Critical HR capabilities in agile organisations a cross-case analysis in swiss SMEs

Léonie S. Mollet and Stephanie Kaudela-Baum ()
Additional contact information
Léonie S. Mollet: Lucerne University of Applied Sciences
Stephanie Kaudela-Baum: Lucerne University of Applied Sciences

Review of Managerial Science, 2023, vol. 17, issue 6, No 7, 2055-2075

Abstract: Abstract The current agile management literature is missing insight about the challenges agile organisations face regarding human resource management (HRM/HR) – and how they may overcome them. Based on an exploratory case study design, we investigate the managerial challenges in seven pioneering companies, all of them medium-sized firms (SME) from the IT sector in Switzerland. The majority of the qualitative data gathered stems from interviews, that was coded along emerging themes. The results are divided into three sections: a proposed (1) typology for Business Agilists, (2) general challenges and (3) emergent agile HR capabilities. Following the proposition of agile HR as a distributed capability, we discuss several theoretical and practical implications. In essence, particular attention is to be placed on a cultural fit between employees and the agile working environment, which demands individuals to be highly self-reliant and autonomous. This entails the need for a flexible support structure to grow employees’ skills accordingly. The conclusion emphasises addressing the shared responsibility for HR work and the corresponding broad capability development of different role holders, resulting in the suggestion to replace the term HR with people management as a more inclusive bracket for integrative HR, culture and leadership work in agile organisations.

Keywords: HRM; People management; Agile; Business agility; Case Study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11846-022-00570-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:rvmgts:v:17:y:2023:i:6:d:10.1007_s11846-022-00570-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/business/journal/11846

DOI: 10.1007/s11846-022-00570-4

Access Statistics for this article

Review of Managerial Science is currently edited by R. Ewert and W. Kürsten

More articles in Review of Managerial Science from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().