Effects of high‐performance work systems on transformational leadership and team performance: Investigating the moderating roles of organizational orientations

Abstract

This study integrates strategic human resource management (SHRM) and transformational leadership (TFL) literatures to address gaps in each of the two literatures. Building on the concept of strategically targeted HRM systems and the contingency perspective in SHRM, we propose that an organization's high‐performance work system (HPWS) affects team managers' TFL, and that the emergence of TFL and the effectiveness of TFL on team performance are contingent on organizational adaptation and efficiency orientations. Analyses of multilevel data from 179 teams in 44 organizations revealed a positive relationship between HPWS and TFL, which was positively and negatively moderated by adaptation and efficiency orientations, respectively. Further, TFL was positively related to team performance and negatively moderated by efficiency orientation. Finally, the results supported a multilevel, moderated mediation effect with the indirect effect of HPWS on team performance via TFL varying significantly as a function of adaptation and efficiency orientations. Implications for the SHRM and leadership literatures and practice are discussed.

Fostering mutual gains: Explaining the influence of high‐performance work systems and leadership on psychological health and service performance

“…Coupled with the preceding interpretation, it is intuitively plausible that as strategically oriented HPWS shapes the context in which leadership is exercised, it may exert its influence on employee reactions through a corresponding strategically focused leadership such as service leadership. Indeed, Han et al () reported an organisational‐level transformational leadership‐oriented HPWS to relate to team performance through transformational leadership. This line of research dovetails with the growing interest in line managers' involvement in the implementation of HPWS (Sikora, Ferris, & Van Iddekinge, ) but must be refocused to examine not only how line managers' enactment of HPWS leads to performance but also promotes human resource sustainability and ultimately, performance.…”

“…Recent research has drawn attention to the interrelationship between HPWS and leadership in promoting performance. For example, Han, Liao, Taylor, and Kim (2017) documented how a strategically oriented HPWS affects team performance through a strategically appropriate leadership style. In a slightly different vein, Weller, Süß, Evanschitzky, and Von Wangenheim (2019) reported HPWS consensus and the well-being indicator of job satisfaction as pathways transmitting the effects of transformational leadership onto customer satisfaction.…”

Expanding the concept of fit in strategic human resource management: An examination of the relationship between human resource practices and charismatic leadership on organizational outcomes

“…Additionally, our work builds on others that suggest that HR and leaders directly affect each other. For example, Han, Liao, Taylor, and Kim () found a firm's high‐performance work system affects team managers' transformational leadership, and Zhu, Chew, and Spangler () found CEO transformational leadership affected a firm's human‐capital‐enhancing HR management. Our study extends this body of literature by exploring alternative synergies between HR and CEO charisma in small firms.…”

The role of leadership in human resource management: perspectives and evidence from Asia Pacific

“…• leadership may have an indirect effect on outcomes through HRM practices, or HRM practices may have an indirect effect on outcomes through leadership. For example, transformational CEOs are likely to adopt skill-based HRM practices (Lopez-Cabrales, Bornay-Barrachina, and Diaz-Fernandez 2017) and human-capital enhancing HRM practices (Zhu, Chew, and Spangler 2005), which, in turn, will influence organizational outcomes; • organizational-level transformational leadership-enhancing HRM practices may influence team-level transformational leadership, which, in turn, will impact team creativity (Han et al 2018); • leadership may strengthen the influence of HRM practices on outcomes, or HRM practices may strengthen the influence of leadership on outcomes. For example, the CEO's charismatic leadership would strengthen the positive relationship between high-commitment HR practices and organizational performance (McClean and Collins 2019).…”