productivity and social legitimacy (Boxall and Purcell 2003 ). Any organization has
to balance these possibly conXicting demands with its aspirations of achieving
between-HRM systemWt while remainingXexible in the competitive landscape.
Having vastly diVerent HRM systems within theWrm could bring with it negative
consequences, including perceptions of injustice and inequity within the workforce
and legitimacy dilemmas with external constituencies. TheWrst issue (e.g. injustice
and inequity within the workforce) was brieXy discussed by Kepes and Delery (in
press); however, we have only begun to develop conceptual frameworks dealing
with this type ofWt (which is similar to Baron and Kreps’s ( 1999 ) ‘among employee
consistency’). At present, we would argue that internal between-HRM systemWt
may be assessed by the degree to which the diVerent HRM systems are linked by
a common system philosophy or the degree to which they support an organization’s
culture and climate. This, however, may disregard and even contradict external
demands (e.g. social legitimacy). Managing the ‘strategic tensions’ between diVer-
ing HRM goals and other internal/external demands is, hence, as critical for long-
term organizational success as internalWt per se (e.g. Boxall and Purcell 2003 ;
Wright and Snell 1998 ).
In sum, the overall HRM architecture with various HRM systems and diVerent
HRM activities and components or levels of abstraction is a complex system,
composed of multiple elements, which likely interact in complex ways. We visually
depict this in Fig. 19. 1. A misWt on or between any of these levels is likely to cause
Levels of abstraction(HRM activities)HRM philosophy levelHRM policy levelHRM practice levelHRM process levelHRM systemsHRM system 4
HRM system 3
HRM system 2
HRM system 1Intra-HRM activity area fit
Inter-HRM activity area fitBetween-HRM system fit
Within-HRM system vertical fit (internal vertical fit)HRM activity areasWork designCompensationStaffing...Internal horizontal fitFig. 19.1. The different types of internal fit within the HRM architecture
392 sven kepes and john e. delery