Section Six MACRO-LEVEL EVALUATION OF HUMAN
RESOURCE EFFECTIVENESS
Although the focus of this section has been to describe
approaches, methods, and criteria of evaluation, two end
results of macro-level human resource effectiveness evaluations
deserve mention. The first concerns differences in effectiveness
across industries. The Ulrich, Brockbank, and Yeung
benchmarking study, discussed earlier, reached the following
conclusions: One is that “HR professionals demonstrate higher
competencies in service, aircraft, and electronics industries, and
lower competencies in manufacturing, utilities, and petroleum
industries.”^86 One explanation for such results may be that
human resource management plays a more strategic role in the
service, aircraft, and electronics industries because competitive
advantages in these industries are based more on human
resources. Interestingly, their findings also suggest that top-
level general managers perceive greater competencies in
human resource professionals than do executives and
managers in other functional areas.^87
The second macro-level finding is from Anne Tsui’s
examination of human resource departmental effectiveness.
Her investigation found greater satisfaction among line
executives than among operating managers, probably because
of the human resource department’s “tendency to ‘cater’ to the