Human Resource Practices, Organizational Learning and Business Performance

Abstract This paper deals with the relationship between high performance human resource practices, organizational learning and business performance. The hypotheses proposed here are tested on a sample of 195 Spanish companies employing over 200 people, and using structural equation modeling as a statistical technique. Our findings show that high performance human resource practices have a positive effect on organizational learning, which in turn has a positive influence on business performance. Nevertheless, a direct effect of human resource practices on business performance has not been observed. Thus, we can conclude that human resource practices by themselves are not a source of competitive advantage, since this will depend on their capacity to provide incentives for employees to put their knowledge into practice and thereby promote active cooperation. Keywords: High performance human resource practicesorganizational learningbusiness performancestructural equation models Acknowledgments The authors would like to acknowledge the financial assistance of the Spanish Science and Technology Ministry and the European Regional Development Funds in the undertaking of this research through the research project SEC 2002-04522-C02-02. The authors are also grateful to anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.