HR professionals exploring cooperative configurational human resource management using a serious game: what do they miss?

Configurational thinking in HRM is expected to increase understanding of the HRM-firm performance link and potentially aid HR professionals in the complex task of designing effective HRM. Here, we specify configurational theory in HRM to a level of detail that has been lacking. We present two empirical sections in this paper. First, we assess the extent to which specific HR practices align with cooperative, adhocratic, mechanistic and market strategy according to HR professionals (N=122). Secondly, we assess the ability of HRM professional to design a cooperative HRM configuration using a serious game (N= 40). By specifying configurational HRM to this level of detail, both the complexity and enormity of HRM configuration design become evident. Based on the first empirical part of this study, a cooperative HRM configuration made up by the HR practices recruitment, selection, job design, development and training, performance appraisal and compensation is presented.

Additionally, based on the second empirical part, results indicate that none of the HRM
configurations designed by HR professionals is made up solely by the cooperative HR
practices presented in the first empirical section. Implications and future research is discussed.