title: Unlocking the black box: exploring the link between high-performance work systems and performance.
abstract: With a growing body of literature linking systems of high-performance work practices to organizational performance outcomes, recent research has pushed for examinations of the underlying mechanisms that enable this connection. In this study, based on a large sample of Welsh public-sector employees, we explored the role of several individual-level attitudinal factors--job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and psychological empowerment--as well as organizational citizenship behaviors that have the potential to provide insights into how human resource systems influence the performance of organizational units. The results support a unit-level path model, such that department-level, high-performance work system utilization is associated with enhanced levels of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and psychological empowerment. In turn, these attitudinal variables were found to be positively linked to enhanced organizational citizenship behaviors, which are further related to a second-order construct measuring departmental performance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Management, University of Nebraska at Kearney, Kearney, NE 68849, USA. messersmitjg@unk.edu
authors.forename: Jake G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Messersmith
authors.forename: Pankaj C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: David P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Lepak
authors.forename: Julian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gould-Williams
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D004651:Employment / Q000523:psychology*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D015279:Organizational Culture; D010558:Personnel Loyalty; D011209:Power, Psychological; D012919:Social Behavior; D014852:Wales; D014937:Work / Q000523:psychology