High performance HR practices and employee wellbeing: a theoretical and emprical investigation

Yunus, Suhaer 2016. High performance HR practices and employee wellbeing: a theoretical and emprical investigation. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

The prime objective of this study is to determine whether employer attempts to introduce high performance work practices is associated with mutual gains for both employees and employers or intensifies the labour process to the disadvantage of employees, by analysing the relationships between high performance HR (HP-HR) bundles, perceived job demands and employee well-being. As perceived job demands (work intensification) are central to the debate within the HRM literature, the study proposes that they are likely to be an important mediating mechanism between the HP-HR bundles and employee well-being. Perceived workplace resources (job control, managerial support and family support) are introduced as moderators of the mechanism between perceived job demands and employee well-being. Drawing on data from 2011 Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS), the path analysis convention of structural equation modelling is used for analysis. The findings suggest that the linking mechanisms between the HP-HR bundles and well-being are complex, and vary in relation to different types of bundle. Neither a mutual gains nor a labour process perspective solely accounts for the complexities of this association. Job resources significantly reduce the negative impact of perceived job demands and improve well-being. HP-HR bundles, generally, impact negatively on perceived job demands and employee well-being. The empirical findings show that: 1) The skills and ability-enhancing bundle increases job-related anxiety and depression, but, otherwise, does not have a significant relationship with well-being directly or indirectly through perceived job demands. 2) The motivation-enhancing bundle reduces perceived job demands, but has no significant direct association with well-being. 3) The opportunity-enhancing bundle improves overall employee well-being, but simultaneously intensifies the labour process. 4) The commitment-enhancing bundle increases both anxiety and perceived job demands, and reduces both job satisfaction and organisational commitment. 5) Perceived job demands reduce the perceived sense of well-being. 6) Perceived job demands are negative mediators of the relationship between both the opportunity-enhancing and commitment-enhancing bundles and employee well-being. 7) Perceived job demands are positive mediators of the relationship between the motivation-enhancing bundle and employee well-being. 8) Perceived job control reduces the negative influence of job demands and improves well-being. 9) Perceived managerial support buffers job demands and reduces both job-related anxiety and depression. 10) Perceived family support moderates the negative influence of job demands and improves job-related anxiety, depression and job satisfaction, but does not have a significant relationship with organisational commitment. Overall, the research indicates that current HRM models are too simplistic to capture the complex nature of the HP-HR/well-being association, and require an integrated framework incorporating both mediating and moderating factors that guide this association. The balance between job stressors and job resources is the crucial missing link that increases our understanding of the most debated differential impact of HP-HR on employee well-being.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	22 September 2016
Last Modified:	25 Oct 2021 13:33
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/94754

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