Human Resource Bundles and Manufacturing Performance: Organizational Logic and Flexible Production Systems in the World Auto Industry
1995/01/01 by John Paul Macduffie, John Paul MacDuffie · 3,730 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Engineering · Mathematics · #Automotive industry #Bundle #Business #Computer science #Economics #Engineering #Innovation and Knowledge Management #Knowledge management #Management #Management and Organizational Studies #Manufacturing engineering #Mathematics #Operations management #Organizational structure #Process management #Production (economics) #Productivity #Quality and Supply Management #Set (abstract data type) #Survey data collection
paper · doi:10.1177/001979399504800201
published in Industrial and Labor Relations Review 48(2), 197-221 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 1995/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Abstract
Using a unique international data set from a 1989–90 survey of 62 automotive assembly plants, the author tests two hypotheses: that innovative HR practices affect performance not individually but as interrelated elements in an internally consistent HR “bundle” or system; and that these HR bundles contribute most to assembly plant productivity and quality when they are integrated with manufacturing policies under the “organizational logic” of a flexible production system. Analysis of the survey data, which tests three indices representing distinct bundles of human resource and manufacturing practices, supports both hypotheses. Flexible production plants with team-based work systems, “high-commitment” HR practices (such as contingent compensation and extensive training), and low inventory and repair buffers consistently outperformed mass production plants. Variables capturing two-way and three-way interactions among the bundles of practices are even better predictors of performance, supporting the integration hypothesis.
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