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HRM-Performance Linkage: HRM Practices, Mediating Variables and Affective Human Resource Reactions

This document examines the link between human resource management (HRM) practices and affective human resource reactions like organizational commitment and job satisfaction. It discusses different approaches to understanding the HRM-performance linkage and focuses on the abilities-motivation-opportunities framework. This framework groups HRM practices into skill-enhancing, motivation-enhancing and empowerment-enhancing categories. The document also defines job satisfaction and organizational commitment, noting that while there is no consensus on how to measure HRM practices, intermediate outcomes like these reactions are important for understanding how HRM impacts organizational performance.

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34 views

HRM-Performance Linkage: HRM Practices, Mediating Variables and Affective Human Resource Reactions

This document examines the link between human resource management (HRM) practices and affective human resource reactions like organizational commitment and job satisfaction. It discusses different approaches to understanding the HRM-performance linkage and focuses on the abilities-motivation-opportunities framework. This framework groups HRM practices into skill-enhancing, motivation-enhancing and empowerment-enhancing categories. The document also defines job satisfaction and organizational commitment, noting that while there is no consensus on how to measure HRM practices, intermediate outcomes like these reactions are important for understanding how HRM impacts organizational performance.

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c381637
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ISSN 1822-6515 ISSN 1822-6515

EKONOMIKA IR VADYBA: 2011. 16 ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT: 2011. 16

The research aim is theoretically and empirically to examine the link between HRM practices and
affective human resource reactions: organizational commitment and job satisfaction.
Methods: The theoretical part of paper is built on the analysis and synthesis of scientific literature;
data collection – questioning survey; data analysis – descriptive, discriminant and correlation analyses.

HRM-Performance linkage: HRM practices, mediating variables and affective human


resource reactions
HRM practices. The accurate assessment of the relationship between HRM practices and
performance requires reliable and valid assessment of practices (Gardner, Moynihan, Park &Wright, 2001),
however there is no consensus on HRM practices yet (Katou & Budhwar, 2010).
In scientific literature there is a debate about the optimum ways in which HRM can be utilized to
contribute to a organization‘s success. As outcome of these debates two main approaches have been
proposed: "best fit“ and “best practice“ (Paauwe & Boselie, 2005). The “best practice“ approach advocates
universalism, by arguing that the organizations should have improved performance if they adopt best
practices in the way they manage people, irrespective of context. Meanwhile, the main idea of the "best fit“
approach is that human resource strategy will be more effective when it is appropriately integrated with its
specific organizational and environmental context (Alleyne, Doherty & Greenidge, 2006).
However, Boselie, Dietz & Boon (2005) identified that in more than haft articles, published after
2000, AMO framework is used. This framework presents a certain commonality around how HRM is
operationalized when exploring the relationship between HRM and performance (Paauwe, 2009). It focuses
on the importance of taking into account variables at the individual level like employees’ skills and
competences (A = abilities), their motivation (M = motivation) and their opportunity to participate (= O)
(Boselie et al., 2005). Boselie (2010) underlines that the AMO framework proposes that specific HRM
practices – often termed high performance work practices (HPWPs) – enhance the three main components of
the model. This fact allows to distinguish HRM practices into 3 groups (skill-enhancing, motivation-
enhancing and empowerment-enhancing HRM practices) and emphasizes the increased improvement in
employee decision making, motivation and commitment (Theriuo & Chatzoglou, 2009).
Affective human resource reactions. Dyer and Reeves (1995) posited four levels of organizational
performance outcomes (Boselie & van der Wiele, 2002; Pauwe & Boselie, 2005): human resource reactions
/employee outcomes (affective, cognitive and behaviour); organizational outcomes (productivity, quality,
efficiencies); financial outcomes (profit, sales); market based outcomes (market value). This categorization
emphasizes 2 significant things (Colakoglu, Lepak & Hong, 2006): first, HRM practices have their most
immediate impact on employees since employee outcomes are in a closer line of sight to the practices;
second, HRM practices have the strongest effect on employee outcomes, as these outcomes are to some
extent the initial goal for designing the HR practices.
It has long been recognized that intermediate outcomes are central to a more complete understanding
of how HRM drives organizational performance (Becker & Gerhart, 1996). The fact that employees
outcomes have largely remained dormant in research is ironic as “all the theoretical rationales of how HRM
affects performance rests on the assumption that it is through these employee outcomes” (Legge, 2005;
Paauwe, 2009). Assuming that ‘‘attitudes significantly and substantially predict future behaviour’’ (Kraus,
1995), organizational commitment and job satisfaction as two affective human resource reactions are
essential for organizations to gain competitive advantage through the effective human resources utilization
and HRM practices implementation.
Job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is an attitude that individuals maintain about their jobs (Pool, 1997).
Similarly sounds the definition provided by Brief (1998) – job satisfaction is an internal state that is
expressed by affectively and cognitively evaluating an experienced job with some degree of favour or
disfavour (Whitman, van Rooy & Viswesvaran, 2010). Currie (2001) suggests that satisfaction is related to
the degree to which an individual is satisfied with the terms and conditions of employment and the factors
that make up the physical work environment (Baptiste, 2008). Therofore, individuals may be satisfied with
their salaries and relations with their peers and not satisfied with promotion possibilities.
Organizational commitment. The concept of organizational commitment refers to a person’s affective
reactions to characteristics of his employing organization (Baptiste, 2008). There is no agreement in
scientific literature on definition: Mowday, Porter & Steers (1979) define organizational commitment as a
strong belief in the organization’s goals and values and a willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of

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