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HR Professionals' Beliefs About Effective Human Resource Practices Correspondence between Research and Practice • 149 HR PROFESSIONALS’ BELIEFS ABOUT EFFECTIVE HUMAN RESOURCE PRACTICES: CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN RESEARCH AND PRACTICE Sara L. Rynes, Amy E. Colbert, and Kenneth G. Brown1 Five thousand human resource (HR) professionals were surveyed regarding the extent to which they agreed with various HR research findings. Responses from 959 participants sug- gest that there are large discrepancies between research findings and practitioners’ beliefs in some content areas, especially selection. In particular, practitioners place far less faith in intelligence and personality tests as predictors of employee performance than HR research would recommend. Practitioners are somewhat more likely to agree with research findings when they are at higher organizational levels, have SPHR certification, and read the aca- demic literature. Suggestions are made for more effective dissemination of HR research find- ings. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Accumulating evidence suggests that certain Terpstra and Rozell (1997) found that com- human resource (HR) practices are consis- panies whose HR professionals read the aca- tently related to organizational productivity demic research literature have higher finan- and firm financial performance (e.g., Arthur, cial performance than those that do not. 1994; Becker & Gerhart, 1996; Huselid, 1995; Nevertheless, it is a well-known fact that U.S. Department of Labor, 1993). For ex- organizations often fail to adopt practices that ample, Welbourne and Andrews (1996) found research has shown to be effective (e.g., Johns, that new companies that placed a high value 1993; Rogers, 1995). One potential reason for on HR (as assessed by content of their pro- this may be a lack of practitioner awareness spectuses) and that included high levels of of research findings (Gannon, 1983). For ex- organizationally based pay-for-performance ample, a variety of business and personal fac- had a five-year survival rate of 92% as com- tors (such as increased competition, new pared with 34% for companies that were low legislative requirements, and dual-career fami- on both dimensions. Similarly, Huselid (1995) lies) may leave HR professionals with little found that a one-standard-deviation increase time for reading. In addition, research jour- in scores on a “high-performance HR prac- nals have become so technically complex that tices” scale (which included such practices as they are nearly inaccessible to individuals with- regular attitude surveying, paying for perfor- out a doctorate degree. Moreover, previous mance, formal communication programs, and research suggests that many of the questions use of employment tests) was associated with that academics find interesting are viewed as a 23% increase in accounting profits and an rather unimportant by practitioners 8% increase in economic value. In addition, (Campbell, Daft, & Hulin, 1982). For all these Human Resource Management, Summer 2002, Vol. 41, No. 2, Pp. 149–174 © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/hrm.10029 150 • HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, Summer 2002 reasons, managers may be largely unaware of director, vice president or senior vice presi- recent advances in HR research. dent). Surveys were sent to 2,600 HR manag- An alternative possibility, however, is that ers; 1,200 directors, assistant directors or as- managers and professionals are actually aware sociate directors; and 1,200 vice-presidents or of research findings, but for one reason or associate vice-presidents. This sampling strat- another fail to implement them. For example, egy was designed to ensure that respondents Pfeffer and Sutton (2000) have argued that would be generalists rather than specialists, the research-practice gap is primarily a “know- and that they would have significant respon- ing-doing” gap rather than a “knowing” gap. sibilities for HR policy and implementation. Determining the As with knowledge gaps, failures of implemen- To examine the extent to which the be- extent to which tation may occur for a variety of reasons, such liefs of HR professionals are consistent with gaps between as overwork, risk aversion, political consider- established research findings, a thirty-nine- research and ations, or organizational inertia (Johns, 1993; item questionnaire was constructed. Survey practice are the Rogers, 1995). result of lack of content was based on five of the seven dimen- knowing versus Determining the extent to which gaps be- sions covered by the Human Resource Certi- lack of doing tween research and practice are the result of lack fication Institute’s “Professional in Human requires, as a of knowing versus lack of doing requires, as a first Resources” (PHR) exam. The included dimen- first step, explicit step, explicit investigation of what practitioners sions were: Management Practices (motivation, investigation of do know. Surprisingly, there does not appear to what leadership, performance management, em- practitioners do be much evidence concerning this question. As ployee involvement, and HR roles); General know. such, existing research does not allow us to pin- Employment Practices (legal issues, perfor- point where the biggest gaps currently exist be- mance appraisal and employee attitudes); tween research findings and practitioner beliefs. Staffing (recruitment, selection, and career The present research was conducted to planning); HR Development (training and de- remedy this gap. Specifically, we surveyed a velopment, evaluation of training effective- large sample of HR practitioners with respect ness), and Compensation and Benefits (job to their beliefs regarding various research find- pricing, pay structures, compensation strate- ings. In this way, we were able to identify those gies and effectiveness). The dimensions of practices for which there is the greatest (and Safety and Labor Relations were not included least) consistency between research findings because many HR departments do not have and practitioner beliefs. In addition, we ex- responsibility for these particular functions. amined the various ways in which HR profes- The initial questions were developed by sionals obtain information about HR practices. having each of the authors construct content- The purpose of this latter step was to deter- relevant research items for areas in which he mine how research findings might be more or she had particular research expertise. We effectively disseminated to HR professionals, were able to generate items for most content and whether some sources of information pro- areas on the basis of our own familiarity with vide greater research accuracy than others. these research areas. For the few topics on Taken together, we hope these findings will which we had little expertise, we examined provide a base for future efforts to reduce gaps research-oriented textbooks and research in knowledge and beliefs through improved handbooks for leads to relevant research cita- information dissemination, more useful re- tions. In this way, we created thirty-nine ini- search, or both. tial items, sampled in roughly the same proportions as their coverage on the PHR The Study exam. By linking our item sampling strategy to this well-established prototype of the HR Members of the Society for Human Resource body of knowledge, we attempted to create the Management (SHRM) comprised the sample best possible opportunity for HR practitioners for this study. SHRM’s database manager se- to demonstrate their awareness of the relevant lected a stratified random sample of five thou- research literature. sand members with the titles of HR manager Although the general content categories or above (e.g., director, assistant or associate were modeled around the PHR exam, the ac- Correspondence between Research and Practice • 151 tual nature of the questions was quite differ- comparing methods of information search ent. Specifically, in contrast to the certifica- with practitioners’ knowledge of the research tion exam (which tends to focus heavily on literature, we can assess whether some sources legal, definitional, and procedural issues), the of information appear to be more effective at present survey focused on research findings disseminating research findings than others. regarding the effectiveness of particular prac- tices. Items were constructed to be either true Results: What HR Professionals Believe or false, based on previous research results. Respondents were asked to indicate whether Responses were received from 959 partici- they agreed, disagreed, or were uncertain pants, for a response rate of at least 19.2% about each item, allowing us to determine (we do not know how many surveys were un- content areas where practitioner beliefs di- deliverable). Nearly half the respondents verge most sharply from research findings. (48.5%) were HR managers, while the rest The original questionnaire was pretested were either directors (26.1%), vice presidents on a sample of fifty-nine highly prolific re- (18.0%), or other titles (7.4%). Perhaps not searchers in HR and industrial/organizational surprisingly (given our sampling strategy), the psychology. On the basis of these researchers’ average respondent also had considerable ex- responses and feedback, problematic items perience in HR (13.8 years, SD = 7.9). Test- were either reworded or replaced. retest reliability for the questionnaire was as- In addition, we collected information sessed using an independent sample of forty- about what types of
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