Intended and Unintended Consequences of HR Practices: Explaining the Consequences of HR Practices from the Perspective of Social Comparison Theory

Within the last two decades, considerable research has been conducted on the impact of human resource (HR) practices on organizations and their employees. By now, there is ex- tensive evidence available that suggests that different combinations of HR practices, so- called ‘bundles', significantly contribute to organizational and employees' performance (e.g. Lepak, Liao, Chung, & Harden, 2006; Macky & Boxall, 2007; Wright & Boswell, 2002). How- ever, it still remains unclear, which specific compositions of HR practices are beneficial and under which conditions and through which mechanisms they unfold their positive effects. Instead of clarifying these questions, research is still stuck with critical challenges like the conceptualization and theoretical grounding of such bundled HR practices. Finally, the re- search field of HR management provides very little evidence-based insights when it comes to those HR instruments, which are explicitly used to inject competition into the workplace such as rank-and-yank ratings or exclusive talent management practices. We know very little about their direct and indirect consequences, since there is only scarce scientific evidence in general and the scarce existing theoretical and empirical findings are contradicting.