The Nexus Between High-Involvement Work Practices and Employees’ Proactive Behavior in Public Service Organizations: A Time-Lagged Moderated-Mediation Model

PURPOSE: Public service organizations may improve the quality of services they offer citizens by instilling proactive behavior in their employees. This study aimed to provide insights on how high-involvement work practices may indirectly facilitate proactive behavior in frontline government employees via employee commitment. METHODS: A time-lagged approach was used to collect data from 542 frontline employees in three waves at 3-week intervals. We tested the hypothesized moderated mediation model using a PROCESS macro bootstrap approach. RESULTS: A moderated-meditation model was applied in which public service motivation was theorized to increase the mediating effect of employee commitment on the relationship between high-involvement work practices and employee proactive behavior. As predicted, the findings show that supervisor’ deviant behavior attenuated the mediating effect of employee commitment on the relationship between high-involvement work practices and employee proactive behavior. CONCLUSION: The findings of this research contribute to the emerging literature on public management and have implications for public sector organizations seeking to improve the quality of services they offer citizens.