Recursos humanos

Academy of Management Review 2007, Vol. 32, No. 1, 236–256.

RELATIONAL ARCHETYPES, ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING, AND VALUE CREATION: EXTENDING THE HUMAN RESOURCE ARCHITECTURE
SUNG-CHOON KANG Korea University Business School SHAD S. MORRIS SKK Graduate School of Business SCOTT A. SNELL Cornell University
Theories of knowledge-based competition emphasize the firm’s ability both to explore and to exploit knowledge as the source of value creation. We attempt to bring human resource management directly into this forum by introducing a framework of relational archetypes—entrepreneurial and cooperative—that are derived from unique configurations of three dimensions (structural, affective, and cognitive) of social relations within and across firm boundaries. We identify how human resource configurations can be linked to the strategic management of these relational archetypes.

As theories of strategic management have shifted toward resource- and knowledge-based views of the firm, researchers have increasingly looked inward for sources of competitive advantage and value creation. Arguably, the most distinctive and inimitable resource available to firms is knowledge that enables them to effectively employ, manipulate, and transform various organizational resources (Grant, 1996; Kogut & Zander, 1992; Nonaka, 1991). While organizational knowledge is embedded in a variety of entities, such as tools, tasks, technologies, and people, people-embodied knowledge is the foundation of a firm’s core capabilities and is fundamental to the development of its value proposition (Argote & Ingram, 2000). In this regard, human resource management (HRM) has become inextricably tied to the larger context of strategic management (cf. Barney & Wright, 1998; Boxall, 1996). In the context of strategic action, Dierickx and Cool (1989) note that a firm’s accumulated skills, expertise, and wisdom can be viewed as knowledge stocks. In contrast, the streams of new

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