The interplay of HRM and leadership: Unveiling synergies and tensions

Research has shown that positive leadership styles largely positively influence employee and organizational outcomes (while destructive forms of leadershp do the opposite). At the same time, research has shown that an organizatios HRM systems (such as high performance work practices) have the potential to garner improved employee and organizational outcomes. However, some research points to a dark side to various HRM systems, suggesting that they also have the potential to undermine employee well-being and possibly organizational outcomes. The literature on HRM and leadership, however, has developed rather independently, leaving many questions concerning if and how leadership and HRM interact (i.e. enhance or undermine each other) in fostering both employee and organizational outcomes. As a result, the set of papers in this symposium aims to better understand (1) the role of HRM systems and specific leadership styles in fostering employee and organizatioaal outcomes, and (2) how both HRM systems and leadership styles interact, and the subsequent effect on said outcomes. Taken together, the papers in this session bridges together the HRM and organizational behavior fields.