Unraveling the black box: The linkage between high-performance work systems and employee outcomes
ISSN: 0142-5455
Article publication date: 23 August 2018
Issue publication date: 7 January 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential mediators that operate in the black box between high-performance work systems (HPWS) and employee outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
The relationships the authors developed were assessed via data obtained from a time-lagged sample of customer-contact employees and their direct supervisors in the Romanian hotel industry. The study employed bias-corrected bootstrapping analysis to gauge the mediating effects.
Findings
The findings reveal that psychological capital mediates the impact of HPWS on work engagement. As hypothesized, both psychological capital and work engagement mediate the impact of HPWS on quitting intentions, creative performance and extra-role performance. In short, the findings underscore both psychological capital and work engagement as the two mediators that operate in the black box between HPWS and the aforesaid employee outcomes. In addition, the empirical data support the impact of work engagement in the intermediate linkage between psychological capital and these outcomes.
Originality/value
The study enhances current knowledge on HPWS by examining the potential mediators between HPWS and motivational outcomes and job outcomes.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was from the first author’s doctoral dissertation and its data came from part of a broader project. The authors thank the anonymous reviewer and Professor Dennis Nickson, the Editor-in-Chief of Employee Relations: The International Journal, for their insightful comments and guidance for improving the paper.
Citation
Karadas, G. and Karatepe, O.M. (2019), "Unraveling the black box: The linkage between high-performance work systems and employee outcomes", Employee Relations, Vol. 41 No. 1, pp. 67-83. https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-04-2017-0084
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited