HR Practices and Their Impact on Social Performance: An Integrative Literature Review

Abstract

Against a backdrop of HR digitalization and changing employee expectations, understanding the social outcomes of human resource management practices has become increasingly important. Yet, few studies simultaneously integrate the Resource-Based View (RBV), Social Exchange Theory (SET), and contextual specificities, particularly in African and emerging economies. This study therefore addresses the following question: to what extent do classical and modern HR practices influence organizations’ social performance, and through which mechanisms do their effects differ? An integrative review covering the period 1980–2025 was conducted: of 312 references initially identified, 258 remained after duplicate removal, 124 after title and abstract screening, and 78 articles were retained for the final analysis. The findings show that the effects of HR practices depend on their configuration, coherence, employee perceptions, and implementation context. Human resource development, employee engagement, perceived organizational support, organizational justice, and organizational citizenship behaviour emerge as key mechanisms. The review also leads to the proposition of an inverted U-shaped relationship between the intensity of modern HR practices and social performance, as their benefits may decline beyond a certain threshold due to increased job demands, work overload, and stress. Building on these findings, the article proposes an integrative conceptual model and a research agenda aimed at empirically testing the proposed relationships.

JEL Classification: M12, M14, M54

Paper type: Theoretical Research