Managing human resource for competitive advantage: a study of companies inSingapore

We see two major streams of research in the strategic human resource manage ment literature: (1) the link between strategy and human resource (HR) prac tices and (2) the link between HR practices and firm performance. There is a plethora of theoretical perspectives on the first link. Unfortunately, th ere is not much empirical work. The second link has seen a spate of empiric al studies. However, most of them embrace the universal perspective and the role of strategy as a contingency has not been adequately addressed. This could potentially result in the underestimation of the impact of HR practic es on organizational performance. This study addressed the above two weakne sses in previous research in the strategic HR management held. Using a samp le of about 200 of the largest companies representing all major industries in Singapore, we found that organizational strategy affects HR practices. M oreover, findings suggest that the strategy-HR interaction accounts for mor e variation in firm performance than the main effect of HR. Implications of the findings are discussed.