The impact of high-performance work systems on employee innovative behavior: The mediating role of psychological empowerment

In the context of globalization and accelerated technological development, the innovation ability of enterprises has turned into a significant contributor to gaining competitive advantage, which has raised greater demands for employee innovation and brought challenges to the flexibility of organizational management. Guided by social exchange theory, this study aims to explore the effect of high-performance work systems (HPWS) on employee innovative behavior (EIB), and focus on the mediating role of psychological empowerment (PE) in this link. To verify the research hypothesis, data were collected through a questionnaire survey involving employees of medium-sized science and technology enterprises in Yunnan, China, and a total of 595 valid questionnaires were collected. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the hypotheses. The results showed that HPWS significantly promoted the EIB (β = .450; 95% CI: .337 - .554; p < .010), and PE exerted a partial mediating effect on this link (β = .217; 95% CI: .145 - .295; p < .010). The study shows that enhancing HPWS is crucial to promoting the EIB, and it is particularly imperative to take into account the key mediating role of PE in this relationship.