Understanding the relationship between Human Resource Management (HRM) and the performance of organisations has been an ongoing area of interest within management fields. Important in this domain has been ‘the black box’, the unknown construct of connections between HRM and performance, an area which has remained unable to be fully ‘illuminated’ by researchers. The significance of this being, that in increasingly competitive local, national and global markets, it is critically important for organisations to efficiently and effectively manage all forms of resources ’ involved in their operations. Here, human resources play an intrinsically pivotal role.

To explore ‘the black box’, and with a refinement to the HRM/performance relationship, this research was driven by an overarching research question which was: What relationship/s did HRM have with employee performance? Focusing on employee performance allowed for the broad performance construct to be more discernable, providing an opportunity to better consider its potential relationships with HRM. To further guide this exploration, research objectives were developed to address unresolved needs in this field to: better conceptualise HRM and employee performance, develop a theoretical model which would assist in explaining the HRM/performance relationship, posit an explanation of the resolution to ‘the black box’, posit an effective methodology with which to research allied phenomena...