Examining Strategic Fit and Misfit in the Management of Knowledge Workers

2016/06/17 by Christopher Collins, Christopher J. Collins, Rebecca R. Kehoe +1 · 44 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Decision Sciences · Engineering · Social Sciences · #Auction Theory and Applications #Business #Computer science #Core (optical fiber) #Economics #Engineering #Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies #Field (mathematics) #Human resource management #Human resources #Industrial organization #Innovation and Knowledge Management #Knowledge management #Management #Marketing #Resource (disambiguation) #Strategic alignment #Strategic financial management #Strategic management #Strategic planning #Work (physics)

paper · open access · doi:10.1177/0019793916654481

published in Industrial and Labor Relations Review 70(2), 308-335 (SAGE Publishing)

openalex publication_date 2016/06/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25

Abstract

This study advances research on strategic human resource management by examining whether better firm performance depends on the alignment between an organization’s human resources (HR) system and its innovation strategy. The authors argue that the unique problems underlying exploration innovation strategies and exploitation innovation strategies require core workers to engage in different types of knowledge-search and -combination behaviors. Alternative HR systems theoretically produce different knowledge-search and -combination behaviors by way of their effect on employees’ ability, motivation, and opportunity structures at work. Drawing on a field study of 230 software firms, the authors demonstrate that alternative HR systems support either an exploration or exploitation strategy and that alignment between a firm’s HR system and innovation strategy results in firm performance gains and misalignment results in performance penalties.

Citations

• The Interplay Between Exploration and Exploitation
• Absorptive Capacity: A New Perspective on Learning and Innovation
• The Strength of Weak Ties
• ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO THE EMPLOYEE-ORGANIZATION RELATIONSHIP: DOES INVESTMENT IN EMPLOYEES PAY OFF?

Cited by

• Which Way to High Performance? Comparing Performance Effects of High-Performance Work System Components in Small- to Medium-Sized Establishments
• A quarter‐century review of HRM in small and medium‐sized enterprises: Capturing what we know, exploring where we need to go
• Linking digital leadership and employee digital performance in SMEs in China: The chain-mediating role of high-involvement human resource management practice and employee dynamic capability. [europepmc]

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• HRM as a predictor of innovation
• How Does Executive Strategic Human Resource Management Link to Organizational Ambidexterity? An Empirical Examination of Manufacturing Firms in China