Connecting empowerment‐focused HRM and labour productivity to work engagement: the mediating role of job demands and resources

• Author: Marc Van Veldhoven,Monique Veld,Karina Van De Voorde
• Date: 01 April 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12099
• Published date: 01 April 2016

Connecting empowerment-focused HRM and

labour productivity to work engagement: the

mediating role of job demands and resources

Karina Van De Voorde and Marc Van Veldhoven, Tilburg University

Monique Veld, OpenUniversity in the Netherlands

Human Resource Management Journal, Vol 26,no 2, 2016, pages 192–210

Integrating the strategic HRM literature with key aspects of the job demands-resources (JDR) model, we

propose in this study that empowerment-focused HRM and labour productivity influence work engagement

of employees by shaping task-relatedresources and demands. A total of 311 employees nested within46 work

unitsof a general hospital ratedtheir task-relatedresources, demands andwork engagement. Theline managers

from these work units rated the implemented empowerment-focused HR practices in, and the relative labour

productivity of, their work unit. Results indicate that job variety positively mediates the influence of

empowerment-focused HRM on work engagement. In addition,job demands negatively mediate theinfluence

of labour productivity on work engagement. The findings shed light onthe way empowerment-focusedHRM

and labour productivity influencework engagement and highlight theimportance of taking into accountkey

aspects of the JDR model (job demands andresources for employees during work) as mediating mechanisms.

Contact: Dr Karina Van De Voorde, Department of Human Resource Studies, Tilburg University,

Warandelaan 2,5037 AB, Tilburg, The Netherlands. Email: f.c.v.d.voorde@tilburguniversity.edu

Keywords: HRM; job demands-resources (JDR) model; work engagement; multi-level analysis;

multi-actor data

INTRODUCTION

Over the last two decades, a substantial body of research has shown that the use of

HRM is associated with employee outcomes (e.g. Jiang et al., 2012; Van De Voorde

et al., 2012). Most research, however, investigates the influence of HRM on work

attitudes (such as commitment and satisfaction) and ignores the consequences of HRM on

employee health (VanDe Voorde et al., 2012). This dearth of studies raises difficulties because

employee healthappears to be most inconsistently affected by HRM comparedwith employee

attitudes (VanDe Voorde et al., 2012). To address thisresearch need, the current studyexplores

the impact of empowerment-focused HRM (development opportunities, workplace

participation, enriched job design, information sharing and work-time control opportunities)

on an active aspect of employee health, namely, work engagement. Work engagementreflects

a positive, fulfilling, motivational state of work-related well-being (Schaufeli et al., 2002).

Engaged employees have high levelsof energy and are enthusiasticabout their work (Schaufeli

et al., 2002) and, in turn, perform better and have a better health (Halbesleben, 2010;Christian

et al., 2011). Additionally, employee engagement is increasingly regarded as a key priority by

managers, as it is claimedto be crucial for organisational success (MacLeod and Clarke, 2009).

To understand the psychological and motivational mechanisms through which HRM (and

other contextual factors) influence employee health, several researchers emphasise the

importance of integrating key aspects of the demand-control model (DC) (Karasek, 1979)

and, more broadly, the job demands-resources (JDR) model (Demerouti et al., 2001) into

HRM literature (Parker et al., 2001; Van Veldhoven, 2012; Van De Voorde and Boxall, 2014;

Please citethis article in press as: Van De Voorde, K., Veld, M. andVan Veldhoven, M. (2016) ‘Connecting empowerment-focused HRM and labour

productivityto work engagement:the mediatingrole of job demands and resources’.Human ResourceManagementJournal 26: 2, 192–21 0

192 HUMAN RESOURCEMANAGEMENT JOURNAL, VOL26, NO 2, 2016

©2016 John Wiley& Sons Ltd.

doi: 10.1111/1748-8583.12099

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Albrechtet a l.,2015). The central idea here isthat HRM is expected to influence employees’level

of task-relatedjob resources (better job autonomy, job variety and development opportunities)

(Boxall and Macky, 2009; Snape and Redman, 2010), thereby facilitating work engagement. In

contrast withthis positive line of argument, severalresearchers have proposedthat at the same

time there is a risk that HRM results in increased job demands, as employees have to work

harder and are under greater pressure at work (Kroon et al., 2009; Wood et al., 2012; Jensen

et al., 2013),and this might reduce their workengagement. Extending thislatter, more negative,

line of reasoning, labour productivity in an organisational unit could also be associated with

higher job demands, thereby reducing work engagement.

The current study examines the impact of empowerment-focused HRM and labour

productivity on employee engagement via employee perceptions of job resources and

demands in the context of a general hospital. Even though job demands and resources have

been suggested as important psychological and motivational mechanisms through which HR

practices (and other contextual factors, like the level of productivity) are related to employee

attitudes (e.g. Van Veldhoven, 2012; Van De Voorde and Boxall, 2014; Albrecht et al., 2015),

the relationship between HRM and work engagement –to our knowledge –has not yet been

explored empirically in the context of the JDR model. Following the JDR model, we explicitly

examine two differential processes: (a) following a positive perspective, we explore how

empowerment-focused HRM may positively affect work engagement via increased job

resources, and (b) following a more critical perspective, we explore how empowerment-

focused HRM and labour productivity may negatively affect work engagement via increased

job demands. Most studies on HRM have hitherto investigated the first perspective, while

the latter perspective and the integration of both perspectives have received only limited

attention more recently (Wood et al., 2012; Peccei et al., 2013).

The relationship between empowerment-focused HRM,labour productivity and task-related

job resources anddemands

To gain a better insight into how HRM affects employee attitudes, a number of HRM process

models havebeen proposed (e.g. Boxall and Purcell,2008; Nishii and Wright,2008). In line with

these models, the current study explores how empowerment-focused HRM implemented by

line managers influences employee perceptions of their working environment, focusing in

particular on employees’experiences of demands and resources that relate to their job tasks.

Such task-relatedfactors have been shown to be important determinantsof work engagement

in employees (Crawford et al., 2010; Halbesleben, 2010; Christian et al., 2011), slightly

outweighing social-organisational antecedents. The HR activities in the current study reflect

a group of interconnected HR policies, which involve and empower employees (Seibert et al.,

2011; Aryee et al., 2012), as we do expect that such HR practices have the capacity to make

the work environment more resourceful;however, at thesame time, they also havethe capacity

to make work more challenging and intense (increasing demands). While there is still no

consensus on the specific HR policies that should be included in measures of empowerment-

focused HRM, the following HR policies were consistently represented in empirical studies

in which HRM has been linked with (psychological) empowerment: information sharing,

training, participation, decentralisation, job design and contingent compensation (Liao et al.,

2009; Messersmithet al., 2011; Seibert et al., 2011;Aryee et al., 2012). The empowerment-focused

HR practices in the current study reflect the HR activities, which are consistently identified in

these studies except contingent compensation. Contingent compensation is not included, as

there is little inter-organisational and intra-organisational variation in these practices in

Karina VanDe Voorde, Monique Veld and Marc Van Veldhoven

HUMAN RESOURCEMANAGEMENT JOURNAL, VOL26, NO 2, 2016 193

©2016 John Wiley& Sons Ltd.