The impact of human resource management practices on manufacturing performance

A human resource management (HRM) analysis framework is proposed and tested using data from first tier suppliers to the Big 3 in North America. Relationships among underlying dimensions of human resource management practices and manufacturing performance are examined. The study found support for the proposed framework, suggesting that human resource management practices can be grouped into five distinct factors, four of which are associated with specific manufacturing competitive dimensions (quality, flexibility, cost and time). The remaining HRM factor is generic. The four priority-specific HRM factors are strongly related to their respective manufacturing performance dimensions. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.