The role of HR specialists in fostering innovation: an empirical study on Bangladeshi firms

Enterprises are fundamentally shifting with new business models to adapt to the new realities of business rapidly. Over the past decades, researchers and entrepreneurs have constantly debated the role of HR’s contribution to creating an innovative workforce to allow the organizations to meet future needs. While most scholars conducted their research in developed countries, there is rarely any empirical evidence in HR’s role to foster innovation in Bangladeshi employees. This dissertation aims to assist Bangladeshi HR managers by formulating research questions directed to key HR practices that help motivate employees to find innovative solutions both in public and private companies. This thesis concentrated on four key HR strategies: training, reward, performance appraisal, and recruitment policies. The research aim was achieved by implementing 13 semi-structured interviews with 7 employees and 6 HR managers from 3 different industries. Subsequently, thematic content analysis was implemented by transcribing the interviews with software named Otter.ai. Moreover, an ontological stance was implemented to ensure the elimination of biases or pre-existing conclusions that were drawn from the literature analysis. Surprisingly, the results were similar in Bangladesh's public and private companies in all 3 industries. The research findings revealed that both training sessions and reward policies improved the overall innovativeness of employees in all stages of the organization. Both individual and group training sessions resulted in a better understanding of complex products and production processes which helped them apply more innovative solutions. Similarly, both extrinsic and intrinsic rewards demonstrated a strong positive effect on employee performance, and recognition helped them to foster an innovative culture throughout the organization. However, performance appraisal and recruitment processes negatively correlated with employee innovation in Bangladeshi firms. Most participants argued that the performance management processes are not transparent and full of personal biases as most of the companies in Bangladesh are family-owned businesses. Recruitment also exhibited a detrimental effect on innovation as employees of public companies indicated that political interventions often influence hiring policies. Similarly, employees of private companies indicated that personal contacts and nepotism often prejudice recruiting policies. While innovation is often challenging to measure, this research will aid Bangladeshi managers in finding more effective strategies to foster innovation cost-effectively. Finally, the limitations of this research have been discussed and future recommendations for further investigation