Research on innovative work behaviors (IWB) has largely adopted a static and deterministic view, portraying human resource (HR) bundles as antecedents that unilaterally shape employee behaviors, most commonly through the Ability–Motivation–Opportunity (AMO) framework. This study challenges that assumption by examining how and when HR bundles and IWB interact dynamically over time. Adopting a process perspective, we conducted a multiple case study of three global consulting firms. Drawing on 34 in-depth interviews with consultants across hierarchical levels and triangulated with organizational documents, we trace how HR bundles and IWB co-evolve across different career phases. Our findings reveal that HR bundles do not merely enable IWB; they also constrain and authorize them. As employees demonstrate varying degrees of IWB, organizations recalibrate HR bundles to either expand or restrict employees' discretion to innovate. This reciprocal relationship unfolds over time, producing either reinforcing or constraining cycles of innovation authorization. This study suggests that organizations should move beyond simply encouraging innovation and instead actively manage when and how employees are enabled to innovate to support performance. Managers should design HR practices that progressively expand employees' autonomy based on demonstrated competence and reliable execution. Early career stages should emphasize skill development and consistent delivery, while later stages can allow greater discretion for idea generation and implementation. HR systems such as performance evaluation, job design, and promotion criteria should clearly signal what types of innovation are valued. By aligning innovation with operational goals, organizations can enhance both short-term efficiency and long-term innovation performance. This study offers a novel perspective on how organizations enable employees' IWB in practice. Drawing on qualitative evidence, it suggests that employees' IWB evolve over time as managers progressively grant discretion based on demonstrated competence, trust, and prior innovation outcomes. The study introduces the concept of innovation authorization as a useful lens for understanding how organizations determine when and under what conditions IWB are considered legitimate. In doing so, it extends the AMO framework as a dynamic and recursive process in which HR bundles and IWB co-evolve over time, thereby providing a process-based understanding of employee innovation that complements existing HRM research and offers practical insights for managing innovation in contemporary workplaces.
This study examines how human resource management (HRM)-shaped job demands and job resources are associated with work engagement and job satisfaction in remote work arrangements. Drawing on the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) framework, boundary theory and social exchange theory, it positions HRM as a strategic actor in designing digitally enabled work conditions. Survey data were collected from 301 professionals working in digitally intensive, information technology (IT)-related roles in Saudi Arabia. The proposed relationships among work–life boundary blurring, social isolation, remote work flexibility, remote social support, work engagement and job satisfaction were tested using structural equation modelling, supplemented by hierarchical regression analyses controlling for gender, age, education level and professional experience. Work–life boundary blurring was negatively associated with work engagement, whereas social isolation did not show a significant direct relationship with engagement. Remote work flexibility and remote social support were positively associated with work engagement, which was strongly related to job satisfaction. The findings suggest that boundary-related demands may be more influential for engagement than social isolation in digitally intensive remote work settings. The substantive relationships remained unchanged after accounting for demographic controls. The findings suggest that HR leaders should design remote work policies that protect work–life boundaries, maintain flexibility, and provide structured social support to sustain employee engagement and job satisfaction in remote work settings. Protecting work–life boundaries while promoting flexibility and social connection can support more balanced and sustainable remote working lives. The study contributes by reframing remote work conditions as HRM design choices rather than neutral work arrangements. It extends the JD-R framework by showing how specific HRM-shaped demands and resources influence engagement and job satisfaction in Saudi Arabia's digitally transforming work context.
Purpose The study highlights the challenges neurodivergent Gen Z females face in the workplace and how social disparities and workplace inequities affect their inclusion. The study relates the argument that over half of Gen Z identifies as neurodivergent and emphasises the need to include neurodiverse individuals in the workplace to outperform. It highlights the need to consider all kinds of minds and evaluate them by their skills rather than stereotypes. Design/methodology/approach The study has followed a quantitative approach and considered only neurodivergent female employees. Participants who self-identify as neurodivergent and fall within the Gen Z age range were invited. Findings The findings have revealed mixed results. The study has found insignificant results of psychological unsafety with disengagement intention, turnover intention, employee exhaustion and revenge intention. Further, supervisor incivility was found to be insignificant only with disengagement intention and revenge intention of employees. The other proposed hypotheses, including perceived exclusion and stigmatisation, were found to be significant with employee disengagement intentions and revenge intentions, and further with employee exhaustion and turnover intentions. The supervisor’s incivility was only found to be significant with employee emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions. Practical implications The study provides important insights that managers and policymakers can use to ensure workplace inclusion of all minds. This study offers actionable insights for organisations seeking to create an inclusive, psychologically safe environment for neurodivergent females. Originality/value The study discusses a relatively undebated social perspective on neurodivergent Gen Z female inclusion in the workplace and highlights the challenges faced by Gen Z in the workplace.
Purpose This study examines how organisational greediness manifests across employment sectors in Nigeria, what contextual conditions intensify its claims on employees, and what costs those claims impose on workers' wellbeing, relational lives and professional identities. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach was employed, drawing on in-depth semi-structured interviews with 31 Nigerian professionals spanning financial services, healthcare and professional services. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, with attention to both semantic content and latent ideological assumptions. Findings Three themes emerged. The normalisation of encroachment revealing how organisational greediness is structurally built through soft expectations, the normalisation of overwork and always-on digital culture rather than through explicit coercion. Nigerian amplifiers identify contextual conditions such as labour market precarity, infrastructural deficit, managerial arbitrariness and gendered burden, which intensify those demands and suppress employees' capacity to resist. Human costs traces the somatic, relational, spiritual and identity-level consequences borne by participants. Practical implications Organisations should treat boundary-setting as a leadership norm rather than a discretionary option, and labour regulators must address the structural amplifiers including wage inadequacy, infrastructural deficit and unenforced working-time protections that make individual resistance structurally impossible. Originality/value This study provides the first qualitative account of organisational greediness as a compounded phenomenon in Nigeria, extending Coser's (1974) theoretical framework to a context defined by labour market precarity, infrastructural instability and limited social protection. It demonstrates that greedy institutions are not equally greedy across contexts, but their intensity is shaped by the structural conditions in which they are embedded.
Purpose This study investigates the key motivational drivers of employee devotion among early-career professionals in the emerging economy of Vietnam. Design/methodology/approach A dual-wave cross-sectional survey (N = 310) was conducted across two cohorts (2020 and 2026) in Ho Chi Minh City. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) refined the measurement items into a parsimonious four-factor framework, followed by multiple linear regression incorporating demographic, sectoral, and temporal control variables. Findings The unified “Socio-Psychological Work Environment” (SPE), synthesizing job autonomy, interpersonal relationships, and person-organization fit, emerges as the most potent predictor of employee devotion, followed by learning opportunities and compensation policies. Conversely, the physical working environment shows no statistically significant impact, acting strictly as a Herzbergian hygiene factor. Female and incrementally older professionals report slightly lower baseline devotion, while the temporal cohort dummy confirms the structural stability of the model over time. Practical implications Organizations must pivot from isolated physical hygiene factors toward cultivating holistic socio-psychological ecosystems through job crafting, psychological safety, and reverse mentoring, complemented by continuous career development and gender-sensitive HR policies. Originality/value This paper advances Social Exchange and Two-Factor theories by validating a culturally grounded, consolidated socio-psychological construct and confirming the empirical stability of employee devotion drivers in a transitional market.
