This paper examines the relationship between human resource (HR) practices and firm performance, focusing on the causal order between these variables. The authors use data from 45 business units of a large food service corporation to explore how measures of HR practices correlate with past, concurrent, and future operational and financial performance measures. The results indicate high and invariant correlations between HR practices and performance measures at all three time points, but controlling for past or concurrent performance significantly reduces the correlation of HR practices with future performance. The study suggests that the relationship between HR practices and performance is not as causal as previously assumed, and that past research may have overestimated the causal impact of HR practices on performance. The authors propose a conceptual model where HR practices impact organizational commitment, which in turn improves operational and financial performance. However, they caution that the causal direction should be interpreted with extreme caution due to the lack of rigorous methodological rigor in existing research.This paper examines the relationship between human resource (HR) practices and firm performance, focusing on the causal order between these variables. The authors use data from 45 business units of a large food service corporation to explore how measures of HR practices correlate with past, concurrent, and future operational and financial performance measures. The results indicate high and invariant correlations between HR practices and performance measures at all three time points, but controlling for past or concurrent performance significantly reduces the correlation of HR practices with future performance. The study suggests that the relationship between HR practices and performance is not as causal as previously assumed, and that past research may have overestimated the causal impact of HR practices on performance. The authors propose a conceptual model where HR practices impact organizational commitment, which in turn improves operational and financial performance. However, they caution that the causal direction should be interpreted with extreme caution due to the lack of rigorous methodological rigor in existing research.