With data collected from 632 manufacturing firms in South Korea, we investigated (1) the relationship between high-performance work systems (HPWSs) and firm performance, and (2) the moderating effect of the human resource (HR) function’s influence on the relationship between HPWSs and firm performance. Our findings showed the existence of both the main effect of HPWSs, supporting the universalistic perspective, and the moderating effect of the HR function’s influence, supporting the contingency perspective. Based on the findings, we concluded that HPWSs can be regarded as universal or best practices; at the same time, the presence of an influential HR function may intensify the effect of HPWSs on firm performance. This study contributes to the debate over the respective merits of the universalistic and contingency perspectives by showing that the two perspectives are not necessarily incompatible; rather, they can be complementary.

This study contributes to strategic human resource management (HRM) research by offering a contextualized model of HRM effectiveness. Building on HR attribution theory, we propose that the high commitment work system will be more effective in a context when: (i) employees are conditioned to trust employers and (ii) regulatory institutions are less restrictive, giving management more autonomy in human resource decisions. In such contexts, we argue that employees are more inclined to view the high commitment work system as an expression of the employer's genuine concern for employees. Hence, employees are more likely to reciprocate with high commitment. We find our contextualized HRM effectiveness model particularly useful in understanding HRM – firm performance relations in China where business environments are currently under transformation on both trust and regulations.

The hotel industry utilises the concept of human resource practices system differentiation (HRPSD) by focusing resources on managerial level jobs as a technique of strategic human resource management (SHRM). Despite its use in both practice and the academic literature, research focusing on HRPSD is scarce and detailed analyses of the effects of this practice on employees cannot be found in the academic literature. The objective of this article is to develop a conceptual framework facilitating the examination of how human resource practices systems are differentiated within 5-star hotels, and to identify some direct effects of such systems on employees. The article provides a conceptual framework of SHRM with HRPSD, including the link to human resource intermediate outcomes that have not previously been included in previous research in a hotel industry context.