Personnel Review

High performance work systems, employee well-being, and job involvement: an empirical study
Liang-Chih Huang David Ahlstrom Amber Yun-Ping Lee Shu-Yuan Chen Meng-Jung Hsieh
Article information:
To cite this document:
Liang-Chih Huang David Ahlstrom Amber Yun-Ping Lee Shu-Yuan Chen Meng-Jung Hsieh , (2016),"High performance work
systems, employee well-being, and job involvement: an empirical study", Personnel Review, Vol. 45 Iss 2 pp. -
Permanent link to this document:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/PR-09-2014-0201
Downloaded on: 04 February 2016, At: 09:59 (PT)
References: this document contains references to 0 other documents.
To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com
The fulltext of this document has been downloaded 15 times since 2016*
Users who downloaded this article also downloaded:
Unai Elorza, Christopher Harris, Aitor Aritzeta, Nekane Balluerka, (2016),"The effect of management and employee
perspectives of high-performance work systems on employees discretionary behaviour", Personnel Review, Vol. 45 Iss 1 pp.
121-141 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/PR-07-2014-0167
Personnel Review 2016.45.

Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:486125 []
For Authors
If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service
information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please
visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information.
About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.com
Emerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of
more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online
products and additional customer resources and services.
Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication
Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.

*Related content and download information correct at time of download.

 High Performance Work Systems, Employee Well-Being,

And Job Involvement: An Empirical Study

Abstract

Purpose Given the importance of high performance work systems (HPWS) with respect to
firm competitive advantage, this paper holds that the contribution of HPWS toward the desired
outcomes for organizations may depend significantly on employee job involvement.
Underpinning the argument of happy workers being productive, the purpose of this paper is to
propose the critical mediator of employee well-being to explain the hypothesized multilevel
relationship between HPWS and job involvement.
Design/methodology/approach The authors distributed questionnaires to the target
participants. Data collected from 451 employees and 50 HR managers/professionals of 50 firms
in the three major industrial categories of manufacturing, finance, and service in Taiwan.
Findings This study identifies the significance of employee well-being by incorporating the
theories of planned behavior and positive psychology and provides empirical evidence for the
cross-level influence of HPWS on employee well-being and job involvement.
Originality/value This study incorporates the perspective of positive psychology as an
important addition to research on SHRM and performance by highlighting employee well-being
as a key mediator of SHRM and job involvement.
Personnel Review 2016.45.

Keywords Quantitative, Taiwan, Employee well-being, Positive psychology, Management

innovation, High performance work systems (HPWS), Job involvement
Paper Type Research paper

Introduction

It is well understood that human resource management (HRM) plays a major role in

enhancing the performance of employees and organizations (Becker and Huselid, 1998;

Pfeffer, 2007). Findings from a range of countries have demonstrated that how people are

managed impacts product quality, profitability, productivity, and total return to shareholders

in organizations (Appelbaum et al., 2000; Becker and Huselid, 1998; Cascio, 2006; Pfeffer,

1998; Shaw, 2006). In exploring the connection between HRM and employee performance,

research has focused specifically on High Performance Work Systems (HPWS) as

contributing heavily to organizational effectiveness (Kim et al., 2010; Subramoney, 2009;

Sun et al., 2007; Townsend et al., 2011). HPWS are typically defined as a coherent set of

human resource management (HRM) practices that improve firm performance by promoting

employee commitment to and involvement in their jobs and the goals of the organization

(Farndale et al., 2011; Guthrie, 2001; Kroon, 2009; Sun et al., 2007; Way, 2002). Compared

1
to traditional HRM practices, HPWS have been shown to be effective in improving employee

and firm performance in a variety of organizational and cultural settings (Gong et al., 2009;

Wei and Lau, 2010). While HPWS are crucial to organization performance, recent work has

suggested the key mechanism of employee behavior and performance that influence HPWSs

effect on organization performance varies with employee reaction toward the HPWS

(Cavanagh et al., 2013; Lepak et al., 2006).

In particular, HPWS can develop the employees expected behavior desired by an

organization through direct compensation connected to employees intention to perform

(Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975; Macky and Boxwell, 2008; Wright and McMahan, 1992). In

general, employee motivation as shaped by HPWS, is based on direct incentives for certain

work behaviors (Kozlowski and Klein, 2000; Selden, 2013). However, research in positive

psychology suggests that happy people develop themselves and bring constructive influence

to individuals, families and communities around them (Compton, 2005, Galabova, 2013;

Ryan and Deci, 2001; Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). In a broad sense, happy people

can be found and nurtured (Staw and Wright, 1999), yet questions of how organizations can

enhance employee happiness for better performance have been relatively less explored

(Zlenski et al., 2008).

It was long thought that there was little confirmative connection between employee

satisfaction and performance (e.g. Judge et al., 2001; Tomaevic et al., 2014; Vroom, 1969),

but new research has found that happy employees are more involved in work roles and have

higher job satisfaction (Cambr et al., 2012; Diener, 2000; Harrison et al., 2006; Seligman

and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Taris and Schreurs, 2009). For example, in Fortunes annual list

of the 100 Best Companies to Work For (Grant et al., 2007), the American Psychological

Association (2014), and the Great Place to work Institute (2014) all indicated that employers

believe in the importance of making employees happy and are expending more effort on it.

2
 Similarly, a recent poll conducted every year in Taiwan by the magazines Cheers and

CommonWealth also indicated that making employees happy is the key factor leading to

recognition the best employer (Cheers, 2001; CommonWealth, 2007). Much evidence

indicates the significance of employees happiness for individuals and organizations (Fisher,

2010) that brought into a growing interest of well-being that consists a comprehensive

concept of happiness as well as life and job satisfaction (Ryan and Deci, 2001). Given the

significance of employee well-being, what practices should organizations implement to

enhance employee well-being in order to encourage positive and productive employee

behavior?

Focusing on this key question, we argue that HPWS directly affects employee perception of

well-being and also, employee well-being plays a key role fostering employee motivation
Personnel Review 2016.45.

in order to improve employee performance in an organization. Employee

performance was thought to be connected in that employees would put more time and effort

on their own jobs, as namely, job involvement (Lodahl and Kejner, 1965). Considering

employee job involvement is important in fostering both individual performance and firm

performance, this study adopted job involvement as the outcome variable of interest in terms

of HPWS and employee well-being. In general, this study advocates an integrative

perspective calling not only for consideration of employee perception and attitude, but also

incorporating positive psychology to maximize employee potential. This research therefore

responds to Van De Voorde, Paauwe and Van Veldhovens (2012) call for studies that examine

the effect of specific HR practices on employee perception of well-being.

3
 We achieve this integration by utilizing the theories of planned behavior and positive

psychology to identify the effect of HPWS on employee well-being as well as the key

mechanism between HPWS and job involvement through employee well-being. This study

thus departs from much current SHRM studies, which either emphasize enhancing employee

performance (Batt, 2002; Lertxundi and Landeta, 2011; Wright et al., 2005) or emphasizing

the factor influencing employee well-being from considering individual factors (i.e., Lapierre

and Allen, 2006; Schaufeli et al., 2008). Specially, we examine the ways in which HPWS

affect employee well-being as well as how it is mediated in organizations.

We test our hypotheses by collecting survey data from Taiwan. Taiwan is selected for

because it is representative newly developed economy among East Asian economies

Personnel Review 2016.45.

(Ahlstrom et al., 2014). Moreover, HR has recently started to get more attention in East Asia

as more firms in the region have started to adopt SHRM (Ahlstrom et al., 2001; Cooke, 2012;

Cooke et al., 2011; Uen et al., 2012). In this regard, employers in Taiwan are placing more

attention on management innovation including in the HR area such as employee well-being

for building a happy working environment (Ahlstrom et al., 2001; Liu et al., 2013) which

makes Taiwan a helpful sample for understanding employee well-being in organizations

(Cheers, 2001; CommonWealth, 2007).

4
 Overall, this article makes three contributions to research in human resources. First, we

enrich SHRM studies by incorporating Positive Psychology, which is an important addition to

research on SHRM and performance to identify HPWS as key practices for organizations to

enhance employee perception of well-being. The main argument in SHRM studies suggest

positive effects of HPWS on employee performance by giving incentives through the

theoretical lens of planned behavior (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975; Ajzen, 1991). Thus, this

study incorporates perspective of positive psychology to argue that employee perception of

well-being is able to strengthen the employee attitude and enhance employee involvement in

their work roles (Lepak et al., 2006; Liao et al., 2009). Moreover, this study also brings

positive psychology into organization studies and further supports the growing evidence

regarding the significance of employee well-being on their work behavior in an organization

Personnel Review 2016.45.

while explaining a key mechanism regarding HPWS and employee job involvement (Ramlall,

2008).

Second, this study contributes empirically by collecting data in Taiwan, thus adding to

our understanding of employee well-being in a developing economy, as well as an important

ethnic Chinese economy (Ahlstrom et al., 2004; Ahlstrom et al., 2010). Distinct from an

earlier line of related research (Wood and de Menezes, 2011), this study is the first to provide

empirical evidence regarding the relationship between HPWS and employee well-being by

collecting field data of HPWS from organizations in addition to employees subjective

perception of well-being. The empirical evidence in this study also supports the point that

well-being is not only important in a social context, but also in organizations. Finally, this

study identified HPWS as important management practices to enhance employee well-being.

The results not only enrich employer awareness of enhancing employee perception of

well-being (Zelenski et al., 2008) but also provide a practical reference for organizations to

use HPWS well.

5
 Theory and Hypotheses

Employee well-being

Positive psychology introduces the concept of well-being as individual valued experience in

which people become more efficacious (Bandura, 1986; Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi,

2000). This line of work emphasizes ones psychological and cognitive perception in order to

fully understand the level of well-being and its influence on that persons life (Taylor and

Brown, 1994; Veenhoven, 1991). Generally, well-being is defined as a comprehensive

concept of happiness (Ryan and Deci, 2001; Waterman, 1993), and represents an evaluation

of ones life, including life satisfaction and positive affect (Lu, 2001). Employee well-being,

has recently been receiving more attention from employers (Grant et al., 2007). Earlier

studies suggested that employee well-being as the job related mental health indicator (De
Personnel Review 2016.45.

Jonge and Schaufeli, 1998). Diener (2000) further argued that employee well-being could

also be related to satisfaction with work domain. That is, employee well-being is closely

associated with job satisfaction, life satisfaction, positive emotion, and quality-of-work life

that serve as an effective proxy for well-being in organizational context. In a nutshell,

employee well-being is defined broadly as the overall evaluation of ones life, as the overall

quality of an employees experience and functioning at work, including life satisfaction and

positive affect which influence individual performance (Grant et al., 2007; Li et al., 2014; Lu,

2001; Taris and Schreurs, 2009).

Employee well-being has received some attention in organization studies. Studies

indicate that both management and employees alike believe that happier and healthier

employees increase their effort, contributions, and productivity (Fisher 2003; Galavoba and

6
 Mckie, 2013; Taris and Schreurs, 2009). In broad sense, employee well-being consists not

only of employee happiness, but also satisfaction and quality toward life and work.

Consistent with these trends, extensive evidence from past studies indicate that employee

well-being has positive influence on organizational performance by decreasing employees

absenteeism, turnover and discretionary effort (Spector, 1997) and increasing organizational

citizenship (Podsakoff et al., 2003) as well as job performance (Cropanzano and Wright, 2001;

Judge et al., 2001). Earlier studies also suggest some influencing factors to employee well-

being, most of which emphasize individual factors such as job stress, personality and work-

family balance (Lapierre and Allen, 2006; Schaufeli and Taris, 2008) or job characteristics

such as job demand (De Jonge and Schaufeli, 1998; Macky and Boxall, 2008). Although

those studies add to our understanding of why employees may (or may not) have a high
Personnel Review 2016.45.

level of well-being in an organization, how organizations are able to enhance employee

well-being is relatively less explored.

High Performance Work Systems

The study of HPWS has been important in HRM in the last two decades (Bamberger and

Meshoulam, 2000). Studies in human resources have often suggested that essentially, HR

systems are either oriented toward high performance through investment in employees or

toward a more administrative or controlling purpose to for managing employee relations and

other personnel issues (Ackers and Wilkenson, 2003; Boxwell and Macky, 2007; Guthrie,

2001; Kim et al., 2010; Lepak et al., 2006; Vo and Batram, 2012). HPWS have been shown to

be more effective than basic, traditional HRM practices in helping firms elicit improved

individual productivity and firm performance in various contexts (Gong et al., 2006; Wei and

Lau, 2010). Based on earlier HPWS studies, this study defines HPWS as a comprehensive

HR system oriented toward enhancing high performance through investment in employees.

HPWS were suggested to collectively affect organizational performance by the combination

7
 of single practice (Sun et al., 2007), and as systematic perspectives noted, the bundled

practices will have synergetic effects over and above practices implemented in isolation

(Rock and Palmer, 1990). Thus, this study therefore adopted systematic approach to discuss

the influence of HPWS on individual outcomes.

Earlier studies supported the positive influence of HPWS on organizational performance

(Boxwell and Macky, 2009; Sun et al., 2007; Wright et al., 2005). However, conceptually

organizational performance does not stem from the HR practices themselves but rather from

the human efforts that result (Barney and Wright, 1998; Way, 2002). That is, HR systems are

effective to the extent that they help to positively affect employees and inspire them to

contribute to important organizational outcomes (Messersmith et al., 2011). Based on the

Personnel Review 2016.45.

Theory of Planned Behavior (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975), several researchers also suggest that

HPWS operates by impacting employee skills, motivation, intention, and opportunities to

contribute (Combs et al., 2006; Delery and Shaw, 2001; Lepak et al., 2006; Liao et al., 2009;

Sun et al., 2007). For example, SHRM theory asserts that HPWS increase employees

knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs), empowers employees to leverage their KSAs for

organizational benefit, and increases their motivation to do so (Delery and Shaw, 2001) that

foster greater job satisfaction, lower employee turnover, higher productivity, and better

decision making and commitment (Chang and Chen, 2011).

HPWS and Employee Well-being

HPWS have also been thought to foster the development of desired behaviors in employees

by providing direct incentive and rewards to foster employee performance (Fishbein and

Ajzen, 1975). Sun and colleagues (2007) also indicated HPWS signal a long-term investment

in employees so that they can obtain the resources from employers. Earlier work also

suggests that people are motivated to obtain, maintain, and preserve those resources that they

deem valuable (Hobfoll, 2001; Wright and Hobfoll, 2004). Resources may also be

8
 categorized as internal or external (Hobfoll, 1989). Internal resources are those possessed

by the self or are within the domain of the self, such as self-esteem, skills, and optimism,

while external resources are not possessed by the self, but are external to it, including

social support, employment, and status (Hobfoll, 1989). Wright and Hobfoll (2004) highlight

the importance of motivation for decisions involving how employees acquire, maintain and

foster the necessary resources to both meet their current work demands and to help guard

against further resource depletion. When individuals are able to acquire and maintain the

necessary resources to achieve success, they tend to adapt and cope with the job and

environment more easily and perceive higher sense of well-being. Wright and Hobfoll (2004)

suggested that providing work-related resources such as high levels of cognitive and

emotional attachment to ones job are important to the perception of employee well-being
Personnel Review 2016.45.

(Westman et al., 2005; Wright and Bonett, 2007). In addition, employees can acquire and

maintain work-related resources from HPWS, they are more likely to perceive higher degree

of happiness, job satisfaction and better performance. Therefore, we hypothesize:

Hypothesis 1. HPWS is positively related to employee well-being.

Job Involvement

The concept of job involvement was firstly introduced by Lodahl and Kejner (1965), and it

has received considerable attention since in in the field of organizational behavior and

occupational psychology. Job involvement can be simply defined as the degree to which one

values and identifies with his/her current job (Kanungo, 1982; Lodahl and Kejner, 1965;

Riipinen, 1997). With higher degrees of job involvement, individuals would put more time

and effort into their jobs.

Previous studies have demonstrated several individual and organizational factors that

could significantly affect ones state of job involvement, especially when the core concept of

9
 job involvement is identified as a cognitive state of the individual (Brown, 1996). For

example, Lodahl and Kejner (1965) proposed the perspective of ego involvement in work in

arguing that when there is a good relationship between managers and employees, along with

the explicit encouragement and support from leaders as well as colleagues, higher degrees of

job involvement of employees is expected.

The relationship between employee well-being and job involvement has seldom been

studied in spite of the importance of both variables to HR. By emphasizing employee well-

being, it is both the subjective perception and the presence of emotion one shows at their

work. Thus, a link between employee well-being and job outcomes, such as job attitude, has

been established (Brunetto et al., 2012). Previous studies regarding job involvement have
Personnel Review 2016.45.

recognized it as the concept of work attitude and have put a lot of emphases on employees

themselves, intending to comprehend the underlying factors that would motivate employees

to put more efforts and time into their work (Galunic and Anderson, 2000; Nasurdin et al.,

2005; Riipinen, 1997). It is believed that when employees are happy and satisfied with their

workplace including the work itself as well as the surrounding environment, they would show

higher levels of job involvement. Earlier studies suggested that people with higher well-being

tend to put more efforts and engage more on their pursuit goals (Schaufeli et al., 2008).

Zelenski and colleagues (2008) also hold that happier workers tend to be more productive. In

this vein, employees would like to put more effort in their work roles when they have a

higher sense well-being. Therefore,

Hypothesis 2. Employee well-being is positively related to job involvement.

HPWS were suggested to develop employee desired behaviors through strengthening

employee motivation by direct incentives or rewards connecting to their behaviors (Fishbein

and Ajzen, 1975). SHRM studies indicated, for example, that organizations are able to

1
0
 encourage employees to identify with the goals of organization and to exert effort to achieve

them through HR systems which was based on the theory of planned behavior (Fishbein and

Ajzen, 1975; Wright and McMahan, 1992). Following this reasoning, the extensive evidences

also support the relationship between HPWS and job involvement (i.e., Boon et al., 2007;

Boxall and Macky, 2009; Ramsay et al., 2000).

Wood and colleagues (2012) study further provides evidence regarding the mediation

of well-being, suggesting that the relationship between organizational practices and employee

performance could be better managed via emphasizing well-being. When employees are able

to acquire resources to achieve their goal from HPWS, they tend to feel happier and foster

their motivation to perform in an organization (Wright and Hobfoll, 2004). More important,
Personnel Review 2016.45.

positive psychology holds that happy people can nurture the qualities that lead to greater

fulllment for themselves and bring constructive encouragement to people around them

(Compton, 2005; Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Following this line of work, we

incorporate the theory of planned behavior and positive psychology to argue that HPWS

nurtures employee well-being which in turn fosters their motivation to achieve key desired

behaviors in the organization. Therefore, we hypothesize:

Hypothesis 3: Employee well-being mediates the relationship between HPWS and job

involvement.

Methods

In this study HPWS are treated as the organization-level variable, and employee well-being

as well as job involvement are the individual-level variables in this study. The research

framework is shown in Figure 1.

--Insert Figure 1 about here--

Participants

10
 This study sought to determine the relationship among HPWS, employee well-being and job

involvement in a sample of HR professionals and current employees in middle to large-sized

companies in Taiwan. Taiwan represents a good strategic research site to assess management

interventions given the effective commercial reforms enacted there over the past two decades

(Bijker et al., 2012; Liu et al., 2013). The participating companies were selected from the top

500 organizations in manufacture and service industry and top 100 finance firms listed in the

poll of Commonwealth Investigation Center in 2011. Participants were HR professionals and

current employees who have at least one year of service in his/her current organization.

Employees were selected randomly by researchers from the qualified employees list provided

from HR department in each firm. At least one HR professional and 10 employees in each
Personnel Review 2016.45.

company were required to complete the survey.

Procedure

Initially, we telephoned the qualifying companies in three major industries in Taiwan

(i.e., manufacturing, service, and finance industry) and asked for their participation. As a

result, 54 companies agreed to join the survey, and we later distributed survey package to

each participating company. Each survey package contained two separate questionnaires

administered to one HR manager/professional and 10 employees. A cover letter attached to

each questionnaire explained the objective of the survey and assured respondents of the

confidentiality of their responses and the voluntary nature of participation in the survey. For

each company, the HR manager questionnaire requested the HR manager/professional to

provide data on HPWS. The employee questionnaire was administered to provide data of

employee well-being and job involvement. Completed questionnaires were returned sealed in

self-addressed envelopes.

Of the 54 survey packages distributed, we received completed questionnaires from 51

HR managers/professionals and 509 employees from 51 companies, representing response

11
 rates of 94 percent. After deleting one company case with 10 employee cases that had

uncompleted questionnaires and other 48 employees cases who did not meet the requirement

of year of service, we had a final 50 company cases and 451 employee cases that are ranged

5-10 employee cased from each company.

Measures

HPWS

We adopted Sun, Aryee and Law (2007) 27-item HPWS scale in this study. SHRM

researchers suggested that systematic HR practices rather than single, isolated practices,

constitute the appropriate level of analysis (Becker and Huselid, 1998). Following Sun and

colleagues (2007) suggestions, we used an additive index to reflect a single comprehensive

measure of an HR system (Batt, 2002; Guthrie, 2001). A high score on this measure indicates
Personnel Review 2016.45.

a relatively intensive use of and investment in HPWS. The overall scale reliability was

.76.

Employee well-being

We adopted Hills and Argyles (2002) The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ) to

measure employee well-being in this study. There are total 29 items in OHQ. The scale

reliability was .91.

Job involvement

We adopted Kanungos (1982) Job Involvement Questionnaire (JIQ) to measure job

involvement in this study. Ten items are included in JIQ scale. The scale reliability was

.87.

Control Variables

Individual-level control variable

12
We controlled employees year of service at the individual level of analysis because it might

influence employees perception of job satisfaction and job performance (Bradley and

13
 Roberts, 2004). Employees self-reported their year of service in the questionnaire.

Organizational-level control variable

We controlled company size at the organizational level of analysis. Company size was

included as a control variable because larger organizations may be more likely to implement

well-developed or more sophisticated HR system (Jackson and Schuler, 1995). Information of

company size was collected from HR manager or professional, and was measured as the

natural log of the number of full-time employees. All scale items are rated by using 6-point

Likert Scale. The response options ranged from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree).

Results
Personnel Review 2016.45.

Descriptive Statistics and Correlation

The means, standard deviations, and correlations for all variables are shown in Table 1.

Because HPWS, employee well-being and job involvement are considered to be on different

levels of variables, we utilized Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) (Raudenbush and Bryk,

2002) for analyses. The hypothesis tests modeled individual-level variability in job

involvement; therefore, the fixed effects at level 2 were employed for all coefficients except

the intercept. In order to examine the between-group variation in mean-level of job

involvement, we specified the random effects for the intercept (e.g., Anand et al., 2010).

Following Hofmann and Gavin (1998), we used grand mean centering for all independent

variables at level 1. The results suggested that all variables of interest are significantly

correlated. As shown in the Table 1, employee well-being ( = .19, p < .01) were positively

correlated to job involvement.

--Insert Table 1 about here--

Variance Within Group

14
 We followed the procedure recommended in Bryk and Raudenbush (1992) and performed an

ANOVA using a two-level null HLM analysis (for Level 1, n=451; for Level 2, n=50), with

employee individual perception of job involvement as the outcome variable. The results

showed that the within-group variance estimate was .41 and the between-group variance

estimate was .03 (p < .001). This indicated that 6.8% of variance in employee perception of

job involvement resided between employee groups, whereas 93.2% of the variance resided

within employee groups.

Hypotheses 1 predicted the cross-level effect of HPWS on employee well-being. The

intercept-as-outcome model in Model 1 of Table 3 showed that HPWS is significantly related

to employee well-being (01 = .12, p < 0.05) which supported Hypothesis 1. In addition,
Personnel Review 2016.45.

results in Model 2 of Table 3 also showed that HPWS is significantly related to job

involvement (01 = .13, p < 0.05) which is consistent with earlier studies.

Hypothesis 2 predicted that employee well-being is positively related to job

involvement. The result is shown in Table 2. We employed hierarchical multiple regression

to test this hypothesis. Results indicated that employee well-being are positively related to job

involvement ( = .18, p < 0.001); Hypothesis 2 was accordingly supported.

--Insert Table 2 about here--

--Insert Table 3 about here--

The Mediating Effect of Employee Well-Being

The earlier analyses supported the relationship among HPWS, employee well-being and job

involvement. To examine the mediating effect of employee well-being, we followed Baron

and Kennys (1986) suggestions to implement mediating effect analysis. Comparing Model 2

to Model 3 of Table 3, we found that the effect of HPWS on job involvement significantly

15
 dropped from .13 (p < .05) to .10 (p < .10) which supported the hypothesized mediating effect

of employee well-being (Hypothesis 3). We further employed Preacher, Zyphur and Zhang

(2010) suggestions to estimate indirect effects. The results indicated that employee well-

being has the mediation effect (confidence interval, .005 - .058) between the relationship of

HPWS and job involvement. Thus, hypothesis 3 was supported.

Discussion

Contributions

In response to Van De Voorde and colleagues (2012) call to illuminate the HR practices that

affect employee well-being, this study was able to make several theory, empirical and

practical contributions. In terms of theory, we argue that (1) HPWS positively influences
Personnel Review 2016.45.

employee well-being and (2) HPWS positively affect employee job involvement through the

mediating effect of employee well-being. Therefore, we enrich SHRM studies from

understanding the effects of HPWS on employee well-being by an integrative perspective of

incorporating the theory of planned behavior and positive psychology. The main argument

from SHRM studies suggests that HR systems work effectively on employee performance by

facilitating employee motivation (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975; Lepak et al., 2006). Thus, this

study adds our understanding to identify HPWS as the crucial practices to enhance employee

well-being. This study further adds the new perspective of positive psychology in

organizations in addressing the significance of employee well-being on their job involvement

in an organization. We identify the important effect of HPWS on employee well-being as well

as the crucial mechanism of employee well-being in an organization by providing a discrete

analysis of the relationship between HPWS, employee well-being and employee job

involvement.

16
 In terms of empirical contributions, by collecting survey data from 50 companies in

three main industries in Taiwan, we hypothesized the cross-level influence of high-

performance human resource practices on employee well-being and job involvement.

Although previous studies have suggested the influences of HPWS on both organizational

(Becker et al., 2001) and individual performance (Barling et al., 2003; Wood et al., 2011), the

effects of HR practices on employee well-being have been inconsistent (Van De Voorde et al.,

2012). We provide the empirical evidence of positive relationship between HPWS and

employee well-being by collecting data in Taiwan, the administrative HR system oriented

Chinese society (Uen et al., 2012). As employers in Taiwan are more attentive to the building

of a happy working environment, this study can substantially add our understanding of the
Personnel Review 2016.45.

significance of employee well-being in a developing economy. The empirical evidence

provided also support the importance of employee well-being in an important East Asian

economy where employee satisfaction and happiness have only recently become important

issues (Ahlstrom et al., 2010; Cheers, 2001; CommonWealth, 2007).

Finally, in terms of contributions to practice, our results suggest that implementing

HPWS not only enhance employees performance but also create a better working

environment to provide required work-related resource for employees, which in turn foster

higher employee well-being from happy and high satisfactory workers in an organization.

The results also implied the significant influence of employee well-being suggesting

organizations put more attention on the related issue in an organization. In addition, earlier

line of work hold the idea that happy workers really are more productive workers (Harrison et

al., 2006; Schleicher et al., 2004). To examine this idea and extend the previous line of

researches, this study consistently shows the crucial roles of employee well-being in an

organization context. The results suggested that employee well-being is important forming

desired employee work attitude and behavior (Grant et al., 2007).

17
 Limitations and Future Research

Certain limitations and avenues for future research should be noted. First, a moderately-sized

sample resulted from the strict criteria may limit the contribution of this study. However, the

hypotheses were all supported, showing that it still has substantial implications with

substantive effects. Future research can try to validate the results with a larger sample size. In

addition, the sample was collected in Taiwan because employers in Taiwan are getting more

attention on employee well-being (Cheers, 2001; CommonWealth, 2007). Recent studies also

indicated that the organizations in Mainland China have become increasingly attractive as the

economy there develops and foreign investment continues to come in (Cooke, 2012; Xiao and

Cooke, 2012). The recent extensive evidence suggests that employee well-being is relatively
Personnel Review 2016.45.

crucial in Chinese organizations (Liu et al., 2010; Siu et al., 2007). This study provides

further insight into HR related issues in ethnic Chinese communities in that region. Future

research can implement the investigation in the major developed cities in China (e.g. Beijing,

Shanghai) to further advance our understanding of employee well-being, especially in

Chinese organizations (Ahlstrom et al., 2005; Ahlstrom et al., 2010).

In addition, this study mainly focused on cross-level influence of HPWS on employee

well-being and job involvement. Though all hypotheses were supported, this study might

neglect other important outcome variables as well as important moderators. Happy workers

are suggested to bring out the constructive influence to colleagues and organization (Farh et

al., 2007; Meyer and Maltin, 2010). The extended line of this research can consider other

individual level outcome variables such as affective commitment and organizational

citizenship behavior and explore the possibility of organizational level moderators such as

organizational climate as well. Future research can further emphasize on an examination of

how and why HPWS affects employee well-being.

18
 Finally, this study adopts employee well-being based on employee subjective

psychological well-being (Diener, 2000; Hills and Argyle, 2002). As Grant and colleagues

(2007) suggested different aspects of employee well-being should be considered in this line

of study. For instance, Grant and colleagues (2007) suggested that employee perception of

happiness is related to psychological well-being and employee health condition is related to

psychical well-being as well as employee relationship with organization is related to social

well-being. Future research can take into different aspects of employee well-being to provide

a holistic view of employee well-being to add more understanding in this field in terms of

HPWS and positive psychologys role in enhancing employee and firm performance.
Personnel Review 2016.45.

Conclusion

Discussing the cross-level influence of HPWS on employee well-being and job involvement,

our findings supported all hypothesized relationships, and also identified the key practices of

HPWS for its influence on employee well-being and the mediating effect of employee well-

being. In addition, the results implied that organizations can create improved working

environments to enhance employee well-being and job involvement by implementing HPWS.

To that end, this study made several theory, empirical, and methodological contributions as

well as some practical suggestions organizations. It adds to the research that increasingly

shows that satisfied employees are more productive. Employee well-being counts, and it can

be a very important part of HRs role in employee and firm performance.

19
 References

Ackers, P. and Wilkinson, A. (2003), Understanding work and employment: Industrial

relations in transition, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Ahlstrom, D., Bruton, G. and Chan, E. (2001), "HRM of foreign firms in China: The
challenge of managing host country personnel", Business Horizons, Vol. 44 No. 3, pp.
59-68.
Ahlstrom, D., Chen, S.-j. and Yeh, K.S. (2010), "Managing in ethnic Chinese communities:
Culture, institutions, and context", Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Vol. 27 No. 3, pp.
341-354.
Ahlstrom, D., Levitas, E., Hitt, M., Dacin, M. and Zhu, H. (2014), "The three faces of China:
Strategic alliance partner selection in three ethnic Chinese economies", Journal of World
Business, Vol. 49 No. 4.
Ahlstrom, D., Young, M.N., Chan, E.S. and Bruton, G.D. (2004), "Facing constraints to
growth? Overseas Chinese entrepreneurs and traditional business practices in East Asia",
Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Vol. 21 No. 3, pp. 263-285.
Ajzen, I. (1991), "The theory of planned behavior", Organizational Behavior and Human
Decision Processes, Vol. 50 No. 2, pp. 179-211.
Personnel Review 2016.45.

American Psychological Association (2014), "APA's Psychologically Healthy Workplace

Awards", available at: http://www.apaexcellence.org/awards/national/ (accessed 04 Jun,
2014).
Anand, S., Vidyarthi, P.R., Liden, R.C. and Rousseau, D.M. (2010), "Good citizens in
poor-quality relationships: Idiosyncratic deals as a substitute for relationship quality",
Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 53 No. 5, pp. 970-988.
Bamberger, P. and Meshoulam, I. (2000), Human resource strategy: Formulation,
implementation, and impact, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Bandura, A. (1986), Social foundations of thought and action: A social-cognitive view,
Prentice-Hall., Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Barling, J., Kelloway, E.K. and Iverson, R.D. (2003), "High-quality jobs, job satisfaction and
occupational safety", Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 88 No. pp. 267-283.
Barney, J.B. and Wright, P.M. (1998), " On becoming a strategic partner: The role of human
resources in gaining competitive advantage", Human Resource Management, Vol. 37 No.
pp. 31-46.
Baron, R.M. and Kenny, D.A. (1986), "The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social
psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations", Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 51 No. 6, pp. 1173-1182.
Batt, R. (2002), "Managing customer service: Human resource practices, quite rates, and
sales growth", Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 45 No. pp. 587-597.
Becker, B.E., Huselid, M.A. and Ulrich, D. (2001), The HR scorecard: Linking people,
strategy, and performance, Harvard Business Press, Boston.
Bijker, W., TP, H. and Pinch, T. (2012), The social construction of technological systems:
20
 New directions in the sociology and history of technology, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Boon, O.K., Arumugam, V., Safa, M.S. and Bakar, N.A. (2007), "HRM and TQM:
association with job involvement", Personnel Review, Vol. 36 No. 6, pp. 939-962.
Boxall, P. and Macky, K. (2009), "Research and theory on highperformance work systems:
progressing the highinvolvement stream", Human Resource Management Journal, Vol.
19 No. 1, pp. 3-23.
Bradley, D.E. and Roberts, J., A. (2004), "Self-Employment and Job Satisfaction:
Investigating the Role of Self-Efficacy, Depression, and Seniority", Journal of Small
Business Management, Vol. 42 No. 1, pp. 37-58.
Brunetto, Y., Teo, S.T., Shacklock, K. and FarrWharton, R. (2012), "Emotional intelligence,
job satisfaction, wellbeing and engagement: explaining organisational commitment and
turnover intentions in policing", Human Resource Management Journal, Vol. 22 No. 4, pp.
428-441.
Bryk, A.S. and Raudenbush, S.W. (1992), Hierarchical Linear Models, Sage, Newbury Park,
CA.
Burton, G.-D., Ahlstrom, D. and Chan, E.S. (2000), "Foreign firms in China: Facing human
resources challenges in a transitional economy", SAM Advanced Management Journal,
Vol. 65 No. 4, pp. 4-11.
Cambr, B., Kippers, E., van Veldhoven, M. and De Witte, H. (2012), "Jobs and
organisations: Explaining group level differences in job satisfaction in the banking sector",
Personnel Review, Vol. 41 No. 2, pp. 200-215.
Cavanagh, J., McNeil, N. and Bartram, T. (2013), "The Australian Men's Sheds movement:
human resource management in a voluntary organisation", Asia Pacific Journal of Human
Resources, Vol. 51 No. 3, pp. 292-306.
Chang, P.-C. and Chen, S.-J. (2011), "Crossing the level of employee's performance: HPWS,
affective commitment, human capital, and employee job performance in professional
service organizations", The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol.
22 No. 04, pp. 883-901.
Cheers (2001), "The Best Employers in Taiwan", available at:
http://www.cheers.com.tw/article/article.action?id=5025692&page=2 (accessed 04 Jun,
2014).
Clinton, M. and Guest, D.E. (2013), "Testing universalistic and contingency HRM
assumptions across job levels", Personnel Review, Vol. 42 No. 5, pp. 529-551.
Combs, J., Liu, Y., Hall, A. and Ketchen, D. (2006), "How much do high-performance work
practices matter? A meta-analysis of their effects on organizational performance",
Personnel Psychology, Vol. 59 No. 3, pp. 501-528.
CommonWealth (2007), "Who Makes Employees to Love Work?", available at:
http://www.cw.com.tw/article/article.action?id=32831 (accessed 04 Jun, 2014).

21
 Compton, W.C. (2005), An Introduction to Positive Psychology, Wadsworth Publishing,
Connecticut, U.S.A.
Cooke, F.L. (2012), "The globalization of Chinese telecom corporations: Strategy, challenges
and HR implications for host countries", International Journal of Human Resource
Management, Vol. 23 No. 9, pp. 1832-1852.
Cropanzano, R. and Wright, T. (2001), "When a happy worker is really a productive
worker: A review and further refinement of the happy-productive worker thesis",
Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, Vol. 53 No. 3, pp. 182-199.
De Jonge, J. and Schaufeli, W.B. (1998), "Job characteristics and employee well-being: A
test of Warr's Vitamin Model in health care workers using structural equation modelling",
Journal of Organizational Behavior, Vol. 19 No. 4, pp. 387-407.
Delery, J.E. and Shaw, J.D. (2001), "The strategic management of people in work
organizations: Review, synthesis, and extension", Review in Personnel and Human
Resources Management, Vol. 20 No. pp. 165-197.
Diener, E. (2000), "Subjective well-being: The science of happiness and a proposal for a
national index", American Psychologist, Vol. 55 No. 1, pp. 34-43.
Diener, E., Suh, E.M., Lucas, R.E. and Smith, H.L. (1999), "Subjective well-being: Three
Personnel Review 2016.45.

decades of progress", Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 125 No. 2, pp. 276-302.

Farh, J.-L., Hackett, R.D. and Liang, J. (2007), "Individual-level cultural values as
moderators of perceived organizational supportemployee outcome relationships in China:
Comparing the effects of power distance and traditionality", Academy of Management
Journal, Vol. 50 No. 3, pp. 715-729.
Farndale, E., Hope-Hailey, V. and Kelliher, C. (2011), "High commitment performance
management: the roles of justice and trust", Personnel Review, Vol. 40 No. 1, pp. 5-23.
Fishbein, M. and Ajzen, I. (1975), Belief, attitude, intention and behavior: An introduction to
theory and research, Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., Reading, Mass.
Fisher, C. (2010), "Happiness at work", International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol.
12 No. 4, pp. 384-412.
Fisher, C.D. (2003), "Why do lay people believe that satisfaction and performance are
correlated? Possible sources of a commonsense theory", Journal of Organizational
Behavior, Vol. 24 No. 6, pp. 753-777.
Galabova, L. and McKie, L. (2013), "The five fingers of my hand: human capital and
well-being in SMEs", Personnel Review, Vol. 42 No. 6, pp. 662-683.
Galunic, D.C. and Anderson, E. (2000), "From security to mobility: Generalized investments
in human capital and agent commitment", Organization Science, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 1-20.
Gong, Y., Law, K., Chang, S. and Xin, K. (2009), "Human resources management and firm
performance: The differential role of managerial affective and continuance commitment",
Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 94 No. 1, pp. 263.

20
 Grant, A.M., Christianson, M.K. and Price, R.H. (2007), "Happiness, health, or relationships?
Managerial practices and employee well-being tradeoffs", The Academy of Management
Perspectives, Vol. 21 No. 3, pp. 51-63.
Great Place to Work Institute (2014), "Future 100 Best Companies to Work for 2014",
available at: http://www.greatplacetowork.net/ (accessed 04 Jun, 2014).
Guthrie, J.P. (2001), "High involvement work practices, turnover and productivity: Evidence
from New Zealand", Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 44 No. pp. 180-190.
Harrison, D., Newman, D. and Roth, P.L. (2006), "How important are job attitudes? Meta-
analytic comparisons of integrative behavioral outcomes and time sequence", Academy
of Management Journal, Vol. 49 No. 2, pp. 305-325.
Harrison, D.A., Newman, D.A. and Roth, P.L. (2006), "How important are job attitudes?
Meta-analytic comparisons of integrative behavioral outcomes and time sequences",
Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 49 No. 2, pp. 305-325.
Hills, P. and Argyle, M. (2002), "The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire: a compact scale for
the measurement of psychological well-being", Personality and Individual Differences,
Vol. 33 No. pp. 1073-1082.
Hobfoll, S.E. (1989), "Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress",
Personnel Review 2016.45.

American Psychologist, Vol. 34 No. pp. 513-525.

Hobfoll, S.E. (2001), "The influence of culture, community, and the nested-self in the stress
process: Advancing conservation of resources theory", Applied Psychology: An
International Review, Vol. 50 No. 3, pp. 337-421.
Hofmann, D.A. and Gavin, M.B. (1998), "Centering decisions in hierarchical linear models:
Implications for research in organizations", Journal of Management, Vol. 24 No. 5, pp.
623-641.
Jackson, S.E. and Schuler, R.S. (1995), "Understanding human resource management in the
context of organizations and their environments". in Rosenzweig, M.R. and Porter, L.W.
(Eds.), Annual Reviews for Industrial/Organizational Psychology, John Wiley & Sons,
Palo Alto, CA, pp. 237-264.
Judge, T.A., Thoresen, C.J., Bono, J.E. and Patton, G.K. (2001), "The job satisfactionjob
performance relationship: A qualitative and quantitative review", Psychological Bulletin,
Vol. 127 No. 3, pp. 376.
Kanungo, R.N. (1982), "Measurement of job and work involvement", Journal of Applied
Psychology, Vol. 67 No. 3, pp. 341-349.
Kim, S., Wright, P.M. and Su, Z. (2010), "Human resource management and firm
performance in China: A critical review", Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, Vol.
48 No. 1, pp. 58-85.
Kozlowski, S.W. and Klein, K.J. (2000), "A multilevel approach to theory and research in
organizations: Contextual, temporal, and emergent processes". in Klein, K.J. and

21
 Kozlowski, S.W.J. (Eds.), Multilevel theory, research, and methods in organizations:
Foundations, extensions, and new directions, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, US, pp.
3-90.
Kroon, B., Van de Voorde, K. and van Veldhoven, M. (2009), "Cross-level effects of high-
performance work practices on burnout: Two counteracting mediating mechanisms
compared", Personnel Review, Vol. 38 No. 5, pp. 509-525.
Lapierre, L.M. and Allen, T.D. (2006), "Work-supportive family, family-supportive
supervision, use of organizational benefits, and problem-focused coping: implications for
work-family conflict and employee well-being", Journal of occupational health
psychology, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 169.
Lepak, D.P., Liao, H., Chung, Y. and Harden, E.E. (2006), "A conceptual review of human
resource management systems in strategic human resource management research",
Research in Personnel and Human Resource Management, Vol. 25 No. pp. 217-271.
Lertxundi, A. and Landeta, J. (2011), "The moderating effect of cultural context in the
relation between HPWS and performance: an exploratory study in Spanish multinational
companies", The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 22 No. 18,
Personnel Review 2016.45.

pp. 3949-3967.
Li, Y., Ashkanasy, N.M. and Ahlstrom, D. (2014), "The rationality of emotions: A hybrid
process model of decision-making under uncertainty", Asia Pacific Journal of
Management, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 293-308.
Liao, H., Toya, K., Lepak, D.P. and Hong, Y. (2009), "Do they see eye to eye? Management
and employee perspectives of high-performance work systems and influence processes on
service quality", Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 94 No. pp. 371-391.
Liu, J., Siu, O.L. and Shi, K. (2010), "Transformational Leadership and Employee Well
Being: The Mediating Role of Trust in the Leader and SelfEfficacy", Applied Psychology,
Vol. 59 No. 3, pp. 454-479.
Liu, Y., Wang, L., Zhao, L. and Ahlstrom, D. (2013), "Board turnover in Taiwans public
firms: An empirical study", Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Vol. 30 No. 4, pp.
1059-1086.
Lodahl, T.M. and Kejner, M. (1965), "The definition and measurement of job involvement",
Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 49 No. 1, pp. 24-33.
Lu, L. (2001), "Understanding happiness: A look into the Chinese folk psychology", Journal
of Happiness Studies, Vol. 2 No. pp. 407-432.
Macky, K. and Boxall, P. (2008), "High-involvement work processes, work intensification
and employee well-being: A study of New Zealand worker experiences", Asia Pacific
Journal of Human Resources, Vol. 46 No. 1, pp. 38-55.

22
 Messersmith, J.G., Patel, P.C. and Lepak, D.P. (2011), "Unlocking the Black Box: Exploring
the Link Between High-Performance Work Systems and Performance", Journal of Applied
Psychology, Vol. 96 No. 6, pp. 1105-1118.
Meyer, J.P. and Maltin, E.R. (2010), "Employee commitment and well-being: A critical
review, theoretical framework and research agenda", Journal of Vocational Behavior, Vol.
77 No. 2, pp. 323-337.
Nasurdin, A.M., Jantan, M., Wong, W.P. and Ramayah, T. (2005), "Influence of employee
involvement in total productive maintenance practices on job characteristics", Gadjah
Mada International Journal of Business, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 287-300.
Podsakoff, P.M., Mackenzie, S.B. and Podsakoff, N.P. (2003), "Common Method Biases in
Behavioral Research: A Critical Review of the Literature and Recommended Remedies",
Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 88 No. 5, pp. 879-902.
Preacher, K.J., Zyphur, M.J. and Zhang, Z. (2010), "A general multilevel SEM framework for
assessing multilevel mediation", Psychological Methods, Vol. 15 No. pp. 209-233.
Ramlall, S.J. (2008), "Enhancing employee performance through positive organizational
behavior", Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Vol. 38 No. 6, pp. 1580-1600.
Personnel Review 2016.45.

Ramsay, H., Scholarios, D. and Harley, B. (2000), "Employees and HighPerformance Work
Systems: Testing inside the Black Box", British Journal of industrial relations, Vol. 38 No.
4, pp. 501-531.
Raudenbush, S.W. and Bryk, A.S. (2002), Hierarchical linear models: Application and data
analysis methods, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks.
Riipinen, M. (1997), "The relationship between job involvement and well-being", The
Journal of Psychology, Vol. 131 No. 1, pp. 81-89.
Rock, I. and Palmer, S. (1990), "The legacy of Gestalt psychology", Scientific American, Vol.
263 No. 6, pp. 84-90.
Ryan, R.M. and Deci, E.L. (2001), "On happiness and human potentials: A review of
research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being", Annual review of psychology, Vol. 52
No. 1, pp. 141-166.
Schaufeli, W.B., Taris, T.W. and Van Rhenen, W. (2008), "Workaholism, Burnout, and
Work Engagement: Three of a Kind or Three Different Kinds of Employee Wellbeing?",
Applied Psychology, Vol. 57 No. 2, pp. 173-203.
Schleicher, D.J., Watt, J.D. and Greguras, G.J. (2004), "Reexamining the job satisfaction-
performance relationship: the complexity of attitudes", Journal of Applied Psychology,
Vol. 89 No. 1, pp. 165.
Selden, S., Schimmoeller, L. and Thompson, R. (2013), "The influence of high performance
work systems on voluntary turnover of new hires in US state governments", Personnel
Review, Vol. 42 No. 3, pp. 300-323.

23
 Seligman, M.E.P. and Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000), "Positive psychology: An introduction",
American Psychologist, Vol. 55 No. 1, pp. 5-14.

Siu, O.l., Lu, C.q. and Spector, P.E. (2007), "Employees Wellbeing in Greater China: The

Direct and Moderating Effects of General Selfefficacy", Applied Psychology, Vol. 56 No.
2, pp. 288-301.
Spector, P.E. (1997), Job satisfaction: Application, assessment, causes, and consequences,
Sage.
Staw, B. and Wright, T.A. (1999), "Affect and favorable work outcomes: Two longitudinal
tests of the happy-productive worker thesis", Journal of Organizational Behavior, Vol. 20
No. pp. 1-23.
Subramony, M. (2009), "A metaanalytic investigation of the relationship between HRM
bundles and firm performance", Human Resource Management, Vol. 48 No. 5, pp. 745-
768.
Sun, L., Aryee, S. and Law, K. (2007), "High performance human resource practices,
citizenship behavior, and organizational performance: A relational perspective", Academy
Personnel Review 2016.45.

of Management Journal, Vol. 50 No. pp. 558-577.

Takeuchi, N. (2009), "How Japanese manufacturing firms align their human resource polices
with business strategies: Testing a contingency performance prediction in a Japanese
context", International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 34-
56.
Taris, T.W. and Schreurs, P.J.G. (2009), "Well-being and organizational performance: An
organizational-level test of the happy-productive worker hypothesis", Work & Stress, Vol.
23 No. 2, pp. 120-136.
Taylor, S.E. and Brown, J.D. (1994), "Positive illusions and well-being revisited: Separating
fact from fiction", Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 116 No. 1, pp. 21-27.
Tomaevic, N., Seljak, J. and Aristovnik, A. (2014), "Factors influencing employee
satisfaction in the police service: the case of Slovenia", Personnel Review, Vol. 43 No. 2,
pp. 209-227.
Townsend, K., Wilkinson, A. and Bartram, T. (2011), "Guest editors' note: Lifting the
standards of practice and researchHospitals and HRM", Asia Pacific Journal of Human
Resources, Vol. 49 No. 2, pp. 131-137.
Uen, J.F., Ahlstrom, D., Chen, S.Y. and Tseng, P.W. (2012), "Increasing HR's strategic
participation: The effect of HR service quality and contribution expectations", Human
Resource Management, Vol. 51 No. 1, pp. 3-23.

24
 Van De Voorde, K., Paauwe, J. and Van Veldhoven, M. (2012), "Employee Wellbeing
and the HRMOrganizational Performance Relationship: A Review of Quantitative
Studies", International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol. 14 No. 4, pp. 391-407.
Veenhoven, R. (1991), "Is happiness relative?", Social Indicators Research, Vol. 24 No. pp.
1-34.
Vo, A. and Bartram, T. (2012), "The adoption, character and impact of strategic human
resource management: a case study of two large metropolitan Vietnamese public
hospitals", The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 23 No. 18,
pp. 3758-3775.
Vroom, V. (1969), Work and Motivation, John Wiley, New York.
Waterman, A.S. (1993), "Two conceptions of happiness: Contrasts of personal
expressiveness (eudaimonia) and hedonic enjoyment", Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, Vol. 64 No. 4, pp. 678.
Way, S.A. (2002), "High performance work systems and intermediate indicators of firm
performance within the US small business sector", Journal of Management, Vol. 28 No.
Personnel Review 2016.45.

pp. 765-785.
Wei, L.-Q. and Lau, C.-M. (2010), "High performance work systems and performance: The
role of adaptive capability", Human Relations, Vol. 63 No. 10, pp. 1487-1511.
Westman, M., Hobfoll, S.E., Chen, S., Davidson, O.B. and Laski, S. (2005), "Organizational
stress through the lens of Conservation of Resources (COR) theory". in Perrewe, P.L. and
Ganster, D.C. (Eds.), Exploring interpersonal dynamics: Research in occupational stress
and well being, Emerald Group Publishing, Oxford, UK, pp. 167-220.
Wood, S., Van Veldhoven, M., Croon, M. and de Menezes, L.M. (2012), "Enriched job
design, high involvement management and organizational performance: The mediating
roles of job satisfaction and well-being", Human Relations, Vol. 65 No. 4, pp. 419-446.
Wright, P.M., Gardner, T.M., Moynihan, L.M. and Allen, M.R. (2005), "The relationship
between HR practices and firm performance: Examining causal order", Personnel
Psychology, Vol. 58 No. pp. 409-446.
Wright, P.M. and McMahan, G.C. (1992), "Theoretical perspectives for strategic human
resource management", Journal of Management, Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 295-320.
Wright, T.A. and Bonett, D.G. (2007), "Job satisfaction and psychological well-being as
nonadditive predictors of workplace turnover", Journal of Management, Vol. 33 No. pp.
141-160.
Wright, T.A. and Cropanzano, R. (2007), "Research in Personnel and Human Resources
Management", Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, Vol. 26 No. pp.
269-307.

25
 Wright, T.A. and Hobfoll, S.E. (2004), "Commitment, psychological well-being and job
performance: An examination of Conservation of Resources (COR) theory and job
burnout", Journal of Business and Management, Vol. 9 No. pp. 389-406.
Xiao, Y.C. and Cooke, F.L. (2012), "Work-life balance in China? Social policy, employer
strategy and individual coping mechanisms", Asia-Pacific Journal of Human Resources,
Vol. 50 No. 1, pp. 6-12.
Zelenski, J.M., Murphy, S.A. and Jenkins, D.A. (2008), "The happy-productive worker thesis
revisited", Journal of Happiness Studies, Vol. 9 No. pp. 521-537.
Personnel Review 2016.45.

26
 Table 1. Descriptive Statistics and Correlations for Study Variables

Mean s.d. 1 2 3 4 5

Organization-level (n=50)

1.Company size 6.88 1.60 .06

2. HPWS 4.42 .58 (.76)

Individual-level (n=451)

3.Year of service 7.65 6.76

4. Employee well-being 4.06 .57 .07 (.91)

** **
5. Job involvement 3.89 .73 .17 .19 (.81)
**
p<0.01; Coefcient alphas are on diagonal.
Personnel Review 2016.45.

Table 2. Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analyses of Employee well-being and Job Involvement

Job involvement

Model 1 Model 2
*** **
Year of service .17 .16

Employee well-being .18***

*** ***
F 13.04 14.61

F 1.57
2
R .03 .06
2
R .03
** ***
p<0.01, p<0.001

27
 Table 3. Results of Cross-Level Analysis of Effects of HPWS on Employee Well-Being and Job Involvement

Variables Employee well-being Job involvement

Model 1 Model 2 Model 3

Organizational level
*** *** ***
Intercept 00 4.06 3.89 3.89

Company size 01 .005 .05 .05

* *
HPWS 01 .12 .13 .10

Individual level
*** **
Year of service 10 .004 .02 .02
**
Employee well-being 20 .22
Personnel Review 2016.45.

2 .30 .49 .47

00 .02 .02 .02

*
p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001

Organizational
level HPWS

Employee Job
Individual level
well-being involvement

Figure 1. Hypothesized Conceptual Framework

28