In Search of Key HR Practices for Improvement of Productivity of Employees in the KIBS Sector

The objective of this article is to present research devoted to the relationships between HR practices and productivity (understood as behavior and results) of employees in the KIBS sector (knowledge intensive business services sector). The operations of companies in this sector are based on the application of expert knowledge to create services satisfying the needs of personalized clients. Because companies from the KIBS sector are immensely important to the development of the economy (mainly in the context of their high potential for innovation), identification of the key factors that allow them to give fine performance is a significant theoretical and practical issue. A major role in this respect is played by the human resources management system – chiefly because KIBS companies gain competitive advantage though employees’ knowledge. As part of research with a quantitative approach (serving to test hypotheses) and a qualitative approach (allowing exploration), the human resources management system has been described as the key – from the point of view of desired behaviors and results – HR practice identified. Based on the study that has been conducted, which examined employees who had expert knowledge and created personalized services for clients, it has been concluded that the HR practices that most fully account for the productivity of employees are work design and job characteristics and empowerment, participation, and autonomy. Within the framework of qualitative research carried out in participation with HR managers of knowledge-intensive service firms, the character of individual high performance HR practices and the prominent role of managers and HR experts in supporting performance on individual and organizational levels has been indicated.


Introduction
The increasing economic pressure on knowledge and innovation has stirred the emergence and development of companies offering business services based on expert knowledge (i.e., KIBS -knowledge-intensive business services sector). The criterion for distinguishing such companies from others on the market is the fact that their services are based on expert knowledge that is employed for the purpose of satisfying the needs of personalized clients (Bettencourt, Ostrom, Brown, & Roundtree, 2002). These include both services that make extensive use of scientific and technological knowledge, e.g., research and development or IT ser-

In Search of Key HR Practices for Improvement of Productivity of Employees in the KIBS Sector
accounting, services (Miles, 2005).
The significance of these companies for the development of the economy is not only profound from the perspective of innovative potential but also because they may trigger and enhance knowledge conversion processes in clients' companies (den Hertog, 2000). In this context, identification of the key factors contributing to high efficiency and effectiveness in companies operating in the KIBS sector is an important theoretical and practical issue. Because the operations of these companies are based on application of expert knowledge while the creation of services is dependent on the ability of a company to make use of its resources that employees possess (Larsen, 2001), particular significance in the process of building competitive advantage is assumed by human resources management (HRM).
In addition, although numerous studies pointing to a positive correlation between these systems and high task results of employees exist, there are still many unresolved issues, including, among others, the influence that HRM mechanisms exert on efficiency and effectiveness is insufficiently explained (Becker & Gerhart, 1996;Purcell, Kinnie, Hutchinson, Rayton, & Swart, 2003), no intervening variables are taken into account in analyses (Huselid & Becker, 1996), and the characteristic nature of service firms is disregarded -the majority of examinations are chiefly based on production companies, whereas some of their practices are inadequate for service firms (Fu, Flood, Bosak, Morris, & O'Regan, 2015). Hence the problems that have been indicated give rise to new research areas.
The aim of this article is to present research on the relationship between HR practices and productivity of employees who create services based on intensive expert knowledge as well as to characterize the human resources management system in companies operating in the KIBS sector.

The role of high performance HR practices in stimulation of knowledge workers' productivity
Empirical studies demonstrate that there are correlations between HPWS and both individual and organizational results. The system is positively related to organizational performance (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004;Guthrie, 2001;Huselid, 1995) as well as human capital on the individual level (Chang, 2015). As far as the second aspect is concerned, the results generated by employees are crucial for demonstrating organizational effectiveness (Zhang & Morris, 2014). In the course of specifying the mechanism of influence of HPWS on individual results, the impact of human resources management on employees' skills, knowledge, motivation, and elasticity is presented (Paauwe & Richardson 1997).
The attitude-related aspects are immensely important from the point of view of the emergence of intentions to display desired organizational behaviors, which in turn lead to results. Therefore, from the perspective of operationalization of productivity at the individual level, one should discuss not only results but also behaviors since along with attitudes they are important elements constituting workers' productivity. Authors stress that the very theories of organizational behaviors serve as a basis for accounting for individual efficiency (Aguinis, O'Boyle, Gonzalez-Mulé, & Joo, 2015). They refer to measures of individual behaviors and their aggregation as well as indicators of results (Beck, Beatty, & Sackett, 2014). An example of integration of both these perspectives is a definition of productivity that is concerned with results and gradable/scalable activities and behaviors that employees get involved in or initiate and that are related to one another and contribute to the fulfilment of organizational objectives (Viswesvaran & Ones, 2000). From the perspective of human resources management, it is justified to approach the problem of defining and supporting employee's productivity by way of analyzing their job characteristics and particular behaviors that lead to production of results (positively valued by clients), just as the case with investigation into effectiveness (Pocztowski, 2008).
The HPWS is a theoretical basis of HPWP practices.
However, despite numerous theoretical and empirical studies in this area, it is still stressed that there is insignificant consensus with regard to the structure of the system and its content (Posthuma et al., 2013), which may give rise to theoretical problems concerning categorization of individual HPWP practices as well as practical ones related to implementation of these prac- and enhancement of work content. It seems that the same job characteristics (of people creating highly personalized specialist services for clients), which are high creativity and very specific requirements, may guarantee unique solutions that build the competitive advantage of these companies.
As far as HR commitment-based practices are concerned, one should indicate the processes of motivating, constant learning, cooperation, participation in decisions and creation of autonomy in the workplace.
It should also be stressed that HR practices contributing to formation of positive attitudes towards work and coworkers, which are based on attachment and involvement, are the ones that may foster knowledge exchange processes, which has been proven by empirical research (Camelo-Ordaz et al., 2011;Collins & Smith, 2006).

Method
The aim of the quantitative study is to examine the relationships between individual HR practices and productivity of employees that create services for clients. As part of determination of the character of these relationships, an attempt has also been made to demonstrate which HR practices accounting for productivity are understood as behaviors and create results to the largest extent. The main hypothesis is con- HR managers who co-create and follow HR policies of companies operating in the KIBS sector took part in the qualitative study. Ten individual partly structured in-depth interviews (IDI) were conducted.
For the purpose of measurement of HR practices, statements derived from tools used for examination of HR practices were adopted (Fu et al. 2015;Guthrie, 2001;Huselid, 1995;Tsai, 2006), which referred to conceptualization of high performance work systems.
Based on exploratory analysis of the factors, the following practices were discerned: motivating, training, and professional development (promotion); work design and job characteristics; knowledge management; empowerment, participation, and autonomy; performance evaluation and management; team work.
Diagnosis of employee productivity is established on the basis of measurement of aggregated innovative, prosocial, and proactive behaviors and results. Their detailed characterization along with reliability parameters and analysis of the factors are provided in a paper by Wojtczuk-Turek (2016), which employs indicators recommended by the relevant literature: accomplishment of objectives, timely performance of tasks (Janz, Colquitt & Noe, 1997), client satisfaction, quality, project significance and success (Drucker, 1999;Janz, Colquitt, Noe & 1997), and innovative effects (Drucker, 1999).

Results
In the first stage of analysis, the values of the coefficients of correlation for individual variables were estimated (Table 1).
As far as individual practices (Table 1)  The results revealed that a significant correlation was found with all HR practices, and the strongest was revealed in the case of work design and job characteristics (r=0.308; p<0.01) and performance management and appraisal (r=0.249; p<0.01). The mutual correlations between HR practices and productivity / results, which were discovered in the study, served as basis for further exploratory analyses. To determine the type of correlation between productivity and HR practices and indicate which of them account for employee pro-  Table 2.
Based on the regression analysis that has been carried out, it may be stated that the practices that ac-    The interviews that were conducted also allowed to identify individual HR practices and define their character. Synthetic juxtaposition of these is presented in Table 3.

Discussion on the results and conclusions
The study was concerned with empirical verification of the assumption that there is a relationships between high performance HR practices and productivity of

HPWP practices Analytical remarks on the character of HRM practices and outliers
Work design and job characteristics • job descriptions specifying tasks are in place or not and in case of the latter, tasks are assigned according to the nature of a project • tasks are closely connected with the requirements of the project and assigned to people with specific competences (selection of competences according to tasks) • flexibility in terms of the manner of task performance • various forms of organization of work (e.g., off-site work), the possibility to regulate time required to perform tasks, task-oriented system of work • employee transfers and "borrowings" between departments • flexibility of work design and the manners of performing work • in case of a complex project involving a large number of people, work is more organized and scheduled according to deadlines Motivating • individualization of the motivating system • various forms of financial and non-financial motivation • motivating character of projects, which allows employees to acquire unique competences and high attractiveness of employment • company's profit sharing • rewards for innovation Trainings and development • development of competences is a constant process encompassing knowledge workers • expert (technological) trainings are adjusted to the needs that are expressed or related to competences which are not directly related to professional activity • e-learning platforms are in use as well as tools serving acquisition of knowledge • there are development programs for persons showing great potential (having talents); lack of such programs is compensated with approaching every employee as a talent • there are varied development paths leading to changes in professional roles (based on competences) and possible change of position • employees participate in planning their own development • there are opportunities to follow career paths in other company branches (in various geographical locations) • cooperation with renowned universities with regard to education • employees are members of sector-related or student associations, take part in conferences, and maintain contact with universities Recruiting and selection • competences are supplied by professionals hired for particular projects or within the framework of permanent cooperation • recruitment is an ongoing process ensuring flexible access to human resources • the process is complex/multistage, involves HR experts, managers, and other employees • a system of instructions and recommendations is in place • IT tools are widely applied in recruitment • cooperation with universities -academies of young talents • direct contact with candidates possessing particular competences Appraisal • evaluation is carried out by managers in cooperation with the HR every half a year or every year and consistent with the financial plan (360 degree feedback is used) • ongoing assessment and feedback provided during project monitoring • company's clients participate in the process of employee evaluation • in addition to a point-based system, there is also a descriptive system in use (based on qualitative criteria) • international cooperation is subject to evaluation • employees participate in defining objectives and directions for development based on evaluation Table 3. Juxtaposition of HR practices in companies of the KIBS sector and their character employees whose work is based on intensive knowledge. While designing the study, the researcher strived to respect the assumption that positive effects arising from the influences of human resources management are the outcome of the adoption of a set of practices rather than single practices (Combs, Liu, Hall, & Ketchan, 2006).
Analyses allowed to single out the practices that  Oldham (1976), similarly to autonomy that is strongly correlated with the sense of satisfaction (Coutts & Gruman, 2012). Simultaneously, the studies conducted so far confirm that participation and empowerment are

HPWP practices Analytical remarks on the character of HRM practices and outliers
Knowledge management  To summarize, from the perspective of recommending particular actions to be taken within the framework of the human resources management system in companies operating in the KIBS sector, it is worth considering the following areas that, as this study demonstrated, were most strongly correlated with productivity: a) work design and job characteristics, b) empowerment, participation, and autonomy, c) performance management and appraisal, and d) knowledge management. The indicated practices are related to those based both on commitment and knowledge (Chow & Gong, 2010). They reflect two significant dimensions leading to achievement of very good task and contextual results in organizations operating in the KIBS sector: qualifications and competences (whose core is knowledge resources) and attitudes (related to motivational aspects). Thus, on a conceptual level, the results that have been obtained in the course of empirical research combine the perspectives offered by High Performance Work Practices and High Involvement Work Practices in terms of perception of human resources management processes in companies where the key resource is knowledge.

Limitations and further research
Although the presented study provides new knowledge on HR practices -which are significant from the point of view of productivity of employees who create highly specialized services in the KIBS sector -it is not free from flaws. First and foremost, while making an attempt to discover which practices are most strongly related to behaviors and results, the analysis was not based on examination of variables in interaction (as it was impossible to analyze them jointly due to strong correlations among the variables forming the same theoretical construct). Moreover, conclusions on the impacts produced by the variables used in the model were indirect since the model did not provide for experimental examinations.
Other issues are the manner of analysis of variables and the research tools. Although cultural adaptation was used and reliability of all of the tools was tested, validation of their accuracy was not performed. Furthermore, the employed tools were based on self-description, which might give rise to concerns regarding control of the variable "social desirability".
As far as analysis of the HR practices themselves is concerned, future studies should take into consideration employees' evaluation of their importance in terms of appropriateness, suitability, and effectiveness in bring- ing about individual results. This is because it turns out that employees' perception of the effectiveness of practices is important for the implementation of HPWS.
From the perspective of conceptualization of the research area, it should perhaps be expanded to cover the aspects reflecting the perspective of the HIWP (High Involvement Work Practices), as this might contribute to identification of other manners in which HRM enhances individual and organizational efficiency.