ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the research that has sought to examine the link between HR practices and performance. Behavioural approach to explaining the relationship between HR practices and performance can be found using Social Exchange Theory. Following the initial inquiries into the determinants of HR practices, the field then began to shift to exploring the consequences, particularly their impact on firm performance. This research progressed in three stages: demonstrating the relationship between HR practices and performance; exploring the black box; and process models of the relationship between HR practices and performance. J. P. MacDuffie described the importance of bundling a set of HR practices with corresponding production system characteristics, but many translated his bundling concept to examining bundles of HR practices. Research on the impact of HR practices on performance has grown to be one of the more frequently studied phenomena in the field of HR.
