Control Theory In Strategic Human Resource Management: The Mediating Effect Of Administrative Information

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between strategic context, viewed in terms of product-market variation, work flow integration, and firm size, and executive use of human resource management control systems, including input, behavior, and output controls. Data from executives in 102 firms showed the following: a positive relationship between product-market variation and the use of behavior control, mediated by the presence of managers' knowledge of cause-effect relations and the crystallization of standards of desirable performance; a negative relationship between work flow integration and behavior and output control, mediated by crystallization of performance standards; and a positive relationship between firm size and input control that is independent of administrative information. These results are discussed in terms of theory development and future research in strategic human resource management.