2.1 Direct effects
Research evidencing the direct effects between HRM practices and OP has emphasised
sixteen best practices, later consolidated into seven, as proposed by Pfeffer (1994,
1998). It is argued that the greater use of such practices emphasising employee
participation and empowerment – including teamwork, employee training, and
performance contingency-incentive compensation – are believed to improve the
performance of organisations (Pfeffer, 1994).