Development or maintenance? Dual‐oriented human resource system, employee achievement motivation, and work well‐being

• Published date: 01 July 2020
• Author: Xiufeng Li,Long W. Lam,Congcong Lin
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21997
• Date: 01 July 2020

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Development or maintenance? Dual-oriented human resource

system, employee achievement motivation, and work well-

being

Congcong Lin

1

| Xiufeng Li

2

| Long W. Lam

3

1

School of Business, Renmin University of

China, Beijing, China

2

School of Business, Shandong Normal

University, Jinan, China

3

Faculty of Business Administration, University

of Macau, Taipa, Macau

Correspondence

Xiufeng Li, School of Business, Shandong

Normal University, Jinan 250014, China.

Email: lixiufeng168@163.com

Funding information

Shandong Social Science Foundation of China,

Grant/Award Number: Project No: 16CGLJ29;

Supported by the Outstanding Innovative

Talents Cultivation Funded Programs 2017 of

Renmin University of China

Abstract

Drawing on the person–organization fit theory, this study elaborates a dual-oriented

human resource (HR) system and explores when and how two HR bundles (develop-

ment vs. maintenance) influence work well-being. The results of the confirmatory

factor analysis with a sample of 1,946 supervisors from a Chinese high-tech firm

show that the dual-oriented HR model fits the data better than a holistic HR system.

In another study with a multilevel sample of 64 corporate branches and

434 employees, the findings confirm the proposed joint effect of the dual-oriented

HR system and achievement motivation on well-being. Specifically, development-

oriented HR practices are more positively related to work well-being only when

individual achievement motivation is high; by contrast, maintenance-oriented HR

practices are more positively related to work well-being only when individual

achievement motivation is low. Work meaning mediates these effects. These findings

provide guidance on the effective design of HR practices.

KEYWORDS

dual-oriented HR system, employee achievement motivation, work meaning, work well-being

1|INTRODUCTION

As a critical global trend in human resource management (HRM), many

organizations across the world have begun facing an increasing

diverse workforce in terms of age, gender, and ethnicity. In turn,

human resource (HR) managers are confronting employees with dis-

tinct needs, motivations, and preferences (Gubler, Arnold, & Coombs,

2014) and, with that, are expected to make differential HR decisions

to meet this challenge. In keeping with this challenge, recent advances

in HRM have shifted the focus from an organization to an employee

perspective (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004), especially in terms of meeting

employees' needs (Bal & Dorenbosch, 2015; Kinnie, Hutchinson, Pur-

cell, Rayton, & Swart, 2005) in order to enhance “the relative effec-

tiveness of an organization's HR practices”(Schmidt, Pohler, &

Willness, 2018, p. 66). In addition to demographic characteristics, dif-

ferences in values, goals, and motivations have further prompted

employees to seek and filter different organizational information

(Liao, Toya, Lepak, & Hong, 2009; Nishii & Wright, 2008), leading to

distinctive perceptions of HR practices (Aryee, Walumbwa, Seidu, &

Otaye, 2012; Bowen & Ostroff, 2004; Den Hartog, Boon, Verburg, &

Croon, 2013; Jiang, Hu, Liu, & Lepak, 2017; Kehoe & Wright, 2013).

Thus, if organizations want to improve the effectiveness of HR prac-

tices by resonating with employees who are increasingly diverse, a

one-size-fits-all approach to HR practices may be of little value

(Kinnie et al., 2005; Lepak & Snell, 1999).

Despite the importance of understanding how organizations can

design and implement HR practices to better fit the needs of a diverse

workforce, the literature has two notable gaps. First, the majority of

empirical studies have focused on the universalistic effects of so-

called best or standardized HR practices (e.g., Appelbaum, Bailey,

Congcong Lin and Xiufeng Li contributed equally to this study.

DOI: 10.1002/hrm.21997

Hum Resour Manage. 2020;59:311–325. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrm © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 311