Leadership and Human Resources Management Practices: The mediating role of organizational virtues

Abstract

Considering the unexplored relationship between leadership, organizational virtues, and human resource management practices, the purpose of this paper is to test a structural model of mediation between leadership and human resource management, being organizational virtues the mediating variable. We performed a survey with 673 employees in Brazil, resorting to Structural Equation Modeling to analyze the data. Findings show that organizational virtues mediate the relationship between leadership and HRM practices. We confirm the positive effect of leadership on organizational virtues, the influence of organizational virtues on HRM practices, and the impact of leadership on HRM practices. This paper contributes to the literature on human resource management and organizational behavior, particularly concerning investigations that deal with antecedents of HRM practices.

Home Sweet Home? The Mediating Role of Human Resource Management Practices in the Relationship between Leadership and Quality of Life in Teleworking in the Public Sector

“…This study aligns with the findings of [115], regarding the desire of public sector teleworkers to continue working remotely. However, as highlighted in the literature [11,12,30,63], effective implementation and execution of HRM practices by leadership are crucial for successful telework programs. This study contributes to strengthening and improving these programs.…”

“…Historically, leadership theories have been discussed in different periods and academic areas, strengthening studies of organizational behavior [30]. This research is based on the understanding of leadership from Bernard Bass's transformational leadership theory [15].…”

“…The contribution of studies from the fields of psychology, finance, strategy, and economics, among others, is of paramount importance for the scientific development of a more strategic HRM [15,30], which legitimizes the proposal of people as protagonists in the work environment, producers of knowledge, and responsible for superior organizational results [57,[60][61][62]. In this sense, HRM is a strategic approach aimed at people's develop-ment, integration, and well-being [16,55], managing talent and joining forces to achieve organizational goals [63].…”

“…SHRM promotes interaction between strategies, policies, and practices [30,62,65,67], which are designed according to the organizational culture and market scenario and may therefore differ from one organization to another [62]. In this sense, it is possible to state that strategies (i) are at the macro level of HRM and determine the guidelines that guide HRM; (ii) are located at the middle level, with policies that articulate proposals that coordinate and inspire practices, seeking alignment with them [30,60]; and (iii) are at the micro level, with practices that are positioned, representing the execution of routines, processes, and actions by operationalizing policies, occupying a fundamental place for obtaining results in organizations [57,60].…”

“…Considering the premise that leadership influences the perception of HRM practices [11,15,30,63], it is worth highlighting that leadership with a focus on relationships is the leadership style that has had the greatest effect on the perception of HRM practices [30]. Furthermore, the teleworking context calls for leaders who respond to the virtual environment's challenges, prioritizing teleworker training, structuring tasks [5], and providing social exchange, reciprocity, mutual trust, relationship development, instrumental support, and organizational support for the team [3,5].…”