Exploring the effect of socially responsible human resource management on team cooperation: a social information processing theory perspective

Purpose This study aims to investigate the effects of socially responsible human resource management (SRHRM) on team cooperation. Drawing on social information processing theory, this study explores the relationship between SRHRM and team cooperation while also examining the mediating role of cooperative labor relations climate (CLRC) and the moderating role of responsible leadership. Design/methodology/approach A literature review on SRHRM, team cooperation, CLRC, and responsible leadership provides the theoretical foundation of model and hypotheses. This study conducts a two-wave questionnaire survey with data collected from 969 employees nested in 102 teams from a large-size security escort company in China. To examine the research hypotheses, this study uses PROCESS and SPSS to complete the regression analysis and get the final results. Findings The results show that SRHRM has positive influence on team cooperation. CLRC mediates the relationship between SRHRM and team cooperation. Furthermore, responsible leadership moderates the relationship between SRHRM and CLRC. Research limitations/implications First, we only investigate the CLRC effect of SRHRM on team cooperation and do not explore whether other underlying mechanisms influence the proposed relationship. Second, despite collecting data at two time points to address potential common method variance, variables such as SRHRM, responsible leadership, and CLRC all came from a single source (i.e., employees). Third, we only examined the positive outcome of SRHRM at the team level. Originality/value Drawing on the social information processing theory, this study constructs a theoretical framework that delineates the process by which SRHRM influences team cooperation. This framework aims to broaden our understanding of the bottom-up dynamics of SRHRM at the team level. Additionally, this study explores the boundary conditions of this underlying process, thereby enhancing the contribution of this paper to the existing literature on SRHRM.