Building innovation capabilities through human resources practices

Purpose: Considering the distressingly low rate of success in introducing radical new products, the purpose of this paper is to reinforce the importance of taking human resources beyond administrative activity leading to stronger innovation performance and the greater use of its people. In particular, this paper highlights three persistent fallacies in human resource practices: need for creativity; efficiency of bottom-up efforts; and monetary incentives for product innovations and to learn from innovative organizations about how to deal with these fallacies. Design/methodology/approach: This paper details the correlation between culture, confidence, support mechanisms through HR, and innovation by reviewing innovation cases in high-performing organizations. Findings: Problem definition, pragmatism and leadership represent critical innovation determinants. As a strategic partner HR can offer support to tackle the three described fallacies of product innovations. Originality/value: This paper suggests a practical means for helping HR professionals to better understand how some simple organizational rules can effectively build innovation capabilities.