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Drawing from the cultural self-representation model, we propose a multilevel model to examine when and why empowering leadership elicits followers' taking charge behaviors in China. Data from 310 full-time employees in 81 work groups provide support for the mediating role of role breadth self-efficacy in transforming team-directed empowering leadership into individual taking charge behaviors. In addition, this mediation relationship is found to be attenuated by high differentiated empowering leadership and low individual power distance orientation. Finally, we find support for a three-way moderated mediation-which the moderating effect of differentiated empowering leadership is found to be significant only among followers who have low power distance orientation. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

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With the increasing prevalence of team-based work in organizations (Kozlowski & Bell, 2013; Mathieu, Maynard, Rapp, & Gilson, 2008), managers have to delegate power to their employees and encourage them to be more autonomous, responsive, and proactive at work. As a result, empowering leadership, which is defined as "sharing power with a view toward enhancing employees' motivation and investment in their work" (Zhang & Bartol, 2010, p. 107), has received burgeoning scholarly attention in the leadership literature. Whereas prior studies focusing on the consequences of empowering leadership have demonstrated the positive effect of empowering leadership on employee work performance, including not only routine task performance

SummaryThis study aims to provide new insights into the reward-creativity link in the Chinese context by exploring the moderating effect of guanxi human resource management (HRM) practice-reflecting the extent to which HR decisions are influenced by personal relationships in an organization-on the relationship between pay for performance (PFP) and employee creativity. Using two independent samples that were composed of 222 and 216 supervisor-subordinate dyads from Mainland China and Taiwan, we found that the effect of pay for performance on creativity was invariantly moderated by perceived guanxi HRM practice in such a way that when guanxi HRM practice was low, PFP had stronger positive effects on creativity. Furthermore, trust in management, as reduced by guanxi HRM practice, mediated this moderating effect. Moreover, moderated path analysis revealed that intrinsic motivation mediated these moderated relationships among PFP, guanxi HRM practice, trust in management, and creativity. Findings shed light on the processes through which, and the conditions under which, PFP may promote creativity.

Past research suggests that interactional justice plays a pivotal role in facilitating high-quality leader-member exchange (LMX), with downstream implications for employee performance. However, the broader context in which these effects unfold has received scarce attention. Drawing from deontic justice and social exchange theories, we suggest that interactional justice differentiation is an important contextual moderator of the link between interactional justice and LMX. Specifically, we argue that high interactional justice differentiation attenuates the link between interactional justice and LMX, in turn influencing the effects of interactional justice on employee task and creative performance. Results from two studies employing both experimental and multisource, multilevel survey designs provide convergent support for the hypothesized model. We conclude by highlighting several key theoretical and practical implications of our findings.

Research on high‐performance work systems (HPWS) has drawn primarily from social exchange theory and human capital theory to unlock the underlying mechanisms in relation to employee performance. In addition to social exchange and human capital theory, a personal resources perspective can also be used to explain the effects of HPWS. In this cross‐level research, we examined the mediating roles of social exchange and thriving, and the moderating effect of proactive personality in the relationships between HPWS and task performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) by analyzing a sample of 391 employees and 84 supervisors from 21 firms in China. Using multi‐level analyses, social exchange and thriving were found to mediate the effects of HPWS on employee task performance and OCB. Furthermore, proactive personality attenuated HPWS's direct effect on thriving and indirect effects on employee task performance and OCB through thriving. Finally, we discuss theoretical contributions, and practical implications of the study, as well as future research directions.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how frequency of change (FC) in organizations and impact of change (IC) influence the employee behaviors, i.e. exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect (EVLN) through psychological contract fulfillment (PCF) as a mediator. The moderating role of successful past changes (SPC) is also assessed with direct and indirect relations of FC, and IC alongside employees’ behaviors. Design/methodology/approach – Hypotheses were tested among a sample of 398 financial services-oriented non-managerial-level employees in Pakistan. Bootstrapped moderated mediation analyses (using PROCESS macro) were conducted to test the main and moderated mediation effects. The authors ran series of confirmatory factor analyses to validate the distinctiveness of variables and their items in this study. Findings – The results largely supported the hypotheses. Findings showed that FC is negatively related to loyalty but positively related to exit, voice, and neglect behaviors via contract fulfillment. IC is also found to have negatively related to loyalty but positively related to exit, voice, and neglect via PCF. SPC was found to moderate the relation between FC, IC, and contract fulfillment, as well as the indirect relationship with exit, voice, and neglect through contract fulfillment and negatively between FC, IC, and loyalty through contract fulfillment. The authors found direct interaction effects of FC via SPC in relation to exit and loyalty and also found direct interaction effects of IC via SPC to exit, voice, and loyalty. Research limitations/implications – The use of cross-sectional research design does not allow conclusions with respect to causality. The most important implication of the study is that employee behaviors following organizational change can best be understood via a psychological contract framework. A future suggestion is to include more organizations based on longitudinal research design with focus on both employee and employer perspective. Practical implications – This study highlights the importance of employees’ behavioral responses and their sensemaking of PCF in a post-organizational change period. Originality/value – This study empirically investigated the effects of FC, and IC on fulfillment of psychological contract and behavioral responses of employees using a sample of non-managerial employees, and provides new insights into employee behaviors following organizational changes.