Human Resource Management and Unit Performance in Knowledge-Intensive Work

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Kehoe, Rebecca R.; Collins, Christopher J.
• 署名单位: Rutgers University System; Rutgers University New Brunswick; Cornell University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0021-9010
• DOI: 10.1037/apl0000216
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 1222-1236
• 关键词: strategic human resource management; organizational commitment; human capital; knowledge sharing

摘要

To clarify the potential value of a targeted system of human resource (HR) practices, we explore the unique effects of a relationship-oriented HR system and the more commonly studied high commitment HR system on unit performance in the context of knowledge-intensive work. We develop theoretical arguments suggesting that the high commitment HR system contributes to unit performance through its positive effects on employees' collective organizational commitment, general and firm-specific human capital, and access to knowledge. We argue that the relationship-oriented HR system contributes to unit performance through its positive effects on employees' collective access to knowledge by fostering a social context and interpersonal exchange conditions which support employees' ongoing access to knowledge flows within and outside their unit and broader organization. Based on unit-level data collected from a matched sample of employees and managers in 128 units in the science and engineering division of a large hydroelectric power organization, our results suggest that the targeted, relationship-oriented HR system is related to firm performance and may complement a broader, high commitment approach to managing knowledge workers. Specifically, the positive relationship between the high commitment HR system and unit performance is mediated by employees' collective organizational commitment, firm-specific human capital, and access to knowledge in other organizational units; whereas the positive relationship between the relationship-oriented HR system and unit performance is mediated by units' access to knowledge within the unit, in other units, and outside the organization.