In the eye of the beholder: the role of self-perceived status in the relationship between high-performance work systems and affective commitment
ISSN: 0048-3486
Article publication date: 9 January 2024
Issue publication date: 26 February 2024
Abstract
Purpose
Research has suggested that employees interpret high-performance work systems (HPWSs) as targeting two distinct organizational objectives: enhancing performance and promoting employee well-being. These attributions often exert divergent effects on employee attitudes. Thus, this study aims to investigate this dynamic within the context of the Korean nursing occupation, clarifying how the HPWS can simultaneously evoke dual attributions: human resource (HR) well-being and HR performance attributions. Additionally, the authors examine the contrasting effects of these attributions and identify a moderating variable that could reconcile them. Drawing on the psychological experience of status theory, the authors conceptualize and test the moderating effect of employees' self-perceived status on the relationship between HR performance attribution and affective commitment.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 475 nurses in 82 work units in Korean hospitals. Hypotheses were tested in a multilevel moderated mediation model.
Findings
The findings revealed that an HPWS elicits HR well-being and HR performance attributions. While HR well-being attribution was positively associated with affective commitment, HR performance attribution was positively related to affective commitment when employees' self-perceived status was high. Moreover, the HPWS demonstrated an indirect relationship with affective commitment via increasing HR performance attribution when self-perceived status was high.
Originality/value
Although the personal meaning of HR attributions differs depending on the perceiver’s situation, this aspect has received little attention in the field of research. This study advances the understanding of HR attributions derived from the HPWS within the specific context of Korean nursing. Furthermore, the authors suggest that the two attributions may not conflict with each other, indicating that the impact of HR performance attribution is conditional on an individual’s self-perceived status.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (No. 2018H1A2A1061577). Johngseok Bae acknowledges that this study is partially supported by Korea University Business School Research Grant. An earlier version of this article was presented at the 82nd Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Seattle, Washington, United States.
Since submission of this article, the following author(s) have updated their affiliation(s): Inseong Jeong is at the Department of Management and Marketing, University of Melbourne, Carlton, Austraila.
Citation
Kim, M., Jeong, I. and Bae, J. (2024), "In the eye of the beholder: the role of self-perceived status in the relationship between high-performance work systems and affective commitment", Personnel Review, Vol. 53 No. 2, pp. 621-640. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-05-2022-0343
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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