HR practices and employee performance: the mediating role of well-being

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/ER-08-2017-0191
Pages227-243
Date12 February 2018
Published date12 February 2018
AuthorVioletta Khoreva,Heidi Wechtler
Subject MatterHR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law
HR practices and employee
performance: the mediating role
of well-being
Violetta Khoreva
Department of Management and Organization,
Hanken School of Economics, Vaasa, Finland, and
Heidi Wechtler
UNSW Business School,
University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the associations between the skill-, motivation- and
opportunity-enhancing dimensions of human resource (HR) practices and in-role and innovative job
performance. Furthermore, it considers the mediating effects of psychological, physical and social employee
well-being on these associations.
Design/methodology/approach Structural equation modeling was utilized to analyze multi-source
survey data from a sample of 300 employees and 34 immediate supervisors in a professional service company
in Finland.
Findings The results indicate that whereas physical and social employee well-being partially mediate the
association between skill- and opportunity-enhancing HR practices and in-role job performance,psychological
employee well-being partially mediates the association between motivation-enhancing HR practices and
innovative job performance.
Research limitations/implications Given its cross-sectional nature, the authors cannot completely
exclude the possibility of common method bias influencing the study results. The authors thus call for
longitudinal research to examine the nature of causality within the associations analyzed in the study.
Originality/value This study does not support the notion of trade-offs between HR practices, employee
well-being and employee performance. Instead, it illustrates that even though different dimensions of HR
practices enhance different dimensions of employee well-being, which, in turn, increase different types of
employee performance, the different dimensions of HR practices work in the same direction and do not
generate any unintended consequences in terms of reduced employee physical well-being.
Keywords Performance management, Employee behaviour, Employee attitudes, Motivation,
Best practice, Human resource management
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The impact that different dimensions of human resource (HR) practices have on employee
performance has attracted a lot of attention in the human resource management (HRM)
literature over the past 25 years (Van De Voorde and Beijer, 2015). In the past two decades,
researchers also began to focus more directly on employee-centered outcomes such as
employee well-being and to look more closely at the effect that HR practices have on
employee well-being (e.g. Jiang et al., 2012). The role of employee well-being as a mechanism
through which HR practices affect employee performance has also been studied
(Fisher, 2010; Van De Voorde and Beijer, 2015).
The empirical evidence regarding the trilateral relationships between HRM, employee
well-being and employee performance demonstrates that HRM has a positive effect on the
different dimensions of employee performance due to the creation of positive employee Employee Relations
Vol. 40 No. 2, 2018
pp. 227-243
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-08-2017-0191
Received 17 August 2017
Revised 6 November 2017
Accepted 20 November 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0142-5455.htm
Funding: the authors are grateful to Marcus Wallenberg Foundation and the Foundation for Economic
Development (Liikesivistysrahasto) for financing this research.
227
HR practices
and employee
performance
happiness effects (Devonish, 2013; Jiang et al., 2012; Van De Voorde et al., 2012). However,
some studies indicate that HR practices may trigger higher levels of stress, burnout,
exhaustion and work intensification, which are elements that negatively affect employee
physical well-being (Alfes et al., 2012; Grant et al., 2007; Jackson et al., 2014; Pawar, 2016;
Van De Voorde et al., 2012). HR practices may thus benefit employee performance and one
type of employee well-being, while damaging another dimension of employee well-being.
These findings voice the possibility of complex patterns of trade-offs between HRM,
different dimensions of employee well-being and employee performance. However, despite
growing indications of the existence of trade-offs, many questions remain (Boxall et al., 2016;
Paauwe, 2009; Peccei et al., 2013).
Hence, this study contributes to the discussion by investigating how different
dimensions of HR practices are associated with different dimensions of employee
performance. Particularly, it draws on the ability, motivation, opportunity model
(AMO model) (Appelbaum et al., 2000), examining the effect of the perceived use of the
skill-, motivation- and opportunity-enhancing HR practices (Lepak et al., 2006) on in-role
and innovative job performance (Fu et al., 2015; Muñoz-Pascual and Galende, 2017;
Patel et al., 2013).
In line with the social exchange perspective (Blau, 1964), this study also explores the
mediating role of the different dimensions of employee well-being in the association between
the perceived use of the different dimensions of HR practices and the different dimensions of
employee performance (Figure 1 shows the conceptual model). As the study focuses on such
dimensions of employee well-being as psychological, physical and social well-being (Grant
et al., 2007; Pawar, 2016; Van De Voorde et al., 2012), it furthers HRM research by enriching
our theoretical and empirical understanding of the function of employee well-being in the
trilateral relationship and attempts to identify whether certain dimensions of HR practices
result in lowering an employees physical well-being while benefiting their psychological
and social employee well-being and maximizing employee performance.
The study also contributes to the further validation of prior research by using
multi-source data based on an assessment of who is best placed to evaluate a variable. In
this study, we commit to choosing an appropriate respondent for each type of variable. Most
of the psychological and social processes involved in HRM need to be assessed by
employees themselves (Boxall et al., 2016). Therefore, this study consults employees to
measure the extent to which employees use different dimensions of HR practices and to
determine their effect on employee well-being. Additionally, managerial informants are used
are included as dependent variables in the study to help ascertain performance outcomes
(Boxall et al., 2016). Hence, in this study, employee performance is examined based on the
responses of the immediate supervisors of employees.
Well-being
H4
H2
H1
H3
Perceived by employees
Psychological well-being
Physical well-being
Social well-being
Perceived by employees
Skill-enhancing
Motivation-enhancing
Opportunity-enhancing
HR practices Job performance
Measured by the immediate
supervisor
In-role job performance
Innovative job performance
Figure 1.
Conceptual model: HR
practices and
employees
performance:
the mediating role of
well-being
228
ER
40,2

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