Search results

Studies of inter-organizational relationships have traditionally overlooked the human resource management (HRM) field, with most research focusing on collaborations in the technical domain. This study endeavors to explore the impact of organizational human resources (HR) collaborations on HR innovativeness, drawing on theories about organizational learning capabilities to explain this connection. By analyzing the synergies arising from inter-organizational HR collaborations, this study aims to seek to shed light on the potential for HRM to contribute to organizational performance and foster innovation.

The study is based on a quantitative survey conducted among 326 Dutch companies. The survey aims to find out whether these companies collaborate with other organizations on HR-related issues, the extent to which they renew their HRM function, and whether they apply organizational learning practices. The data collected for the survey are analyzed using Hayes PROCESS macro to investigate mediation effects.

As per the study, HR collaboration results in innovation. The research suggests that collaborating with HR across different organizations significantly contributes to HR innovation. This relationship can be explained by the inter-organizational learning practices that organizations adopt. Therefore, when organizations collaborate with each other, they learn from each other, which enhances their learning capabilities and ultimately leads to HR innovation.

This study delves into the extent to which organizations collaborate on HR-related issues, which is a relatively new field. Moreover, it contributes to the research on the connection between inter-organizational relationships and innovation by showing how much of it is explained by organizational learning.

Studies of inter-organisational relationships have mainly investigated collaborations in the technical domain. There is considerably less research conducted in the field of inter-organisational collaborations in the domain of human resource management (HRM). At the same time, it is acknowledged that inter-organisational collaboration in this domain is relevant for organisations. By focusing on inter-organisational HR collaborations, this study provides insights into how these collaborations are governed, as well as how the mode of governance is explained.

The paper relies on a quantitative study among 161 Dutch companies that collaborate with each other on HR-related issues. A measure of governance of inter-organisational HR collaboration is developed and applied.

Organisations tend to apply a mixture of governance mechanisms to govern their inter-organisational HR collaborations. Hence, they apply a collaborative community type of governance to these HR collaborations. The analyses show that the level of knowledge intensity, in particular the extent to which the organisation applies organisational learning practices, explains the use of collaborative community.

First, this study focuses on an under-researched field: inter-organisational HR collaborations. Secondly, the study extends existing insights into the governance of inter-organisational relationships by analysing a novel data set.

External factors such as global competition and new technologies, require organizations to be innovative. Such organizational innovations also ask for innovative human resource management (HRM). However, in the current literature, it is not completely clear what innovative HRM means, as it is conceptualized in different ways. This study aims to provide clarity about innovative HRM by suggesting a new measurement scale; formulating hypotheses about some core determinants of innovative HRM; and investigating how innovative HRM relates to organizational innovation.

Using a sample of 719 Dutch organizations it was possible to investigate the properties of the inventory and examining several determinants of innovative HRM and how it relates to organizational innovation.

The innovative HRM scale is internally consistent and differs from other HRM indicators. It is explained by external developments, organizational size and stability of the organization. Finally, innovative HRM is a predictor of organizational innovation.

The measure that was developed in this paper is new to the literature. Innovative HRM has not been measured in a similar way to date. Besides that, the innovative HRM Survey is a novel data set.

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of organisational conditions and workplace characteristics in midcareer and senior employees’ intention to volitionally provide career support to junior organisational members, their protégés.

Hypotheses are tested using multilevel linear modelling on a heterogeneous sample of Dutch employees ages 29 to 69 who participated in a vignette study in the autumn of 2017.

In line with the hypotheses, the findings of this study show that volitional (informal) mentoring is positively related to an organisation’s endorsement of intrinsic values (e.g. learning opportunities) and negatively to the presence of hindrance demands (e.g. time pressure).

Practitioners could facilitate co-mentor consultation, employ autonomy-supportive direct supervisors and fulfil psychological contract obligations by providing job security and learning opportunities. Organisations could also lower time pressures through job carving.

This study extends extant mentoring research by combining insights from perceived organisational support (POS) and self-determination theory (SDT) to examine the role organisational conditions and workplace characteristics play in aiding or hindering volitional mentoring. It enriches extant knowledge management studies on the link between organisational aspects and (intended) knowledge sharing behaviour by showing that similar organisational motivators predict volitional mentoring, thereby launching a call to study knowledge management through volitional mentoring using a SDT- and POS-based lens. A methodological novelty is the reliance on a vignette study.

Previous research leads to contrasting hypotheses about the relationship between extra effort of employees and the level of job security. According to agency theory, job security leads to lower levels of extra effort and social exchange theory argues that extra effort requires job security. The purpose of this paper is to formulate a set of hypotheses based on these theories. Besides considering them as mutually exclusive, they are integrated into a single theoretical framework that argues that both theories can apply, depending on the conditions and social context (in terms of the social security system).

Data from the International Social Survey Program (2005) including 22 countries from around the globe are analyzed using multilevel analysis.

The study provides evidence that social security moderates the relationship between job security and extra effort.

This study differs from previous research as it focuses on two sides of insecurity in the workplace and because it analyzes a large data set to include institutional factors.

This study has the following aims. First, it tries to clarify the relationship between global value chain (GVC) participation and innovation performance. To date, research generated mixed results. Secondly, it explores a novel way of investigating GVC participation by focusing on the sectoral level in which organizations operate using the concept of GVC embeddedness, which has not been investigated to date.

Data from two sources are combined. The European Company Survey of 2019 provides data about the innovation performance of organizations. These data include measures about production and process. At the sectoral level, these company-level data are combined with data from the Trade in Value Added from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In total, more than 20,000 companies were investigated, which operate in 15 sectors in 28 countries. This three-level structure is analysed using multilevel ordered probit analyses.

The results show that forward participation and backward participation at the sectoral level are positively related to product innovation and process innovation. The probability of not being engaged in innovation is reduced through GVC embeddedness. And, the probability of generating incremental and radical innovations (both regarding products and processes) increases if GVC participating at the sectoral level is higher.

This study is the first to relate sectoral GVC embeddedness to the innovation performance of organizations.

This paper aims at integrating previous studies investigating the relationship between inter-organizational cooperation and organizational innovation. Earlier research provides mixed results regarding this relationship. In this paper, it is argued that this may be because of an empirical bias in these studies, as they tend to focus on one sector, one type of innovation or one country. Using a cross-national comparative data set enables to account for these potential biases and establish the relationship between inter-organizational cooperation and organizational innovation.

The study examines the effect of inter-organizational cooperation on product, process, organizational and market innovation, using data from 32 European countries and 6 different sectors (n = 27,019). The data are analyzed using logistic regression analysis.

The analysis shows that there is a positive relationship between inter-organizational cooperation and organizational innovation, even when controlled for common innovation variables including general characteristics, organizational structure, organizational culture, HR strategies, networking interaction and external knowledge acquisition.

In contrast to most prior studies that rely on data from one sector, one country and one innovation type, this study examines the relationship between inter-organizational cooperation and organizational innovativeness by taking into account multiple sectors, countries and types of innovation. This intends to generate more robust results regarding the link between inter-organizational cooperation and organizational innovativeness.

This paper aims to investigate whether the shift towards the knowledge economy (e.g. an increasing reliance in knowledge in the production of goods and services) is related to the work practices of organizations (aimed at the provision of autonomy, investments in training and the use of technology).

The analyses are based on data about over 20,000 companies in 28 European countries. National level indicators of knowledge intensity are related to the work practices of these organizations. Multilevel analysis is applied to test hypotheses.

The results show that there is a strong and positive relationship between the knowledge intensity of the economy and the use of knowledge intense work practices.

To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the first papers to test whether knowledge intensity at the national level is related to the work practices of organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how active labour market policy (ALMP) training programmes and hiring subsidies increase or decrease differences in the unemployment risk between lesser and higher educated people during an economic downturn. A focus is put on potential job competition dynamics and cumulative (dis)advantages of the lesser and higher educated.

The paper uses multi-level data. The fifth wave (2010) of the European Social Survey was used and combined with macro-level data on labour market policies of the OECD. The sample consisted of 18,172 observations in 19 countries.

The results show that higher levels of participation and spending on training policies are related to a smaller difference in the unemployment risks of the educational groups. Higher training policy intensity is associated with a lower unemployment risk for the lesser educated and a higher unemployment risk for the higher educated. This implies that the lesser educated are better able to withstand downward pressure from the higher educated, thereby, reducing downward displacement during an economic downturn. Hiring subsidies do not seem to be associated with the impact of education on unemployment.

The paper adds to the discussion on ALMP training and hiring subsidies that are primarily rooted in the human capital theory and signalling theory. Both theories ignore the social context of labour market behaviour. The job competition theory and cumulative (dis)advantage theory add to these theories by focussing on the relative position of individuals and the characteristics that accompany the social position of the individual.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate three distinct hypotheses about the relationship between human resource (HR) practices (discretion and skill enhancement) and the level of trade openness and foreign direct investments of countries.

The study applies multilevel analysis using data of 16,701 employees living in 23 European countries.

Based on the multilevel analysis mixed support is found for the hypothesis stating that economic openness is curvilinearly related (an inverted U) to the use of HR practices. While this holds for discretion, it does not for skill enhancement.

While economic globalization is often mentioned as an important factor in understanding organizational relations, there have only been few international comparative studies explicitly linking measures of economic openness and HR practices. This study investigate whether economic globalization is important or not.