How perceived empowerment HR practices influence work engagement in social enterprises – a moderated mediation model

Abstract

Drawing insights from the group engagement model and self-determination theory, our research explored the role of perceived empowerment human resource (HR) practices in the hybrid organizational form of social enterprise in China. Based on two studies, this paper developed and examined a moderated mediation model, linking perceived empowerment HR practices, identification motivation, work engagement, and authority work value. Specifically, in Study 1 we found perceived empowerment HR practices increased employees’ work engagement through enhancing employees’ identification motivation. In Study 2, we adopted a two-wave design to duplicate and extend this mediation model. A moderator, employees’ authority work value, was found to weaken both the mediation relationship, and the positive relationship between perceived empowerment HR practices and identification motivation. This study broadens the understanding of what social enterprises look like in alternative contexts, while providing an opportunity to explore how a HRM mechanism and its boundary condition function in large social enterprises in China.

Keywords:

• Perceived empowerment HR practices
• work engagement
• identification motivation
• authority work value
• social enterprise

Notes

1. ‘[social enterprise is] … a business trading for a social purpose, and so pursues a double-bottom line’ by integrating business strategies with broader social goals’ (p. 86).

2. As opposed to a controlled management style.

3. China has the largest population in the world, and many organizations, including social enterprises, operate on a much larger scale with large numbers of employees than is typical in the West. Therefore, both the size of customers/communities that Chinese social enterprise serve are relatively larger, necessitating in some cases large scale operations (with hundreds of employees) as compared to social enterprises operating in Western contexts. For example, the Guangdong province population was 109.99 Million people in 2016 (Statistics Bureau of Guangdong Province (2017), 2016 Report of National Economics and Social Development of Guangdong Province.), approximately four times the entire population of Australia. Given this large population base, the numbers of employees in our sampling of social enterprises were closer to normal-size rather than ‘large’. The ‘China Social Enterprise and Social Impact Investment Development Report’ introduced 10 large-scale social enterprises in China, and indicated that one social enterprise which called ‘Fuping Housekeeping and community service’ have trained 23,000 social entrepreneurs in total by the end of 2002. This social enterprise has helped 20,000 disable people find a suitable job.

4. For example, studies such as Liu et al. (2014, 2015) examined driving forces that motivate the success of social enterprises, without a sufficient consideration of the impact or role of HR.