
et al., 2018; Okay-Somerville & Scholarios, 2019). Guest (2017) are perceived/received by employees, and how long their effect
strongly called for more employee well-being HRM research instead might last.
of HRM-performance research (see also Peccei & Van De A good candidate for this undertaking may be strategic financial
Voorde, 2019 for a review of HRM-well-being-performance relation- reward as a sub-system of the SHRM system in the Chinese context.
ship studies which also calls for more research to understand when, Western strategic reward literature has emphasized the importance of
how and why these relationships hold). total reward package that consists of both intrinsic and extrinsic
Finally, future research may explore further how SHRM practices rewards (Gross & Friedman, 2004; Thompson, 2002) and stressed the
may contribute to organizational agility and sustainability, taking into positive effect of development-oriented SHRM practices to elicit posi-
account what agility and sustainability might mean in different organi- tive employee outcomes. However, in developing countries like China,
zational and national settings in the light of the current global politico- pecuniary reward remains the most critical and effective reward
economic climate and unfolding international events. An informative desired by employees, as disclosed by managers and employees inter-
example in this direction can be found in Dubois and Dubois (2012, viewed by the authors in various empirical studies. Yet, a thorough
p. 799), which provides a comprehensive contextual model of SHRM screening of over 3,000 English journal articles on HRM in the Chi-
for organizational sustainability from a “whole-systems ecological nese context in our stock as of the end of 2018, based on a compre-
approach.” In short, embedding SHRM research in the earlier issues is hensive and systematic search of major databases and management
line with Beer's (2017, p. 8) call for academic research to be “more rel- journals, reveals that only about 80 articles are devoted to financial
evant, actionable and ethical.” reward (extrinsic reward, pay, and compensation). By contrast, over
400 articles were found on leadership! There is clearly a need to
improve the balance, in view of the fact that financial reward remains
6.4.1 | Suggestions central to many employees' expectations of their employers in most
occupations, including academics. Indeed, the increase in publications
Future research on SHRM-CSR can take up lines of enquiry indicated in good English journals by authors from mainland China is, to a large
in the earlier discussion. These studies can examine what CSR means extent, the result of heavy financial incentives implemented by univer-
in the Chinese and organizational settings; the extent to which SHRM sities for publishing in top journals, as they compete fiercely in
is framed with CSR in mind, and if so, with what impact. Researchers climbing up the global ranking. It should be noted that the scarce
can also investigate whether particular aspects/sub-systems of SHRM research attention on compensation and rewards is universal rather
are more closely related to, and more impactful on, CSR than others; than unique to the Chinese context, even though it is a topic that
and if so, why and under what circumstances. Moreover, international most practitioners would like to know more about (Deadrick &
joint ventures (IJVs) may offer a particularly interesting and fruitful Gibson, 2007).
108 COOKE ET AL.
Although financial reward, more often than not, forms part of the that measure, monitor and improve the health and well-being of the
HRM bundles in SHRM research (Messersmith et al., 2018), its role employees.
and effect deserve more in-depth study in the Chinese context to
uncover the rationale, processes, pitfalls, and outcomes of various
financial schemes. For instance, our fieldwork indicates that firms in 6.5.1 | Suggestions
China, in fierce competition for talent, may go round to poach from
other firms instead of growing their own. One “effective” way of Research can be conducted to examine the various types of strategic
doing this, as disclosed by a CEO of a private firm to the lead author reward sub-systems adopted, where they exist, across various indus-
in an interview in 2019: trial, organizational and workforce settings in China to assess their
formation, content, process of implementation and effects (perceived
We attend the annual staff general meeting [usually at and real) on sustainable organizational performance, including
the end of the year] of other companies in our industry, employee well-being. Research can also examine the relationship
find out who the best employees of the year are and what between the strategic reward sub-system and other SHRM sub-
rewards they have been given, then approach them with systems to assess how they may support, undermine, or co-evolve
a better offer. Instead of using a head hunter, we save the with, each other. Studies may further shed light on how institutional
commission and give it to the new employee as a hand- and cultural factors may influence in the strategic research sub-
some welcome gift. system in the Chinese context and how these may be manifested.
In another interview with the lead author, an HR director disclosed

that they bundled a proportion of the supervisor/line managers' 7 | S U M M A R Y , CO N T R I B U TI O N S , A N D
bonuses with staff retention to combat the high level of staff turn- LIM I TAT I ON S
over. As a result, supervisors and line managers developed a series of
tactics to retain the staff under their supervision, which seemed to be This study provides an assessment of the development in SHRM
much more effective than other HRM practices adopted previously by research through the analysis of over 300 articles (including non-
the firm. In addition, many firms offer employees stock option sample articles in HRMR and other journals). Our intention is twofold:
schemes and many other benefits to attract and retain talents. (a) to highlight gaps and problems in extant research, through a sys-
Narratives of such practices, unethical some of which may seem, tematic review of studies published in two leading HRM journals—
but nonetheless adopted pragmatically by employers to address their HRM and HRMJ as a backdrop, and (b) to suggest ways to overcome
talent/people management problems, may contain some profound some of them, using China as a case country for the review for
and broader implications for SHRM that deserve to be analyzed and research capacity-building purpose.
assessed carefully. For example, what could the key institutional We hold the view that while the trend of psychologization in
actors, such as the local government authorities, employer associa- SHRM research is gathering pace, the range of theoretical perspec-
tions and trade unions, do to address these skill shortage and reten- tives mobilized to inform the studies is expanding, and more could be
tion problems, which are quite common in the Chinese labor market, included if we broaden our research focus. We highlight the challenge
rather than relying on individual employers to “play the game dirty” to of contextualizing SHRM research, as illustrated in the body of studies
address their needs in a short-term and transactional approach? Can on China. We echo other scholars' call that SHRM research needs a
(meta-)governance theory, a theory that has yet to find its way in rebalance by embracing a broader range of intellectual perspectives
HRM, be applied to conceptualize the likely role of the institutional and a more inclusive set of topics, and we provide indicative exam-
actors? This argument can be extended to SHRM practices and socie- ples, as suggestions, of what could be done. We encourage HRM
tal contexts to capture the dynamics and diversity of SHRM in reality, researchers to adopt a more “strategic” mindset in identifying a
from the eyes of the practitioners. In Godard's (2020, p. 85) words, broader range of SHRM issues in a variety of settings, and linking
we need to research “what it is that is actually happening out there” them to other organizational phenomena and outcomes to extend the
to conceptualize the phenomenon as well as to inform policy and current theoretical and methodological paradigms. This means bring-
practice. ing in scholars from other disciplines and national backgrounds
As the war for talent intensifies in China as the speed of eco- through collaborative research, to take the field forward with aca-
nomic and technological upgrading accelerates, individual bargaining demic rigor as well as practical relevance. It also means developing a
power is also growing, as companies pursue a rising level of value cre- closer collaborative research relationship between academic
ation from their human capital. Put in this light, how to extract capa- researchers and practitioners. This is becoming increasingly critical as
bilities and full potentials of employees and how to maximize their business environments and practices are changing rapidly, in part due
performance in a sustainable manner and reward such performance is to the accelerated development and deployment of digital technology
hinged on the strategic reward system. And such a strategic financial and the political tensions and related government policy changes that
reward system needs to be supported by other SHRM sub-systems impact global economy, some more profoundly than others. As a
COOKE ET AL. 109
*,***
result, academics' capacity to access and interpret knowledge associ- Akhtar, S., Ding, D. Z., & Ge, G. L. (2008). Strategic HRM practices and
ated with these changes is diminishing without following them closely. their impact on company performance in Chinese enterprises. Human
Resource Management, 47(1), 15–32.
Having more practice-oriented research is also particularly relevant to *
Alfes, K., Shantz, A. D., Bailey, C., Conway, E., Monks, K., & Fu, N.
HRM as a bridging journal. (2019). Perceived human resource system strength and employee
We acknowledge that our article contains limitations. For exam- reactions toward change: Revisiting human resource's remit as
ple, our review has focused mainly on SHRM studies in HRM and change agent. Human Resource Management, 58(3), 239–252.
*
Alfes, K., Truss, C., Soane, E. C., Rees, C., & Gatenby, M. (2013). The rela-
HRMJ, as well as SHRM in the Chinese context. However, the main
tionship between line manager behavior, perceived HRM practices,
objective of our review is not to provide a comprehensive systematic and individual performance: Examining the mediating role of engage-
review of SHRM research and theoretical advancement—some ment. Human Resource Management, 52(6), 839–859.
***
reviews already exist on this. Nonetheless, our analysis and discussion Ali, M., Lei, S., & Wei, X. Y. (2018). The mediating role of the employee
relations climate in the relationship between strategic HRM and orga-
have drawn on publications from four major HRM journals: HRM,
nizational performance in Chinese banks. Journal of Innovation and
HRMJ, IJHRM, and HRMR, and more. Therefore, while our coverage of Knowledge, 3(3), 115–122.
the literature is not exhaustive, we feel that we have been able to cap- **
Andreeva, T., & Sergeeva, A. (2016). The more the better… or is it? The
ture the key debates and developments in the field and make contradictory effects of HR practices on knowledge-sharing motiva-
tion and behaviour. Human Resource Management Journal, 26(2),
informed recommendations for ways forward. We did not dwell into
151–171.
theoretical contributions of the SHRM literature on China more **
Andreeva, T., Vanhala, M., Sergeeva, A., Ritala, P., & Kianto, A. (2017).
deeply as some readers might expect. Instead, we devote our energy When the fit between HR practices backfires: Exploring the interac-
and space in highlighting the importance of context and practical rele- tion effects between rewards for and appraisal of knowledge behav-
vance of SHRM research, and how doing so might also contribute to iours on innovation. Human Resource Management Journal, 27(2),
209–227.
theory building and extension. We further acknowledge that there are *
Armstrong, C., Flood, P. C., Guthrie, J. P., Liu, W., MacCurtain, S., &
plenty more practical scenarios out there which we are not aware of Mkamwa, T. (2010). The impact of diversity and equality management
and have not discussed in this article, and we look forward to learning on firm performance: Beyond high performance work systems. Human
about these, as SHRM research efforts continue by the community. Resource Management, 49(6), 977–998.
*
Arthur, J. B., Herdman, A. O., & Yang, J. (2016). How top management HR
beliefs and values affect high-performance work system adoption and
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS implementation effectiveness. Human Resource Management, 55(3),
The authors would like to express their gratitude to Professors Randall 413–435.
*
Schuler, Susan Jackson, Howard Klein, Bruce Kaufman, and two anon- Artis, C. R., Becker, B. E., & Huselid, M. A. (1999). Strategic human
resource management at lucent. Human Resource Management, 38(4),
ymous reviewers for their very helpful feedback to an earlier version
309–313.
of this article. All errors remain the responsibility of the authors. *
Avgoustaki, A., & Bessa, I. (2019). Examining the link between flexible
working arrangement bundles and employee work effort. Human
ORCID Resource Management, 58(4), 431–449.
*
Barber, D., Huselid, M. A., & Becker, B. E. (1999). Strategic human
Fang Lee Cooke https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0337-6591
resource management at quantum. Human Resource Management, 38
(4), 321–328.
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***
Zhang, Y. C., & Li, S. L. (2009). High performance work practices and firm agement, employment relations, migrant studies, HRM in the
performance: Evidence from the pharmaceutical industry in China. healthcare sector, digitalization and implications for employment
International Journal of Human Resource Management, 20(11), and HRM; and low carbon growth and future of work. Fang Lee
2331–2348.
*,*** Cooke's recent research projects examine some of these tensions,
Zhang, Z., & Jia, M. (2010). Using social exchange theory to predict the
effects of high-performance human resource practices on corporate challenges, and implications for various key stakeholders such as
entrepreneurship: Evidence from China. Human Resource Management, the state, employers' associations, trade unions, workers, and
49(4), 743–765. labor NGOs.
***
Zheng, C. (2013). Critiques and extension of strategic international
human resource management framework for dragon multinationals. Mengtian Xiao is currently a Lecturer at the School of Interna-
Asia Pacific Business Review, 19(1), 1–15. tional Business, Southwestern University of Finance and
118 COOKE ET AL.
Economics, Chengdu, China. She received her PhD in Manage- corporate sustainable development, IT business values, and
ment from the Southwestern University of Finance and Econom- human resource management.
ics. Her research interests include knowledge management, the
relationship between corporate social responsibility and HRM,
strategic HRM, and HR outsourcing.
How to cite this article: Cooke FL, Xiao M, Chen Y. Still in
Yang Chen is a Professor at School of Business Administration,
search of strategic human resource management? A review
Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu,
and suggestions for future research with China as an example.
China. He received his PhD in Finance and Decision Sciences from
Hum Resour Manage. 2021;60:89–118. https://doi.org/10.
Hong Kong Baptist University. His research interests include
1002/hrm.22029

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DOI: 10.1002/hrm.

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

Still in search of strategic human resource management?

Fang Lee Cooke1 | Mengtian Xiao2 | Yang Chen3

bundled HRM, China, contingency approach, high-performance work practices, resource-

1 | I N T RO DU CT I O N responsive to various settings across nations? Our review study seeks

Hum Resour Manage. 2021;60:89–118. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrm © 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC. 89

HRM (N = 91) HRMJ (N = 54)

An illustrative summary of articles published in HRM by research foci in SHRM FIGURE 2

FIGURE 3 An illustrative summary of articles published in HRMJ by research foci in SHRM

TABLE 2 Profile in brief of quantitative studies of SHRM published in HRM

TABLE 3 Profile in brief of quantitative empirical studies of SHRM published in HRMJ

TABLE 4 A brief summary of studies of SHRM in China

In another interview with the lead author, an HR director disclosed

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