How Does Flexible Human Resource Management Empower Employee Deviant Innovation? A Conservation of Resources Perspective

Abstract

Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this study examines how flexible human resource management affects employee deviant innovation. Survey data were collected from 282 employees working in information technology, machinery manufacturing, and biopharmaceutical firms in Shanghai, Hefei, and Zhejiang Province. Both dimensions of flexible human resource management, coordination flexibility and resource flexibility, were positively related to employee deviant innovation. Psychological resilience mediated both relationships. The supervisor-subordinate relationship moderated the link between psychological resilience and deviant innovation: the stronger the relationship, the weaker the positive effect of resilience on deviant innovation. These findings clarify how flexible human resource management shapes deviant innovation, identify the psychological mechanism through which it operates, and specify the relational condition under which that mechanism is strongest.