The strategic human resource management literature lacks longitudinal studies, and the causal associations between human resource management (HRM) and organisational performance (OP) remain ...underexplored. We tested cross‐lagged relationships between high‐involvement work systems (HIWS), job satisfaction, and store productivity based on a large longitudinal dataset from the retail sector comprising two waves of data. The first wave (2011) included 6,016 employee responses from 104 stores, and the second wave (2015) included 5,842 employee responses from 94 stores. The quantitative study suggested counterintuitive negative associations. A subsequent qualitative study indicated that the association may have been conditioned by the recessionary action taken by the company in response to financial difficulties. The longitudinal research design, the compilation of data during difficult economic situations, and in a relatively unexplored sector such as the retail industry help to shed some light on the universalism of the HRM‐OP relationship and its boundary conditions.
In contrast to shareholder-owned organizations, worker-owned cooperative organizations foster employee wellbeing such as employee satisfaction as an important outcome by itself. Due to expansions and ...economic fluctuations, larger worker-owned cooperations nowadays use mixtures of employment contracts resulting in varying shares of co-owners, contracted and temporary employees in workplaces. In the current paper, we research if this situation challenges the moral commitment of worker cooperatives to their employees, which derive from the cooperative philosophy on corporate responsibility. Where previous research contrasted employee wellbeing in worker cooperatives with share- holder owner organizations, this paper describes how various shares of co-owners in workplaces change mediating processes of helping climate and workplace participation and ultimately result in different levels of employee satisfaction. Archival data combined with survey data of 5907 employees in 99 hypermarkets were tested with multivariate analyses, and indicated that the helping climate and workplace participation positively mediated the association between the share of co-owners in hypermarkets and employee satisfaction. The findings imply that traditional worker-owned cooperatives, where a majority of all workers are owners, had more success in fostering cooperative values as a strategic outcome.
Purpose
Despite decades of studies on high-involvement human resource management (HRM) systems, questions remain of whether high-involvement HRM systems can increase the commitment of women. This ...study aims to contribute to the growing body of research on the cross-level effect of HRM systems and practices on employee affective commitment by considering the moderating role of gender.
Design/methodology/approach
Integrating social exchange theory with gender role theory, this paper proposes that gender responses to HRM practices can be different. The hypotheses were tested using data from 104 small- and medium-sized retail enterprises and 6,320 employees from Spain.
Findings
The findings generally support the study’s hypotheses, with women’s affective commitment responding more strongly and positively to employees’ aggregated perceptions of a shop-level high-involvement HRM system. The findings imply that a high-involvement HRM system can promote the affective commitment of women.
Originality/value
This study investigates the impact of both an overall HRM system and function-specific HRM sub-systems (e.g. training, information, participation and autonomy). By showing that women can be more positively affected by high-involvement HRM systems, this paper suggests that high-involvement HRM systems can be used to encourage the involvement and participation of women.
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