USING EMPLOYEE CREATIVITY TO UNPACK THE ‘BLACK BOX’ IN THE HIGH-PERFORMANCE WORK SYSTEM (HPWS)-FIRM PERFORMANCE NEXUS

<jats:p>The extant research findings have identified lacunas (i.e. gaps, unresolved issues, and black box) in the High-Performance Work System (HPWS)-Performance relationship and suggested usage of a mechanism (mediator) that can close up the identified lacunas. Thus, this study investigates whether employee creativity can play a mediating role in the relationship between HPWS and firm non-financial performance. The sample size of the study is 518, and respondents were selected through stratified sampling technique. Data were collected from the sampled 518 managers in Nigerian firms. Partial Least Squares (PLS) algorithm and bootstrapping techniques were used for data analysis. The result indicates that employee creativity competitively/partially mediates the relationship between HPWS and non-financial performance. Employee creativity represents an appropriate mechanism to explain the relationship between HPWS and non-financial performance. Hence, the positive indirect effect via the mediator variable (employee creativity) reveals the ‘true’ relationship between HPWS and non-financial performance. This result implies that HPWS may not necessarily enhance non-financial performance. Ill-configured HPWS could jeopardize non-financial performance, but HPWS that stimulates employee creativity would enhance non-financial performance. Lastly, the implications, limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.</jats:p>