基于企业生命周期的人力资本最优配置——资源转化的视角

The optimal allocation of human capital based on enterprise life-cycle -A study from the perspective of resource transformation

人力资本是一种重要组织资源,且处于不同生命周期阶段的企业,其资源异质性影响着绩效差异性。本文以300余家中国科技企业为多源问卷调研对象,通过层次回归分析、Bootstrapping法、简单效应分析等方法,实证检验了在资源转化视角下对企业不同生命周期阶段人力资本的配置差异性。研究结果表明:(1)在企业初创期、发展期与成熟期,领导-成员交换(leader-member exchange, LMX)在人力资本与组织绩效间发挥部分中介作用;(2)在初创期与成熟期,环境动态性、环境竞争性分别在人力资本与组织绩效间以LMX为中介的间接关系中起调节作用;(3)在初创期与成熟期,环境动态性与环境竞争性交互项在人力资本与组织绩效间以LMX为中介的间接关系中起调节作用;(4)在初创期,高动态-低竞争环境组合更能促进人力资本优化配置;在成熟期,低动态-低竞争环境组合更能促进人力资本优化配置。

Human capital is another important resource to promote the organizational sustainable development after economic and social capital, and also an important carrier to create value, improve performance and increase resource. And resource heterogeneity has an impact on performance variance in different stages of life cycle of enterprises. Previous research on human capital is mainly focused on organizational dynamic capability and resource-based view. The former focuses on the logic of organizational human capital resources, while the latter focuses on the strategic characteristics of human capital resources. In recent years, some scholars have gradually explored the influence mechanism of human capital at the organizational level from the perspective of resource integration, which should consider both the dynamic capability and the static resource. The rationality and uniqueness of the allocation and transformation of the organization′s human capital resources determine that the resources are difficult to imitate, irreplaceable, valuable and scarce, so as to strengthen the organization′s competitive advantage and core competence. But in the past, there were many disputes about the impact of human capital on performance. Configuration view emphasizes the matching homogeneity and heterogeneity between the internal structure of human capital and performance, contingency view emphasizes the situation and process of human capital, and the universal view emphasizes the management practice of human capital. However, to explore the impact of human capital on organizational performance, we should not ignore the dynamic transformation of resources, nor the uniqueness of the development stage of enterprises. That is to say, enterprises in different life cycles have different allocation conditions of human capital resources. This paper selects more than 300 managers of R & D departments of high-tech enterprises from Baotou in the Nei Monggol Autonomous Region, Zhongguancun in Beijing, Jinan in Shandong Province, Ningbo in Zhejiang and others. There are two standards for the selection of research objects: one is the enterprise with high-tech enterprise qualification certificate, and the other is the organization scale of more than 25 people, because such enterprises have relatively sound management system. We provided each of the participants with a questionnaire, and a cover letter describing the procedures of the research and the voluntary nature of their participation. The participants were assured that their ratings would be confidential and used for academic purposes only. The completed questionnaires would be collected on the spot and by e-mail. Utilizing reliability and validity analysis, descriptive statistical analysis, hierarchical regression analysis, bootstrapping and simple effect analysis, taking leader-member exchange as mediation, and environmental dynamism and environmental competitiveness as moderation, this paper conducts an empirical study on variance of resources allocation in different stages of life cycle from the perspective of resource transformation. The results show that:(1) Leader-member exchange partly mediates the relationship between human capital and organizational performance during start-up stage, growth stage and mature stages. That is, human capital improves performance mainly by strengthening leader-member exchange.(2) Environmental dynamic and environmental competitiveness moderates the indirect relationship between human capital and organizational performance respectively during start-up and mature stage, but no moderating effect is found at growth stage.(3) The interaction of environmental dynamic and environmental competitiveness moderates the indirect relationship between human capital and organizational performance.(4) At start-up stage, high environmental dynamism-low environmental competitiveness can improve the optimization of resource allocation, while low environmental dynamism-low environmental competitiveness can promote the optimization of resource allocation at mature stage.This study has three theoretical contributions: first, Despite some scholars have discovered that leader member exchange is a bridge between organizational resources and organizational outcomes,very little research has been conducted on the mediating effects of human capital with the leader-member exchange which directly and effectively influences organizational performance. Therefore, it reveals the path of human capital′s impact on organizational performance from the perspective of resource transformation, and takes the resource exchange between leader and members as the path of human resource transformation, which not only provides a new perspective for human capital research, but also enriches the antecedent research of leader-member exchange. Secondly, existing studies mainly focus on the moderating effects of region and organizational characteristics in the impact of human capital on its relevant outcome. We reveal the boundary conditions of human capital transformation from the perspective of environmental dynamism and competitiveness, expand the boundary conditions of human capital from traditional organizational elements to external environmental elements, and realize the interaction between dynamic environments such as suppliers and competitive environments such as homogeneity of competitors. Thirdly, from the perspective of enterprise life cycle, it compares the differences of human capital transformation in different stages, which provides a more specific reference for deepening human capital resource allocation and guiding human resource management practice.Meanwhile, this paper also has two aspects of practical contributions: firstly, it strengthens the resource interaction and exchange between leaders and subordinates of science and technology enterprises, especially for the exchange of human capital elements, such as knowledge resources and cognitive resources. Leaders can strengthen the frequency of resource exchange with subordinates, increase the exchange activities of knowledge, skills and experience, and promote the transformation of human capital resources to performance balancing. Secondly, science and technology enterprises attach importance to environmental factors. If the organizational resources are sufficient, they can give priority to dynamic environmental tuning throughout the life cycle, such as pursuing product iterative upgrading and service quality improvement;if the organization resources are limited, they can give priority to spreading the internal environmental change information in the initial stage, creating an internal environmental threat atmosphere, and controlling the free flow of internal and external environmental information in the mature stage. Although this paper has made outstanding contributions for human capital, there are still some deficiencies. On one hand, due to the small sample size in the recession period, no result test has been carried out in this period. But whether the allocation of human capital resources in this period is different from other periods, it remains to be further studied. On the other hand, although the influence of common method deviation on the research results is controllable, it is still suggested that further research can make up for the above shortcomings with multiple time sampling.