Managing Uncertainty: An Examination of Leadership Factors that Increase HRM System Strength

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation was to extend research that examines the overlap between leadership and human resource management (HRM). Specifically, it sought to understand the leadership factors that would predict HRM system strength. Using a sample of 385 employees nested in 32 restaurant units, a model was examined that explored the relationships between leader political skill, leader communication behaviors, HRM system strength, and the multilevel outcomes of unit-level financial performance, leader likeability, and employee job performance. Through an integration of social/political influence theory and uncertainty reduction theory, it was predicted that leaders’ political skill and communication behaviors would lead to an increase of HRM system strength, which would then increase the three multilevel outcomes. The results of this dissertation suggest that leader communication behaviors relate the strongest to HRM system strength. There is also a modicum of support for political skill and its indirect effect, via leader communication behaviors, to HRM system strength. HRM system strength demonstrated significant effects on unit-level financial performance, albeit it the opposite direction than was hypothesized. Taken together, this dissertation contributes to research related to the antecedents of HRM system strength, the refinement of the social/political influence theory, and in helping further explore the shared space between the leadership and HRM research domains.