Frontiers of Business Research in China

In Bowen and Ostroff’s (2004) seminal article, they argued that lack of clarity regarding the relationship between HR practices and (employee and organizational) performance was the predominant question of HR research. Consequently, theory and research has begun to study the process by which HR practices are implemented to understand their relationship with performance (see for example, Ostroff & Bowen, 2016; Sanders, Shipton & Gomes, 2014). Bowen and Ostroff (2004) emphasized the need to adopt an HR process approach that considers the implementation of HR by (line) managers and employees’ perceptions and understanding of HR. Since that time, scholars have explored the psychological process by which employees attach meaning to HR. They have sought to understand the role of employee perceptions of the implementation—also known as HR strength—and employee beliefs of organizations’ intentions behind the implementation of HR practices, also known as HR attributions. Despite more attention paid to the HR process research, issues remain on the conceptualization and measurement of these relatively new constructs.