Title: Exploring HR outsourcing and its perceived effectiveness

Authors: Hsi-An Shih, Yun-Hwa Chiang, Chu-Chun Hsu

Addresses: Institute of International Business, National Cheng Kung University, 1 University Road, Tainan 70148, Taiwan. ' Department of Business Administration, Ming-Chuan University, 250 Chung-Shan North Road, Section 5, Taipei 10452, Taiwan. ' Institute of International Business, National Cheng Kung University, 1 University Road, Tainan 70148, Taiwan

Abstract: This study tries to explore the impact of HR outsourcing on its corresponding perceived effectiveness. Meanwhile, four variables, namely environmental dynamism, company strategy, HR involvement in the company|s strategy process, and contractor relationship were employed to test the moderating effect between HR outsourcing and its effectiveness. Empirical data are collected from high-level HR executives in 153 large Taiwanese companies. Dynamic environment, prospector company strategy, and good contractor relationship are found to moderate positively the relationship of HR outsourcing and its perceived effectiveness. HR function|s involvement in the company|s strategic process is found to moderate negatively in the relationship between HR outsourcing and perceived effectiveness. Implications and limitation of this study are discussed.

Keywords: human resources outsourcing; environmental dynamism; company strategy; contractor relationship; Taiwan; human resource management; HRM; competitive advantage.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBPM.2005.007370

International Journal of Business Performance Management, 2005 Vol.7 No.4, pp.464 - 482

Published online: 13 Jul 2005 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article