Impact of human resource management practices on nursing home performance

Management scholars and practitioners alike have become increasingly interested in learning more about the ability of certain 'progressive' or 'high-performance' human resource management (HRM) practices to enhance organizational effectiveness. There is growing evidence to suggest that the contribution of various HRM practices to impact firm performance may be synergistic in effect yet contingent on a number of contextual factors, including workplace climate. A contingency theory perspective suggests that in order to be effective, HMR policies and practices must be consistent with other aspects of the organization, including its environment. This paper reports on empirical findings from research that examines the relationship between HRM practices, workplace climate and perceptions of organizational performance, in a large sample of Canadian nursing homes. Data from 283 nursing homes were collected by means of a mail survey that included questions on HRM practices, programmes, and policies, on human resource aspects of workplace climate, as well as a variety of indicators that include employee, customer/resident and facility measures of organizational performance. Results derived from ordered probit analysis suggest that nursing homes in our sample which had implemented more 'progressive' HRM practices and which reported a workplace climate that strongly values employee participation, empowerment and accountability tended to be perceived to generally perform better on a number of valued organizational outcomes. Nursing homes in our sample that performed best overall were found to be more likely to not only have implemented more of these HRM practices, but also to report having a workplace climate that reflects the seminal value that it places on its human resources. This finding is consistent with the conclusion that simply introducing HRM practices or programmes, in the absence of an appropriately supportive workplace climate, will be insufficient to attain optimal organizational performance.