High-performance work systems and manager creativity behaviours: what role do contextual factors play?
ISSN: 2049-3983
Article publication date: 30 April 2021
Issue publication date: 1 October 2021
Abstract
Purpose
High-performance work systems (HPWSs) are linked to performance, but few studies explore creativity behaviours (CBs). The present study includes job satisfaction as a mediator, and firm size and competitive rivalry as moderators to better understand the context.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected using a sample of 310 New Zealand managers. Data analysis was a moderated mediation analysis in structural equation modelling using Mplus.
Findings
The authors find HPWSs are directly related to CBs and job satisfaction, with job satisfaction fully mediating HPWS effects. Two-way moderation effects show managers in small firms report the highest CBs with high HPWSs, and a significant moderated mediation effect is found with firm size, showing a strong positive indirect effect from HPWS, which diminishes as firm size increases.
Practical implications
HPWSs hold the key to providing managers with opportunities for enhancing their CBs. Exploring the distinct bundles of HPWSs in the present study provides avenues for firms to understand and expand their influence on managers.
Originality/value
The findings of firm size as a boundary condition provides unique insights that aid our understanding of the effectiveness of HPWSs on CBs, and how small-sized New Zealand firms might extract better advantages from HPWSs. A major contribution is testing external firm factors (size and the business environment) to understand what roles they may play on managers’ creativity.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This study was funded by the New Zealand National Science Challenge: Science for Technological Innovation [Kia kotahi mai – Te Ao Pūtaiao me Te Ao Hangarau].
Citation
Haar, J., Ghafoor, A., O'Kane, C., Daellenbach, U., Ruckstuhl, K. and Davenport, S. (2021), "High-performance work systems and manager creativity behaviours: what role do contextual factors play?", Evidence-based HRM, Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 391-409. https://doi.org/10.1108/EBHRM-09-2020-0124
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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