RT Article
T1 Transforming Human Resource Management Systems to Cope with Diversity
JF Journal of business ethics
VO 107
IS 4
SP 511
OP 531
A1 Martín Alcázar, Fernando
A1 Romero-Fernández, Pedro M.
A1 Sánchez-Gardey, Gonzalo
A2 Romero-Fernández, Pedro M.
A2 Sánchez-Gardey, Gonzalo
LA English
YR 2012
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1785644904
AB The purpose of this study is to examine how workgroup diversity can be managed through specific strategic human resource management systems. Our review shows that ‘affirmative action’ and traditional ‘diversity management’ approaches have failed to simultaneously achieve business and social justice outcomes of diversity. As previous literature has shown, the benefits of diversity cannot be achieved with isolated interventions. To the contrary, a complete organizational culture change is required, in order to promote appreciation of individual differences. The paper contributes to this discussion by exploring the implications of this change for human resource management, and explaining how the systems of practices should be changed when they are directed to diverse groups. The model designed to test this notion includes: (1) demographic and human capital diversity as independent variables, (2) group performance (measured as innovation outcomes) as the dependent variable and, (3) the orientation of the strategic human resource management system as a potential moderator of this relationship. The main conclusion of the empirical analysis developed is that different patterns of human resource management practices can be used, depending on the type of diversity that the organization faces, and the specific effects that it wishes to manage. Concretely, three alternative management systems are identified in this paper, with different moderating effects. This result has interesting implications for human resource management professionals, explained in the last section. The limitations of this study are also discussed, as well as some issues that future research in this field should address.
K1 Equality
K1 Affective processes
K1 Cognitive processes
K1 Strategic human resource management
K1 Diversity
DO 10.1007/s10551-011-1061-0