Section Five
depend on properly aligning HR systems with
manufacturing strategy.^114A recent study of steel mini-mills by Jeffrey Arthur also
found support for the contingency view. This study examined
whether systems of human resource practices designed to
enhance employee commitment to the organization would
produce greater performance than systems of human resource
practices designed for controlling the workforce. In this study,
mini-mills were categorized as either commitment or control
oriented on the basis of several human resource variables. The
commitment-oriented mini-mills differed significantly from the
control-oriented mills in a number of respects. More specifically,
the commitment-oriented mini-mills were (1) more
decentralized (nonsupervisory personnel made more production
decisions), (2) provided more general training, (3) had a higher
proportion of more highly skilled employees (maintenance and
craft), (4) paid higher wages, and (5) paid a greater proportion
of compensation in the form of bonuses. As predicted, the
study found correspondence between the systems of human
resource practices and the firms’ competitive strategies. Firms
pursuing a cost leadership strategy tended to have control-
oriented systems of human resource practices, while mini-mills
pursuing differentiation strategies tended to have commitment-
oriented systems. As predicted, commitment-oriented systems