David P. Lepak

Let’s Call a Star a Star Task Performance, External Status, and Exceptional Contributors in Organizations

We develop a new typology of star employees, wherein we identify three types of stars—universal stars, performance stars, and status stars—on the basis of stars’ unique combinations of task performance and external status. By classifying stars in this way and disentangling task performance and external status as unique and simultaneously important qualities underlying the distinct contributions of different types of stars, we provide a basis for more accurately identifying the full range of individuals who create exceptional value, and we offer novel insights into stars’ various influences in organizations. With this foundation, we explore how different types of stars’ distinct qualities and bases of value creation affect both the security of their star standing and their relative abilities to appropriate value. We then expand our focus to consider stars in the broader organizational contexts in which they exist, discussing the implications of stars’ distinct attributes for patterns of value creation, value capture, and value preservation associated with stars’ complementarities and redundancies with other organizational resources. Finally, we propose several lines of inquiry through which future research may leverage the proposed typology to address issues related to the management of different types of stars in the broader organizational contexts in which they are embedded.

Integrating strategic human capital and strategic human resource management

Abstract Human capital is an important construct in a variety of fields spanning from micro scholarship in psychology to macro scholarship in economics. Within the various disciplinary perspectives, research focuses on slightly different aspects and levels of human capital within organizations, which may give opportunities for integration. The current paper aims to increase knowledge about human capital within organizations by integrating two streams of research which focus directly on human capital, but have approached human capital in different ways: strategic human capital (SHC), and strategic HRM. We describe both SHC and strategic HRM research streams and propose areas of integration, and directions for future research on human capital in organizations.

Determinants of the strategic involvement of human resource departments: evidence from large South Korean firms

This study draws on contextual theories to determine when strategic involvement of human resource (HR) departments is required in organisations. From institutional and contingency theories, some internal and external circumstances of organisations are considered contextual factors on how to structure the role of their HR departments. Using a multisource dataset collected from 300 large South Korean firms, our regression analysis indicates that the strategic involvement of an HR department is related to normative pressures, the industrial relations climate, and environmental uncertainty. Our work provides theoretical implications for the context-bound understanding of the role of an HR department and practical guidelines for effective role fulfilment of an HR department according to organisational contexts.