Deploying Human Capital Resources: Accentuating Effects Of Situational Alignment And Social Capital Resources

Researchers and organizational leaders alike have long known that securing human capital (HC) is critical for organizational success. The bulk of research in this domain has addressed issues regarding the accrual of HC stocks. However, there has been a dearth of research exploring the underlying mechanisms through which accrued HC stocks translate to competitive advantage. We expand on Wolfson and Mathieu's (2018) human capital resource complementarity (HCRC) theory by incorporating the deployment of human capital resources (HCRs) as well as the role of social capital resources (SCRs) in the form of members' shared team task-specific experience in predicting performance. We empirically test HCRC theory-derived hypotheses using a sample of 448 cyclists from 17 world teams who competed in 26 races during the 2015 season of the Union Cycliste Internationale World Tour. Our results revealed that higher-level HCR stocks indirectly led to deployed HCR performance through deployed HCR alignment with situational characteristics. Furthermore, SCRs acted as a critical boundary condition for the value of aligning deployed HCRs with situational characteristics such that the alignment of deployed HCRs was only advantageous when paired with relatively high levels of SCRs. Implications for future theory building, research, and practice related to HCR deployment are discussed.