Organisations invest in human capital to achieve favourable organisational performance. The purpose of this research is to explain how organisational human capital investments influence an individual’s human capital and innovative work behaviour (IWB). Drawing on Social Exchange Theory and its subset Affect Theory of Social Exchange, this study empirically examines how the human resource management activity of human capital investments manifests at the individual level by developing and testing a moderated serial mediation model. A total of 115 employees working in a diverse set of industries, such as service, manufacturing, information technology, consultancy and education, who had received at least one training from their current employer, participated in the survey. The participants completed five standardized, valid and reliable instruments. SPSS was employed for data analysis. Hypotheses were tested using regression analysis. Results show that both gratitude and knowledge management mediate the relationship between human capital and IWB and the moderating effects of job characteristics. This study extends current literature and integrates macro–micro human capital by exploring how and when human capital leads to the generation of micro social orders. The concept of micro social orders refers to repeated interactions (exchange frequency), emotional reactions, perceptions of cohesion and affective sentiments of a group/organisation due to social structures. This research also highlights how managers can establish positive reciprocity obligations and enhance employees’ gratitude that helps to achieve IWB.
AgarwalU. A.GuptaV. (2018). Relationships between job characteristics, work engagement, conscientiousness and managers’ turnover intentions. Personnel Review, 47(2), 353–377.
2.
AguinisH.O’BoyleE. (2014). Star performers in twenty-first century organizations. Personnel Psychology, 67(2), 313–350.
3.
AnderssonL. M.GiacaloneR. A.JurkiewiczC. L. (2007). On the relationship of hope and gratitude to corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 70(4), 401–409.
4.
BallotG.FakhfakhF.TaymazE. (2001). Firms’ human capital, R&D and performance: A study on French and Swedish firms. Labour Economics, 8(4), 443–462.
5.
BarleyW. C.TreemJ. W.KuhnT. (2018). Valuing multiple trajectories of knowledge: A critical review and agenda for knowledge management research. Academy of Management Annals, 12(1), 278–317.
6.
BassiL. J. (1997). Harnessing the power of intellectual capital. Training & Development, 51(12), 25–31.
7.
BeckerG. S. (1964). Human capital: A theoretical and empirical analysis with special reference to education. Columbia University Press
8.
BidwellM.WonS.BarbulescuR.MollickE. (2015). I used to work at Goldman Sachs! How firms benefit from organizational status in the market for human capital. Strategic Management Journal, 36(8), 1164–1173.
9.
BlauP. (1964). Exchange and power in social life. Wiley.
10.
BoonC.EckardtR.LepakD. P.BoselieP. (2018). Integrating strategic human capital and strategic human resource management. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 29(1), 34–67.
11.
Bos-NehlesA.RenkemaM.JanssenM. (2017). HRM and innovative work behaviour: A systematic literature review. Personnel Review, 46(7), 1228–1253.
12.
CaiW.LysovaE. I.BossinkB. A.KhapovaS. N.WangW. (2019). Psychological capital and self-reported employee creativity: The moderating role of supervisor support and job characteristics. Creativity and Innovation Management, 28(1), 30–41.
13.
CallM. L.NybergA. J.PloyhartR. E.WeekleyJ. (2015). The dynamic nature of collective turnover and unit performance: The impact of time, quality, and replacements. Academy of Management Journal, 58(4), 1208–1232.
14.
ChatterjeeS.NankervisA.ConnellJ. (2014). Framing the emerging talent crisis in India and China: A human capital perspective. South Asian Journal of Human Resources Management, 1(1), 25–43.
15.
ChatterjiN.KiranR. (2017). Role of human and relational capital of universities as underpinnings of a knowledge economy: A structural modelling perspective from north Indian universities. International Journal of Educational Development, 56, 52–61.
16.
CoffR.KryscynskiD. (2011). Invited editorial: Drilling for micro-foundations of human capital-based competitive advantages. Journal of Management, 37(5), 1429–1443.
17.
CombsJ. G.LiuY.HallA. T.KetchenD. J. (2006). Do high performance work practices matter? A meta-analysis of their effects on organizational performance. Personnel Psychology, 59(3), 501–528.
18.
CookK. S.CheshireC.RiceE. R. W.NakagawaS. (2013). Social exchange theory. In DeLamaterJ.WardA. (eds). Handbook of social psychology (pp. 61–88). Handbooks of sociology and social research. Springer.
19.
CoxS. A. (1999). Group communication and employee turnover: How coworkers encourage peers to voluntarily exit. Southern Journal of Communication, 64(3), 181–192.
20.
CrockerA.EckardtR. (2014). A multilevel investigation of individual- and unit-level human capital complementarities. Journal of Management, 40(2), 509–530.
21.
CrookT. R.ToddS. Y.CombsJ. G.WoehrD. J.KetchenD. J. (2011). Does human capital matter? A meta-analysis of the relationship between human capital and firm performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(3), 443–456.
22.
CropanzanoR.MitchellM. S. (2005). Social exchange theory: An interdisciplinary review. Journal of Management, 31(6), 874–900.
23.
DalyM.WilsonM. (2017). Homicide: Foundations of human behavior. Routledge.
24.
De JongJ.Den HartogD. (2010). Measuring innovative work behaviour. Creativity and Innovation Management, 19(1), 23–36.
25.
De SpiegelaereS.Van GyesG.De WitteH.NiesenW.Van HootegemG. (2014). On the relation of job insecurity, job autonomy, innovative work behaviour and the mediating effect of work engagement. Creativity and Innovation Management, 23(3), 318–330.
26.
DemeroutiE. (2006). Job characteristics, flow, and performance: The moderating role of conscientiousness. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 11(3), 266–280.
27.
DemeroutiE.BakkerA. B.GeversJ. M. (2015). Job crafting and extra-role behavior: The role of work engagement and flourishing. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 91, 87–96.
28.
DiamantopoulosA.SiguawJ. A. (2000). Introducing LISREL. SAGE.
29.
DineenB. R.AllenD. G. (2016). Third party employment branding: Human capital inflows and outflows following “best places to work” certifications. Academy of Management Journal, 59(1), 90–112.
30.
EckardtR.SkaggsB. C.LepakD. P. (2018). An examination of the firm-level performance impact of cluster hiring in knowledge-intensive firms. Academy of Management Journal, 61(3), 919–944.
31.
EmersonR. (1981). Social exchange. In RosenbergM.TurnerR. (Eds.), Social psychology: Sociological perspectives. Basic Books
32.
FazalE. H. S.MortimerG.LingsI. N.NealeL. (2017). Examining the antecedents and consequences of gratitude. Journal of Services Marketing, 31(1), 34–47.
33.
FehrR.FulmerA.AwtreyE.MillerJ. A. (2017). The grateful workplace: A multilevel model of gratitude in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 42(2), 361–381.
34.
FelinT.FossN. J.PloyhartR. E. (2015). The microfoundations movement in strategy and organization theory. The Academy of Management Annals, 9(1), 575–632.
35.
FlynnF. J. (2005). Identity orientations and forms of social exchange in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 30(4), 737–750.
36.
FongtanakitK. (2013). Social capital, knowledge sharing, and performance in the government savings bank (GSB). Thai Journal of Public Administration, 11(2), 59–92.
37.
FossN. J.MinbaevaD. B.PedersenT.ReinholtM. (2009). Encouraging knowledge sharing among employees: How job design matters. Human Resource Management, 48(6), 871–893.
38.
GergenK. J. (1969). The psychology of behavior exchange. Addison-Wesley.
39.
GouldnerA. W. (1960). The norm of reciprocity: A preliminary statement. American Sociological Review, 25(2), 161–178.
40.
HackmanJ. R.OldhamG. R. (1974). The job diagnostic survey: An instrument for the diagnosis of jobs and the evaluation of job redesign projects. Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 4, 148–149.
41.
HackmanJ. R.OldhamG. R. (1976). Motivation through the design of work: Test of a theory. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 16, 250–279.
42.
HairJ. F.HultG. T. M.RingleC.SarstedtM. (2016). A primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Sage publications.
43.
HalawiL. A.AronsonJ. E.McCarthyR. V. (2005). Resource-based view of knowledge management for competitive advantage. The Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management, 3(2), 75.
44.
HarrisC. M.PattieM. W.McMahanG. C. (2015). Advancement along a career path: The influence of human capital and performance. Human Resource Management Journal, 25(1), 102–115.
45.
HayesA. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. Guilford Press.
46.
HsuI. C.SabherwalR. (2012). Relationship between intellectual capital and knowledge management: An empirical investigation. Decision Sciences, 43(3), 489–524.
47.
HuangY. H.LeeJ.McFaddenA. C.MurphyL. A.RobertsonM. M.CheungJ. H.ZoharD. (2016). Beyond safety outcomes: An investigation of the impact of safety climate on job satisfaction, employee engagement and turnover using social exchange theory as the theoretical framework. Applied Ergonomics, 55, 248–257.
48.
IdaszakJ. R.DrasgowF. (1987). A revision of the Job Diagnostic Survey: Elimination of a measurement artifact. Journal of Applied Psychology, 72(1), 69.
49.
JanssenO.Van YperenN. W. (2004). Employees’ goal orientations, the quality of leader–member exchange, and the outcomes of job performance and job satisfaction. Academy of Management Journal, 47(3), 368–384.
50.
JanzB. D.PrasarnphanichP. (2003). Understanding the antecedents of effective knowledge management: The importance of a knowledge-centered culture. Decision Sciences, 34(2), 351–384.
51.
JudgeT. A.KlingerR. L.SimonL. S. (2010). Time is on my side: Time, general mental ability, human capital, and extrinsic career success. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(1), 92.
52.
KucharčíkováA.MičiakM.HitkaM. (2018). Evaluating the effectiveness of investment in human capital in e-business enterprise in the context of sustainability. Sustainability, 10(9), 3211.
53.
LawlerE. J. (2001). An affect theory of social exchange. American Journal of Sociology, 107(2), 321–352.
54.
LawlerE. J. (2002). Micro social orders. Social Psychology Quarterly, 65(1), 4–17.
55.
LawlerE. J.ThyeS. R.YoonJ. (2008). Social exchange and micro social order. American Sociological Review, 73(4), 519–542.
56.
LawlerE.ThyeS.YoonJ. (2014). Emotions and group ties in social exchange. In StetsJ.TurnerJ. (eds.), Handbook of the sociology of emotions (Vol II). Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer.
57.
LazearE. P. (2009). Firm-specific human capital: A skill-weights approach. Journal of Political Economy, 117(5), 914–940.
58.
Leal-RodríguezA. L.Albort-MorantG. (2019). Promoting innovative experiential learning practices to improve academic performance: Empirical evidence from a Spanish Business School. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 4(2), 97–103.
59.
LepakD. P.SnellS. A. (1999). The human resource architecture: Toward a theory of human capital allocation and development. Academy of Management Review, 24(1), 31–48.
60.
LepakD. P.SnellS. A. (2002). Examining the human resource architecture: The relationships among human capital, employment, and human resource configurations. Journal of Management, 28(4), 517–543.
61.
Lopez-CabralesA.Pérez-LuñoA.CabreraR. V. (2009). Knowledge as a mediator between HRM practices and innovative activity. Human Resource Management, 48(4), 485–503.
62.
MahoneyJ. T.KorY. Y. (2015). Advancing the human capital perspective on value creation by joining capabilities and governance approaches. Academy of Management Perspectives, 29(3), 296–308.
63.
MahsudR.YuklG.PrussiaG. E. (2011). Human capital, efficiency, and innovative adaptation as strategic determinants of firm performance. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 18(2), 229–246.
64.
MathieuJ. E.AguinisH.CulpepperS. A.ChenG. (2012). Understanding and estimating the power to detect cross-level interaction effects in multilevel modeling. Journal of Applied Psychology, 97(5), 951.
65.
MichaelL. H.HouS. T.FanH. L. (2011). Creative self-efficacy and innovative behavior in a service setting: Optimism as a moderator. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 45(4), 258–272.
66.
MorrisS. S.AlvarezS. A.BarneyJ. B.MolloyJ. C. (2017). Firm-specific human capital investments as a signal of general value: Revisiting assumptions about human capital and how it is managed. Strategic Management Journal, 38(4), 912–919.
67.
MotowidloS. J. (2000). Some basic issues related to contextual performance and organizational citizenship behavior in human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 10(1), 115–126.
68.
MurnaneJ. A. (2016). Developing organizational citizens: Creating business impact and greater human capital. Journal of Leadership Studies, 10(2), 64–68.
69.
NealD. (1995). Industry-specific human capital: Evidence from displaced workers. Journal of Labor Economics, 13(4), 653–677.
70.
NybergA.ReillyG.EssmanS.RodriguesJ. (2018). Human capital resources: A call to retire settled debates and to start a few new debates. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 29(1), 68–86.
71.
NybergA. J.WrightP. M. (2015). 50 years of human capital research: Assessing what we know, exploring where we go. Academy of Management Perspectives, 29(3), 287–295.
72.
OhI. S.HanJ. H.HoltzB.KimY. J.KimS. (2018). Do birds of a feather flock, fly, and continue to fly together? The differential and cumulative effects of attraction, selection, and attrition on personality-based within-organization homogeneity and between-organization heterogeneity progression over time. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 39(10), 1347–1366.
73.
OparaochaG. O. (2016). Towards building internal social network architecture that drives innovation: A social exchange theory perspective. Journal of Knowledge Management, 20(3), 534–556.
74.
PloyhartR. E. (2015). Strategic organizational behavior (STROBE): The missing voice in the strategic human capital conversation. Academy of Management Perspectives, 29(3), 342–356.
75.
PloyhartR. E.MoliternoT. P. (2011). Emergence of the human capital resource: A multilevel model. Academy of Management Review, 36(1), 127–150.
76.
PloyhartR. E.NybergA. J.ReillyG.MaltarichM. A. (2014). Human capital is dead; Long live human capital resources. Journal of Management, 40(2), 371–398.
77.
PloyhartR. E.WeekleyJ. A.BaughmanK. (2006). The structure and function of human capital emergence: A multilevel examination of the attraction–selection–attrition model. Academy of Management Journal, 49(4), 661–677.
78.
PodsakoffP. M.MacKenzieS. B.LeeJ. Y.PodsakoffN. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879–903.
79.
RestubogS. L. D.ZagenczykT. J.BordiaP.TangR. L. (2013). When employees behave badly: The roles of contract importance and workplace familism in predicting negative reactions to psychological contract breach. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 43(3), 673–686.
80.
SchultzT. W. (1961). Investment in human capital. The American Economic Review, 51(1), 1–17.
81.
SharmaM.GargD. (2016). Personal growth as a correlate of gratitude, hope and curiosity among college students. Indian Journal of Positive Psychology, 7(2), 201–205.
82.
SinhaS.PriyadarshiP.KumarP. (2016). Organizational culture, innovative behaviour and work related attitude. Journal of Workplace Learning, 28(8), 519–535.
83.
SöllnerR. (2010). Human capital diversity and product innovation: A micro-level analysis(No. 2010, 027). Jena Economic Research Papers.
84.
SomechA.Drach-ZahavyA. (2000). Understanding extra-role behavior in schools: The relationships between job satisfaction, sense of efficacy, and teachers’ extra-role behavior. Teaching and Teacher Education, 16(5–6), 649–659.
85.
SubramaniamM.YoundtM. A. (2005). The influence of intellectual capital on the types of innovative capabilities. Academy of Management Journal, 48(3), 450–463.
86.
SujchaphongP. (2013). Individual human capital and performance: An empirical study in Thailand(Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation). University of Texas.
87.
Van den HooffB.HendrixL. (2004, April). Eagerness and willingness to share: The relevance of different attitudes towards knowledge sharing. In Fifth European conference on organizational knowledge, learning and capabilities. Innsbruck, Austria.
88.
WangS.NoeR. A. (2010). Knowledge sharing: A review and directions for future research. Human Resource Management Review, 20(2), 115–131.
89.
WangT.ZatzickC. D. (2019). Human capital acquisition and organizational innovation: A temporal perspective. Academy of Management Journal, 62(1), 99–116.
90.
WatersL. (2012). Predicting job satisfaction: Contributions of individual gratitude and institutionalized gratitude. Psychology, 3(12A Special Issue), 1174–1176.
91.
WiigK. M. (1997). Integrating intellectual capital and knowledge management. Long Range Planning, 30(3), 399–405.
92.
Wojtczuk-TurekA.TurekD. (2015). Innovative behaviour in the workplace: The role of HR flexibility, individual flexibility and psychological capital: the case of Poland. European Journal of Innovation Management, 18(3), 397–419.
93.
WrightP. M.NybergA. J.PloyhartR. E. (2018). A research revolution in SHRM: New challenges and new research directions. Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, 36, 141–161.
94.
YoundtM. A.SnellS. A. (2004). Human resource configurations, intellectual capital, and organizational performance. Journal of Managerial Issues, 16(3), 337–360.
