从心所“享”,顺“流”而创:高参与人力资源实践对员工二元创新的激励机制研究

Follow One’s Heart to Make Innovation:The Effect of High-involvement Human Resource Practices on Employee’s Ambidextrous Innovation

在强调自主创新的今天,能均衡地开展探索式和开发式创新(即二元创新)已成为衡量企业员工的一项重要指标。一些研究暗示了运用高参与人力资源实践(HI-HRP)可以激励员工二元创新,但由于未能充分地掌握不同实践工具的角色差异及交互关系,对其激励机制及效果的认识仍显得模糊。基于沉浸(心流)理论和AMO框架,本研究认为科学的HI-HRP组合可通过动机内化来实现更为长效的激励机制。因此,本文构建了一个以工作沉浸感为路径的HI-HRP影响员工二元创新的跨层模型。本文通过对70名企业HR负责人和551名创新人员的多时段问卷调查,采用Mplus 7.0进行有调节的中介路径分析,研究发现能力和动机导向HRP的交互效应正向提升创新人员的工作沉浸感,进而激励其二元创新行为;当机会导向HRP水平较高时,工作沉浸感对二元创新的激励作用更强,能力和动机导向HRP的交互效应对二元创新的间接激励作用也更强。本研究通过揭示HI-HRP工具的相互协同和角色差异,帮助企业员工“从心所‘享’,顺‘流’而创”,提升二元创新水平。

In the era of network economy that emphasizes independent innovation,flat organizational structure,teamwork,and virtu-alization drive organization members to bring out greater individual value.Innovators,in particular,are often required to undertake two seemingly conflicting innovation tasks,that is,technological breakthroughs(exploration)and continual renewal(exploitation).Being capable of simultaneously executing exploratory and exploitative innovation has become a key competence of innovative em-ployees today.Currently,some researchers have implied that high-involvement human resource practices(HI-HRP)may significantly encourage employees’ambidextrous innovation.HI-HRP is a corporate strategic support system which consists of a series of closely interrelated HR practices based on employee commitment and involvement.Unlike traditional HRP,HI-HRP not only significantly motivates and guides employees to collaborate,expand and actively learn,but also enhances their willingness to collaborate and im-prove their diverse task skills.However,due to the insufficient knowledge of the role disparities and interactive relationships among different HRP tools,scholars have vague understanding about the incentive mechanisms of HI-HRP on ambidextrous innovation.Besides,prior research ignores the personal feelings of employees when they carry out innovation,and fails to reveal the motivational approach to different innovative behaviors from the behavioral perspective.Based on the flow theory and the ability,motivation,and opportunity(AMO)framework,this paper characterizes HR practices in terms of three types of tools,namely,ability-enhancing HRP,motivation-enhancing HRP and opportunity-enhancing HRP.On the basis of distinguishing their effects,this paper proposes that rational HI-HRP can realize a longer-term incentive mechanism of ambi-dextrous innovation by internalizing employees’motivation.Therefore,this paper constructs a cross-level model which links HI-HRP and employees’ambidextrous innovation through a mediating path of work-related flow.The main logic of the hypotheses is that work-related flow primarily occurs in the challenge-skill balance at work,because this is when employees have the most control over their tasks and are able to maximize their potential.It is presumed that ability-enhancing HRP and motivation-enhancing HRP may be associated with higher skills and greater challenges respectively,while opportunity-enhancing HRP can motivate employees to show more.This means that ability-enhancing HRP and motivation-enhancing HRP need to work interactively and be strengthened in a balanced way in order to bring about greater employee work-related flow and consequently higher level of ambidextrous innovation,while opportunity-enhancing HRP plays the role of reinforcer in the positive relationship between work-related flow and ambidex-trous innovation.A questionnaire survey of 70 human resources executives and 551 innovative employees was conducted,and a moderated mediation model was built using Mplus 7.0 software to test all the hypotheses.The results show that the interactive effect of ability-enhancing HRP and motivation-enhancing HRP has a positive impact on employees’work-related flow,which in turn enhances their ambidex-trous innovation.When the level of opportunity-enhancing HRP is high,the positive effect of work-related flow on ambidextrous innovation becomes strong,and the interactive effect of ability-enhancing HRP and motivation-enhancing HRP has great indirect incentive effect on ambidextrous innovation.In other words,the empirical study provides support for all the hypotheses.This paper has the following significant theoretical contributions and practical implications.First,it constructs an incentive mech-anism for individuals’ambidexterity by combining the internal and external antecedents,which contributes to literature on the an-tecedents of ambidexterity.Second,it discovers the important role of work-related flow as an internal driving force in the impact of HI-HRP on employees’ambidextrous innovation.Third,it reveals the differential effects of the three HRP tools and the importance of combining the three tools,highlighting the interactive effect of ability-enhancing HRP and motivation-enhancing HRP as well as the fact that opportunity-enhancing HRP differs in terms of what it affects and how it affects.Fourth,it provides guidance for com-panies to successfully use the HI-HRP system to motivate employees’ambidextrous innovation and thus achieve sustainable organi-zational innovation.By revealing the interactive relationships and role disparities among specific HRP tools,this paper allows firm employees to follow their heart to make innovation so that their levels of ambidextrous innovation can be enhanced.