This study aims to investigate the impact of strategic agility on the relationship between Human Resources Management (HRM) strategies and Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA). A total of 227 large and medium-sized manufacturing companies were surveyed and studied. Using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), this study found a positive and direct impact of HRM strategies on SCA. The study revealed a mediating effect of strategic agility on the relationship between HRM strategies and SCA. This study provides practical guidance for Yemeni large and medium-sized manufacturing companies to maintain SCA by focusing more on strategic agility in a turbulent business environment.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the tendency of leaders to select their followers depending on their human capital factors such as age, education level, previous working experience and training.Design/methodology/approachThe participants were 1,388 employees working in a randomly selected sample of 289 small-sized businesses operating in Yemen. A self-reported questionnaire was used to collect the data. The correspondence analysis method was used to explore the tendency of leaders to select their followers depending on their human capital factors.FindingsWe found significant corresponding relationships between leadership styles and the selection of the followers' human capital factors. The passive avoidant style was found to select middle-age, long-experience and fully-trained followers. Transactional style on the other hand was found to select young, middle-level experience and non-trained followers. The transformational leadership style was found to have no selection preferences towards any of the human capital factors except for working experience.Originality/valueAlthough, some previous studies tried to understand the leaders–followers relationships, no one investigated the tendency of leaders to select their followers according to their preferences. This study contributes significantly to the leaders–followers theory by studying the selection process of the leadership style of their followers' human capital factors. Understanding this phenomenon could help explain why some leadership styles are more effective than others, especially in very limited resources contexts such as micro-sized businesses.

Under the dynamic capabilities view of the firm the main purpose of this paper is to provide an analytical model of knowledge gaps on the direct impact of HRM strategy on strategic agility, as well as the direct impact of HRM strategies which is represented in HR Strategy, Training Strategy Human Resources Development Strategy, Human Resources Compensation Strategy, Career Planning Strategy) on strategic agility. To achieve this, the main study survey, which was distributed to managers and their deputies in the large and medium Yemeni industrial companies (227), was based on the simple random sample of 554 companies, this work uses structural equations modeling technique, in order to test and validate the research model and hypotheses posited. The results indicated that there is a direct impact of human resources management strategies on strategic agility, as well as the direct impact of the Journal of Social Sciences (COES&RJ-JSS), 8(4), pp.611-629 career planning strategy and the strategy of training and developing human resources on strategic agility. In contrast, there is no direct impact of HR strategy, human resources performance assessment, and human resources compensation on the strategic agility of the Yemeni large and medium manufacturing sector (current study sample).

Manufacturing companies face different challenges due to the continuous and rapid global changes and development in business. Manufacturing companies should review the adopted system and the applied strategies. Therefore, an efficient human capital is needed to survive and to achieve the strategic goals. The human capital management should be able to propose new methods to improve strategic agility under the environment that is rapidly changing, facing severe competition, capable to utilize resources, and following the market trends. Moreover, the human capital management should identify the right competitors, consumers, opportunities, and threats that enable Manufacturing companies to be efficient, rapid, flexible, and proactive. In turn, manufacturing companies’ competitive capabilities will be improved; the existing products will stay longer in the market, new products will be introduced, sustainable competitive advantage will be gained, and strategic sovereignty will be achieved in local and regional markets. Thus, this paper discusses the relationship between human resources management (HRM) strategies and sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) where strategic agility is mediating variable. it provides some original insights into the interactions between these variables. This paper is also expected to provide some suggestions to manufacturing companies to success and to survive, especially in Yemen.

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