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This paper aims to present an empirically driven crisis management framework of complementary human resource management (HRM) bundles that can be utilized in simultaneously managing the health crisis, financial crisis and disruptions to business operations through lockdown and other government restrictions propelled by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The framework is developed employing qualitative methodology, drawing from the successful HRM practices adopted by 26 Sri Lankan companies in battling the many crises of COVID-19 and using the soft HRM approach as the theoretical basis.

The findings report a framework that consists of three key HRM bundles (health and safety bundle, cost-saving bundle and employee motivation and engagement bundle) entailing an array of inter-related, internally consistent, complementary and mutually reinforcing HRM practices and HRM activities. These HRM bundles and the HRM practices as well as the HRM activities therein, indicate how a softer approach to managing employees can be used during a crisis.

The framework will inform the HRPs of the HRM bundles, HRM practices and HRM activities that can be used to manage the multiple crises created by COVID-19 and other similar pandemics.

The study contributes to and expands the knowledge of HRM in crisis management generally and HRM in a global pandemic more specifically.

This study aims to systematically review sustainable human resource management (HRM) research with the aim of establishing its research themes, methods and contextual focus to develop a better understanding of the state of the field and the gaps in the research, as well as to propose a future research agenda.

This study uses a systematic literature review method that involves the use of 122 studies from six reputable databases covering January 2003 to March 2020.

There is an over-concentration on the ecological perspective of sustainable HRM and managers dominate the examined population. Moreover, there are geographical imbalances in sustainable HRM research. More so, the idea of bundling sustainable HRM practices together has received scanty research attention relative to the individual sustainable HRM best practices. Consequently, from a strategic HRM perspective, the authors highlight various ways to bundle sustainable HRM practices together. Also, the authors suggest that the ability-motivation-opportunity enhancing (AMO) theory’s perspective provides particularly useful means for this investigation. Furthermore, the findings suggest that sustainable HRM can influence organisations to become more competitive and effective in their quests to ensure economic prosperity, social well-being and ecological outcomes for their stakeholders.

The evidence reveals that there are significant gaps in the literature on the topic and confirms that the field is still at its developmental stage. Hence, there is a need for more rigorous research on the topic to help develop a better understanding of this new field.

This study contributes by providing the first comprehensive review of sustainable HRM themes, methods and contextual focus and by proposing future research agenda. It, therefore, offers a valuable point of departure for those moving into the sustainable HRM domain, as well as valuable insights for those already working in this space.

The purpose of this paper spans twofold. Firstly, to investigate Human Resource Management practices (HRMP) adopted by organisations during the pandemic. Secondly, to bundle similar HRMP into Human Resource Management (HRM) bundles that provided unhindered organisational support to employees during the crisis.

The authors conducted 39 in-depth interviews across industries using a semi-structured interview schedule. Thereafter, the authors transcribed the interviews verbatim and analysed them thematically using MAXQDA 2021.

The study identifies effective practices during times of uncertainty and how soft HRM practices helped organisations survive during a crisis. When bundled together, these practices enabled organisations to continue operations during the pandemic, keeping their employees engaged and motivated.

Based on the learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic, the study provides a toolkit of HRMP bundles that organisations can adopt for future crisis management, enhancing the organisations’ absorptive capacity.

The study investigates the practices incorporated during COVID-19, leading to the identification of soft HRM bundles. The study adds value to the existing domain of HRM by including a unique set of soft HRMP bundles that have not been discussed in earlier studies and could be of high utility to organisations during the crisis.

Taggar, Sulsky, and MacDonald have presented an integrated model that links organizational strategy, the environment, and human resources management. This commentary analyzes their model, identifying a number of missed opportunities that are not adequately integrated into the model. Moreover, we propose two directions for expanding their model, including a consideration of social network theory and the global supply chain. By expanding Taggar et al.'s model to consider social networks and the supply chain, we believe that it will better capture the complexity of contemporary organizations while supporting the fecund ideas that Taggar et al. have proposed.

A dominant theme in the high performance HRM literature concerns complementarities among individual practices and the positive performance benefits associated with adopting simultaneously a bundle of HRM practices. While there is little consensus over what practices should be included under the “high performance” label, most authors see employee representation and consultation as representing a traditional management approach. Moreover enterprise performance is commonly measured as financial performance and relatively little attention has been given to innovative performance. In contrast to the mainstream view, we argue that employee representation can be highly complementary to the training and incentive devices focused on in the high performance HRM literature. This proposition is empirically tested for the innovative performance of comparable populations of U.K. and French private sector establishments. The chapter constitutes one of the first major comparative empirical investigations of the HRM/innovative performance link.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between human resource management (HRM) practices bundles and organizational commitment, and find answers for questions on which of these bundles contribute how to the employees’ performance and loyalty according to their demographic characteristics in maritime market.

Two separate surveys were applied to 104 employees of international maritime companies. Factor and reliability analyses were carried out to ensure the surveys’ validity and reliability. Then, correlation analysis was conducted to determine whether there is a relationship between HRM practices and organizational commitment. Finally, independent groups t-test was used to determine if perceptions of employees on HRM practices and their organizational commitment vary according to their demographic characteristics.

Moderate positive and negative linear relationships between HRM practices bundles and organizational commitment were found. Also, significant differences between the organizational commitment levels of employees and their perceptions on the effects of HRM practices to their performance were determined.

Surveys were conducted only on Turkish employees in maritime sector and companies only that published annual and social responsibility report were examined.

HR managers should pay attention on HRM practices bundles to increase the level of employee’s organizational commitment and performance. While doing this, they also should take their employees’ demographic characteristics on account. This study can give clues about management of employees with different perceptions on performance and commitment.

The authors add the literature by identifying the link between HRM practices bundles and organizational commitment. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study, which reveals the link between HRM practices bundles and organizational commitment dimensions, separately. Also, an original new questionnaire was produced, which measures the employees’ perceptions on the effects of HRM practices to performance.

The paper aims to test and validate the complementarity effects on operational performance of two of the main lean manufacturing bundles, just‐in‐time (JIT) and total quality management (TQM). The paper also explores the role played by the human resource management (HRM) bundle as an enhancer of the complementarity between JIT and TQM.

The paper is based on statistical analysis on the high performance manufacturing round III database, a survey that involves 266 plants in nine countries across three different industries (electronics, machinery and transportation components).

The paper proves the existence of complementarity between JIT and TQM and shows the enabling role of HRM on such complementarity.

The paper provides analytical and empirical argumentations showing that JIT and TQM mutually reinforce each other's marginal returns on operational performance. The study also indicates that only those plants characterized by a significant implementation of HRM practices enjoy the complementarity effects of TQM and JIT on operational performance.

The research suggests a pattern of improvements where JIT and TQM have to be implemented hand‐in‐hand to take full advantage of their complementarity. HRM, the soft part of lean initiatives, provides the ground over which complementarity originates, spreading its benefits throughout the organization.

The study represents one of the few attempts trying to operationalize and empirically validate the concept of complementarity. The study also provides original suggestions to practitioners on how to make the most out of lean initiatives.

The present study follows the conflicting outcomes perspective of Human Resources Management (HRM) and examines the effects of employees' perceptions of high performance work systems (HPWS) on job demands (role conflict, role ambiguity and work pressure) and work engagement (vigor and dedication).

Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used on a sample of 524 front-line employees across three Greek manufacturing companies.

The findings show that HPWS is negatively associated with all three job demands. Hence, the “critical perspective” is not supported. In turn, role conflict and role ambiguity reduce employees' work engagement, although the third job demand included in the study (work pressure) showed a positive relationship on dedication. Last but not least, this study calculates HPWS as both a system and as subsets of HRM practices, and provides useful insights regarding the differences between the two different measurement methods.

The present study brings further empirical evidence in the HRM field by examining whether HPWS is good or bad for employee well-being. Moreover, the findings underscore the detrimental impact that job demands may have on employees' work engagement, and highlights the fact that HPWS might not necessarily be a “win-win” scenario for employees and employers.

This study follows the most recent developments in the HRM literature and examines the dark (negative) approach of HPWS in the Greek manufacturing sector. Finally, theoretical and managerial implications are drawn for improving our understanding of how HPWS influences job demands and ultimately employees' work engagement.

This meta-analytical review aims to clarify the relationships between three bundles of human resource management (HRM) practices—competency-enhancing, motivation-enhancing and opportunity-enhancing—and organizational innovation by addressing two questions: (a) Which types of HRM bundles are most strongly related to different forms of innovation (i.e. process and product innovation)? And (b) Which mechanism provides a stronger explanation for the positive effects of HRM bundles on innovation?

Based on data from 103 studies, a meta-analysis was conducted to quantitatively summarize existing HRM–innovation studies at the organizational level.

The results showed that the competency-enhancing bundle was more positively related to product innovation than the motivation-enhancing and opportunity-enhancing bundles. The opportunity-enhancing bundle was most strongly associated with process innovation. The authors further found that knowledge management capability (KMC) and employee motivation mediated the positive relationship between the three HRM bundles and innovation outcomes. In comparing the two mechanisms, this review suggests that KMC better explains both the impact of the competency-enhancing HRM bundle on product innovation and the effect of the opportunity-enhancing bundle on process innovation.

Based on behavioral and knowledge management perspectives, this study takes a sub-bundle approach to providing an integrative review by comparing the direct effects and mediating paths of HRM bundles on product and process innovation.