Sources of HR Department Power: Scale Development and Validation

HR department power plays a significant role in increasing organizational performance by influencing how intended HR strategies and practices are actually embraced and utilized by organizational members. Referring to French and Raven's (1959) taxonomy, we present four bases (sanction, expert, referent, and legitimacy) of HR department power in the context of intraorganizational dynamics and develop their measurement scales. Find- ings indicate that the HR power bases represent an integrated framework that helps to build a coherent classification standard, showing meaningful relationships with HR department power, HRM strength, and organizational performance. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]