High‐performance work systems and employee engagement: empirical evidence from China

Abstract

Employee engagement and commitment has been a very important issue in human resource managers' agenda. The present study adds to the literature by examining the impact of high-performance work systems (HPWS) on employee attitudes and on employee engagement in China in response to the increasing interest in the universalistic effects of HPWS in the globalized world market. With the data from 782 employees working in China's manufacturing and service sectors, this study shows that HPWS are positively related to employees' positive mood and job satisfaction, and that job satisfaction and positive mood lead to high employee engagement. Moreover, employee's positive mood and job satisfaction also mediate the relationship between HPWS and employee engagement. The result helps explore one mechanism via which HPWS affect employee behaviors and provides empirical evidence for the applicability of HPWS in an international context.Research has shown that an engaged workforce can lead to numerous benefits, such as high organizational performance, high job satisfaction (e.g. Harrison, Newman and Roth 2006;Harter, Schmidt and Hayes 2002;Whitman, Van Rooij and Viswesvaran 2010), and low turnover rates (Allen, Shore and Griffeth 2003). Highly engaged employees have a passion for their work and feel a deep connection to their company while disengaged employees put only time, not energy or attention into their work (Bal, Dorien and De Jong 2013). Engaged employees are thus more enthusiastic, working harder, and are more committed to their company (Kahn 1990). They are also more creative (Sahoo and Mishra 2012), more likely to perform better (Whitman, Van Rooij and Viswesvaran 2010), and can often help create and further maintain sustainable competitive advantage for their companies (Rich, Lepine and Crawford 2010). Given the strong need for high engagement and commitment among a changing and increasingly diversified workforce, an increasing amount of research on human resource management has focused on exploring the universalistic effects of high-performance work systems (HPWS) on employee performance (Snape and Redman 2010) and on the mechanism through which the HPWS relate to employee outcomes (Bal, Dorien and De Jong 2013; Jiang et al. 2012).High-performance work systems refer to a set of broadly defined human resource management (HRM) practices, including performance-related pay, various employee communication programs, training and team-based work (Harley 2002;Huselid 1995;Jiang et al. 2012), and when used in combination, HPWS are said to be mutually reinforcing and able to generate superior organizational performance (Harley 2002;Combs et al. 2006). While an impressive array of research has explored HPWS and organizational performance in the West, relatively little has been done to explore the effectiveness of HPWS in an international context (Ghebregiorgis and Karsten 2007), even though the universalistic effect of HPWS has been the focus for many studies in the HRM field. When multinational enterprises seek international e...

Towards better work in China: mapping the relationships between high‐performance work systems, trade unions, and employee well‐being

“…This study has significant practical implications. Chinese employees are reported to have very low levels of engagement (Huang, Ma and Meny ) coupled with raising expectations related to work and working conditions (Warner and Zhu ). In this context, our study shows that employees under a high rate of HPWS are more likely to report a high level of engagement with their organisation.…”

“…). Some have found evidence for a universal benefit of HPWS both for firms entering China (Bjorkman and Fan ) and for indigenous Chinese firms (Huang, Ma and Meny ). Others have been more cautious and pointed to specific cultural and contextual considerations likely to shape HRM (see Zhang ).…”

“…First, we examine the impact of HPWS in a Chinese context, redressing the western bias of existing research (Bainbridge et al 2017). Some have found evidence for a universal benefit of HPWS both for firms entering China (Bjorkman and Fan 2002) and for indigenous Chinese firms (Huang, Ma and Meny 2017). Others have been more cautious and pointed to specific cultural and contextual considerations likely to shape HRM (see Zhang 2012).…”

The Relationship between Employee Engagement, HRM practices and Perceived Organizational Support: Evidence from Banking Employees

“…For example, career advancement focuses on the internal career growth opportunities provided by their organizations that reflects the management's commitment towards their employees. Huang et al (2017) suggested that adequate career opportunities give signals to the employees that their organizations are interested in the progression of their employees which make employees obligated and they will exert a higher level of efforts in the workplace. Similarly, job security is also an important signal by which employees feel secured and cared by their organizations and will be most prone to exert time and energy during their job (Chen, 2017).…”

“…In fact, internal career opportunity is one of the important motivational tools to engage employees in job related activities positively (Batista et al, 2013). Furthermore, Huang et al (2017) found that internal career development opportunity positively related to employee well-being i.e. engagement and negatively related to employee deviant behavior.…”