The HR Narratives: AI-Supported workforce strategy in Tariff-Impacted industries

Abstract

Purpose: This study examines how adaptation and dynamic capabilities are discursively constructed in HR narratives that address AI- supported workforces within industries affected by tariffs. It investigates whether sensing, seizing, and transforming are presented as interconnected or separate capabilities amid dual technological and geopolitical disruptions.

Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative lexicometric analysis was performed on 143 HR corporate magazine articles published from January 1, 2025, onwards in the IT, manufacturing, and import/export sectors. The corpus (552 pages; 201, 201,964 words) was sourced from EBSCOhost and analyzed using IRaMuTeQ, utilizing Reinert' s hierarchical descending classification method.

Findings: Four distinct narrative domains—Technology and Innovation; Financial Analysis and Market; Research, Experimentation and Knowledge Sharing; and Workplace, Skills, and Adaptability—covered 95. 73% of the corpus. HR discourse depicts these domains as mostly separate, with limited narrative overlap between technological, financial, and workforce adaptation themes. This separation reflects a rational response to conflicting disruption logics rather than organizational inconsistency. 

Research limitations/implications: The analysis is restricted to public- facing HR discourse and is purely lexicometric, without testing for stability or evaluating organizational behavior or performance outcomes. 

Practical implications: The findings offer HR leaders a framework for auditing organizational narratives and strategically connecting domains where coherence is achievable, while preserving stakeholder- specific legitimacy. 

Social implications: The study demonstrates how organizations manage legitimacy and workforce narratives amid AI- driven changes and geopolitical uncertainties. 

Originality/value: The study questions assumptions of narrative integration in dynamic capability theory by showing that capability coordination may occur through parallel discursive domains during extreme dual disruptions.