Abstract
This paper presents the case of a large travel agency and relationships between HR practices and
employee attitudes (EA) in that specific organisation. A number of studies have shown that effective
human resource (HR) practices correlate with positive employee attitudes (EA).The attitudes of
interest in this study were job satisfaction, organisational commitment, work engagement as well as
intention to quit. Positive EA are desirable as these are considered to constitute antecedents to
organisational performance. As HR practices are under the control of managers, EA and
organisational performance can be optimised should managers engage in implementing effective HR
practices. Arguments for the use of universalistic, contingency and configurational perspectives in the
implementation of HR practices are found in academic literature. However, literature generally does
not indicate which perspective is applicable to a specific organisation. To optimise the validity of the
results the relationship between HR practices and EA in the selected travel agency is contrasted with
that of nine other organisations. Although the overall results suggest a confirmation of the
universalistic perspective, where all HR practices generally relate to the desirable EA outcomes, the
configuration of HR practices which relate to desirable EA outcomes in the travel agency was unique.
This supports a configurational perspective in the particular organisation. The HR practice of training
and development was found to be the most important predictor of EA in this travel agency. The
generalisation of these results should however be done with caution, as the results are based on only
one sample. Managers of travel agencies are therefore urged to investigate the possibility of the
implementation or sustainment of training and development initiatives as this HR practice seems to
have the most profound influence on EA in such organisations.
Citation
ID:
72929
Ref Key:
steyn2014theafrican