Driving sales team initiative, through team level initiative Enhancing HR system- Exploring mediating mechanism of team level HR Attribution

Abstract

Researches on initiative are mostly divided in a way that they either focus on organizational contextual factors such as leadership, organizational climate etc. or individual antecedents of initiative like proactive personality, change orientation. Hong et al. (2016) presented model for enhancing initiative using HR practices but that model ignores the generally supported notion that HR practices to exert effect, they firstly must be perceived by employees. Nishii, Lepak, & Schneider (2008); Bowen & Ostroff (2004) have recently suggested that the causal chain through which HR practices effect performance, may be more complex than previously thought, there is black-box between them which needs to be explored. Nishii et al., (2008) presented that employees attribution can be an important link between HR system and performance. Different people perceive realties differently. So, not all employees will assign same cause to these practices and according to social exchange theory employees will reciprocate in positive way if the perceive that HR practices are for well-being. But this may not be the case all the time. Mostly studies on attribution are done on individual level of analysis, many researches call for study on attribution at work unit level. So, this study will present new model for enhancing initiative by examining the effect of Initiative enhancing HR practices on sales team initiative by taking into consideration HR attribution as mediator. Data was collected from sales teams of 3 sectors (Pharmaceuticals, Insurance and FMCG’s). Data collected using questionnaire from multiple respondents in calendar year 2017. Multiple regression and Parches and Hayes (2008) test was used to test hypotheses, mediation analysis was done using bootstrapping. The study was conducted at team level of analysis. Results show that collectivistic HR attribution about team initiative enhancing HR attribution partiality mediates between team level initiative enhancing HR system and Collective initiative of sales team. Results shows that mediation mostly work through Commitment focus attribution and initiative enhancing HR system are positively related with both collectivistic commitment focus attribution and collectivistic control focus attribution. Results proved thatx collectivistic commitment focus attribution is positively related to collective initiative, while results for collectivistic control focus attribution was found insignificant