HRM practice and employee attitudes: different measures – different results

To test the relationship between HRM practice and employee work‐related attitudes and examine whether different approaches to measurement of HRM gives different results.

HRM practice was measured in three ways: additive measures of numbers of HRM practice, employer reports and employee reports of strength of practices. Employee attitudes were measured using organisational commitment, job satisfaction and organisational fairness scales. Matched data sets tested the relationships.

Statistically significant results were obtained between HRM practice and employee attitudes, but only when employee reports of the strength of HRM practice were used to measure HRM.

This study emphasises that care must be taken in HRM research to use suitable data sources, with employees being a valuable, but under‐used, source.

Effective HRM policies and practices should be measured by their perceived quality, not simply by the number of practices introduced.

This study highlights that there are perceptual differences as to the strength of HRM practices and emphasises the importance of allowing employee voice in HRM research.