The role of human resource management in concurrent engineering approaches to product innovation: Australian and Indonesian experiences

Abstract

Where human resource management (HRM) has been addressed in concurrent engineering (CE), it has been universalistic, prescriptive, and issues rather than system based. This article challenges this perspective through a critical examination of CE and its associated cross‐functional arrangements. Following a review of HRM in CE, an analytic framework is proposed for the systematic exploration of HRM in product innovation. Next, a case analysis of HRM involvement in CE initiatives in Australian and Indonesian manufacturing firms is undertaken, and the implications for real and rhetorical change in CE practices are discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.