| Recognizing that not all employees possess knowledge, skills, and abilities that are of equal strategic importance, I draw on the resource-based view of the firm, human capital theory, and transaction cost economics to develop a human resource architecture of four different employment modes: knowledge-based employment, traditional employment, contract work, and strategic partnerships. This architecture is used to lay out a framework for understanding the determinants of employment modes as well as how human resource management configurations are used to manage workers across these modes of employment.; Based on data from 149 U.S. companies, multinomial logit analysis is used to examine the relationships among the value of human capital, the uniqueness of human capital, and employment modes. In addition, hierarchical regression analysis is used to explore how firms use four distinct human resource configurations (commitment-based, job-based, compliance-based, and collaborative) to manage human capital across these modes of employment. Consistent with the resource-based view of the firm, results indicate that firms adopt a strategic approach to employment and consider the value and uniqueness of human capital when structuring their employment relationships. In addition, results indicate that different HR configurations are used to manage human capital in different employment modes. Specifically, the findings of this study indicate that a commitment-based HR configuration is used for workers within knowledge-based employment modes, a job-based HR configuration is used for workers in both knowledge-based employment and traditional employment, a compliance HR configuration is used for workers in contractual arrangements, and a collaborative HR configuration is used for workers in strategic partnerships and knowledge-based employment relationships. |
