Moving from HRM to knowledge productivity:a study of whether and how organizations become learning organizations

Practitioners and academics are in broad agreement that, above all, organizations need to be able to learn, to innovate and to question existing ways of working. This thesis develops a model to take into account, firstly, what determines whether or not organizations endorse practices designed to facilitate learning. Secondly, the model evaluates the impact of such practices upon organizational outcomes, measured in terms of products and technological innovation. Researchers have noted that organizations that are committed to producing innovation show great resilience in dealing with adverse business conditions (e.g. Pavitt, 1991; Leonard Barton, 1998). In effect, such organizations bear many of the characteristics associated with the achievement of ‘learning organization’ status (Garvin, 1993; Pedler, Burgoyne & Boydell, 1999; Senge, 1990). Seven studies are presented to support this theoretical framework. The first empirical study explores the antecedents to effective learning. The three following studies present data to suggest that people management practices are highly significant in determining whether or not organizations are able to produce sustained innovation. The thesis goes on to explore the relationship between organizational-level job satisfaction, learning and innovation, and provides evidence to suggest that there is a strong, positive relationship between these variables. The final two chapters analyze learning and innovation within two similar manufacturing organizations. One manifests relatively low levels of innovation whilst the other is generally considered to be outstandingly innovative. I present the comparative framework for exploring the different approaches to learning manifested by the two organizations. The thesis concludes by assessing the extent to which the theoretical model presented in the second chapter is borne out by the findings of the study. Whilst this is a relatively new field of inquiry, findings reveal that organizations have a much stronger chance of producing sustained innovation where they manage people proactively where people process themselves to be satisfied at work. Few studies to date have presented empirical evidence to substantiate theoretical endorsements to engage in higher order learning, so this research makes an important contribution to existing literature in this field

Teams, HRM and innovation:an organisation-level analysis

For organizations to survive and prosper they have to develop new and improved products, services and ways of working. Innovation is vital for organizational survival. Much research and managerial attention is therefore devoted to understanding the factors that predict innovation in organizations. This paper describes a research study of product innovation in manufacturing organizations and explores the extent to which team based working and team working effectiveness in these organizations predict product innovation. It also considers whether combinations of good HRM systems and practices, extensive team based working and effective team working are associated with product innovation

Latour and Woolgar’s ‘cycle of scientific credibility’ as a basis for conceptualizing business school strategy

Drawing on contemporary and historical discourse around UK business schools and insights from the sociology of scientific knowledge, we argue that business schools should be understood and judged, not as they typically have been, as engines of knowledge production, but as engines of credibility production. Credibility, we argue, is central to the attractiveness of business schools to students and other key stakeholders and therefore credibility, and the mechanisms through which credibility are maintained, should be at the center of strategic thinking within business schools. We argue that over-reliance on funding from corporate sources can have profound consequences for the ability of schools to continue to produce credibility. This article focuses primarily on the experiences of business schools in the UK

Managerial coaching skill and team performance: How does the relationship work and under what conditions?

Empirical evidence about whether and how managerial coaching relates to team performance continues to lag behind research conducted on individual employee outcomes. We address this question by drawing on social cognition theory and turning the spotlight on the moderating role of managers' learning goal orientation and the mediating role of team-level architectural knowledge. We employ dual-source data from 182 knowledge workers and their managers nested in 60 teams in knowledge-based organisations. Our findings indicate that team-level architectural knowledge mediates the relationship between managerial coaching skill and team performance when the managers' learning goal orientation is high rather than low. Our study contributes to the human resources literature by highlighting the importance of managers in devolved developmental interventions and offers practical implications for the informed workplace use of managerial coaching

Organisational voice and employee-focused voice: Two distinct voice forms and their effects on burnout and innovative behaviour

Scholars and practitioners have long emphasised the importance of employees speaking up about workplace issues. Yet, voice research remains divided on fundamental questions such as underlying purpose. Drawing on the Job Demands-Resources Model, this study offers an integrative perspective, building on the idea that the interests of employees and managers are distinct concerning the purpose of voice. This article draws on responses from a cross-sectional national online survey distributed by YouGov, with a survey design that ensured that only those employed within an organisational setting with a reporting structure would be included in the data. The sample size used for the analysis (N=1,858) was representative of the UK workforce regarding gender, full- or part-time work status, organisation size within each sector, and industry. The exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis provides empirical evidence of two alternative and distinct voice forms: organisational and employee-focused. Results show that while organisational voice is associated with significantly higher innovative behaviour and higher levels of burnout, employee-focused voice is significantly and negatively associated with employee burnout. Lastly, our analysis reveals that while the total effect of organisational voice on burnout is positive, employee-focused voice, partially mediating the organisational voice-burnout relationship, exerts a countervailing effect, lowering burnout. Accordingly, organisations are advised to promote both voice forms, given their unique, positive effects, first on the employee (ameliorating burnout) and second on strategically important outcomes (innovative behaviours). Implications for theory and practice are discussed

Proactive and politically skilled professionals: What is the relationship with affective occupational commitment?

The aim of this study is to extend research on employee affective commitment in three ways: (1) instead of organizational commitment the focus is on occupational commitment; (2) the role of proactive personality on affective occupational commitment is examined; and (3) occupational satisfaction is examined as a mediator and political skills as moderator in the relationship between proactive personality and affective occupational commitment. Two connected studies, one in a hospital located in the private sector and one in a university located in the public sector, are carried out in Pakistan, drawing on a total sample of over 400 employees. The results show that proactive personality is positively related to affective occupational commitment, and that occupational satisfaction partly mediates the relationship between proactive personality and affective occupational commitment. No effect is found for a moderator effect of political skills in the relationship between proactive personality and affective occupational commitment. Political skills however moderate the relationship between proactive personality and affective organizational commitment

High-performance work systems and innovation in Vietnamese small firms

This article examines the interplay between high-performance work systems (HPWS) and the innovation of Vietnamese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Our conceptual model relies on the componential theory of creativity along with HPWS, learning goal orientation (LGO), creativity and innovation to hypothesise both mediation and moderation mechanisms linking such a relationship. Using a sample of 133 SMEs, we find that (1) employee creativity mediates the pathway between HPWS and firm innovation; and (2) LGO moderates the HPWS - employee creativity relationship. Our study casts new light on the theoretical mechanism through which HPWS influence firm innovation and adds to understanding about HPWS within SMEs by bringing employees centre stage