Job engagement, perceived organizational support, high‐performance human resource practices, and cultural value orientations: A cross‐level investigation

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/job.2076
• Published date: 01 August 2016
• Date: 01 August 2016
• Author: Lifeng Zhong,Sandy J. Wayne,Robert C. Liden

Job engagement, perceived organizational support,

high-performance human resource practices, and

cultural value orientations: A cross-level

investigation

LIFENG ZHONG

1

*, SANDY J. WAYNE

2

AND ROBERT C. LIDEN

2

1

School of Business, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China

2

College of Business Administration, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

Summary Drawing on social exchange theory, we developed and tested a cross-level model of organizational-level pre-

dictors of job engagement. Specifically, we examined the impact of high-performance human resource (HR)

practices on employee engagement and work outcomes. Based on a sample of 605 employees, their immedi-

ate supervisors, and HR managers from 130 companies, our results indicated that high-performance HR prac-

tices were directly related to job engagement as well as indirectly related through employees’perceived

organizational support. In turn, job engagement was positively related to in-role performance and negatively

related to intent to quit. Culture was found to act as a critical contextual factor, as our results also revealed that

the relationship between HR practices and perceived organizational support was stronger when collectivism

was high and when power distance orientation was low. Overall, the findings shed new light on the processes

and conditions through which employee work-related outcomes are enhanced owing to high-performance HR

practices. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: job engagement; perceived organizational support; high-performance human resource practices;

collectivism; power distance orientation

Organizational researchers have recently shown considerable interest in understanding employee job engagement

(Albrecht, 2010; Gruman & Saks, 2011; Schaufeli, 2012). According to Kahn (1990), job engagement is fundamen-

tally a motivational concept that represents employees’active harnessing of their personal resources toward tasks at

work. Studies indicate that engaged employees are more committed, motivated, and empowered to perform in-role

and extra-role behaviors (Christian, Garza, & Slaughter, 2011; Rich, LePine, & Crawford, 2010) and are “less often

absent, and they do not intend to leave the organization”(Schaufeli, 2012, p. 5). Therefore, both scholars and prac-

titioners suggest that organizations can leverage employees’job engagement and create a competitive advantage

(Macey & Schneider, 2008).

However, although extant research has generally demonstrated that job engagement is related to employee work

outcomes, the organizational and individual antecedent factors that influence employee job engagement are still

largely unknown (Crawford, LePine, & Rich, 2010; Saks, 2006). In particular, less theoretical explanation and

empirical work have been devoted to examining organization-level antecedents of employee job engagement, such

as high-performance human resource (HR) practices (Rich et al., 2010; Saks, 2006).

To address this issue, we build on Kahn’s (1990) ethnographic research by investigating the process through

which employee job engagement is influenced by high-performance HR practices and, in turn, related to employee

work outcomes. Our objective was to examine whether employees’job engagement and relevant work outcomes are

impacted by high-performance HR practices from a cross-level perspective. More specifically, we test whether

*Correspondence to: Lifeng Zhong, School of Business, Renmin University of China, No. 59, Zhongguancun Avenue, Haidian District, Beijing,

100872, China. E-mail: zhonglf@ruc.edu.cn

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Received 8 November 2014

Revised 30 October 2015, Accepted 19 November 2015

Journal of Organizational Behavior, J. Organiz. Behav. 37, 823–844 (2016)

Published online 16 December 2015 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/job.2076

Research Article

employees’job engagement is influenced by high-performance HR practices through its impact on perceived orga-

nizational support (POS), and in turn, the effects of job engagement on in-role performance, organizational citizen-

ship behavior (OCB), and intent to quit. In addition, recognizing that HR practices signal implicit values that must be

aligned with values held by individuals (Robert, Probst, Martocchio, Drasgow, & Lawler, 2000), we explore cultural

value orientations, including collectivism and power distance orientation, as moderators of the effects of high-

performance HR practices on POS. The conceptual model tested in the current research is summarized in Figure 1.

We make three important contributions to the job engagement literature by using multilevel modeling to investi-

gate the organizational antecedents of job engagement and its consequences. First, our research extends

previous studies on the antecedents of job engagement (Rich et al., 2010) by examining how an individual-level

factor (e.g., POS) and organization-level factor (e.g., high-performance HR practices) combine to impact job

engagement, addressing the call “to examine other potential influences from the work group and wider organization,

and to further explore the mediating processes involved”(Tuckey, Bakker, & Dollard, 2012, p. 25). Second, this

research is unique by exploring the cross-level indirect effect of high-performance HR practices on job engagement,

advancing our understanding regarding the underlying mechanism that transmits the predictive effects of organiza-

tional factors in the form of HR practices to job engagement. Third, we consider boundary conditions for the rela-

tionship between high-performance HR practices and POS, addressing the call for more research that explores the

moderating factors that play a role in developing POS (Eisenberger & Stinglhamber, 2011). In sum, this study goes

beyond prior research that has focused on individual-level predictors to examine organizational-level antecedents of

job engagement, as well as when and why this linkage occurs.

Theoretical Development and Hypotheses

Perceived organizational support and job engagement

Job engagement was originally defined by Kahn (1990) as the “harnessing of organization members’selves to their

work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during

role performances”(p. 694). Later, Schaufeli, Salanova, González-Romá, and Bakker (2002) defined job engage-

ment as “a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption”

(p. 74). Christian et al. (2011) argued that although operational definitions of “engagement”are often inconsistent

across studies, a common conceptualization of work engagement is that it connotes “high levels of personal invest-

ment in the work tasks performed on a job”(p. 89). Thus, in the current study, we follow Rich et al. (2010) and

define job engagement as

High-performance human

resource practices Organization-level

Job

engagement

In-role performance

OCB

Intent to quit

Individual-level

Perceived

organizational support

Collectivism

Power

distance

Figure 1. Multilevel model of job engagement, perceived organizational support, high-performance human resource practices,

and employee work-related outcomes

824 L. ZHONG ET AL.

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Organiz. Behav. 37, 823–844 (2016)

DOI: 10.1002/job