Sequential interdependencies in management practice systems: HR and lean manufacturing adoption in global manufacturing

Although the returns to investing in these practices are well established, relatively few organisations adopt them effectively. This research examines patterns of practice adoption to understand what sequence organisations should invest in practices to arrive at a 'system' that supports organisational capability.<br>Despite a large literature verifying the contribution of systems of HR and working practices to productivity, the sequential interdependencies between practices have not been studied empirically.

This is explained by limited theoretical development of systemic interdependency and an inadequacy of usual social science research methods to discover these sequences.<br>This research addresses this gap by drawing on complex systems theory as a theoretical basis and employing computational network methods to identify probabilistic mappings of practice introduction from the World Management Survey, a large dataset covering over 13,000 establishments.