A cross‐cultural examination of the relationships among human resource management practices and organisational commitment: an institutional collectivism perspective

Previous research has shown that human resource management (HRM) practices vary across cultures. However, little research has empirically compared the effects of various HRM practices on firm‐level or individual‐level outcome variables across cultures. Drawing upon psychological contract theory and the literature on cultural values, the present study examined the effects of three organisational‐level HRM practices on individual organisational commitment in a survey of 2424 individuals in 120 organisations located in four countries and three industries. Based upon the GLOBE study, we classified the four countries into two groups – high versus low institutional collectivism. The results of our hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) analyses found significant differences in the effects of organisational‐level HRM on individual organisational commitment across cultures for two of the three HRM practices included in our model: training and teamwork. We also found partial support for differences across cultures for the effects of the third HRM practice: employee involvement in decision making. Overall, our results support the utility of theoretical and empirical models that address multiple levels of analyses to better understand the mechanisms through which the HRM‐performance link takes place across national cultures.     

Green human resource management and the enablers of green organisational culture: Enhancing a firm's environmental performance for sustainable development

Scholars have shown that green human resource management (GHRM) practices enhance a firm's environmental performance. However, existing studies fail to explain how GHRM initiatives can enable a green organisational culture or how such a culture affects the environmental performance and sustainable development of the firm. This paper examines the relationship between GHRM practices, the enablers of green organisational culture, and a firm's environmental performance. We conduct a large‐scale survey of 204 employees at Chinese manufacturing firms. Our findings suggest that proenvironmental HRM practices including hiring, training, appraisal, and incentivisation support the development of the enablers of green organisational culture. We suggest the key enablers of green organisational culture include leadership emphasis, message credibility, peer involvement, and employee empowerment. Our paper contributes to HRM theory in terms of originality and utility of research by explaining that the enablers of green organisational culture positively mediate the relationship between GHRM practices and environmental performance. Managers are provided with a detailed understanding of the GHRM practices needed to enable an organisational culture of environmentally aware employees. Finally, we address potential implications of this work for teaching green organisational culture to future generations of responsible managers.     

Human resource management–well‐being–performance research revisited: Past,present, and future

The authors provide an up‐to‐date theoretically based qualitative review of research dealing with the relationship between HRM, employee well‐being, and individual/organisational performance (HRM‐WB‐IOP research). The review is based on a systematic critical analysis of all HRM‐WB‐IOP studies (N = 46) published in 13 core HRM and management journals in the 2000 to 2018 period. The authors first identify different theoretical models of the HRM‐WB‐IOP relationship, which they then use to map research in the area. The results show that mutual gains conceptualisations play a dominant role in extant HRM‐WB‐IOP research, at the expense of alternative conflicting outcomes and mutual losses models, which are also shown to receive very limited empirical support across the 46 studies. As part of this mapping exercise, the authors identify important knowledge gaps in the area and conclude by setting out a number of key recommendations for future research to address these gaps.     

A multilevel examination of high‐performance work systems and unit‐level organisational ambidexterity

This paper examines the process linking high‐performance work systems (HPWS) and organisational ambidexterity both at the unit and firm level of analyses by integrating strategic HRM, human capital and social capital perspectives. Multisource and multilevel data from 2,887 employees and 536 managers of 58 banks was collected. Results revealed that firm‐level HPWS were positively related to unit‐level employee human capital. Unit‐level employee human capital partially mediated the relationship between firm‐level HPWS and unit organisational ambidexterity. Furthermore, firm‐level social climate moderated the effect of firm‐level HPWS on unit organisational ambidexterity through unit‐level employee human capital. This paper contributes to HPWS and ambidexterity research by revealing the impacts of firm‐level HPWS and mediating mechanisms, as well as identifying boundary conditions for pursuing unit‐level organisational ambidexterity.     

Age‐related differences in the relations between individualised HRM and organisational performance: a large‐scale employer survey

The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between individualised HRM practices and several measures of organisational performance, including the moderating role of employee age in these relationships. A large‐scale representative study among 4,591 organisations in the Netherlands showed support for the relationships between individualised HR practices with organisational performance. Employee age moderated the relationships between the use of individualised practices and sickness absence and turnover, such that organisations with a high percentage of older workers benefited from work schedule practices, and organisations with high percentage of younger workers benefited from development practices.     

Theorising determinants of employee voice: an integrative model across disciplines and levels of analysis

This article critiques organisational behaviour (OB) research on employee voice and presents a broader‐based conceptual model that integrates ideas and concepts across employment relationship disciplines and levels of analysis. OB studies err by taking an overly individualistic, psychological, managerialist and de‐institutionalised perspective on employee voice. This criticism is documented and illustrated with numerous examples from the OB literature. To provide a constructive step forward, the article presents an enlarged model of employee voice that not only includes OB but also brings in important contributions from the HRM, industrial relations, labour economics and labour process fields. The model provides an integrative framework for theoretical and empirical studies of voice and yields a number of research and practice implications.     

Employee turnover and operational performance: the moderating effect of group‐oriented organisational culture

This study investigates the relationship between overall employee turnover and operational performance and whether organisational culture is a moderator. Using a sample of 114 outpatient centres from a health‐care system, we found a strong negative relationship between employee turnover and operational performance. Additionally, we found that organisations with a relatively stronger group‐oriented organisational culture did not experience lower operational performance in the presence of high turnover. These findings contribute to the literature on the relationship between turnover and performance. Organisations with persistent high levels of turnover may want to consider developing and adopting practices that are consistent with a group‐oriented organisational culture.     

Communicating the psychological contract: an employer perspective

The concept of the psychological contract, with its focus on the exchange of perceived promises and commitments, is increasingly used as a framework to study the employment relationship. Yet research has predominantly focused on employee views and has largely neglected the organisational perspective and the management of the psychological contract. This article begins to redress the balance by reporting a study, based on a survey of 1,306 senior HR managers, that explores the management of the psychological contract and in particular the role of organisational communication. Three distinct and relevant aspects of organisational communication are identified, concerned with initial entry, day‐to‐day work and more future‐oriented, top‐down communication. Effective use of these forms of communication is associated with what managers judge to be a clearer and less frequently breached set of organisational promises and commitments, as well as with a fairer exchange and a more positive impact of policies and practices on employee attitudes and behaviour. The findings are discussed within the context of the wider literature on psychological contracts, organisational culture and HRM. The study confirms that the psychological contract offers managers a useful framework within which to consider and manage the employment relationship.     

Well‐being‐oriented human resource management practices and employee performance in the Chinese banking sector: The role of social climate and resilience

Drawing upon positive psychology and a social relational perspective, this article examines the relationship between well‐being‐oriented human resource management (HRM) practices and employee performance. Our multilevel model examines relationships among collectively experienced well‐being‐oriented HRM practices, social climate (characterized by trust, cooperation, and shared codes and language that exist among individuals within the organization), employee resilience, and employee (in‐role) performance. Based on the two‐wave data obtained from 561 employees and their managers within 62 bank branches in 16 Chinese banks, our multilevel analyses provide support for our four hypotheses. First, we found a positive relationship between well‐being‐oriented HRM practices and social climate. Second, social climate mediated the relationship between well‐being‐oriented HRM practices and employee resilience. Third, we found a positive relationship between resilience and employee performance. Finally, employee resilience mediated the relationship between social climate and employee performance. This study is one of the first to unpack the social mechanisms through which well‐being‐oriented HRM practices increase development of resilience and subsequent employee performance at the workplace, namely through influencing group feelings of social climate.     

Performance benefits of reward choice: a procedural justice perspective

Reward choice – employees' ability to exercise control over the formal rewards they receive from work – is an important part of many HRM strategies. Reward choice is expected to increase employee performance, but conflicting findings highlight the need to better understand how and when it will do so. Based on fairness heuristic theory, we predicted that procedural justice mediates reward choice's influence on performance, and that choice attractiveness moderates that influence. A field study and an experiment both had similar results, supporting our predictions. Reward choice can increase performance by as much as 40 per cent, but only when the available choices are attractive to employees.     

Human resource management and employee well‐being: towards a new analytic framework

The mutual gains model suggests that HRM should benefit both individuals and organisations. However, the dominant models within HRM theory and research continue to focus largely on ways to improve performance, with employee concerns very much a secondary consideration. Furthermore, pressures at work and in society more widely are creating an increasing threat to employee well‐being. If employee concerns and the threats to well‐being are to be taken seriously, a different analytic framework for HRM is required. The article sets out an alternative approach to HRM that gives priority to practices designed to enhance well‐being and a positive employment relationship, proposing that both elements are essential. Evidence is presented to support the choice of practices and to argue that these also hold the potential to improve both individual and organisational performance. It therefore offers a different path to mutual gains. The research and policy implications of this approach are discussed.     

Sense‐giving in health care: the relationship between the HR roles of line managers and employee commitment

In this article, we examine line manager prioritisation of HR roles and the consequences for employee commitment in a health‐care setting. Our analysis is based on a quantitative, multi‐actor study (509 employees and 67 line managers) in four Dutch hospitals. Using sense‐giving as a theoretical lens, we demonstrate that, in addition to the effects of high commitment HRM, prioritising the Employee Champion role alone and the Employee Champion and Strategic Partner roles in combination is associated with higher employee commitment. We argue that through performing roles that are evocative of deep‐seated values, such as excellent patient care and concern for others, line managers can have a positive effect on staff attitudes. In a sector often beleaguered by staff turnover, exhaustion and burnout, we offer an important, empirically based framework that has the potential to improve employee commitment and, from there, enhance performance.     

How does line-manager support enhance worker wellbeing? A study in China

Abstract

Drawing on the job demands-resources and effort-reward imbalance models, this study investigates the mediating roles of intrinsic motivation and distributive justice in the relationships between line-manager support and employee wellbeing (job satisfaction, work engagement and physical health). Responses to a survey of 357 front-line workers in a Chinese manufacturer were analysed through structural equation modelling. We find, in this context, that line managers are a strong determinant of employee wellbeing when they foster the intrinsic motivation of employees and their perceptions of organisational justice. Such findings are helpful for our understanding of attitudes in the Chinese workforce and underline the value of analysing multiple mediating mechanisms and multiple wellbeing outcomes in human resource management-wellbeing research.     

Working here makes me sick! The consequences of sick building syndrome

This study investigates the consequences of sick building syndrome (SBS) by extending previous research on its impact on employee behaviours and attitudes. The article examines the effect of working in sick buildings on employees' organisational citizenship behaviours, absence, stress, burnout and job satisfaction. We report the findings from a survey of police officers working in air‐conditioned buildings in the Caribbean region. The study draws on social exchange and social relations theories to develop hypotheses on the impact of SBS on employee well‐being and extra‐role behaviours. The findings provide partial support for the hypotheses with SBS associated with reduced employee well‐being and absence but not with organisational citizenship behaviour. The implications of these findings, limitations of the study and further research considerations are discussed.     

Incentives for knowledge sharing: impact of organisational culture and information technology

This research presents and examines an analytical model of knowledge management in which organisational culture dynamically improves with knowledge-sharing and learning activities within organisations. We investigate the effects of organisational incentives and the level of information technology on the motivation of knowledge sharing. We derive a linear incentive reward structure for knowledge sharing under both homogeneous and heterogeneous conditions. In addition, we show how the organisational culture and the optimum linear sharing reward change with several crucial factors, and summarise three sets of methods (strong IT support, congruent organisational culture, and effective employee assessment) to complement the best linear incentive. Our research provides valuable insights for practitioners in terms of implementing knowledge-management initiatives.     

The link between perceived HRM practices,performance and well‐being: the moderating effect of trust in the employer

The present study examines the interaction between perceived HRM practices and trust in the employer on employee performance and well‐being. Specifically, the study tests whether trust in the employer moderates the relationships between perceptions of HRM practices and task performance (as rated by employees’ supervisors), organisational citizenship behaviour, turnover intentions and employee well‐being. Support was found for the majority of the hypotheses using data from 613 employees and their line managers in a service sector organisation in the UK. Trust in the employer moderates the relationships between perceived HRM practices and task performance, turnover intentions and individual well‐being, but not organisational citizenship behaviour. Implications of the findings for organisations and future research are discussed.     

Working below and above the line: the research–practice gap in diversity management

In HRM, a line can be drawn that distinguishes research on formal organisational programmes (above‐the‐line research) from research on organisational practices as they are experienced by employees (below‐the‐line research). Diversity management research has heavily emphasised below‐the‐line research using methodologies that measure employee perceptions of diversity management activities. This research demonstrates an impact of diversity management on employee reactions and identifies unit‐level factors (e.g. leader behaviour) that impact the effectiveness of diversity management activities. However, below‐the‐line research is not able to answer HR professionals' questions about which diversity management activities should be adopted when, and so a research–practice gap is developing. I explain how both academics and practitioners would benefit from more above‐the‐line research examining the impact of formal organisational diversity management activities as reported by senior managers or documented in organisational records.     

The role of pay secrecy policies and employee secrecy preferences in shaping job attitudes

Although pay secrecy continues to garner attention in human resource management, little research examines how these policies impact employees. Research inconsistently links secretive pay policies to unfavourable outcomes but has yet to consider that employees may have varying attitudes toward these policies. We examine how employee preferences modify the effect that organisational pay secrecy policies have on employee attitudes in a sample of 431 employed adults. To accomplish this goal, we create measures of pay secrecy policies and pay secrecy preferences that each differentiate two facets of pay secrecy: distributive pay non‐disclosure and communication restriction. Polynomial and moderated regression analyses indicated that disparities between employee preferences and organisational pay secrecy policies can reduce job satisfaction and perceptions of informational, interpersonal, and procedural justice under certain circumstances. These results simultaneously highlight the importance of employee attitudes toward pay secrecy policies and the challenges human resource practitioners face in managing employees with diverse preferences.     

Quality and cost? The evolution of Walmart's business strategy and human resource policies and practices in China and their impact (1996–2017)

This study responds to calls for more in‐depth and qualitative studies, the return to a focus on external factors, and the inclusion of business strategy and industrial relations in human resource management (HRM) research, as well as more research in the retail sector in the Chinese context. We examine the coevolution of the business strategy and HR strategy of Walmart (China) in the last two decades and identify tensions in the context of intensifying competition in the Chinese retail market. We highlight the interactive effect of business and HR strategies through a historical lens. Our study reveals a shift from the original employee‐oriented win–win strategy through rent sharing between the firm and the employees to a win–lose strategy through the introduction of more cost conscious HR policies and practices. Findings of our study challenge the conventional wisdom that firms adopt either the cost or quality strategy and, along with it, the suggestion of matching the quality strategy with employee‐oriented HR policies and practices, and cost leadership with a transactional approach to HRM. We argue a cost and quality business strategy may be adopted, which requires the support of employee‐oriented, rather than cost‐oriented, HR policies and practices.     

Winning at all costs: An exploration of bottom‐line mentality,Machiavellianism, and organisational citizenship behaviour

This study seeks to advance the bottom‐line mentality literature by exploring an antecedent and outcome of employee bottom‐line mentality. We build and test a moderated‐mediation model by arguing that the personality trait of Machiavellianism promotes an employee's adoption of a bottom‐line mentality. Moreover, drawing on trait activation theory, we argue that this relationship is fully activated when the employee perceives that the organisation endorses a bottom‐line mentality. To expand our theoretical model, we also suggest that employee bottom‐line mentality inhibits organisational citizenship behaviour directed towards co‐workers. Lastly, we investigate whether an employee's perception of an organisation's bottom‐line mentality conditionally moderates the indirect effect of Machiavellianism on organisational citizenship behaviour directed towards co‐workers through the mediated mechanism of employee bottom‐line mentality. Our theoretical model is tested across two distinct studies. Study 1, a field study conducted within a variety of organisations, provides evidence for our initial predictions (Hypotheses 1 and 2). Study 2, a multisource field study conducted in multiple industries, replicates and extends the findings from Study 1 by providing evidence for the entire moderated‐mediation model. We find support for our hypothesised model across both studies. Implications for theory and practice are discussed, and suggestions for future research are identified.