ABSTRACT

As a strategic partner, the HR function’s primary responsibility is capability building as a competitive resource that facilitates strategy implementation. The chapter argues that product-market competition has meant that African organizations need to evidence marketplace agility through product and service innovation. As change agent, the HR function initiates change through the adoption of high-performance work systems for agility. The adoption of this change intervention triggers the development of a change management capability by institutionalizing a climate for agility which fosters skill and behavioural flexibility in the form of innovative behaviours leading to marketplace agility/organizational performance. However, the extent to which the HR function can effectively perform its change agent role is argued to be much dependent on top management’s emphasis on employees as a strategic resource, the competencies and power of the HR function as well as the quality of the employee-organization relationship. The quality of the employee-organization relationship is argued to be an important boundary condition because of the African cultural emphasis on the collective.