High-performance work systems, dual stressors and ‘new generation’ employee in China

Abstract

Received human resource management (HRM) studies have paid much attention to the relationship between high-performance work systems (HPWS) and employees’ attitudes and behaviours, but they lack deep understanding on how such HRM systems work for ‘new generation’ employees and accommodate ‘new generation’ preferences and characteristics. Embracing ‘new generation’ workforce characteristics, we collected two waves of data from 561 employees who were based in 23 Chinese firms. Our findings reveal that, first, HPWS is positively related to ‘new generation’ employees’ engagement; second, hindrance-related stressors partially mediate the relationship between HPWS and ‘new generation’ employee engagement, but the mediation role of challenge-related stressors is not evident; third, procedural justice negatively affects the relationship between HPWS and hindrance-related stressors; finally, HPWS and procedural justice jointly affect ‘new generation’ employee engagement partly through hindrance-related stressors. We conclude that the study not only contributes to the link between HPWS and employee engagement in a ‘new generation’ workforce context, but also argues for the importance of having occupational stress- management for a ‘new generation’ employee workforce.