Configuring HRM systems for innovation: managing knowledge tensions in French industrial firms

Amal Aribi ()
Additional contact information
Amal Aribi: UEVE - Université d'Évry-Val-d'Essonne, LITEM - Laboratoire en Innovation, Technologies, Economie et Management (EA 7363) - UEVE - Université d'Évry-Val-d'Essonne - Université Paris-Saclay - IMT-BS - Institut Mines-Télécom Business School - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris]

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Purpose - HRM research typically treats firms as facing a categorical choice between radical and incremental innovation. This article reconceptualizes the HRM-innovation relationship through a dominant innovation orientation framework, examining how HRM configurations govern the primary knowledge challenge while generating characteristic knowledge tensions for the subordinate one. Design/methodology/approach - A qualitative, configurational case study of four mature French industrial firms; 29 semi-structured interviews analyzed through grounded theory coding, thematic content analysis, and cross-case comparison, using NVivo 14. Findings - All four firms are ambidextrous. Radical-dominant firms deploy an enabling-bureaucratic HRM configuration configured for tacit knowledge accumulation; incremental-dominant firms deploy a flexible collaboration configuration configured for rapid knowledge recombination. Each configuration generates predictable knowledge tensions for the subordinate orientation. Originality/value - This study reframes HRM configurations as contextually dominant institutional responses. It proposes, as a theoretically derived proposition for future empirical testing, a curvilinear U-shaped relationship between HRM formalization and radical innovation dominance, distinguishing enabling from coercive formalization. Practical implications - Configuration-specific mechanisms boundary-spanning roles, parallel recognition streams, and protected exploratory budgets can modulate dominant-configuration costs without dismantling core logic.

Keywords: Knowledge tension; Boundary-spanner; Incremental innovation; Radical innovation; Dominant innovation orientation; Configurational HRM (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Human Systems Management, In press, ⟨10.1177/01672533261468585⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

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:hal:journl:hal-05754448

DOI: 10.1177/01672533261468585

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().