Discussion and conclusions
The main objective of this study is to examine the role of innovative HR practices as an important mechanism through which strategic flexibility affects organizational performance, as well as the role of gender-based leadership in this relationship. First of all, our results provide support for the mediated relationship in which strategic flexibility is associated with employee productivity indirectly through innovative HR practices. As far as we know, this is one of the first studies to investigate this mediating mechanism. This finding contributes both theoretically and empirically to the SHRM literature by examining the flexibility advantage in HRM practices induced by firm strategy (Wright and Snell, 1998). We found that firm strategy can affect firm performance directly through innovative HR practices in addition to the channels identified in earlier studies, such as resource flexibility and coordination flexibility of the firm in using its available resources in product markets (Sanchez, 1995), market orientation (Grewal and Tansuhaj, 2001), diversified organizational forms (Schilling and Steensma, 2001), and contingent alliance development (Young-Ybarra and Wiersema, 1999).