Events

Dr. Liwen Zhang
Assistant professor of Management
School of Management and Governance
University of New South Wales

Human capital resources (HCRs) are thought to be one of the most important resources for organizations. However, surprisingly little attention has been devoted to the degree to which extant HCR measures capture the construct. This two-study paper aims to better understand the measurement and effects of HCRs. In Study 1, we use recent theoretical frameworks (e.g., Ployhart & Moliterno, 2011) to conduct a content analysis of HCR measures (k = 126). Results revealed that only 29% of measures actually focused on HCRs. Most measures focused on other constructs, such as variables that theoretically are antecedents of HCRs (e.g., education, high-performance work practices) or other types of resources (e.g., physical resources), rather than on HCRs. Further, of the measures that did focus on HCRs, most assessed only a portion of the construct domain (e.g., collective knowledge but not collective skills). In Study 2, we tested whether direct measures of HCRs have a stronger relationship with collective performance than proxy measures that prior research has frequently used to assess HCRs (e.g., education, work experience). A meta-analysis of 93 independent samples and 22,065 units/firms suggested a positive and moderate relationship between HCRs and collective performance (ρ = .29). Further, HCRs have a stronger relation with collective outcomes than constructs such as collective education (ρ = .08) and work experience (ρ = .15). Overall, these findings suggest that researchers often are using contaminated or deficient measures of HCRs and that doing so underestimates the potential value of this key resource to organizations.