Measuring HRM Implementation: An Evidence-Based Approach

Organizations often spend a lot of time and effort in choosing the right HRM policies and practices. However, implementing them in the organization and assessing the success of HRM implementation gets little attention. We aim to do so in this paper in an evidence-based way (Rousseau and Barends, 2011). So far, the HRM literature has devoted little effort to reflecting on HRM implementation and developing measurements of HRM implementation. This may be due to confusion about what implementation actually means, as well as to a more general lack of interest in implementation processes, vis-à-vis other related topics linked to HRM-as-process approaches such as HRM attributions or HRM system strength. However, the fact is that previous research sometimes confounds successful HRM implementation with overall HRM effectiveness, provides different labels for similar implementation-related constructs, measures implementation success in different ways, or asks different stakeholders (Bondarouk et al., 2018; Mirfakhar et al., 2018). Furthermore, we lack an understanding of the range of approaches available to researchers and practitioners alike in order to measure implementation and when some of these approaches may be more adequate than others. Having conceptualized different types of implementation outcomes, reflected on different ways in which these outcomes may be measured, paying attention to the assumptions made about the meaning of implementation in each of the different approaches, and reviewed the current HRM implementation literature to see what measurement approaches are more and less common, we present a measurement roadmap that incorporates different informants, assessment moments, and levels of analysis. Our final aim is to help HRM practitioners become more knowledgeable of the different ways in which their initiatives and interventions can be assessed, helping them build internal credibility as evidence-based professionals (Rousseau and Barends, 2011) vis-à-vis key stakeholders such as senior management or employees.