Influence Of High-performance Work Systems On Thriving At Work

Thriving at work represents a positive work state and feeling in which individuals experience both a sense of vitality and a sense of learning.It contributes to personal and organizational development.Existing research has mainly focused on the influence of single human resource practice on employee thriving at work,while overlooking their coherence and synergy.High-performance work systems are a set of practices and are referred to as best human resource management practice.Thus,the current study tries to explore the relationship between high-performance work systems and employee thriving at work.Previous researches on high-performance work systems mainly consider its positive influences.The mainstream view is that high-performance work systems are beneficial for organizational performance and competitive advantages,suggesting that high-performance work systems are an important contributor to organizational success.However,an alternative theoretical perspective has developed that indicated the negative effect of high-performance work systems on individual employees.This perspective argues that high-performance work systems,which are aimed at promoting organizational performance,may do so at the expense of individual employees and increase job demands,thus resulting in detriment for physiological and psychological health.Based on the logic,this study would draw from transactional theory of stress to explore the underlying mechanism of the relationship between high-performance work systems and thriving at work.This study firstly reviewed the literature of transactional theory of stress,high-performance work systems,thriving at work,cognitive appraisals and servant leadership and built our conceptual model.Next,this study utilized the questionnaire survey to collect data from 377 employees of 37 teams and tested the proposed hypotheses by conducting cross-level path analysis using Mplus 7.4.The results show that:(1)employees appraise simultaneously high-performance work systems as a challenge and a hindrance;(2)high-performance work systems positively influence employee thriving at work via challenge appraisal and negatively influence employee thriving at work via hindrance appraisal;(3)servant leadership plays a moderating role in the relationship between high-performance work systems and thriving at work,such that servant leadership reinforces the challenge appraisal of high-performance work systems and the mediating effect of challenge appraisal,andreduces the hindrance appraisal of high-performance work systems and the mediating effect of hindrance appraisal.Finally,this study discusses the theoretical and practical implications and future research directions.This thesis includes ten figures,forty-nine tables,and one hundred and fifty-six references.