The effect of high-involvement work systems on team job crafting: a cross-level moderated mediation model

Purpose Building on social context theory and signaling theory, this study hypothesized positive associations of high-involvement work systems and team job crafting and further examined the mediating effect of initiative climate and the moderating effect of organizational structure. Design/methodology/approach This study primarily conducted multilevel path analysis using Mplus to test the proposed model. Data were collected from 733 employees working at 164 teams across 52 companies. Findings Results showed that high-involvement work systems are directly and indirectly related to approach-oriented team job crafting and avoidance-oriented team job crafting via initiative climate. In addition, organizational structure played the moderating role between high-involvement work systems and initiative climate and moderated the indirect effect of high-involvement work systems on both forms of team job crafting through initiative climate. Originality/value This study reveals the potential antecedents and boundary conditions of team job crafting at the organizational level. Findings provide a new perspective for managing employees through high-involvement work systems.