Effects of job stability-fostering high-performance work practices on employee subjective well-being

Abstract. The main objective of this thesis is to study the impact of high-performance work (HPWPs) on the attitudes and behaviour of private sector wage earners in Spain, paying special attention to job security as one of the central dimensions of employment quality. This research analyses the direct effect of such practices in both employee perception of job stability and voluntary turnover intentions. Further, this study assessed the underlying processes and mechanisms responsible for the effects on worker well-being of HPWPs. Thus, the design of the conceptual and analytical framework is based on the interconnections between the literatures on HPWPs, job quality and social exchange. After identifying seven broad areas of HRM policies that have great importance in the literature on HPWPs (Kochan and Osterman, 1994; Pfeffer, 1998; Jiang et al., 2012; Posthuma et al., 2013; Guest, 2013), a first descriptive study is performed to evaluate the coverage in terms of employees of a wide variety of individual HPWPs. Results show that teamwork, job security provision and person-job skills match are widely spread, whilst telework, performance-based pay, social benefits and share in profits are very scarce. Second, the degree of average satisfaction with various job characteristics is estimated. Evidence shows that satisfaction is medium-high with the work itself, job stability and personal development, as well as with respect to overall job satisfaction, while it is low with social benefits and medium with training and remuneration. The provision of job security - measured via the variable open-ended contract - is the individual HR practice that has the greatest (positive) effect on perceived job stability and (negative) on turnover intentions. Another set of variables that have direct, albeit smaller, positive effects on job stability are identified: training during working hours, skills utilisation, social benefits, task variety, organisational objectives knowledge, high pay, voice and useful training. This implies that there are a number of individual practices that, although they do not directly seek to promote job security and to address staff turnover, have these effects on workers. The theoretical weakness of the HPWPs paradigm (Ramsay et al., 2000; Boxall et al., 2011) is addressed from a sociological perspective, based on Blau (1964)’s Social Interchange Theory. In this respect, this theoretical framework is used to explore the underlying processes and mechanisms through which work management practices may shape worker attitudes and behaviour. Thus, it is proposed to study the moderating role that social exchange in the workplace has in the relationship between job satisfaction and those HPWPs that contribute to job stability. The results show that 60% of employees report social exchange in the workplace to be low quality, while only 20% state it to be of high quality. Empirical findings support the role of social exchange as a facilitator of the positive relationship between HPWPs and overall job satisfaction. Thus, it is concluded that the quality of social exchange is very relevant in the positive effects of HPWPs on employee attitudes and the behaviour (Dirks and Ferrin, 2001; Innocenti et al., 2011; Alfes et al., 2012 and 2013; Guest, 2017). As a global conclusion of this research, findings suggest that the potential of HPWPs to improve worker well-being in the private sector in Spain is not fully taken advantage of. Firstly, as a result of the low coverage in terms of workers of the majority of HPWPs that were found to positively contribute to job stability. And second, because the majority of workers have low trust in their superiors and perceive the relationships between superiors and subordinates in the workplace as bad, thus inhibiting the positive moderating effect that social exchange exerts on the relationship between HPWPs and employee subjective well-being of the workers.

Author dc:creator

• Cueto Pruneda, Gabriel

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• González Menéndez, María del Carmen
• Cueto Iglesias, María Begoña

• Economía y sociología de la globalización
• Gestión de recursos humanos
• Relaciones trabajadores-directivos
• Calidad de vida

Statement dc:rights

• CC Reconocimiento - No comercial - Sin obras derivadas 4.0 Internacional

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10651/45040

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digibuo.uniovi.es:10651/45040