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Developmental human resource management and employee improvisation: a moderated mediation model

Developmental human resource management and employee improvisation: a moderated mediation model
Developmental human resource management and employee improvisation: a moderated mediation model

Employees need to take actions quickly to respond to unpredictable changes and developments in today's volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) era. Not surprisingly, employee improvisation has attracted managers' attention. How to motivate employees to adopt improvisation remains contested, with significant gaps in the research on the impact of human resource management practices on employee improvisation. Based on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study examines the effects of developmental human resource management's (DHRM's) three dimensions (training opportunities, performance appraisal, and career development) on employee improvisation through employees' “role breadth self-efficacy” (RBSE) paradigm. This study also investigates the moderating role of job autonomy. Analyzing the responses of 208 corporate employees, the results show that the three dimensions of DHRM all have a significant and positive impact on employee improvisation and RBSE fully mediates these relationships. Furthermore, job autonomy moderates the positive links between the three dimensions of DHRM and employees' RBSE, making the effect stronger as well as strengthening the indirect theoretical effect that DHRM could have on employee improvisation. This study presents the internal mechanism of employee improvisation from the perspective of enterprise human resource management practice, expanding the existing research and provides practical guiding value for organizations to activate employee improvisation.

conservation of resources theory, developmental human resource management, employee improvisation, job autonomy, role breadth self-efficacy
Ma, Ling
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Zhang, Shiqi
a3c25694-d01a-42d2-8a84-1428ba934c35
Zhao, Shuming
9f369f62-e82d-41fd-8b2f-6feeb846737c
Guo, Lingyun
eb1c0c72-cc64-4938-bf92-e0214c4b6716
Zhang, Yucheng
3a7eb0ef-8c03-419f-abdf-4f11f9d097ea
Ma, Ling
1ad4258f-0334-4ea7-b6bb-c98a2bdf003b
Zhang, Shiqi
a3c25694-d01a-42d2-8a84-1428ba934c35
Zhao, Shuming
9f369f62-e82d-41fd-8b2f-6feeb846737c
Guo, Lingyun
eb1c0c72-cc64-4938-bf92-e0214c4b6716
Zhang, Yucheng
3a7eb0ef-8c03-419f-abdf-4f11f9d097ea

Ma, Ling, Zhang, Shiqi, Zhao, Shuming, Guo, Lingyun and Zhang, Yucheng (2026) Developmental human resource management and employee improvisation: a moderated mediation model. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 64 (2), [e70067]. (doi:10.1111/1744-7941.70067).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Employees need to take actions quickly to respond to unpredictable changes and developments in today's volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) era. Not surprisingly, employee improvisation has attracted managers' attention. How to motivate employees to adopt improvisation remains contested, with significant gaps in the research on the impact of human resource management practices on employee improvisation. Based on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study examines the effects of developmental human resource management's (DHRM's) three dimensions (training opportunities, performance appraisal, and career development) on employee improvisation through employees' “role breadth self-efficacy” (RBSE) paradigm. This study also investigates the moderating role of job autonomy. Analyzing the responses of 208 corporate employees, the results show that the three dimensions of DHRM all have a significant and positive impact on employee improvisation and RBSE fully mediates these relationships. Furthermore, job autonomy moderates the positive links between the three dimensions of DHRM and employees' RBSE, making the effect stronger as well as strengthening the indirect theoretical effect that DHRM could have on employee improvisation. This study presents the internal mechanism of employee improvisation from the perspective of enterprise human resource management practice, expanding the existing research and provides practical guiding value for organizations to activate employee improvisation.

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Developmental Human Resource Management and Employee Improvisation: A Moderated Mediation Model - Accepted Manuscript
Restricted to Repository staff only until 22 February 2028.
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Developmental Human Resource Management and Employee Improvisation A Moderated - Version of Record
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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 3 February 2026
e-pub ahead of print date: 22 February 2026
Published date: April 2026
Keywords: conservation of resources theory, developmental human resource management, employee improvisation, job autonomy, role breadth self-efficacy

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 510539
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/510539
PURE UUID: af8411d0-6cf8-4513-ba2f-614538467de9
ORCID for Yucheng Zhang: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-9435-6734

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 13 Apr 2026 16:40
Last modified: 14 Apr 2026 02:11

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Contributors

Author: Ling Ma
Author: Shiqi Zhang
Author: Shuming Zhao
Author: Lingyun Guo
Author: Yucheng Zhang ORCID iD

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