High-performance work systems, management team flexibility, employee flexibility and service-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors

Abstract

Integrating the employee-adaptive capability and social-learning perspectives, this study examined the mediating process of employees’ flexibility through which high-performance work systems (HPWS) and management team flexibility (MTF) were positively associated with employees’ service-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors (SOCBs). Data collected from multiple sources at a multinational food-service chain, including 162 restaurant managers, 472 management team members and 474 frontline employees, revealed that HPWS and MTF were positively related to SOCBs via distinct kinds of employees’ flexibility. Employees’ ability to be flexible could mediate HPWS–service delivery and HPWS–participation linkages. On the other hand, employees’ willingness to be flexible could mediate the relationships between MTF and all types of SOCBs. Finally, we discuss the important findings of this study as well as their theoretical and practical implications.