Opening the black box. The mediating roles of organisational systems and ambidexterity in the HRM-performance link in public sector organisations
| Published date | 16 October 2017 |
| Pages | 1434-1451 |
| Date | 16 October 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-10-2016-0275 |
| Author | Geoff Plimmer,Jane Bryson,Stephen T.T. Teo |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
Opening the black box
The mediating roles of organisational systems
and ambidexterity in the HRM-performance
link in public sector organisations
Geoff Plimmer and Jane Bryson
School of Management, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington,
New Zealand, and
Stephen T.T. Teo
ECU School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Australia
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to explore how HIWS may shape organisational capabilities,
in particular organisational ambidexterity (OA) –the ability to be both adaptable to the wider world, and
internally aligned so that existing resources are used well. Given the demands on public agencies to manage
conflicting objectives, and to do more with less in increasingly complex environments, this paper improves
our understanding of how HIWS can contribute to public sector performance. The paper sheds light inside the
black box of the HIWS/organisational performance link.
Design/methodology/approach –This multi-level quantitative study is based on a survey of 2,123
supervisory staff, and 9,496 non-supervisory employees in 56 government organisations.
Findings –The study identifies two paths to organisational performance. The first is a direct HIWS
performance link. The second is a double mediation model from HIWS to organisational systems, to OA and
then performance.
Practical implications –A focus on developing HIWS provides an alternative means to public sector
performance, than restructuring or other performative activities.
Originality/value –This is one of the few studies that explore how HIWS can develop collective as well as
individual capabilities. Studies in the public sector are particularly rare.
Keywords Quantitative, Organisational performance, Public administration, Organisational systems,
Conflicting objectives, High involvement work systems, Organisational ambidexterity
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The ability foran organisation to be adaptable andinnovative as well as aligned and efficient
has received increasing attention in recent management research literature (Birkinshaw and
Gupta, 2013; Junni et al., 2015; O’Reilly and Tushman, 2013). Organisational ambidexterity
(OA), the ability to manage the tensions between being “aligned and efficient in […] today’s
business […] while [being] simultaneously adaptive to changes in the environment”
(Raisch and Birkinshaw, 2008, p. 375), resonates with many organisations, including public
ones. IntuitivelyOA is appealing for organisationsoperating, as government does,in complex
environments. OA is concerned with how organisations manage tensions to be innovative,
and to deploy these innovations systematically and at scale (Birkinshaw and Gupta, 2013).
Government organisations experiencetensions between pressures forgreater innovation, and
increasedaccountability for performanceagainst pre-determinedtargets. We contendthat this
is an ambidexterity dilemma.
Personnel Review
Vol. 46 No. 7, 2017
pp. 1434-1451
Emerald Publishing Limited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-10-2016-0275
Received 11 October 2016
Revised 19 February 2017
18 May 2017
Accepted 24 May 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
© Geoff Plimmer, Jane Bryson and Stephen Teo. 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
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Many private sector firms are likely to face these dilemmas too, but they are particular
problems in public organisations, and private sector findings cannot be assumed to apply to
public organisations (Gould-Williams, 2004). For instance, much of the extant research
concerning the human resource management (HRM) –ambidexterity link is based on
performance management that is incentivising for executives and seen as fair for others
( Junni et al., 2015). However many public sector performance management systems are
inflexible and weak (de Waal, 2010), meaning that alternative levers are needed.
Organisational performance measurement, pay for performance, and zero-based budgeting
are examples of private sector management techniques found to often be harmful in public
organisations (Adcroft and Willis, 2005; Perry et al., 2009). Unionisation, formal, bureaucratic
processes,and limited access to discipline and stretchmechanisms are further examplesof the
unique context of public administration (Bryson et al., 2015), meaning that the pathway to
ambidexterity is likely to differ from that of private organisations.
Practically our understanding of OA is patchy. Although we know that ambidexterity
usually enhances organisation performance, our understanding of its antecedents is limited
(Gibson and Birkinshaw, 2004). It is known that ambidexterity can be achieved through
both structural and contextual means, and that contextual ambidexterity involves
environments which provide stretch, discipline, support and trust, but how this operates
through the formal processes that characterise government is unknown (Gibson and
Birkinshaw, 2004).
HRM systems, in particular those characterised as high performance or high involvement
work systems (HPWS or HIWS), are antecedents to contextual ambidexterity (Patel et al., 2013).
The Patel study confirmed that HPWS use is positively related to OA, and that ambidexterity
mediates between HPWS and performance. Although the causal pathways through
organisational systems (OS) are discussed, they are not tested in that study. Evans and
Davis (2005) theorised that internal social structures (such as network ties, reciprocity norms,
role making, etc.) may mediate that association, but these relationships still remain largely
untested. In public administration Messersmith et al. (2011) found that individual attitudinal
variables (such as job satisfaction, organisational commitment, and empowerment and
citizenship behaviours) were mediatorsbetween HPWS and ambidexterity. However the role of
collective informal processes such as trust and support, and formal processes were not studied.
In a similar vein, mutual investment in employment relationships encourages functional
flexibility in the form of employees being able to perform a wide range of tasks well, and this in
turn fosters OA (López-Cabrales et al., 2011). However, the systemic means by which this
functional flexibility occurs, beyond HR and employment relations practices, is unknown.
For example, both formal and informal OS are likely also needed to sustain the intent of the
employment relationship, and to build the collective capabilities in which the employment
relationships can be enacted.
In HRM research, it is theorised that HIWS build not just individual motivation and
cognition, but also collective team and organisational capabilities (Wright and Nishii, 2007).
However, how these collective organisational capabilities are constructed is a dark section of
the black box with few empirical studies. In ambidexterity research, it is similarly unclear
how HRM antecedents synthesise with other organisational antecedents to enable
ambidexterity and organisational performance ( Junni et al. , 2015). The organisational level
research reported in this paper focusses on these gaps: how HIWS and OS link together to
shape performance via the meta capability of OA.
Public sector organisations have only recently been considered from an ambidexterity
perspective (e.g. Smith and Umans, 2015). The contemporary public sector environment is
difficult due to factors such as the need for better collaboration between silos, and
management of tensions between conflicting objectives. OA in a public sector context is the
other focus of this paper. In sum, this research shows how HIWS may enhance formal and
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organisations
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