TY  - JOUR
AU  - Ichniowski,Casey
TI  - Human Resource Management Systems and the Performance of U.S.           Manufacturing Businesses
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 3449
PY  - 1990
Y2  - September 1990
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3449
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3449.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Casey Ichniowski
Graduate School of Business
3022 Broadway Street, 713 Uris Hall
Columbia University
New York, NY 10027
Tel: 212/854-4433
Fax: 212/316-9355
E-Mail: bei1@columbia.edu
AB  - This paper estimates the effects of systems of human resource management policies on the performance of U.S. manufacturing businesses. OLS results for labor productivity and Tobin's q models both reveal that nonunion businesses that employ a human resource management system with flexible job design, formal training, and workplace communication mechanisms have the highest levels of economic performance. Nonunion businesses with ''Union-style" human resource management systems involving grievance procedures, seniority-based promotions, and no flexible job design exhibit significantly lower levels of performance statistical models are unable to determine whether the more "progressive" human resource management system stimulates economic performance or whether this system is the appropriate choice for better performing businesses. Still, the positive :relationship between performance and this human resource management system suggests that this system will be more common in the future. In contrast, the "union-style" system appears to be a thing of the past. It is confined to unionized businesses in declining industries and very old nonunion businesses with low levels of economic performance.
ER  -