| Abstract: |
An intense debate is going on about more “open” strategies that are supposedly
diffusing in industrial R&D. We here discuss the relationship between such
practices and Human Resources Management (HRM) in industrial R&D Labs. The
paper in fact aims at representing an original attempt of looking at the
linkage between R&D strategy and HRM in some Italian high-tech firms. In
particular, we identify, select and discuss a set of variables related to the
management of HR in R&D that fit with the reconceptualization of innovation
proposed by Chesbrough in the “Open Innovation” (OI) paradigm and inspired by
the example of P&G’s model of Connect and Develop (C&D). More precisely, our
objective is that of investigating the role of HRM in the shift towards “Open
Innovation” through the bottom-up lenses of industrial researchers’
characteristics, feelings and behaviours. What we here suggest is that by
observing behaviour and expectations of R&D workers, we can investigate the
acceptance and implementation of new R&D management practices. Our empirical
base is represented by 330 questionnaires completed by R&D personnel and
collected through an online survey. The results have been discussed with the
HR managers of each company, in order to also gain a “top-down” perspective on
the observed dynamics. The research is carried out around three main groups of
issues: HR characteristics (e.g., demographic parameters, productivity, time
horizons, satisfaction, expectations, mobility, education), job organization
aspects (e.g., teamwork vs. individual research, flexibility, decisional
centres, work time allocation, type of relationships, communication flows),
and HRM tools (e.g., talent attraction, training, evaluation methods, goal
definition, roles, leadership, responsibility, incentives, career systems,
problem sources). According to Chesbrough, firms fitting the OI model present
characteristics related to the R&D structure itself. Nonetheless, even if this
model has been widely enthusiastically discussed and sometimes criticized by
both practitioners and researchers, we still lack a comprehensive
understanding of how such changes effect dynamics and daily operations of an
R&D lab. Our empirical analysis ultimately aims at understanding to what
extent the shift towards an extended definition of R&D, which includes the new
concept of C&D, can be considered as one of the main potential factors of
change in HR organization. Beyond the relevance of our findings for the debate
among scholars, we argue that managerial implications may derive from a better
knowledge of individual perceptions and behaviours of R&D personnel. In fact,
the changing pattern of innovation processes implies parallel changes in the
organization of R&D labs, where the role of the most important component, i.
e. researchers themselves, is not always adequately considered. This paper is
a first attempt to explore these relationships. Through a convenience sample
we first attempted to test various strategies to best collect data, provide
timely valuable feedbacks to our industrial partners and better define our
framework, matching early results with existing theories. Further research
will aim at making the sample representative of the Italian industrial R&D
system. |