Advancing Multilevel Thinking in Human Resource Management Research: Applications and Guidelines

Strategic HRM researchers recently turned their attention to various levels of analysis in examining the relationship between HRM and performance. Despite several calls for research integrating multiple levels of analysis, we see that HRM research does not apply a multilevel approach to its full advantage. In our view, the paucity of multilevel research is rooted in the absence of what we call multilevel thinking: the application of multilevel principles. In this conceptual paper we develop 9 guidelines based on tailored multilevel HRM principles that offer a course of action for scholars, who are interested in conducting empirical multilevel HRM research. Following Kozlowski and Klein (2000), we build the multilevel principles around the what, how, where, when, and why in the HRM - performance research. Based on the analysis of structurally selected 33 empirical multilevel HRM studies, we show the common practices of using the multilevel principles, explain flaws in the current multilevel studies, and offer what we consider to be good examples.