Are Pressuring Employees to Improve Organizational Innovation Still Working? An Empirical Analysis of Manufacturing Companies in China

The purpose of this study is to explore when leaders of manufacturing companies in China adopt high-performance work system (HPWS) and authoritarian leadership to pressure employees to maintain their intention toward organizational innovation improvement. These two approaches can trigger employee resistance and further affect innovation and financial performance. We collected data through the responses of 224 manufacturing companies in China. Regarding the methodology, Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient and partial least squares (PLS) regression are the primary methods used. Our findings indicate that employees’ resistance as a moderator certainly affects the relationship between improving organizational innovation and achieving innovative performance, which also affects financial performance. In addition, authoritarian leadership will lead to employees’ resistance. However, if leaders adopt HPWS to promote employees’ intention toward innovation improvement, although there is a lack of direction between HPWS and employees’ resistance, employee resistance can still be triggered if leaders lack commitment. In this contribution, the research results not only remind the leaders of manufacturing companies in China to reconsider whether to adopt a new approach or to combine their current approach with a commitment to redesigning HPWS to promote employees’ intention toward organizational innovation but also remind leaders of manufacturing companies from other countries to change their approach to addressing employees’ intention toward innovation improvement when the environment, culture, or personality traits change.