When too many are not enough: Human resource slack and performance at the Dutch East India Company (1700–1795)

Slack is an elusive concept in organizational research, with studies documenting a variety of relationships between slack and firm performance. We advocate treating slack not as a resource, but as a practice – a sequence of events and responses over time. A longitudinal analysis of the Dutch East In...

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Vydané v:Human relations (New York) Ročník 70; číslo 11; s. 1293 - 1315
Hlavní autori: Sgourev, Stoyan V, van Lent, Wim
Médium: Journal Article
Jazyk:English
Vydavateľské údaje: London, England SAGE Publications 01.11.2017
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Predmet:
Business administration
Companies
Financial performance
Human relations
Human resources
Humanities and Social Sciences
Labor shortages
Organizational effectiveness
Organizational performance
Organizational research
Reliability
Responses
Seamen
Studies
India
organizational slack
contingent workers
management history
human resources
personnel selection
managment history
ISSN:0018-7267, 1741-282X
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Shrnutí:Slack is an elusive concept in organizational research, with studies documenting a variety of relationships between slack and firm performance. We advocate treating slack not as a resource, but as a practice – a sequence of events and responses over time. A longitudinal analysis of the Dutch East India Company (1700–1795) highlights the use of slack as a response to a resource constraint (the shortage of skilled labor). After documenting the negative performance effects of skill shortage, we identify a trade-off in the use of human resource slack (number of sailors above what is operationally required), in which slack enhanced operational reliability, but reduced efficiency. Derived from a historical context, this trade-off has contemporary relevance and is helpful in reconciling contradictory evidence on slack.
Bibliografia:ObjectType-Article-1
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ISSN:0018-7267
1741-282X
DOI:10.1177/0018726717691340