Organizational Success From Three Different Perspectives

Introduction Delery and Doty (1996) examined organisational success from three different perspectives: universality, contingency, and configurational. The universality perspective asserts that it is possible to have some common or best practices in the area of organisational performance without the consideration of strategy. Much of the early research conducted on HPWPs stemmed from this perspective in which researchers surveyed many organisations of the same industry to determine which practices worked best for all. From the contingency perspective, an organisation governs its human resources practices. A configurational approach takes a more synergistic spin when dealing with organisational performance and its relationship to human†¦show more content†¦Statement of the Problem To date, although the results of HPWP research have been generalised to other industries, they have not been tested in the multilevel marketing (MLM (Multilevel marketing) industry; therefore, a gap exists in measuring the effect that HPWPs have in the MLM industry. Purpose of the Study The purpose of the study was to evaluate whether HPWP results could be generalised to the MLM industry by examining the relationship between HPWPs (the independent variable) and distributor success (the dependent variable). This would constitute a modification from HPWP studies in other industries, which have thus far focused primarily on the relationship between HPWPs and organisational success. This study went the extra step to examine how distributors, not organisations, are directly affected by the use of HPWPs. It might be possible to assume that distributor success leads to organisational success, since the more product distributors sell the more profit an organisation will make. Literature review SHRM research examines how HR practices can be used as a mechanism to achieve strategic organisational outcomes. The study of HPWS is a stream of research within SHRM that focuses on identifying the HR practices that can be used in combination with each other to attain higher