Exploring the Antecedents of Legal Compliance HR Attribution and the Consequences for Engagement

Abstract

Employee HR attributions have received considerable attention in the field of HRM. However, external HR attributions have not been thoroughly studied, especially in a non-western context. This paper examines the antecedents (in terms of employee perceptions of organizational justice and the implementation of performance appraisals by team leaders) and consequence (in terms of employee engagement) of external HR attributions (in terms of legal compliance HR attributions) in firms in China. Our hypotheses were tested using survey of 354 team members and 61 matched team leaders in 18 Chinese companies. The results from multilevel analyses revealed a curvilinear relationship between employee perceptions of organizational justice and their HR attributions concerning legal compliance. The relationship was positive and weak when organizational justice was at low and medium levels but became substantially more positive and stronger when perceived organizational justice was at high levels. In addition, this nonlinear effect was more pronounced when the implementation of performance appraisal was strong rather than weak. Regarding the consequences, the results confirmed that HR attributions to legal compliance mediated the relationship between the two antecedents and employee engagement. We finally discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of our study.