This article examines the relationship between the capabilities of HR departments and the level of adoption of corporate HRM practices in MNC subsidiaries. To explain this relationship, we leverage paradox theorizing, still rare but gaining increasing attention in HRM research, and integrate the studies of practice transfer, organizational ambidexterity, and absorptive capacity. First, we establish the conceptual linkages between the implementation and internalization dimensions of practice adoption and the potential and realized absorptive capacities of HR departments. Second, we re-define the operational and strategic activities of HR departments in terms of the learning paradox of exploitation and exploration. Third, we introduce the concept of HR ambidexterity to describe HR departments that possess high levels of capabilities in both operational (exploitative) and strategic (explorative) task-domains. Finally, we hypothesize that ambidextrous HR departments are more adept at adopting corporate HRM practices. An analysis of the survey data from 105 foreign subsidiaries of 12 MNCs supports this single hypothesis. The main contribution of this research is in leveraging paradox theorizing to explain the nature of HRM capabilities and their role in the adoption of HRM practices.

中文翻译：

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人力资源二元性和吸收能力：一种基于悖论的人力资源管理能力方法和跨国公司子公司的实践采用

本文考察了人力资源部门的能力与跨国公司子公司采用企业人力资源管理实践的水平之间的关系。为了解释这种关系，我们利用在人力资源管理研究中仍然很少见但越来越受到关注的悖论理论，并整合了对实践转移、组织二元性和吸收能力的研究。首先，我们在实践采用的实施和内化维度与人力资源部门的潜在和已实现的吸收能力之间建立了概念联系。其次，我们根据开发和探索的学习悖论重新定义了人力资源部门的运营和战略活动。第三，我们引入了人力资源二元性的概念来描述在运营（开发性）和战略性（探索性）任务领域都拥有高水平能力的人力资源部门。最后，我们假设灵巧的 HR 部门更擅长采用企业 HRM 实践。对来自 12 家跨国公司的 105 家外国子公司的调查数据的分析支持了这一单一假设。这项研究的主要贡献是利用悖论理论来解释 HRM 能力的性质及其在采用 HRM 实践中的作用。