Effects of high-performance work systems on employee knowledge sharing and task performance

Abstract

Inconclusive findings in the strategic human resource management (SHRM) have recently led researchers to examining employee perception of HR practices and its impact on various outcomes. Behind is that individuals’ interpretive patterns toward actual HR practices may assume an important mediating role between strategically adopted (i.e., organizational level) HRM systems and intended performance. Our review revealed that studies examining individual-level high-performance work systems (HPWS) has mainly focused on unraveling mediating mechanisms in explaining variance in outcomes variables, and thus we have limited knowledge of how contextual factors systematically manipulate the relationship between HPWS and individual performance. In this light, we extended the current literature by investigating the moderating role of leader-member exchange (LMX) and interactional (i.e., informational and interpersonal) justice. Our choice of moderating variables reflects on the quality of daily interaction between first- line managers and their subordinates – an important factor known for improving employees’ attitudes and behavior. Our analysis with 160 matched data demonstrated that individual-level HPWS is positively associated with both knowledge sharing and task performance. Interestingly, we found the effects of HPWS on task performance become salient only when LMX and interactional justice are low rather than high. We discuss implications from our analysis, limitations, and future research directions.