HRM and innovative work behaviour: a systematic literature review
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-09-2016-0257 |
| Published date | 16 October 2017 |
| Date | 16 October 2017 |
| Pages | 1228-1253 |
| Author | Anna Bos-Nehles,Maarten Renkema,Maike Janssen |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
HRM and innovative work
behaviour: a systematic
literature review
Anna Bos-Nehles
Department of Business Administration, School of Behavioural,
Management and Social Sciences, University of Twente,
Enschede, The Netherlands, and
Maarten Renkema and Maike Janssen
Department of Human Resource Management, School of Behavioural,
Management and Social Sciences, University of Twente, Enschede,
The Netherlands
Abstract
Purpose –Although we know that HRM practices can have a huge impact on employees’innovative work
behaviour (IWB), we do not know exactly which practices make the difference and how they affect IWB. Thus, the
purpose of this paper is to determine the best HRM practices for boosting IWB, to understand the theoretical
reasons for this, and to discover mediators and moderators in the relationship between HRM practices and IWB.
Design/methodology/approach –Based on a systematic review of the literature, the authors carried out a
content analysis on 27 peer-reviewed journal articles.
Findings –Working with the definitions and items provided in the articles, the authors were able to cluster
HRM practices according to the ability-motivation-opportunity framework. The best HRM practices for
enhancing IWB are training and development, reward, job security, autonomy, task composition, job demand,
and feedback.
Practical implications –The results of this study provide practical information for HRM professionals
aiming to develop an HRM system that generates innovative employee behaviours that might help build an
innovative climate.
Originality/value –A framework is presented that aggregates the findings and clarifies which HRM
practices influence IWB and how these relationships can be explained.
Keywords Qualitative, Systematic literature review, HRM practices, Innovative work behaviour,
AMO theory, Best practices for innovative work behaviour
Paper type Literature review
Introduction
Today, innovation is an indispensable factor in enabling organisations to adapt to rapid
economic changes and gain a competitive advantage. Research has shown that innovation is
beneficial for the performance of organisations (Damanpour, 1991; Jiménez-Jiménez and
Sanz-Valle, 2011; Thornhill, 2006) because organisations can then respond to challenges
faster and are better at exploiting new products and market opportunities. Despite the
burgeoning research interest in innovation at the level of the firm, there is a dearth of
knowledge about how innovation can be fostered at the individual level. However, this is the
knowledge that is needed if organisations are to pursue innovative strategies and align
Personnel Review
Vol. 46 No. 7, 2017
pp. 1228-1253
Emerald Publishing Limited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-09-2016-0257
Received 30 September 2016
Revised 16 March 2017
8June2017
Accepted 14 June 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
© Anna Bos-Nehles, Maarten Renkema and Maike Janssen. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited.
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may
reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and
non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full
terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
The authors would like to thank Edel Conway for her invaluable comments and edits on an earlier
version of this paper.
1228
PR
46,7
employee behaviours with that strategy. According to Agarwal (2014, p. 43), “one option for
organisations to become more innovative is to encourage their employees to be innovative”.
This paper sets out to address this gap in understanding by providing a systematic
review of the evidence on the link between HRM practices and innovative work behaviour
(IWB) at the employee level. IWB can be characterised as “the intentional creation,
introduction and application of new ideas within a work role, group or organization, in order
to benefit role performance, the group, or the organization”( Janssen, 2000, p. 288).
Employees are able to initiate innovations because they are in frequent contact with
processes and products and can detect potential improvements and opportunities for new
developments. However, innovation only occurs if employees engage in activities aimed at
generating and implementing ideas. Consequentially, management needs to know how IWB
can be shaped and stimulated. Inter alia, the design of HRM practices has been identified as
a factor in predetermining IWB (Laursen and Foss, 2003; Shipton et al., 2006).
Although many studies have found support for a linkage between HRM and
innovation (Laursen and Foss, 2003; Messersmith and Guthrie, 2010; Jiménez-Jiménez
and Sanz-Valle, 2008; Mumford, 2000; Shipton et al., 2006) by the former influencing and
shaping indiv iduals’attitudes,behaviours and knowledge, theyall link HRM to innovation on
the organisation al level. Howeve r, employees’innovative behaviours are central to the
innovative capacity of organisations as individuals can be seen as the cornerstone of every
innovation. Despite its importance, knowledge about IWB and how it can be influenced is
fragmented and inconsistent. As such, organisations may be restricted in their ability to
innovate because they do not know how to trigger employees in a way that will encourage
them to engage in IWB. For thisreason, gaining deeper insight into the factors that influence
IWB, and how they do this, is of greatrelevance as it will provide a more coherent picture of
the relationshipbetween HRM and IWB. This review contributesto the IWB literature in two
ways. First, sinceit is crucial to understand the complex relationship between HRM and IWB,
this paper clarifies which HRM practices are the best in terms of encouraging IWB.
The literaturealready provides insightsinto the best practices for organisational performance,
such as high-performance work practices (HPWPs) (e.g. Combs et al., 2006) and for employee
commitment, such as high-commitment work practices (HCWPs) (e.g. Zhou et al., 2013).
However, in this study, we are seeking to identify those practices that are most effective in
enhancing innovation and, more specifically, the IWB of employees. Second, we provide a
framework that aggregates the findings and investigates the mechanisms that can explain
why as well as how and when HRM practices are linked to IWB (Seeck and Diehl, 2016) –that
is, we aim to understandthe theoretical reasons for anddiscover mediators and moderatorsin
the relationship between HRM practices and IWB.
The systematic review of the HRM practices-IWB literature is based on 27 articles whose
content has been carefully analysed to identify the best HRM practices for boosting IWB.
We use the ability-motivation-opportunity (AMO) framework to structure our results and
analyse which ability-enhancing, motivation-enhancing and/or opportunity-enhancing HRM
practices are best when it comes to stimulating IWB (Bello-Pintado, 2015; Jiang et al., 2012).
The AMO frameworkstresses that the combination of abilities, motivations and opportunities
affects organisational performance through discretionary effort (Appelbaum et al., 2000) .
Here, we focus on IWB as a form of discretionary effort (e.g. Janssen, 2000). Since the AMO
framework is argued to be a way to expand the theoretical underpinnings of the
HRM-innovationrelationship (Seeckand Diehl, 2016), we feel justifiedin using this framework
for the HRM-IWB relationship.
In the remainder of the paper, we will present the research approach and carefully
describe the review process. In the results section, we present the HRM practices that come
out as best in terms of promoting IWB, provide evidence for the found relationships
and explain the linkage based on various theoretical approaches. Combining the various
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HRM and IWB
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