Does HRM facilitate employee creativity and organizational innovation? A study of Chinese firms

Using a sample of 106 firms in China, we examined how human resource management (HRM) practices relate to employee creativity and organizational innovation. In order to avoid common method bias, the data were collected from three different groups of respondents separately. Our results showed that four HRM practices, hiring and selection, reward, job design and teamwork, were positively related to employee creativaity while training and performance appraisal were not. Employee creativity fully mediated the relationships between those four HRM practices and organizational innovation. Results suggest that HRM practices can play an important role in managing people to promote innovation in Chinese organizations.