Differentiating HR systems' impact: moderating effects of age on the HR system–work outcome association

• Author: Torsten Biemann,Jörg Korff,Sven C. Voelpel
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/job.2130
• Published date: 01 March 2017
• Date: 01 March 2017

Differentiating HR systems’impact: moderating

effects of age on the HR system–work outcome

association

JÖRG KORFF

1

*, TORSTEN BIEMANN

1

AND SVEN C. VOELPEL

2

1

Business School, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany

2

Department of Business and Economics, Jacobs University Bremen, Bremen, Germany

Summary Combining the macro perspective of strategic human resource (HR) management with applied psychology’s

micro approaches, this paper helps to differentiate the effects of HR practices on individual-level outcomes by

introducing two distinct HR practice bundles. We draw on social exchange theory to hypothesize (i) main

effects of both growth-enhancing and maintenance-enhancing bundles on affective organizational commit-

ment and in-role behavior and (ii) moderating effects of age and maintenance-enhancing practices on work

outcomes, such that increasing employee age attenuates the positive impact of HR practices. The results of

a multilevel study comprising 600 employees and their direct supervisors in 64 business units provide support

for the hypothesized main effects on affective commitment and the interaction between age and maintenance-

enhancing practices on work outcomes. We discuss the results, theoretical contributions, and practical impli-

cations of the study, as well as future research directions. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: bundles of HR practices; lifespan development; strategic human resource management; affective

organizational commitment; in-role behavior

Over the past two decades, the relevance of organizations’human resource management (HRM) systems for firm

effectiveness has increasingly been acknowledged by researchers and practitioners. During this period, a large body

of research has accumulated, substantiating the association between HR systems—often referred to as high-

performance work systems (Appelbaum, Bailey, Berg, & Kalleberg, 2000)—and organizations’operational and fi-

nancial performance (e.g., Huselid, 1995; Ichniowski, Shaw, & Prennushi, 1997; Sun, Aryee, & Law, 2007; Wright,

Gardner, Moynihan, & Allen, 2005). Assessing the conditions of this relationship, research has revealed that HR

systems’impact on firm performance is contingent on the lineup of HR practices, which are frequently characterized

as high-performance work practices (Combs, Liu, Hall, & Ketchen, 2006). Their effectiveness is promoted by both

their internal matching (Subramony, 2009)—that is, their coherence and their alignment on specific objectives—and

their external compatibility with the organization’s strategy (Kaufman & Miller, 2011; Youndt, Snell, Dean, &

Lepak, 1996) and contextual factors, such as industry (Datta, Guthrie, & Wright, 2005), organizational values,

and structures (Toh, Morgeson, & Campion, 2008).

More recently, research has begun to investigate the processes that account for the transformation of HR systems’

effects into, eventually, firm performance. In particular, HR systems have conceptually been viewed as positively

influencing organizational performance outcomes by enhancing organizations’climate (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004)

or internal social structures (Evans & Davis, 2005); moreover, empirical findings strongly support the notion that

individual-level processes, such as employees’affective organizational commitment (Gong, Law, Chang, & Xin,

2009; Messersmith, Patel, & Lepak, 2011; Nishii, Lepak, & Schneider, 2008), motivation (Jiang, Lepak, Hu, &

Baer, 2012), and behaviors (Messersmith et al., 2011; Nishii et al., 2008; Sun et al., 2007), mediate between HR

systems and firm performance.

*Correspondence to: Jörg Korff, Business School, University of Mannheim, Schloss O 229, 68161 Mannheim, Germany. E-mail: joerg.

korff@bwl.uni-mannheim.de

Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Received 25 February 2015

Revised 31 July 2016, Accepted 02 August 2016

Journal of Organizational Behavior, J. Organiz. Behav. 38, 415–438 (2017)

Published online 31 August 2016 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/job.2130

Research Article

Although these findings allow for more accurate modeling of the processes between HR systems and organiza-

tional performance, current research has, with few exceptions (e.g., Kooij, Jansen, Dikkers, & De Lange, 2009;

Nishii et al., 2008; Sanders & Yang, 2015), been limited to the assumption that workforces typically respond uni-

formly and invariably to the implemented HR practices (Nishii & Wright, 2008). However, it has been clearly dem-

onstrated that the individual-level processes that mediate between HR systems and performance, such as workers’

affective organizational commitment, intrinsic work motivation, core task behaviors, and organizational citizenship

behaviors, are subject to age-related changes (Ng & Feldman, 2008, 2010). In fact, developmental dynamics that are

associated with calendar age impinge on basic human properties, such as motivation, personality, and values and

goals (e.g., Baltes, Staudinger, & Lindenberger, 1999; Carstensen, Isaacowitz, & Charles, 1999; Heckhausen,

Wrosch, & Schulz, 2010), which are considered to have powerful effects on employees’motivation and behaviors

(Grant & Wade-Benzoni, 2009; Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004). Current changes of labor market conditions in devel-

oped countries provide organizations with larger average proportions of older employees, as well as growing work-

force diversity (e.g., Kyogoku, 2008; OECD, 2006; Toossi, 2009; Vaupel & Loichinger, 2006). Hence, it is

increasingly important to improve our understanding of how HR systems can be appropriately managed in consid-

eration of the emerging changes in organizations’contexts (cf. Lepak & Shaw, 2008) and the crucial role of workers’

perceptions of HR practices (Kehoe & Wright, 2013; Nishii et al., 2008), the combination of which results in chal-

lenges to the architectural alignment of HR systems (Posthuma, Campion, Masimova, & Campion, 2013). On the

one hand, with respect to the external alignment of HR practices, research in strategic HRM (SHRM) has largely

neglected to examine organizations’options regarding how to configure HR systems that are directed to master

looming limitations of maturing labor markets, such as workers’decreasing performance, declining ability to learn,

and growing resistance to change (Posthuma & Campion, 2009). On the other hand, with respect to the internal

alignment of HR practices, research has been meager in terms of empirically investigating combinations of HR prac-

tices that can successfully ensure enhanced performance (Posthuma et al., 2013).

In this paper, we address these issues as we direct our research efforts to develop rationales for age-differentiated

HR systems that align HR practices regarding both external and internal challenges. For this purpose, we respond to

previous calls in the literature by combining micro and macro approaches of management research (Molloy,

Ployhart, & Wright, 2011; Wright & Boswell, 2002). First, we draw on lifespan development literature to concep-

tually develop two distinct bundles of HR practices that build on employees’perceptions rather than employers’per-

spectives: growth-enhancing and maintenance-enhancing practices. Subsequently, we hypothesize and empirically

examine these bundles’relationships with attitudinal and behavioral work outcomes. Specifically, we assert that

both bundles of growth-enhancing and maintenance-enhancing HR practices relate to affective organizational

Figure 1. Hypothesized research model

416 J. KORFF ET AL.

Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Organiz. Behav. 38, 415–438 (2017)

DOI: 10.1002/job