Entrepreneurial team and strategic agility: A conceptual framework and research agenda

To be agile, responsive and innovative seems to have become prerequisites for long-term growth and success for any organizations operating in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world. This paper argues that such prerequisites, in turn, are dependent on the organization's abilities to harness team-level entrepreneurial behaviours, talents and activities as drivers of continuous strategic agility and innovation through an effectively managed HRM process. It illustrates this argument by conducting a synthesized review of the literature streams of entrepreneurial team and strategic agility and developing a conceptual framework that links them together. Rooted in the micro-foundational perspective, this review examines the relationship between key conceptual dimensions of entrepreneurial team and strategic agility, and explores the connections between these two literature streams. Our findings suggest the potential value from a cross-fertilization approach, and points out the future research directions through which these literature streams might be advanced collectively and effectively. Our research sheds some important light on the relationship between strategic agility and HRM through the lens of managing effective entrepreneurial teams in differing contexts.     

HRM practices for human and social capital development: effects on innovation capabilities

This paper analyzes the effect of systems of human resource management (HRM) practices on a company's innovation capabilities. To date, few studies have analyzed the way a firm may be more innovative by using specific sets of high-performance HRM practices from an intellectual capital-based view of the firm. From an extensive literature review, a model was established and tested through structural equation modelling, using the statistical technique of partial least squares. The study was applied to a sample of technological firms in Spain and the results show that high-profile personal HRM practices positively influence human capital while collaborative HRM practices influence social capital, which, in turn, affect innovation capabilities by means of, respectively, total and partial mediating effects. Managerial and HRM implications of these results are drawn by the authors, highlighting the idea of paying increased attention to managing firms with a focus on strategic intangible assets in order to gain competitive advantages based on innovation.     

Human resource management in smaller firms: A contradiction in terms?

Human resource management came into popular parlance in the late 1970s. as a managerial approach aimed at re-ordering the employment relationship to ensure employee efforts were strategically focused on achieving organisational performance and competitiveness in increasingly volatile markets. Since then there has been much consideration of whether HRM is a robust academic concept supporting a particular managerialist ideology, a status enhancing label for people managers, or a practitioner tool kit. There has also been a consideration of how HRM is articulated in small and entrepreneurial firms. This paper suggests that the concept of HRM is, in most instances, uncertainly theorised and, therefore, how it, whatever ‘it’ is, might be identified in such firms is challenging. Unless HRM is theorised in context with more care, there is a danger of it remaining a ‘fuzzy concept’ encouraging abstract empiricism which, rather than clarifying our understanding, only further muddies already muddy waters. In pursuit of this argument, in this paper current debates about the notion of HRM are considered as is how these fit with what is known about the management of labour in small firms. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to question how appropriate it is to talk about HRM as an approach to managing labour in small firms.     

Managing diversity through human resource management: an international perspective and conceptual framework

This paper critically reviews the literature on managing diversity through human resource management (HRM). We discuss the major issues and objectives of managing diversity and examine the state of human resource diversity management practices in organizations. Our review shows that inequality and discrimination still widely exist and HRM has focused mainly on compliance with equal employment opportunity (EEO) and affirmative action (AA) legislation. Less attention has been paid to valuing, developing and making use of diversity. Our review reveals limited literature examining how diversity is managed in organizations through effective human resource management. We develop a framework that presents strategies for HR diversity management at the strategic, tactical and operational levels. Our review also discusses the implications for practice and further research.     

An industrial relations perspective on the high-performance paradigm

Recent studies have suggested that various human resource management (HRM) practices are associated with enhanced economic performance in organizations. This research has led to what we call the high-performance paradigm, a belief that firms can improve performance by adopting certain high-performance work practices (HPWP). We apply an industrial relations (IR) perspective to the high-performance paradigm to extend the insights of HRM studies. After identifying how the perspective typically adopted in IR research differs from that used by HRM researchers, we briefly review the literature on HPWPs, identify limitations in the existing research approach, and suggest issues and areas for future research. In general, we suggest that research on HPWPs has made a valuable contribution to the literature. We urge HRM researchers, however, to devote more attention to underlying conflicts at work, focus more explicitly on the implications of new forms of work for workers, and pay greater attention to the role that cultural forces, unions, and governments play in shaping the workplace.     

To what extent is corporate social responsibility part of human resource management in the Chinese context? A review of literature and future research directions

There has been considerable research attention to corporate social responsibility (CSR) in relation to human resource management (HRM) in the Chinese context in the last decade. This systematic review of extant literature of CSR–HRM in the Chinese context is thus undertaken with the aim of identifying what we know, what the gaps are in this field of research, and what their relevance is to theory and practice. It reveals a number of limitations in the emerging body of CSR–HRM research in the Chinese context. We call for more context-driven and interdisciplinary and multi-level research oriented to organizational problem-solving, to make our CSR–HRM studies more legitimate and relevant for businesses and societies. We also call for a more in-depth and refined approach to research design, in order to better understand organizational CSR–HRM practices, workplace environments, and related outcomes. Research on CSR–HRM in Chinese firms also needs to be situated in the international context with broader implications, because Chinese firms do not operate in isolation. Rather, they are governed, directly and indirectly, by international institutions and seek to influence global governance at the same time, with HRM implications. Finally, research on CSR–HRM in the Chinese context needs to be framed in a broader framework and to assess real-life issues and impacts.     

HRM institutional entrepreneurship for sustainable business organizations

As businesses experience greater pressures from a variety of stakeholders concerned with promoting a balanced approach to managing the competing demands for increased profitability, improved social conditions, and restoring the health of planet earth, new opportunities arise for HRM scholars and professionals to contribute to the pursuit of sustainability. However, the foundational logic of sustainability diverges significantly from the dominant perspective in today's business environment. Building upon the institutional theory literature, we introduce the concept of HRM institutional entrepreneurship to examine the paradoxes and emerging opportunities associated with the urgent need for more sustainable approaches for managing business organizations. As a guide to future work, we describe how the actions of HRM scholars and professionals can stimulate evolution from an HRM philosophy that relies on financial indicators to assess effectiveness towards an HRM philosophy that promotes a tripartite approach to sustainability, showing equal concern for economic, environmental and social performance. Focusing on organizational changes that improve environmental performance, we apply the concept of HRM institutional entrepreneurship to consider ways for HRM professionals to engage internal and external stakeholders in order to create value in organizations pursuing sustainability. Ultimately, activities that constitute HRM institutional entrepreneurship for sustainable business drive the development of capabilities that characterize ambidextrous organizations.     

Characterising human resources management practices in Portugal: an empirical analysis

The importance of human resources as a fundamental channel towards the competitiveness and sustainability of firms is now theoretically unchallenged. This article provides an overall characterisation of the main human resources management (HRM) practices implemented in Portugal and compares them with the benchmark models proposed in the literature.

To evaluate the degree to which HRM practices diverge from these benchmark models, this article relies on the analysis of five criteria: i) How do the main HRM practices fit the existing management models (familiar, professional or mixed); ii) How does the HRM conform to a work organisation of the matricial type; iii) To identify whether the role of HRM is essentially administrative or strategic; iv) To identify where the responsibility for HRM lies within the firms operating in Portugal; and v) To characterise the relation between HRM and work organisation in Portugal.

Drawing on a representative sample of firms operating in Portugal, we identify three clusters that allow us to characterise and analyse the stylised HRM practices implemented in Portugal (network-based, familiar-based or bureaucratised). Results show contrasting management patterns, which can be interpreted as different stages of evolution in terms of HRM practices in Portugal.     

Bridging knowledge in ambidextrous HRM systems: empirical evidence from hidden champions

Managing the tension between efficiency and flexibility is one of the core challenges that organizations must tackle in order to survive in the global competitive environment. Ambidexterity has been identified in the literature as a key way of managing this tension. Despite the enormous popularity of the concept of ambidexterity, the questions of how HR practices influence exploration and exploitation and support organizational ambidexterity remain underexplored. Drawing on our empirical case studies of three mid-sized ‘hidden champions’ in different high-tech manufacturing industries, we show how an ambidextrous human resource management (HRM) system works. We demonstrate that ambidextrous HRM systems can be regarded as a special type of high-performance work system (HPWS) that facilitates the continuous integration of exploration and exploitation in the pursuit of flexibility and efficiency. In particular, we elucidate how firms apply integrative employment practices and integrative work practices to facilitate collaboration and to create and strengthen a common frame of reference that fosters knowledge integration. Finally, setting up an ambidextrous HRM system supports the complementary interplay between a common frame of reference and a firm's ability to integrate knowledge in order to manage the conflicting demands of exploration and exploitation.     

Managing multidimensional knowledge assets: HR configurations in professional service firms

The purpose of this article is to illustrate empirically how HR practices are configured to manage multidimensional knowledge assets. It contributes directly to the configurational approaches to HRM by identifying HRM systems that are used to manage various types of knowledge assets. First, we develop a framework from theory to categorise knowledge assets into human (industry and firm specific), social (entrepreneurial and co‐operative) and organisational capital (mechanistic and organic). Within this framework, we draw on data gathered in the 12 professional services firms to understand how HR practices enable the management of each knowledge asset. We identify two configurations of HR practices (organisationally and professionally focused). These configurations do not exist in isolation but are used simultaneously by organisations via either a targeted (different practices in different parts of the organisation) or a temporally segregated way (different practices for the same group of employees over time).     

Forming a firm innovation strategy through commitment-based human resource management

In this paper, we argue that commitment-based human resource management (CHRM) enables firms to form an innovation strategy, enriching the literature focused on the subordinate role of HRM in a given strategy. In CHRM, employees are hired based on their knowledge, their expertise is developed, and they are empowered to take reasonable risks in the interest of long-term outcomes. These HRM policies, which mediated by innovative work practices, enable firms to realize their strategic intention to engage in innovation. Analyses of time-lagged data from 445 firms support our hypotheses, and implications are discussed.     

Strategic HRM in China: Configurations and competitive advantage

The strategic HR literature suggests that a firm will perform better through internal appropriate fit among HRM practices (the configuration fit) and through external appropriate fit between a firm's HRM practices and business strategy. The present study adopts a configuration approach to identify unique patterns of HR practices and business strategy that are posited to be maximally effective. The proposed relationships were empirically tested by surveying with a sample of 241 business firms in Guangzhou, South China, to find out the extent that four HR configurations could be successfully adopted in the Chinese context. The results revealed that HR configurations are significantly related to effect in predicting overall outcome performance and turnover, but not significantly related to effect on sales growth and profit growth rates. Research findings showed not only competitive strategies are significantly related to effect on HR configurations. The results also showed significant interaction effects between HR configurations and business strategy in their effect on profit and sales growth. These results further extended support for a contingency perspective in strategic HRM to the Chinese context, with significant practical implications for managing HRM in China. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The role of HRM and social capital configuration for knowledge sharing in post-M&A integration: a framework for future empirical investigation

The literature on human resource management (HRM) indicates that HRM plays an important role in merger and acquisition (M&A) integration success, but pays little attention to the mechanisms for knowledge sharing in post-M&A integration. Limited work has been carried out to provide understanding on how social capital and HRM practices influence intra-organizational knowledge sharing in M&A integration. This paper primarily focuses on the phenomenon of social capital and HRM practices – one of the primary means by which knowledge sharing can occur within firms. The main aim of this paper is to provide an alternative framework that introduces the literature on HRM and social capital to discuss how HRM practices and the various dimensions of social capital may enhance knowledge sharing in post-M&A integration. Drawing on the literature on social capital and HRM, we offer an alternative view on the issue of knowledge sharing in M&A integration by explaining how specific HRM practices that have an impact on employees’ knowledge, skills and abilities for participating in knowledge sharing activities may depend on relational, cognitive and structural social capital. We isolate a number of HRM practices and social capital variables that may enhance knowledge sharing in post-M&A integration, and develop a research model and propositions for future empirical investigation.     

Beyond the line: exploring the HRM responsibilities of line managers,project managers and the HRM department in four project-oriented companies in the Netherlands,Austria, the UK and the USA

The topic of what human resource management (HRM) responsibilities are devolved from the HRM department to line managers has attracted much interest in recent years. We report findings from a study on the devolution of HRM practices in four project-oriented companies (POCs) and argue that although HRM practices are carried out beyond the HRM department, they are also carried out beyond the line. While the literature on devolving HRM responsibilities to line management is burgeoning, the HRM responsibilities of managers beyond the line organization are neglected. We make two contributions to the literature. Firstly, our study reveals that some HRM practices are the domain of the project manager rather than either the line manager or the HRM department. The complex interplay of the roles of the HRM department, line management and project management creates challenges and pitfalls where people are managed across the boundaries of the permanent and temporary organization. We identify a potentially powerful role for the HRM department in both monitoring and guiding the different players from the line and the project organizations, and in protecting the well-being of employees whose work traverses these organizational boundaries. Our second contribution is that we map the diversity of practices in different POCs for managing the interplay between the three main parties delivering HRM practices and offer project orientation as a contextual indicator that contributes to diversity in HRM practices.     

Learning capabilities,human resource management innovation and competitive advantage

The growing literature on innovation pays limited attention to the role of human resource management (HRM) innovation in creating competitive advantage. This paper adopts a knowledge-based approach to examine how firms design and implement HRM innovations (HRMIs) and how such innovations support competitive advantage. Drawing from multiple streams of literature and qualitative evidence from Australian manufacturing and service firms, our findings reveal that human resource (HR) functional-level learning capabilities, through which HR professionals build and nurture new knowledge configurations, facilitate the design and implementation of HRMIs. The findings also reveal that HRMIs, when coupled with top management support, can play a vital role in firm competitive advantage. Addressing the limitations of the term radical innovations to fully capture HRMIs and based on our findings and extant literature we propose a new classification that will capture the unique nature of HRMIs. In addition to contributing to theory, our paper provides valuable insights to practitioners for building and nurturing learning capabilities for HRMI-related competitive advantage.     

Self-renewal of the Japanese firm and the human resource strategy

Traditional “Japanese personnel management” that has long been considered as the key for Japan's competitive success now needs fundamental restructuring in order to meet the challenges of a stagnant economy, matured domestic market, and the rise of NICs (Newly Industrialized Countries) in international markets. The self-renewal of Japanese firms can be achieved by a paradigm shift at the corporate strategy level: from a production orientation to a product orientation. In accordance with this paradigm shift, leading Japanese firms have started reforming their Human Resource Management (HRM) function from a productivity-centered to a creativity-centered one— creative HRM. Creative HRM has three pillars: (1) the creation of the strategic vision through commitment of the employees, (2) an entrepreneurial middle management as a key strategic node, and (3) multi-dimensional personnel management. Creation and realization of the strategic vision through the active commitment of an entrepreneurial middle management is necessary for the self-renewal of the firm. “Japanese Personnel Management” that might have been overadapted to the traditional strategic paradigm is now transforming itself from a “group-centered” personnel administration to an “individual-centered” one. While Western companies have been adopting Japanese “groupism” to reconstruct their production systems, Japanese companies have started introducing Western “individualism” to encourage creative self-transformation. But no system or technique is truly effective without human commitment, and this requires a fundamental paradigm shift for Japanese firms.     

Managing human resources in dynamic environments to create value: role of HR options

HR options as firm investments in human assets in uncertain environments to create the capability to flexibly respond to future contingent events have been recognised as valuable. However, the black box of causal interlinkages between environmental uncertainties, HR options and firm performance is yet to be explored in strategic HRM literature. Based on the data obtained from 108 IT software firms in India, this study empirically explores these linkages using a multi-level causal model. The results suggest that the use of HR options positively mediates the effects of environmental uncertainties on firm performance. The mediating influences of different types of HR options, used by the firms to manage various types of uncertainties affecting their human assets, on the operational and the financial performance of the firms are found to be different. Implications of findings of the study for managing investments in human assets under uncertainty have been discussed.     

Recessionary bundles: HR practices in the Irish economic crisis

The HR practices adopted by firms in response to the current deep and prolonged recession have received little attention in the literature. There are reasons for supposing that firms will adopt HR practices in bundles in responding to the recession in order to benefit from technical and behavioural complementarities. Drawing on a nationally representative survey, the article investigates the bundles of HR practices adopted by firms during the Irish recession and examines influences on the bundles that are evident. The article contributes to HRM theory by testing different views on HR bundles likely to be adopted in recessionary conditions and by moving beyond the prevailing focus in HRM on HR bundles adopted by firms in steady‐state business conditions.     

Strategic human resource management,human capital and competitive advantage: is the field going in circles?

The resource‐based view (RBV) of the firm has been consistently used as a backdrop in strategic human resource management (SHRM) research and has the potential to bridge the ‘micro–macro’ divide. The tension between the SHRM and the strategic human capital literature, however, signifies that RBV has not reached its potential. In this paper, we begin with a brief review of the conceptual logic linking human resource management (HRM) practices and firm outcomes that aim at highlighting the different treatment of RBV in the SHRM and strategic human capital literatures. We then propose a conceptual model that suggests that HRM practices are not simple levers that enable firms to create sustainable competitive advantage, as most of the strategic human capital research postulates. On the contrary, we argue that HRM practices can contribute to a firm's sustainable competitive advantage not only by enhancing employees' ability, and offering motivation and opportunities, but also by shaping supply‐side and demand‐side mobility constraints.     

Control and commitment HR practices,job satisfaction and turnover intentions: a comparison between local and multinational firms in China

There is a growing body of literature and debate around control versus commitment human resource management (HRM) systems and their impacts on employees. However, the impacts of these constructs have not been widely examined in more emerging economies. Taking a specific sample of educated professionals working for multinational and local firms in China, this study investigated employee perceptions of control and commitment HR practices, job satisfaction and turnover intentions. A total of 311 respondents completed a structured survey questionnaire. Results revealed that those working for multinational firms reported more positive perceptions of their employers' control and commitment HR practices. In multinational firms, the use of commitment HR practices predicted lower intentions to leave. However, in domestic firms a lack of control HR practices predicted higher turnover intentions. Theoretically, the study adds to discussions about the nature and roles of these constructs, their impacts on HR outcomes and how institutional mechanisms might shape the degree of HRM homogeneity and hybridity across organizations in China. Practically, the study provides guidance to international and local firms on how to improve their HRM effectiveness to achieve a higher retention of their most talented professionals.