A multi-level examination of the link between diversity-related HR practices and employees’ performance: evidence from Italy

Abstract

ABSTRACT Understanding how diversity-focused HR practices influence individual performance is critical to enhancing organizational competitiveness. In the current article, we examine the effects of diversity-focused HR practices on individual performance in terms of social information processing theory and social exchange theory. In particular, we draw upon constructs of diversity-focused HR practices, inclusion climate, employee relational attachment, and individual performance to hypothesize serial mediation mechanisms linking diversity-focused HR practices to individual performance. We collected time-lagged, multi-level, and multi-source data from 475 employees and their immediate supervisors working in the hotel industry of Italy. Our results demonstrated that diversity-focused HR practices were positively related to inclusion climate, which in turn improved relational attachment among employees. Moreover, diversity-focused HR practices were positively related to individual performance via sequential mediation of inclusion climate and relational attachment.