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Human Resource Management research is striving to develop rigorous and actionable knowledge for today's social and environmental global challenges. For years, academic‐stakeholder collaborative knowledge creation processes have been considered as potentially rewarding ways to achieve this objective. However, applications of collaborative HRM research are still relatively sparse, as HR scholars tend to engage with more traditional processes of knowledge creation. The aim of this editorial is to foster more widespread conduct of collaborative HRM research in the future. Drawing on Habermas, whose ideas on human knowledge are considered to be at the core of the epistemology of collaborative management research, we first highlight three avenues for collaborative HRM research that addresses our technical, practical and emancipatory knowledge‐constitutive interests. For each of them, we highlight key theoretical assumptions and risks. Thereafter, we describe two key requirements for rigour and relevance in the context of any collaborative HRM study. Finally, we present the papers included in this special section and discuss their implications for HRM research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-professional service teams might isolate from the organisation and inhibit knowledge sharing with others. Professional organisations are thus stimulating their teams to bond more closely with other units, hoping this would facilitate knowledge sharing. Yet, studies on social bonding suggest this could actually deter from knowledge sharing. Our study investigates this further asking: do employees display greater intention to share knowledge when their teams possess greater structural, relational and cognitive social capital? Our cross-level study, grounded on a sample of 226 employees (39 teams in four Hospice & Palliative Care Organisations), shows that individuals embedded in teams with greater social capital are indeed more motivated to share knowledge; and that each form of social bonding—increasing frequency of interactions, trust and mutual support, and similarity of goals/meanings—stimulates different mechanisms of knowledge sharing (attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managers often exclude some stakeholders from innovation programs, believing they would be "dangerous" for the purpose and pace of new product/service development. The exclusion of "dangerous" stakeholders, however, has negative implications on innovation, as it prevents access to key knowledge and connections. Our study investigates how "dangerous" stakeholders can overturn their exclusion, and gain key decision‐making responsibilities. Theoretically, we import the "general theory of political representation" from Rehfeld (2006) to derive insight into agency of five actors: selection agents, strategic constellation and representatives (on the side of innovators), represented and "audience" (on the side of stakeholders). Empirically, we undertake a 4‐year longitudinal case study of a digital innovation program in an English public hospital. Our study highlighted that only an elite "audience" of clinical leads enacted a strategy of "coaptation work" to overturn their exclusion from the innovation program, and ascend to a role of selection agents. Through "coaptation work," the clinical leads used their privileged access to clinical resources to first create fractures within the community of innovators, and then embed clinical stakeholders in key decision‐making roles to heal them. Our results challenge established "hub‐and‐spoke" interpretations of innovation programs, and emphasize the importance of political representation work to understand how stakeholders exert their influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the role of platform sponsors and program managers in evolving a platform to stimulate inter‐organizational collaboration in large research programs. Through a 5‐year longitudinal case study, we analyzed a large inter‐organizational collaborative research program in England, underpinned by the CLAHRC platform, sponsored by the NIHR. The research program attracted clinical academics in universities and clinical practitioners in a range of healthcare providers to collaborate in an ensemble of projects to drive evidence‐based care for patients with long‐term health conditions. Program managers struggled to facilitate collaboration through the platform, despite a highly decentralized governance approach. Our study identifies three mechanisms through which the platform sponsor and program managers revised the platform's governance strategies to enhance collaboration: (i) they instituted "interruptive events," which routinely stopped projects, and analyzed if and why organizations struggle to collaborate; (ii) they expanded, rather than restricted, access rules for collaboration through "platform renting"; (iii) they re‐distributed, rather than re‐centralized, governance, to reduce unnecessary interdependences across collaborators attracted by the platform. Highlights: This study explains how platform sponsors and program managers can evolve the resources, rules and services of a platform to solve problems of inter‐organizational collaborationIt is beneficial for platform sponsors and program managers to organize "interruptive events" that routinely stop projects, review how organizations interact, and inform changes to platform resources, rules and servicesCollaboration between organizations can be stimulated by introducing client‐centric modules, distributing (rather than sharing) governance responsibilities, and renting the use of a platform for fixed terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies in the field of human resource management (HRM) have highlighted that current research is mostly performed and consumed by academics, and is driven by theoretical and disciplinary concerns rather than practical ones. This debate has invoked the need to produce more Mode 2 research in the HRM field, that is, research driven by practical problems that integrate collaborative efforts by academics and practitioners. Yet, guidelines on how academics and practitioners may implement Mode 2 research remain disjointed and incomplete. Our study provides a phase‐based collaborative‐based framework for the implementation of Mode 2 research in the HRM field, in ways that both academic rigor and practical relevance are achieved. Our framework is informed by a comprehensive review of previous Mode 2 research, within and outside the HRM field. The proposed framework details four macro‐phases: the codevelopment of research questions with practitioners; the design of collaborative spaces and mechanisms; the design and management of double‐loop iterative research processes; and finally the academic and practice legitimization of Mode 2 outcomes. Our framework has the objective to support HRM researchers and practitioners, as well as relevant institutions and gatekeepers in the design, implementation, education, and assessment of Mode 2 research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sets out the testimony of Paolo, an Italian entrepreneur who worked under the control of an 'Ndrangheta clan for years, and finally rebelled against that criminal organization. Paolo operated on a crucial front line, as he managed the relations between his company and the dominant criminal organization in his area. This story constitutes a 'wake-up call' for more research on the intrusion of organized crime in the labour market. Paolo's story reveals how strongly organized crime can penetrate decision-making processes and control key people's management practices. Such control is decisive not only while under the direct influence of organized crime, but also after rebelling against it. Overall, this article provides insights into how organized crime affects employment relations and it calls for more attention to be paid to this topic in the sociology of work and employment relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]