High-performance work system and employee creativity. The roles of perceived organisational support and devolved management
| Date | 16 October 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-09-2016-0235 |
| Pages | 1318-1334 |
| Published date | 16 October 2017 |
| Author | Guiyao Tang,Bingjie Yu,Fang Lee Cooke,Yang Chen |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
High-performance work system
and employee creativity
The roles of perceived organisational support
and devolved management
Guiyao Tang and Bingjie Yu
School of Management, Shandong University, Jinan, China
Fang Lee Cooke
Monash Business School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, and
Yang Chen
School of Business Administration,
Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, China
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine the underlying mechanism through which high-performance
work system (HPWS) influences employee creativity. In addition, this paper aims to examine contingent factors
in the relationship between perceived organisational support and employee creativity.
Design/methodology/approach –The sample of the study included 268 employees and matched
supervisors from two pesticide chemical companies in China. Hypotheses were tested with linear regressions.
Findings –The study shows that HPWS enhances perceived organisational support, which in turn promotes
employee creativity. Moreover, the results also indicate that devolved management positively moderates the
relationship between perceived organisational support and employee creativity.
Research limitations/implications –The unique environment of China may limit the generalisability of
the findings. Future studies can extend these findings by conducting studies in other societal contexts.
Practical implications –When trying to inspire employee creativity, organisations need to pay attention to
employees’perception of organisational support. One way of enhancing perceived organisationalsupport is to
implement HPWS. In addition, organisations need to encourage devolved management in order to inspire
more creative behaviours.
Originality/value –This is the first study that explores the mediating role of perceived organisational
support in the HPWS-employee creativity linkage. In addition, the study provides what is believed to be the
first test of the moderating role of devolved management.
Keywords China, Quantitative, Employee creativity, High-performance work systems (HPWSs),
Perceived organizational support, Devolved management
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
In the past decade or so, a great deal of research has been conducted on the individual and
organisational outcomes of high-performance work systems (HPWSs), such as job
performance (Shih et al., 2013), voluntary turnover (Selden et al., 2013), discretionary
behaviour (Elorzaet al., 2016) and firm performance( Messersmith and Guthrie,2010) (see also
Kaufman, 2015 for an overview and critique). However, comparatively few studies have
Personnel Review
Vol. 46 No. 7, 2017
pp. 1318-1334
Emerald Publishing Limited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-09-2016-0235
Received 10 September 2016
Revised 19 December 2016
Accepted 3 February 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
© Guiyao Tang, Bingjie Yu, Fang Lee Cooke and Yang Chen. Published by Emerald Publishing
Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone
may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial
and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors.
The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
The authors wish to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71672102, 71502142),
the MOE (Ministry of Education in China) Project of Humanities and Social Sciences (17YJA630093),
and the Shandong Province Social Science Planning Young Scholars Programs (16CQXJ06).
1318
PR
46,7
investigatedthe influence of HPWS onemployee creativity (Chianget al., 2015). This is in spite
of the fact that employee creativity contributes substantially to organisational innovation and
competitive advantage (Amabile, 1988). This is an important research gap considering that
sustainable organisational performance is hinged on organisational innovativenessand a highly
skilled and committed workforce (e.g. Ehnert et al.,2016;Pfeffer,2010;Shiptonet al., 2016).
Another development in the field of HPWS-performance research is the focuson how and
why HPWS influences employee attitudes and behaviour, rather than simply documenting
this direct relationship (e.g. Messersmith et al., 2011; Paauwe et al., 2013; Shen et al., 2014;
see also Ostroff and Bowen,2016 for a review). According to social-exchange theory, human
resource management (HRM) practices that are perceived by employees to demonstrate
organisations’commitment to staff willbe reciprocated with positive attitudesand behaviour
(Whitener, 2001; Zacharatos et al., 2005). However, there remains insufficient research on the
mechanisms through which HRM systems influence employee attitudes and behaviour,
especiallyin the Chinese context (Shen et al., 2014).Therefore, we explore themediating role of
perceived organisational supportin the relationship between HPWSand employee creativity.
Furthermore, according to the interactionist perspective (Woodman and Schoenfeldt,
1990; Woodman et al., 1993), employee creativity can be influenced by interaction among
various factors, such as social (e.g. socio-emotional resource) and contextual components
(e.g. management approach). Therefore, we can expect perceived organisational support and
devolved management to interact to influence employee creativity. Devolved management
requires giving employees more power and autonomy (Tang et al., 2015). Employees
working in organisations implementing devolved management can experience a high level
of autonomy (Tang et al., 2015), which inspires their creative behaviours (Zhang and
Bartol, 2010). Under this condition, employees perceiving high level of organisational
support are more willing to reciprocate through creativity. However, previous studies have
paid little attention to the moderating role of devolved management in the relationship
between perceived organisational support and employee creativity.
Our study fills the above research gaps, and therefore contributes to existing knowledge on
HPWS-performance links, in three ways. First, we consider HPWS as an important antecedent
of employee creativity. HPWS is an effective system that leads to superior organisational
performance, yet few studies have focussed on its effect on employee creativity. Second,
we examine the mediating role of perceived organisational support in the HPWS-employee
creativity linkage, identify a new path through which HPWS inspires employee creativity
(Chiang et al., 2015), and provide further empirical evidence for social-exchange theory.
Third, our study broadens the understanding of the impact of devolved management by
exploring the moderating role of devolved management in the perceived organisational support-
employee creativity linkage The conceptual model of this study is summarized in Figure 1.
Literature review and hypotheses development
HPWS and employee creativity
A high-performance work system is a bundle of HRM practices designed to promote employees’
skills, motivation and involvement to enable a firm to gain a sustainable competitive advantag e
Perceived
organisational
support
HPWS Employee creativity
Devolved management
H2, H4 H3, H4
H5
H1
Figure 1.
The conceptual
model of the study
1319
HPWS and
employee
creativity
To continue reading
Request your trial