Sustainable Human Resource Management Nurtures Change-Oriented Employees: Relationship between High-Commitment Work Systems and Employees’ Taking Charge Behaviors

Evaluation of Employee Empowerment on Taking Charge Behaviour: An Application of Perceived Organizational Support as a Moderator

Purpose

Based on trait activation theory, this study validates the boundary effect of perceived organizational support (POS) on employee empowerment (EE) to sustain employee's taking charge behaviour (TCB). It hypothesizes that EE has a strongly significant and positive relationship with TCB when POS is high.

Methodology

The authors selected a time-lagged cross-sectional study and collected data from two sources in manufacturing firms in China where 290 team members and 56 supervisors participated in the survey. In a questionnaire, team members self-reported employee empowerment, taking charge behaviour, and perceived organizational support, whereas supervisors rated employees' taking charge behaviour at individual-level to avoid common method bias. In addition, for meeting the study objectives statistically, we used SPSS-Process Macro for hypotheses testing.

Findings

The study findings were significant, in which employee empowerment demonstrated positive relationship with TCB under the boundary condition of POS but under low POS. This empirical result endorses that employee empowerment accelerated by perceptions of low organizational support demonstrates a positive impact on the development of taking charge behaviour.

Practical Implications

Receivers' reactions to organizational support are not constantly positive; sometimes, they might feel vulnerable or incapable, and sometimes "overhelped". Our study outcomes extend these streams of work by concentrating on support from the organization and authenticating an exclusive outline associating employee empowerment with perceived organizational support on employee's taking charge behaviour- specifically organizations might, rather counterintuitively, attain greater levels of empowered employee's taking charge behaviour by delivering less is more-oriented organizational support programs. More specifically, it is not always high, but sometimes low POS performs as a resilient situational factor or contextual moderator that is capable of activating and encouraging employee empowerment on their taking charge behaviour.

Originality/Value

This study highlights the importance of taking charge as trait-relevant behaviour by empowered employees (a trait in our case) and organizational support as a trait-relevant cue for sustainable performance in the manufacturing industry of China.

How Is Ethical Leadership Linked to Subordinate Taking Charge? A Moderated Mediation Model of Social Exchange and Power Distance

Extant literature has suggested that leadership styles have a significant impact on subordinate taking charge. However, the effect of ethical leadership on subordinate taking charge is still insufficiently explored. Drawing on social exchange theory, we developed a moderated mediation model in which social exchange was theorized as a mediating mechanism underlining why subordinates feel motivated to take charge with the supervision of ethical leadership. Moreover, power distance was supposed to be a relevant boundary condition to moderate such a relationship. Two hundred thirty-nine independent leader–subordinate dyads in China were used to test the model. Results showed that subordinates’ social exchange mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and subordinate taking charge, and such a relationship was found to be stronger among subordinates who had lower levels of power distance rather than higher levels. Theoretical and practical implications concerning enhancement of subordinate taking charge in organizations where ethical leaderships exist are discussed.

Visualizing Sustainability Research in Business and Management (1990–2019) and Emerging Topics: A Large-Scale Bibliometric Analysis

While researchers from many disciplines are increasingly interested in studying issues related to sustainability, few studies have presented a holistic view of sustainability from the perspectives of business and management. This bibliometric study quantitatively analyzed a big data set of 30 years of sustainability research (1990–2019), consisting of 37,322 publications and 1,199,398 cited references, visualizing major topics, dynamic evolution, and emerging development. The decade-by-decade in-depth analysis shows a clear shift from a nearly exclusive focus on economic growth and consumption to all three pillars of sustainability, i.e., economic growth, social development, and environmental protection. Highlighting the differences between United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and the popular research topics from academia, our analysis uncovers research gaps and suggests future research directions for sustainability researchers and practitioners.

Employees’ Perceptions of Training and Sustainability of Human Resource

Employees’ perceptions of training are one of the keys to sustainability in human resources. Based on data from a survey conducted in Shanghai and nine other large cities, this study explores employees’ perceptions of training and tries to identify what factors influence their perceptions. The results show that employees do not attach enough value to vocational training. Urban registration, higher education, and management positions correspond with higher valuation of training, but length of service has a negative effect on their valuation. The differences between urban households and rural households, the social distinction between basic education and vocational education paths, and the increases of frequency, time, and importance of the interactions between personal and work places may play an important role in these phenomena and have impacts on the sustainable development of human resources in China.