The Consequences of Human Resource Stocks and Flows: A Longitudinal Examination of Unit Service Orientation and Unit Effectiveness

Drawing from resource-based theory, we argue for a broader interpretation of human capital and demonstrate that unit service orientation contributes to unit effectiveness over time. Operationalizing unit service orientation as the unit-level (n = 1,255) aggregate of individual level (n = 114,198) service employee competencies, we modeled the data over three quarters and found a positive but decreasing relationship between the flow of unit service orientation and changes in unit effectiveness. Although building a high-quality stock is important, we show that the key driver of change in unit effectiveness is the flow of unit service orientation over time.