Going Beyond the Firm Perspective: What Do Employees Think of the High-Performance Work Systems?

Abstract

Although research on High-Performance Work Systems (HPWS) has been measured from the perspective of organizations, recent work calls for the need to focus on the perceptions of HPWS by employees. Drawing on assertions from social exchange theory and signaling theory, we propose that perceptions of HPWS (PHPWS) will generate innovative behavior among employees via perceived organizational support (POS), which could be even more strengthened when they are supported by their leader. Based on a sample of 800 employees from 10 firms across different industries, results indicate that employees’ PHPWS have positive associations both with their POS and innovative behavior, and that POS mediates the positive relationship between PHPWS and innovative behavior. Moreover, we further found that a positive relationship between their POS and innovative behavior and the indirect effect of PHPWS on innovative behavior via POS were even more strengthened by leader support, confirming its moderating effect. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for human resources management and innovation in organizations.