Editorial overview: HRM and innovation — a multi‐level perspective

• Published date: 01 April 2017
• Date: 01 April 2017
• Author: Paul Sparrow,Helen Shipton,Alan Brown,Pawan Budhwar
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12138

Editorial overview: HRM and innovation —a multi-

level perspective

Helen Shipton, Nottingham BusinessSchool, Nottingham Trent University

Pawan Budhwar, Aston BusinessSchool

Paul Sparrow, Centre for Performance-led HR, LancasterUniversity Management School

Alan Brown ,Institute of Employment Research, University of Warwick

Human Resource Management Journal, Vol 27, no 2, 2017,pages 203–208

Contact: Helen Shipton, Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham

NG1 4BU, UK. Email:helen.shipton@ntu.ac.uk

In this specialissue (SI), we foregroundan important and under-researchedtheme –the role

of HRM in fostering innovation. Innovationis critical to organisational survival, especially

against a backdrop of change and uncertainty; accordingly, a wide and diverse literature

has attemptedto tease out its antecedents (Gupta et al., 2007; Anderson et al., 2014). People,and

the management practices that organisations deploy, are integral to effectiveness in this area,

yet conversations about innovationoften take place in parallel to mainstreamHRM literatures.

Scholars interestedin the role of knowledge as a source of competitive advantage,for example,

are increasingly focused on individuals and micro-systems (e.g. Foss, 2011), while sociologists

highlight organisational barriers, especially regarding rewards, access and disclosure (Murray

and O’Mahony,2007). H RM’smuted voice may be because, with some exceptions(e.g. Liu et al.,

2016),scholars have steeredaway from cross and multi-levelperspectives.This means that there

are still many questions about the effect of top-down influences on employee creativity and

innovation,as well as any role thatHRM might play in eliciting innovation from the bottomup.

As SI editors, weput out a call in December 2013 for contributionsalong these lines. Our call

ran in parallel to an edited book, released by Palgrave Macmillan in early 2016, capturing

insights from a series of Economic and Social Research Council-sponsored seminars (Shipton

et al., 2016). The book took an overview of the people-related aspects of innovation, bringing

out rich insights fromcontributors to the seminars, who were inspired in turn by the scholars,

policy body representatives (such as the Confederation of British Industry and the Chartered

Institute of Personneland Development) and members of business community who helped to

formulatethe series. By December 2016, thebook had already received almost6000 downloads

(SpringerLink,2016). While the sheer breadth of insights presented in the bookcannot readily

be summarised within a few sentences, we detected four overriding themes. First, the book

hotly debated questions around levels of analysis, in particular, the organisational forms and

structures thatare apposite for innovation. Second, contributors reflected on the psychological

processes, whereby employees make sense of HRM and in turn generate innovative activity.

Third, insights were drawn about the role of leaders in communicating and interpreting

organisationalpolicy and practice, includingHRM, and finally,the authors of several chapters

within the book devoted attention to teasing out learning models and the institutional

processes that embed them with the purpose of fostering innovation.

Our vision wasthat the SI would further deepen and developthese themes through opening

the dialogue to researchers and practitioners within and outside the networks that evolved

through the series. The call attracted 32 submissions. As a result of successfully progressing

HUMAN RESOURCEMANAGEMENT JOURNAL, VOL27, NO 2, 2017 203

©2017 John Wiley& Sons Ltd

Pleasecite this article in press as: Shipton,H., Budhwar, P., Sparrow,P. and Brown, A. (2017) ‘Editorialoverview: HRM and innovation–amultilevel

perspective’.HumanResource ManagementJournal 27: 2, 203–208

doi: 10.1111/1748-8583.12138

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