Chapter patent HRM 2010
Corbel, P. and Chevreuil, S. « Les fonctions de gestion de ressources humaines du brevet : quelques pistes de réflexion » in L. Marmoz and V. Attias-Delattre, Ressources humaines, force de travail et capital humain, L’Harmattan, December 2010, pp.247-257
Abstract:
Current trends towards what is increasingly referred to as a 'knowledge economy' leave little doubt as to the strategic importance of R&D departments, even if this is no longer from the perspective of a company-integrated innovation process. However, while the application of human resources management tools to R&D activities has given rise to a number of reflections, these remain relatively few in number compared with the body of knowledge in HRM on the one hand and R&D management on the other. We propose here to explore the use of an R&D tool, the patent, for human resource management purposes, and in particular for motivation. Interest in such a problem arose inductively, through an initial empirical study of IP practitioners, some of whom mentioned this role, which until then had been little studied, and not in depth.
This paper is primarily based on an in-depth case study carried out at Peugeot-Citroën Automobiles. This enabled us to analyse the links between these two seemingly distant concepts. It turns out that, under certain conditions, the patent can have an influence on self-esteem, in addition to the external motivation provided by the associated reward system (bonuses, competitions, etc.). This impact on motivation can be extended to involvement, thanks in particular to the congruence between the discourse and the management system and, in the case of PCA, to the margins of autonomy that the patent makes it possible to obtain, as the patent application process is outside the hierarchical line. This obviously has a certain number of implications: once this type of variable has been included, it will be a question of balancing the sometimes complementary, sometimes antagonistic aims, both in terms of certain purely HR dimensions and because of the interaction with the other (main) aims of patenting. Finally, we conclude this article with a reflection on the potential roles of patenting beyond the motivation/involvement dimensions alone.
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This chapter is an evolution of the paper presented at the 2009 AGRH conference.