When too many are not enough: Human resource slack and performance at the Dutch East India Company (1700–1795)

Stoyan Sgourev and Wim van Lent
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Stoyan Sgourev: ESSEC Business School
Wim van Lent: Groupe Sup de Co Montpellier (GSCM) - Montpellier Business School

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Abstract: Slack is an elusive concept in organizational research, with studies documenting a variety of relationships between slack and firm performance. We advocate treating slack not as a resource, but as a practice – a sequence of events and responses over time. A longitudinal analysis of the Dutch East India Company (1700–1795) highlights the use of slack as a response to a resource constraint (the shortage of skilled labor). After documenting the negative performance effects of skill shortage, we identify a trade-off in the use of human resource slack (number of sailors above what is operationally required), in which slack enhanced operational reliability, but reduced efficiency. Derived from a historical context, this trade-off has contemporary relevance and is helpful in reconciling contradictory evidence on slack.

Keywords: contingent workers; human resources; managment history; organizational slack; personnel selection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-02
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published in Human Relations, 2017, 70 (11), pp.1293-1315. ⟨10.1177/0018726717691340⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02138289

DOI: 10.1177/0018726717691340

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