Impact of human capital strategies on employee attitudes and behavior: a view of internal and external labor markets
International Journal of Manpower
ISSN: 0143-7720
Article publication date: 13 October 2020
Issue publication date: 8 July 2021
Abstract
Purpose
According to human capital theory, companies derive economic value from the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) of their employees. Research conducted by strategic human resource management has focused on how investment in human capital can create a competitive advantage for an organization. The purpose of the paper is, therefore, to investigate how the choice of different human capital acquisition strategies – “make or buy” – can influence employee attitudes and behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
This study explores the relationship between internal and external human capital strategies and employee’s attitudes and behavior in Taiwan's IC (integrated circuit) design industry. The cross-sectional dataset derives from a sample of 49 human resource departments and 497 employees from 25 different IC design companies.
Findings
The findings indicate that the decisions made on human capital strategies have an important influence on employee’s attitude and behavior. The results also show that a climate of trust and perceived organizational support is a cross-level mechanism for both human capital strategy and employees' attitudes and behavior.
Originality/value
There has been little research on the cross-level analysis of human capital acquisition strategies that can influence employee’s attitudes and behavior. This study verified that internal and external human capital strategies do affect employees' individual perceptions of organizational support via the organizational-level climate of trust, which in turn influences employees' attitudes and behavior. This cross-level mechanism indeed will facilitate new insights into the nature of strategic human resource management.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Erratum: It has come to the attention of the publisher that the article, Liu, M.-S. and Liu, N.-C. (2020), “Impact of human capital strategies on employee attitudes and behavior: a view of internal and external labor markets” published in International Journal of Manpower, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print, listed an incorrect affilaition for Min-Shi Liu. This error was introduced in the editorial process and has now been corrected in the online version. The publisher sincerely apologises for this error and for any inconvenience caused.Funding: This paper was founded by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (project no. MOST 107-2410-H-031-060-MY2).
Citation
Liu, M.-S. and Liu, N.-C. (2021), "Impact of human capital strategies on employee attitudes and behavior: a view of internal and external labor markets", International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 42 No. 5, pp. 756-776. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-06-2019-0280
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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