SummaryDrawing on social exchange theory, we developed and tested a cross-level model of organizational-level predictors of job engagement. Specifically, we examined the impact of high-performance human resource (HR) practices on employee engagement and work outcomes. Based on a sample of 605 employees, their immediate supervisors, and HR managers from 130 companies, our results indicated that high-performance HR practices were directly related to job engagement as well as indirectly related through employees' perceived organizational support. In turn, job engagement was positively related to in-role performance and negatively related to intent to quit. Culture was found to act as a critical contextual factor, as our results also revealed that the relationship between HR practices and perceived organizational support was stronger when collectivism was high and when power distance orientation was low. Overall, the findings shed new light on the processes and conditions through which employee work-related outcomes are enhanced owing to high-performance HR practices.

SummaryThis study examined reactions to psychological contract breach from two separate perspectives, that is, employee's reactions to perceptions of employer breach and supervisor's reactions to perceptions of employee breach of the psychological contract. In addition to the main effects, we also hypothesized that the benevolence (or kindness) of the supervisor and the traditional values (or respect for authority) of the employee would attenuate the negative effects of psychological contract breach. We tested these hypotheses with a sample of 273 supervisor-subordinate dyads from the People's Republic of China. The results showed that employer breach correlated negatively with employee outcomes of organizational commitment (OC), organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and work performance, but this negative relationship was weaker for employees with traditional values. The results also demonstrated that employee breach correlated negatively with responses from the supervisor, in terms of the mentoring provided to the employee and the leader-member exchange (LMX) quality. However, more benevolent supervisors reacted less negatively in terms of the mentoring than did the less benevolent supervisors. Implications for future research are offered.

Summary Drawing on role theory and the cultural theory of collectivism, we developed and tested a multilevel model of social exchange spillover in leader–member relations in the Chinese context. In Mplus analyses of a sample of 213 subordinates from 47 groups, we found that, at the individual level, a dimension of leader–member guanxi (LMG), leader–member personal life inclusion (LMG‐P), which is defined as the extent to which leaders and members include each other in their personal or family lives, can spill over to affect subordinates' contextual performance (i.e., interpersonal facilitation and job dedication); furthermore, this effect was moderated by subordinates' horizontal collectivism orientation, such that LMG‐P spilled over to affect contextual performance only for those who were low in horizontal collectivism orientation. At the group level, the variance of LMG‐P within a group, which is referred to as LMG‐P differentiation, was related negatively to group performance when the supervisors had a low horizontal collectivism orientation. At the cross level, LMG‐P differentiation moderated the relationship between LMG‐P and job dedication, such that the relationship was positive only when LMG‐P differentiation was low. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Purpose Leaders are under increasing pressure to cultivate an engaged workforce in responsible ways, but how and when responsible leadership is related to employee work engagement remains unclear. Hence, this study aims to unfold the responsible leadership–work engagement relationship by exploring the mediating role of intrinsic corporate social responsibility (CSR) attributions and the moderating role of interactional justice. Design/methodology/approach A multiphase sample of 225 was collected from employees from the Chinese manufacturing industry. Hierarchical regression and PROCESS macro in SPSS were used to test the authors’ moderated mediation model. Findings The results demonstrate that responsible leadership is directly related to work engagement and indirectly related to it via employees' intrinsic CSR attributions. Interactional justice significantly strengthens the positive relationship between responsible leadership and intrinsic CSR attributions as well as the mediating effects of intrinsic CSR attributions. Practical implications To cultivate an engaged workforce that improves organizational effectiveness, firms and managers should facilitate responsible leadership, signal sincere motives of CSR activities and enhance fair interpersonal treatment at work. These can also be helpful in various fields (e.g. promoting public trust). Originality/value Based on social learning theory and attribution theory, this study empirically reveals the role of responsible leadership in enhancing work engagement. It sheds new light on the psychological mechanism and the boundary condition explaining how and when this linkage occurs, which advances research on responsible leadership and the individual-level analysis of CSR.

Drawing on the conservation of resource theory, this study investigates the mediating effects of self-efficacy and academic engagement in the relationship between servant supervision and postgraduates’ employability. We conducted a field study with 598 postgraduates (students for the research-based master's degree and PhD candidates) enrolled in universities in China to test our hypotheses. We developed and tested a model contending that servant supervisors propagate servant supervision among postgraduates through postgraduates’ self-efficacy and academic engagement, which indirectly influences postgraduates’ employability. The results support the mediating effects of both self-efficacy and academic engagement on the relationship between servant supervision and postgraduates’ employability. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

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Leaders are under increasing pressure to inspire innovative endeavors in responsible ways. However, whether and how responsible leadership can fuel employee innovative behavior remains unknown. Therefore, drawing on social identity theory and social exchange theory, this study aims to investigate the psychological mechanisms underlying the responsible leadership-innovative behavior relationship. Multi-phase data were collected from 280 employees working in Chinese manufacturing firms to test the hypotheses using hierarchical regression analyses and the bootstrap method. The results reveal that responsible leadership is positively related to innovative behavior. Additionally, perceived socially responsible human resource management (HRM) and organizational pride separately and sequentially mediate the responsible leadership-innovative behavior relationship. This study empirically reveals the effectiveness of responsible leadership and sheds new light on the psychological processes through which it facilitates innovative behavior, revealing the generalizability of responsible leadership and innovative behavior in the Chinese context. Moreover, we respond to the call for incorporating leadership theory into HRM research and further advance the existing knowledge on both antecedents and outcomes of socially responsible HRM. For practical guidance, organizations are encouraged to foster innovation through investment in responsible management practices. Research limitations and implications are also discussed.

This study aims to examine the effect of employees’ CSE on their work engagement, along with its underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions. Based on the job demands–resources (JD-R) model and conservation of resources (COR) theory, we propose and test a moderated mediation model that examines IFBL as the mediator and work design as the moderator in the relationship between CSE and work engagement. We use time-lagged data from 231 employees to analyze the data. The results indicate that: (1) CSE is positively related to work engagement of employees; (2) IFBL mediates the relationship between CSE and work engagement; (3) problem solving reinforces the effect of IFBL on work engagement, which consequently enhances the mediated relationship between CSE and work engagement via IFBL. We further discuss the limitations and future research directions of this study.