A tale of two strategies : A framework of analysis for human resource management and innovation - An Australian perspective
- Cavagnoli, Donatella, Courvisanos, Jerry
- Authors: Cavagnoli, Donatella , Courvisanos, Jerry
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 2009 Hawaii International Conference on Business, Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A. : 12th-15th June 2009 p. 304-320
- Full Text:
- Description: Innovation, both technological and organisational, has become the top national priority in generating strong industrial development in order to stimulate economic development and strengthen competitiveness. From this perspective, it is crucial to identify how various aspects of business management in practice are responding to the challenge of supporting innovation. One crucial aspect under scrutiny lately has been the role of human resource management (HRM) in effectively building the capacity of organisations to innovate through motivation and learning. Recent research has found a positive relationship among HRM policies, innovation and industrial performance. This important relationship has been often mentioned, but without any clear theoretical framework or empirical evidence to identify the type of HRM strategies that support innovation. The aim of this paper is to examine the Australian situation with regard to HRM strategies and their support (or lack thereof) for innovation during the 2000s boom years prior to the recent “Great Recession”. This is done by comparing two distinct HRM systems and strategies implemented in Australia. One is centred around deregulation, the other is centred around regulation. A theoretical framework is developed based on the capability of firms to innovate and how it is strictly related to their ability to substitute between labour inputs, within these two strategies. This framework then provides the basis for examining HRM practices and industrial relations systems in order to identify the difference between the learning practices that are common to successful innovation, and the ones that hamper innovation. The focus of the paper is on the input of innovative individuals. For it is individuals who learn within a frame of reference created by their education and by their social and organisational systems of rewards. The paper will show how through HRM strategies, the process of learning can lead to innovation, but it can also hinder innovation. It is crucial that societies invest in practices that foster and maintain the individual’s motivation to innovate and ability to generate new knowledge.
- Description: 2003007912
- Authors: Cavagnoli, Donatella , Courvisanos, Jerry
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 2009 Hawaii International Conference on Business, Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A. : 12th-15th June 2009 p. 304-320
- Full Text:
- Description: Innovation, both technological and organisational, has become the top national priority in generating strong industrial development in order to stimulate economic development and strengthen competitiveness. From this perspective, it is crucial to identify how various aspects of business management in practice are responding to the challenge of supporting innovation. One crucial aspect under scrutiny lately has been the role of human resource management (HRM) in effectively building the capacity of organisations to innovate through motivation and learning. Recent research has found a positive relationship among HRM policies, innovation and industrial performance. This important relationship has been often mentioned, but without any clear theoretical framework or empirical evidence to identify the type of HRM strategies that support innovation. The aim of this paper is to examine the Australian situation with regard to HRM strategies and their support (or lack thereof) for innovation during the 2000s boom years prior to the recent “Great Recession”. This is done by comparing two distinct HRM systems and strategies implemented in Australia. One is centred around deregulation, the other is centred around regulation. A theoretical framework is developed based on the capability of firms to innovate and how it is strictly related to their ability to substitute between labour inputs, within these two strategies. This framework then provides the basis for examining HRM practices and industrial relations systems in order to identify the difference between the learning practices that are common to successful innovation, and the ones that hamper innovation. The focus of the paper is on the input of innovative individuals. For it is individuals who learn within a frame of reference created by their education and by their social and organisational systems of rewards. The paper will show how through HRM strategies, the process of learning can lead to innovation, but it can also hinder innovation. It is crucial that societies invest in practices that foster and maintain the individual’s motivation to innovate and ability to generate new knowledge.
- Description: 2003007912
Building workforce innovation capacity in Australia: A dynamic economic framework for evaluating two strategies
- Cavagnoli, Donatella, Courvisanos, Jerry
- Authors: Cavagnoli, Donatella , Courvisanos, Jerry
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Australian Conference of Economists p. 1-40
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Innovation in Australia has become the top national priority in strengthening competitiveness of firms and generating strong economic development. This paper investigates the building of workforce innovation capacity through human resource management (HRM) practices to foster innovation in Australia. Two HRM strategies are identified as having operated in Australia over 40 years. One is a ‘soft’ HRM strategy based on greater worker autonomy; a strategy which dominated in the 1970s and 1980s. The other is a ‘hard’ HRM strategy based on routine worker performance measurement which has increasingly become more relevant since the 1990s and into the 21st Century as the basis for stronger competitive advantage. A dynamic discrete choice model is developed to provide a method for capturing and explaining variations in the relationship between the two strategies and innovation. This approach reframes the economics of innovation using a unique ‘containment of structure and contingency of agency’ spectrum to explain innovation-successful HRM practices which can account for both internal firm management policies and external-to-the-firm effects of government economic policies. For this reason, this study provides a historical understanding that links effective HRM strategy to building innovation capacity from both firm and government levels. Such experience can assist building a stronger Australian Innovation System so often demanded.
- Authors: Cavagnoli, Donatella , Courvisanos, Jerry
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Australian Conference of Economists p. 1-40
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Innovation in Australia has become the top national priority in strengthening competitiveness of firms and generating strong economic development. This paper investigates the building of workforce innovation capacity through human resource management (HRM) practices to foster innovation in Australia. Two HRM strategies are identified as having operated in Australia over 40 years. One is a ‘soft’ HRM strategy based on greater worker autonomy; a strategy which dominated in the 1970s and 1980s. The other is a ‘hard’ HRM strategy based on routine worker performance measurement which has increasingly become more relevant since the 1990s and into the 21st Century as the basis for stronger competitive advantage. A dynamic discrete choice model is developed to provide a method for capturing and explaining variations in the relationship between the two strategies and innovation. This approach reframes the economics of innovation using a unique ‘containment of structure and contingency of agency’ spectrum to explain innovation-successful HRM practices which can account for both internal firm management policies and external-to-the-firm effects of government economic policies. For this reason, this study provides a historical understanding that links effective HRM strategy to building innovation capacity from both firm and government levels. Such experience can assist building a stronger Australian Innovation System so often demanded.
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