The Effects of Human Resource Management Decisions on Shareholder Value

Using an event study methodology, the authors investigate whether human resource decisions of firms (such as decisions concerning compensation and benefits or staffing) announced in the Wall Street Journal in 1980 and 1987 discernibly affected either the level or variation of abnormal total shareholder return. They find no consistent pattern of increased or decreased valuation in response to any of five categories of HR announcements, even after controlling for the likely effect of such announcements on total compensation costs. On the other hand, announcements of permanent staff reductions and shutdowns or relocations were associated with significant increases in the variation of abnormal total shareholder return around the announcement date, which indicates that HR decisions in those two categories do affect shareholders' predictions of firms' performance.