From a process perspective: how an HRM system influences employee attitudes in Chinese hotels

Recently, Human Resource Management (HRM) research has acknowledged that in understanding the HRM–performance relationship, more emphasis needs to be placed on employee perceptions and interpretations of HR policy and practice. This is because employee attitudes precede and are likely to strongly influence performance in the causal chain. The HRM process perspective, exemplified by Bowen and Ostroff’s (2004) conceptual model, explains how an HRM system conveys messages to employees, influences their collective perceptions (i.e. organisational climate), and ultimately contributes to organisational performance. Their model, however, is not without conceptual and methodological problems. This thesis attempts to critically analyse their model based on reviews of relevant literature and to deepen the understanding of this perspective. The analysis leads to the identification of several research questions. Based on a survey conducted in three five-star hotels in China, three related essays were developed, as outlined below. Essay One examines a model explaining welfare climate, where employees have convergent ratings (climate level) and agree on these ratings (climate strength) in relation to HRM. The results show that (1) perceived HR practices are positively related to welfare climate level; and (2) two HRM process features (consistency and consensus) partially moderate the relationships between HR practices and climate level.Essay Two investigates whether climate level and strength reinforce individual-level relationships between service-quality perceptions and two employee outcomes (work satisfaction and vigour). The results indicate that while climate level strengthened the individual-level relationships, climate strength did not increase the magnitude of these relationships. Essay Three tests the processes linking HRM process features (distinctiveness, consistency and consensus) with three employee work attitudes (work satisfaction, vigour and intention to quit). The moderating effect of climate strength (the shared perceptions of high-performance work systems) on these relationships is also investigated. The results indicate that distinctiveness is related to employee work attitudes and that high climate strength increases the magnitude of the relationships between consensus and work satisfaction, and between consensus and intention to quit. The findings of the three studies suggest important theoretical implications. In particular, they call for a re-consideration of the role of organisational climate in the HRM-performance relationship. From a multi-level perspective, organisational climate (climate level) is likely to act more than as a mediator in the HRM–performance relationship, as proposed by Bowen and Ostroff (2004). On the one hand, when explaining the between-unit variance (climate level), HRM process features tend to contribute to a strong organisation climate (i.e. climate level as shown in Essay One), which is likely to directly influence individual attitudes and behaviour (see Takeuchi et al., 2009, for an example). On the other hand, in a cross-level setting, a strong organisational climate (as shown in Essays Two and Three) is likely to enhance the magnitude of the individual-level relationships between employee perceptions and attitudes. These implications are discussed towards the end of this thesis