Section Five
reflected in better financial performance, on the
whole the results did not support the contention
that either type of fit has any incremental value
over the main effects associated with High
Performance Practices.^106The Delery and Doty study of human resource practices
in the banking industry, noted earlier, also examined the
performance impact of the universalistic and contingency
approaches. Banks provide a good data source for such
research because they are legally required to report a great
deal of information to regulators and the data are relatively
easy to obtain. The researchers tested the universalistic
approach by examining the direct firm performance effects of
several individual human resource practices on the key position
of loan officers. These practices included (1) internal career
opportunities, (2) extensive training, (3) results-oriented
performance appraisals, (4) employment security,
(5) participative decision making, (6) clear job descriptions, and
(7) profit sharing. Firm performance was measured with two
accounting ratios: return on assets (ROA) and return on equity
(ROE). For tests of the contingency approach, the researchers
used a product/market innovation instrument to categorize the
banking firms into the Miles and Snow strategic types discussed
earlier: prospectors (emphasis on innovation), analyzers