Building ambidexterity: The role of human resource practices in the performance of firms from Spain.

Both researchers and managers are increasingly interested in how firms can pursue ambidextrous learning-that is, simultaneously exploring new knowledge domains while exploiting current ones. In this study, we attempt to bring human resource management into this forum by introducing and testing how high-involvement human resource practices shape the social climate that affects the firm's ambidextrous learning and subsequent performance. A field study of 198 companies from Spain showed that high-involvement human resource practices were positively related to the social climate that, in turn, facilitates ambidextrous learning and improved performance. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]