Elise Marescaux

HRM Practices and Work Outcomes: The Role of Basic Need Satisfaction

Integrating soft HRM and self-determination theory, we propose a model in which the presence of five HRM practices and the degree to which an employees’ talents, interests, and expectations are taken into account within these practices influence work outcomes through basic need satisfaction. Data gathered from 5749 Belgian employees showed that different HRM practices satisfy the three basic needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence and that the degree to which the individual is taken into account generally has an additional positive effect. Moreover, basic need satisfaction positively influences affective organizational commitment and work engagement, and subsequently lowers turnover intention. These findings indicate that (1) basic need satisfaction is an important, but neglected, mediating variable in the HRM-performance relationship and that (2) bearing in mind individual talents, interests, and expectations of employees within HRM practices may matter equally or more than their mere presence.

HR practices and affective organisational commitment: (when) does HR differentiation pay off?

We argue that differentiating HR practices across employees leads employees to compare their situation with colleagues to assess the favourability of HR practice outcomes (e.g. money). These perceptions can be negative (i.e. feeling set back), neutral (i.e. feeling treated the same) or positive (i.e. feeling advantaged). Data from 13,639 Belgian employees showed that perceived favourability of HR practice outcomes is positively associated with affective organisational commitment, but the relationship is attenuated at positive levels. Thus, differentiation may be a double-edged sword as the losses among employees feeling set back may temper, neutralise or even outweigh the benefits among those feeling advantaged. The relationships found were especially salient for work practices (e.g. autonomy) compared with economic practices (e.g. bonuses). Developmental practices were found to be least suited for differentiation across employees. No evidence of a moderating role of employees’ preference for equality (vs. differentiation) was found.