Hrm experiences we demonstrated the importance of

HRM experiences, we
demonstrated the importance of introducing within-
organization variances in understanding the process
for HRM to impact organizational outcomes. In addi-
tion, it is important to note that our focus on the ho-
mogeneity of employees ’ HRM experiences diverges
from Bowen and Ostroff ’ s (2004) focus on HRM sys-
tem strength. Specifically, “ HRM system strength ”
refers to the extent to which an HRM system sends
unambiguous messages about the responses and be-
haviors that are expected, rewarded, and valued by
the organization (Ostroff & Bowen, 2016). In other
words, it is based on whether employees share an
understanding about organizations ’ desired work be-
haviors. By contrast, our study focuses on the vari-
ability of employees ’ HRM experiences, rather than
FIGURE 2
The Interaction between Employee-Experienced HIWS and the Homogeneity of HIWS
Experiences on Innovation
50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Low High
Probability (Innovation = 2) at Low
Homogeneity of HIWS Experiences ( M – 1 SD )
Probability (Innovation = 1) at Low
Homogeneity of HIWS Experiences ( M – 1 SD )
Probability (Innovation = 2) at High
Homogeneity of HIWS Experiences ( M + 1 SD )
Probability (Innovation = 1) at High
Homogeneity of HIWS Experiences ( M + 1 SD )
Employee-Experienced HIWS
Probability of Innovation
2018 2013 Li, Wang, van Jaarsveld, Lee, and Ma

their shared understanding of desired work behaviors
signaled by the HRM system.
For the external mechanism, our finding demon-
strated that high strategic importance of innova-
tion amplified the positive relation between an
employee-experienced HIWS and innovation. Prior
studies on the strategic contingency of HRM have
mainly focused on the alignment of HRM systems
with competitive strategies (e.g., differentiation vs.
cost leadership; Huselid, 1995). As summarized by
Jackson, Schuler, and Jiang (2014), empirical find-
ings on the moderating roles of competitive strate-
gies have been inconsistent, which might reflect the
fact that firms achieve their strategy through various
ways (e.g., firms can pursue a differentiation strategy
by focusing on innovation or quality management)
and the measures of business strategies often ignore
different strategic priorities. Our study distinguishes
from previous research in that we push beyond
competitive strategies to directly capture organiza-
tions ’ strategic need and priority regarding innova-
tion. By directly examining the strategic importance
of innovation, our study contributes to the strategic
contingency of HRM.
For the temporal mechanism, we introduced the
concept of churn to the HRM literature to investigate
how human resource flow shaped the relation be-
tween HIWSs and innovation. It is important to note
that the churn in human resources is an emergent
construct that describes the total quantitative human
resource flow, regardless of the qualitative changes
associated with employee departures and re-
placements (Nyberg & Ployhart, 2013). Our finding
demonstrated that the churn in human resources
amplified the positive effect of an employee-
experienced HIWS on innovation by improving the
adaptability associated with collective interactions.