Linking people management and extra‐role behaviour: results of a longitudinal study

• Published date: 01 January 2014
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12023
• Date: 01 January 2014
• Author: Peter Leisink,Eva Knies

Linking people management and extra-role

behaviour: results of a longitudinal study

Eva Knies and Peter Leisink, Utrecht University

Human Resource Management Journal, Vol 24, no 1, 2014, pages 57–76

This article examines the validity of the assumption that employees’ perceptions of those people

management activities of their supervisor that impact on employees’ abilities, motivation and

opportunities to perform influence employee extra-role behaviour. The results of a longitudinal survey

with data from 3,368 employees provide support for this assumption. This study’s distinctive features

– the concept of people management that involves the management of HR implementation, the

longitudinal research design, and the use of the AMO framework for specifying the linkages between

HRM and performance – make it possible to address the core questions in the HRM-performance debate

that still remain unanswered according to Guest.

Contact: Dr Eva Knies, Utrecht University, Bijlhouwerstraat 6, 3511 ZC Utrecht, the

Netherlands. Email: e.knies@uu.nl

INTRODUCTION

Over the past two decades, the linkage between HRM and performance has received

much attention in HRM research. Research evidence indicates that HRM is, at least

weakly, related to firm performance (Combs etal., 2006). Recently, Guest (2011)

concluded that, although significant progress has been made in the study of HRM and

performance, some core questions still remain unanswered. According to Guest (p. 3), ‘this is

largely attributed to the limited amount of research that is longitudinal and has been able to

address the linkages between HRM and performance and to study the management of HR

implementation’. This article addresses these issues by examining the effect of line managers’

people management activities on employees’ attributes and behaviour using longitudinal data.

We thereby contribute to the current debate about the relationship between HRM and

performance in three ways.

First, our study does not concentrate on the relationship between HRM and performance as

such, but focuses on the linking mechanisms: the mediating variables in the so-called black box

(Guest, 2011). In theoretical models of the HRM-performance chain, it is assumed that

employees’ perceptions of HRM will impact on their attitudes and behaviours, and ultimately

on firm performance (Wright and Nishii, 2013; Purcell and Kinnie, 2007). The AMO model is

considered a useful framework for specifying these mediating variables (Boselie et al., 2005).

This model suggests that HR practices can be analytically bundled into those that impact on

employees’ abilities (A), on their motivation (M) and on their opportunities to perform (O); all

of which will affect employees’ behaviour (e.g. Appelbaum et al., 2001). However, not only is

there very little research examining this assumption, the exact relationship between the three

AMO variables is also unknown (Boxall and Purcell, 2011: 6). Therefore, this article will

examine the validity of the AMO model, paying specific attention to the interrelationship

between employees’ ability, motivation and opportunities to perform.

Second, following Purcell and Hutchinson (2007), we acknowledge that line managers

play a crucial role in shaping employees’ perceptions of HRM by applying the concept of

people management. This concept suggests that, in addition to employees’ perceptions of

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doi: 10.1111/1748-8583.12023

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, VOL 24 NO 1, 2014 57

© 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Please cite this article in press as: Knies, E. and Leisink, P. (2014) ‘Linking people management and extra-role behaviour: results of a longitudinal

study’. Human Resource Management Journal 24: 1, 57–76.

organisational HR policies (Nishii et al., 2008), it is their supervisors’ implementation of these

policies and their leadership activities that shape employees’ perceptions. This article

empirically investigates whether perceived line managers’ people management activities

impact on employees’ attributes and behaviour.

Third, the longitudinal research design enables us to make a methodological contribution.

Several authors, including Gerhart (2007) and Wall and Wood (2005), have criticised previous

studies relying on cross-sectional data, which can determine only correlations but not causal

relationships. In responding to this, the data assessed in this article come from a two-wave

longitudinal study of 3,368 employees in a financial service provider in the Netherlands.

This article will address the following question: to what extent is the relationship between

employees’ perceptions of their supervisors’ people management activities and their own

extra-role behaviour mediated by their abilities, motivation and opportunity to perform?

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

In this section, we will first introduce recent theoretical models of the HRM-performance chain

and highlight those parts of the chain that we will study. Subsequently, we will elaborate on

the main concepts of our study: people management, extra-role behaviour and the AMO

variables, and then introduce our hypotheses.

Theoretical models of the HRM-performance chain

Boselie et al. (2005) and Guest (2011) concluded that only few studies had tried to open the ‘black

box’ linking HRM and performance. To guide future research on mechanisms inside the black

box, Purcell and colleagues (Purcell and Hutchinson, 2007; Purcell and Kinnie, 2007) proposed

an ‘HRM-performance causal chain’ (see also Wright and Nishii, 2013). Their aim is to provide

a conceptual framework for explaining differences in unit-level performance outcomes. This

starts from intended HR practices, through actual practices, to employees’ perceptions of these

HR practices that affect their attitudes and behaviour, and ultimately performance.According to

the model, employees’ perceptions of the HR practices implemented by line managers result in

attitudinal and behavioural outcomes, and hence have a unit-level effect. In this article, we will

focus on one part of the HRM-performance chain: the mediated relationship between perceived

HR practices and employee behaviour. We made two modifications to the model presented

above. First, the independent variable in our study is an employee’s perception of people

management activities (and not HR practices as such). Second, rather than focus on employees’

attitudes as mediators, we use the AMO framework to categorise the mediating variables. These

adjustments will be elaborated in the following sections.

People management

The crucial role of line managers in the implementation of HR policies is a prominent feature

of HRM-performance models (Wright and Nishii, 2013). This role is one element of the people

management concept. Purcell and Hutchinson (2007) considered leadership behaviour to be the

other important element. They suggest the term people management activities to cover both

aspects, and imply that these form a ‘symbiotic relationship’ (p. 3): line managers need

well-designed HR practices to support their employees’ well-being, performance and career. At

the same time, employees’ perception of HR practices is dependent on the behaviour of line

managers. This twofold role of line managers is also acknowledged in the literature on

organisational climate. Bowen and Ostroff (2004: 216) have stated that ‘a strong HRM system

coupled with a visible supervisor may foster stronger relationships among HRM, climate,

Linking people management and extra-role behaviour

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© 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.