Innovation, Research and Development Management

4Managing R&D Professionals: HRM Practices and Current Challenges

Since the 2000s, managing R&D professionals has been the subject of increased theoretical and empirical interest as companies have engaged numerous HR management initiatives destined for R&D communities. Despite many HRM practices being developed and numerous debates in academic research on these issues, there remain a great number of challenges for the Human Resources function in R&D [CHA 12]. In section 4.1, we highlight the relatively recent and structurally complex nature of the relationship between HRM and R&D. We then review the different HRM practices (strategic HR planning, recruitment, assignment and mobility, evaluation, remuneration, careers, competence management) as observed in contemporary R&D organizations. Finally, considering the profound changes witnessed by R&D most recently, the limits of certain HRM practices are reported, calling for an in-depth reinvention of at least some of the management methods destined for R&D professionals.

4.1. HRM and R&D: complex relationships

Although for a long time the R&D world remained impervious to the interventions of Human Resources Departments (HRD), this is no longer the case. Over the past two decades, HRM practices have become increasingly significant in this scientific and technical world. This generates a number of tensions. These tensions are partly due to the mutual lack of understanding between these two worlds, and also to the underlying fundamental ...