Hrm and Workplace Motivation: Incremental and Threshold Effects

5334 Words22 Pages
Abstract The HRM-performance linkage often invokes an assumption of increased employee commitment to the organization and other positive effects of a motivational type. We present a theoretical framework in which motivational effects of HRM are conditional on its intensity, utilizing especially the idea of HRM „bundling‟. We then analyse the association between HRM practices and employees‟ organisational commitment (OC) and intrinsic job satisfaction (IJS). HRM practices have significantly positive relationships with OC and IJS chiefly at high levels of implementation, but with important distinctions between the domain-level analysis (comprising groups of practices for specific domains such as employee development) and the across-domain or HRM-system level. Findings support a threshold interpretation of the link between HRM domains and employee motivation, but at the system-level both incremental and threshold models receive some support. JEL Classification: J28; L23; M12; M54 Key Words: human resource management; high performance; organizational commitment 1. Introduction Since the mid-1980s there has been considerable interest in the idea that firms can improve their performance by harnessing the commitment of their employees through human resource management (HRM) practices capable of transforming the workplace (e.g., Beer et al. 1984, 1985; Kochan and Osterman 1994; Pfeffer 1998; Walton 1985, 1987). Despite an extensive literature establishing associations between HRM practices and organizational performance scholars have frequently pointed to difficulties in establishing a causal linkage (e.g., Cappelli and Neumark 2001; Guest et al. 2003; Huselid and Becker 1996; Osterman 2006; Wall and Wood 2005; Wright et al. 2005). Many theories of the HRM-performance linkage rest on an assumption that employees have a positive motivational response to HRM practices,
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