Chun-Hsi Vivian Chen, Pi-Wen Yeh and Jean Madsen
This study aims to explore the influences of contingent workers on organizations’ innovation performance and develop a framework examining how innovation performance benefits from…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the influences of contingent workers on organizations’ innovation performance and develop a framework examining how innovation performance benefits from the utilization of contingent workers. Built up on a strategic human resource (HR) flexibility model, the importance of coordination flexibility of contingent worker skills and behaviors is highlighted.
Design/methodology/approach
Structural equation modeling is used to test the proposed hypotheses by using data collected from 163 paired surveys in Taiwan. The results provide support on the hypotheses.
Findings
The findings in this study highlight the coordination flexibility of contingent worker skills and behaviors, adaptive capability and knowledge integration on innovation performance in highly competitive industries. This study provides evidence linking coordination flexibility of contingent worker skills and behaviors and organizational innovation performance, and can contribute to the strategic HR management literature.
Originality/value
Coordination flexibility of contingent worker skills and behaviors contributes positively to innovation performance. According to the findings, managers should pay more attention on the contingent workers’ coordination practices to enhance organizational innovation performance in the manufacturing firms. In addition to the managerial implications, research limitations and future research directions are also discussed.
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Keywords
Ben-Roy Do, Pi-Wen Yeh and Jean Madsen
Human resource (HR) flexibility is a firm-level capability that consists of employee skill flexibility, employee behavior flexibility, and HR practice flexibility. HR flexibility…
Abstract
Purpose
Human resource (HR) flexibility is a firm-level capability that consists of employee skill flexibility, employee behavior flexibility, and HR practice flexibility. HR flexibility allows organizations to adapt and be responsive to changes in their environments. Findings from this paper indicate that if the organization is highly innovative and has flexible HR policies, then that influences organizational culture, risk-taking and experimentation within a firm. This paper has also revealed that process innovation mediates between adaptability culture and product innovation. It also revealed that managers should emphasize processes to improve efficiency for resource exploitation. The lessons learned from process innovation activities indicated that having a strong knowledge base assists a firm in developing innovative technology such as automation for manufacturing, handling and testing or simply smart manufacturing.
Design/methodology/approach
Questionnaires were sent to employees at 23 Taiwanese companies in high-tech industries, where innovation is the key to their survival, and 293 valid surveys were collected. Structural equation modeling, (SEM) using IBM SPSS Amos, was used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results fully support the hypotheses that HR flexibility positively influences adaptability culture and contributes to organizational innovation. Furthermore, it was found that adaptability culture has a direct impact on process innovation and an indirect impact on product innovation through process innovation.
Originality/value
The critical role of HR flexibility and adaptability culture on organizational innovation in the high-tech sector were highlighted. The importance of HR flexibility is emphasized to provide managerial hints to top managers.