Generative Behavioral Explanation in Micro-Foundational HRM: A Functional Architecture for the Safety–CLB Recursive Mechanism

Abstract

Micro-foundational HRM has advanced our understanding of how employees perceive and respond to HR practices, yet explanations of how HR systems can generate and sustain coordinated action in day-to-day work remain underspecified. This article presents a theory-building integrative review that specifies a constrained, generative mechanism grounded in observable interaction episodes. We propose a functional architecture that assigns constructs to distinct explanatory roles: enabling states (Role A), interaction episodes as the behavioral engine (Role B), and emergent coordination products (Role C). Psychological safety is positioned as an enabling condition that shifts the likelihood and quality of enactment, whereas collective leadership behavior (CLB) is defined as response-inclusive influence episodes (an influence attempt plus an observable response such as uptake, contestation, neglect, or sanction). We formalize a recursive safety–CLB cycle in which response patterns update subsequent safety and influence dispersion over time, which can yield divergent coordination trajectories even when HR conditions are broadly similar. The framework generates discriminant predictions about response profiles, dispersion versus centralization of influence, and temporal signatures, and it clarifies minimal design requirements for testing recursion with episode-level and intensive longitudinal evidence. We discuss implications for micro-foundational HRM, measurement alignment, and testable design-relevant implications for HR system design as an interaction-relevant cue environment.