Bridging Leadership and HRM: An Integrative Framework of Transformational Leadership and the Ability-Motivation-Opportunity (AMO) Model

Abstract

Leadership and human resource management (HRM) research have each advanced our understanding of how organisations foster employee well-being and organisational performance. While leadership research focuses on inspiring and motivating followers to pursue organisational goals, HRM research examines how organisations use formal people management systems to develop employee capabilities. Despite their complementary focus, these literatures have largely progressed in parallel, which limits insight into how leadership behaviours and HRM systems jointly influence both employee and organisational outcomes. In this article, we synthesise existing scholarship on the leadership-HRM interface and develop an integrative framework explaining when and how leadership behaviours and HRM practices may reinforce one another. Specifically, we pursue three aims: (i) to consolidate dispersed research on leadership and HRM by drawing on transformational leadership theory and the ability–motivation–opportunity (AMO) model; (ii) to conceptualise how distinct leadership behaviours may be reinforced through specific HRM practices; and (iii) to clarify how the leadership-HRM interface may generate shared benefits for employees, leaders, and organisations. Overall, our framework offers an integrated understanding of the leadership-HRM interface and sets out a clear agenda for future research.