Linking HR Practices and HR Service-Quality to Employee Performance: A Regulatory Focus Perspective

Abstract

There is a growing consensus that human resource (HR) practices provide an economically and direct contribution to firm performance. The underlying reason is that a well-designed and implemented system of HR management practices can create a source of sustained competitive advantages by attracting talented employees and motivating their behaviors. Understanding employee motivations and providing sufficient HR support are the focal job of HR professionals. Employee motivation is multidimensional and takes different forms in the nature of the individual mindset. By distinguishing employees’ promotion-/prevention-focused motivations, the regulatory focus theory provides a basis for understanding employees’ goal setting. To motivate employees, companies not only need a well-structured HR practices but also to implement the practices in a quality way, i.e., providing efficient and effective HR service, that meets employees’ multidimensional motivations. Utilizing the regulatory-focus theory as the mechanism linking HR practices and HR service-quality to employee behaviors, we show that (1) promotion-focused motivation mediated the relationship between discretionary HR practices and employee outcomes (including in-role performance, organizational citizenship behavior, and turnover intention); furthermore, (2) only HR service-effectiveness was found to moderate the mediated relationship between discretionary HR practices and employee outcomes via employees’ promotion-focused motivation.