기업 혁신의 필요성이 급속히 제고되는 상황에서 기업이 당면하는 상황은 단순히 제안된 혁신방안의 도입에 그치지 않는다. 제기되는 기업의 혁신 방안들이 다양한 만큼 상대적으로 어떤 방안이, 어떤 성과에 보다 효과적인지 파악할 필요가 있으며 이에 따라 다수의 방안과 다수의 성과 간의 관계에 대한 비교･평가가 필요한 상황이기 때문이다. 본 연구는 이를 실증적으로 검토하는 과정에서 최근 들어 강조되는 직원 측면에 주목하였다. 대부분의 혁신 활동이 기업 내 직원들을 주체 또는 객체로 활용할 뿐 아니라 이들의 인식과 태도가 혁신활동의 효과를 배가 또는 감축시킬 수 있을 것으로 보고 있기 때문이다. 따라서 인적 자원 관리에 대한 대표적인 혁신 방안으로 노동 유연화 방안과 근로자 능력 향상 방안에 대해 기업 성과와의 관계를 살펴보고 이 과정에서 중요한 개입요인으로 직원 만족도의 역할을 살펴보고자 하였다. 덧붙여 이를 실증하는 과정에서 선행 연구의 한계를 보완하여 대표성 있는 표본의 추출, 충분한 표본 수 및 통제변수 사용, 추정의 타당도를 향상시키기 위한 패널분석 사용을 통해 다음과 같은 연구 결과를 도출하였다.
첫째, 근로자 능력 향상 방안이 노동생산성 수준 및 재무성과 향상에 긍정적인 효과를 미칠 뿐만 아니라 가장 일관성 있는 효과를 보이고 있었다. 구체적으로 근로자 능력 향상 방안은 직원 만족도를 경유하여 노동생산성에 긍정적 영향을 미치고 있었으며, 재무성과에는 직업 만족도를 경유한 간접 효과뿐만 아니라 직접효과도 존재하였다. 둘째, 사회적으로 논쟁이 되고 있는 노동 유연화 방안은 근로자의 노동생산성 및 재무성과를 감소시키는 결과를 확인하였는데 이러한 부정적 효과는 직업 만족도를 감소시킴으로써 발생하는 것으로 나타났다. 셋째, 혁신 방안의 도입 과정에서 혁신 방안과 기업 환경과의 정합성을 필수적으로 고려할 필요가 있다. 노동 유연화 방안은 노동생산성 수준을 감소시키는데 비해 근로자 능력 향상 방안 도입은 이를 상승시키기 때문에 두 방안의 동시 도입은 효과의 상충을 가져올 개연성이 높기 때문이다. 넷째, 직원 만족도를 직업전반에 대해 느끼는 감정인 직업 만족도와 직무 자체에 대한 만족인 직무 만족도로 구분하여 매개 효과를 추정한 결과 직업 만족도만이 기업성과에 매개를 담당하는 것으로 나타났다.

Given the increased need for corporate innovation, business situation is more than just introduction of proposed innovation types. As the proposed innovation types vary, it is necessary to determine which ones are relatively more effective in terms of firm performances. Accordingly, it is necessary to compare which innovation type is suitable for the company environment and to access the relationship between the various innovation types and firm performances.
In addition, this study has focused on the aspect of employees which is highlighted recently because most of the innovation activities have not only been utilized by employees or for employees but their perception and attitudes of introducing innovation type can increase or decrease the effectiveness of innovation. Therefore, as an important factor which mediates the relationship between introducing innovation and performances, this study tried to examine the effect of innovation types on performances in addition to mediating effect of employee satisfaction.
In the process of examining this, a representative sample like Workplace Panel Survey, sufficient control variables and panel analysis were used to supplement the limitation of previous studies. Specific research designs are as follows. 285 companies’ four-year data in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013 were used for panel analysis and firm performances were based on questions that measured labor productivity and financial performance compared to same industry. With regard to human resource management innovation, the levels of introducing labor flexibility and human resource innovation which can enhance employees’ capacity were composed using factor analysis. Also, variables that could affect firm performances and employee satisfaction like market competition situation and extra works per week were selected for control variables. Using these all data and variables, it was tried to estimate effects of innovation types on firm performances via employee satisfaction.
The results are as follows. First, introducing human resource innovation contributed positively to improve the labor productivity and financial performance. Specifically, to enhance worker performance had a positive effect on labor productivity via employee satisfaction and on financial performance not only directly but also via employee satisfaction. Second, the socially disputed labor flexibility is verified to reduce the labor productivity and finance performance. Concretely, this negative effects have been shown to come from the reduction in employee satisfaction. Third, in the course of introducing innovation types, consistency of the innovation plans with the corporate environment should be considered. Labor flexibility decrease the level of labor productivity, while the introduction of human resource innovation pushes up this level. So, simultaneous introduction of these two plans may have unintended consequences. Lastly, Dividing the employee satisfaction into the job satisfaction, which is the experience of the overall job experience and the work satisfaction, which is the satisfaction of the work itself, only job satisfaction has been shown to mediate the relation between introducing innovation and performances. This results means that improved firm performances can be harmonized with employee’s understanding through job security and treatment, while work satisfaction may cause positive feelings but these feelings may not be directly associated with firm performances.
However, this study also has a number of limitations. First, since all variables are measured at the same time of each year by the subjective perception of the respondents, it is likely that a common source bias can occur. In particular, it is likely that the respondents’ biased perceptions may have influenced answers of the survey because questionnaires about introducing innovation types and its level of employee satisfaction were answered by the same person. Second, since Workplace Panel Survey don’t provide 2007~2013 longitudinal weight, this study should be interpreted and applied to only firms that have characteristics presented in the descriptive statistics.