chapter 19
....................................................................................................................................................HRM SYSTEMS AND
THE PROBLEM OF
INTERNAL FIT
....................................................................................................................................sven kepes
john e. delery
19.1 Introduction
.........................................................................................................................................................................................
The Weld of strategic human resource management (SHRM) has received increas-
ing attention that has resulted in a Xurry of innovative research, which has
greatly expanded our knowledge of the relationship between human resource
management (HRM) activities (e.g. policies or practices) and organizational-level
outcomes (e.g. turnover, productivity, and performance). One of the deWning
characteristics of SHRM has been the proposition that HRM systems and not
individual HRM practices are the source of competitive advantage. SpeciWcally, it is
proposed that coherent and internally aligned HRM practices form ‘powerful
connections’ that create positive synergistic eVects on organizational outcomes,
while inconsistent HRM practices form ‘deadly combinations,’ which create nega-
tive synergistic eVects that harm organizational eVectiveness (Becker and Huselid
1998 ; Becker et al. 1997 ; Delery 1998 ; Delery and Shaw 2001 ). Previous reviews of the
Wt perspectives in SHRM have had a pessimistic tone and concluded that there was
little evidence of the assumption that ‘Wt’ leads to organizational success, although
most reviews did not speciWcally focus on internalWt (e.g. Gerhart in press; Wright