strategic behavior (defenders, prospectors, and analyzers). Schuler and Jackson
( 1987 ) connected Porter’s ( 1985 ) competitive strategies to desired employee behav-
iors and HR practices. Baird and Meshoulam ( 1988 ) aligned HR activities and the
organization’s stage of development. These early approaches provided clear and
understandable frameworks for linking the external environment or context to
supportive HR practices. In Schuler and Jackson’s ( 1987 ) model, Porter’s generic
strategies were the point of departure for a repertoire of role behaviors in each case.
HR practices were to be used to stimulate, or even enforce, the role behaviors seen
as relevant to diVerent competitive strategies. However, this model did not take
into account societal embeddedness. It dealt with the competitive marketplace and
with how diVerent strategies in combination with diVerent employee role behav-
iors could help to realize competitive advantage.
Boxall and Purcell ( 2003 ) provide an extensive overview of critiques of this
kind of contingency theory in HRM research. First, these models tend to overlook
employee interests in their attempts to align strategy and HRM. ‘They generally fail
to recognize the need to align employee interests with theWrm or comply with
prevailing social norms and legal requirements’ (Boxall and Purcell 2003 : 54 ).
Second, making a distinction between, for example, only three competitive
strategies (see Porter’s ( 1985 ) typology) lacks sophistication and does not reXect
the more varied nature of organizational strategies in practice. LargeWrms (e.g.
MNCs) apply a whole range of diVerent strategies in order to create performance
outcomes, varying from cost reduction strategies in, for example, product storage
and logistics through to high-quality diVerentiation strategies (for example, seeking
to satisfy customers through excellent services). A third criticism by Boxall and
Purcell ( 2003 ) concerns the problem that these models do not pay much attention to
dynamics. In other words, contingency approaches rarely consider change processes
and pressures, in terms of both contextual and organizational changes.
On the one hand, we conclude that strategic contingency approaches provide
understandable and insightful frameworks on strategy, HRM, and context. On the
other, these models are oversimpliWed, lacking suYcient depth to capture the
complexity and dynamics necessary for understanding the relationship between
HRM and its environment.
We need further theory to assess the relationships within a set of HRM practices
and explore how these relate to, interact with, and are inXuenced by context. How
are HRM practices embedded in society at large? Moreover, how do we deWne
‘context’? How can we develop a theory that will make it possible to generate
hypotheses about the relationships within the enormous variety of HRM practices
as well as the various contextual factors involved (Paauwe and Boselie 2003 )? Poole
( 1990 ) criticizes a number of HRM models, Beer et al.’s among others, and suggests
the need to include globalization, power, and strategic choice. Hendry and
Pettigrew ( 1990 ) want to broaden HRM models by including economic, technical
170 jaap paauwe and paul boselie