Section Two
Essentially, for successful implementation of an innovative
strategy, employees probably need to be cooperative—because
of the interdependencies involved, highly creative, oriented
toward the long term, risk takers, and comfortable with
ambiguity. Companies pursuing such strategies include Johnson
& Johnson, 3M, and Hewlett-Packard. With quality-
enhancement strategies, employees need to place emphasis on
production or service processes, risk reduction, and
predictability. Examples of companies pursuing quality-
enhancement strategies include L.L. Bean, Toyota, and
Corning Glass. In contrast, for successful implementation of
cost-reduction strategies, employees should be focused on the
short term, risk averse, predictable, results oriented, and
comfortable working by themselves.^71
For each of the different sets of strategies and role
behaviors, different human resource practices are required.
General categories of such human resource practices include
planning, staffing, appraisal, compensation, and training and
development. It has been hypothesized that under innovation
strategies, the appropriate role behaviors will be more likely to
obtained with (1) group-oriented, long-term appraisal systems;
(2) generalized skill development and broad career paths;
(3) compensation approaches accentuating internal equity; and
(4) flexible compensation packages including stock ownership.
For quality-enhancement strategies, it has been hypothesized