The relationship between high performance HR practices and employee attitudes: the mediating role of public service motivation and person-organization fit

Nowadays, the utilization of high performance human resource (HR) practices is widely believed to lead to a strategic advantage for organisations. However, while there is now a sufficient body of evidence to indicate that high performance HR practices are related to superior firm-level outcomes, it is still unclear how these practices affect such outcomes and whether these practices result in desirable employee level outcomes. The current study aims to fill this gap by empirically examining the effect of high performance HR practices on employee attitudes of job satisfaction, organizational commitment and quit intentions in the Egyptian public sector. This study also sheds light on the mechanisms through which high performance HR practices affect employee attitudes by examining the mediating effects of both public service motivation (PSM) and person-organization (P-O) fit on this relationship. Furthermore, a secondary aim of this study is to identify the mechanisms through which PSM affects employee attitudes. Specifically, the study examines the mediating and moderating effect of P-O fit on the PSM-employee attitudes relationship. In so doing, the current study aims to contribute to the literature in the fields of HRM, PSM and P-O fit. Using a sample of 671 professionals in the Egyptian health and higher educationsectors, a partial mediation model is outlined and tested using structural equation modelling (SEM). The study results show that high performance HR practices and P-O fit have significant positive relationships with job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and significant negative relationships with quit intentions. PSM also has significant positive relationships with job satisfaction and organizational commitment. However, it has no significant relationship with quit intentions. The results also reveal that PSM partially mediates the relationship between high performance HR practices and both job satisfaction and organizational commitment, but has no mediation effect on the relationship between high performance HR practices and quit intentions. Further, P-O fit partially mediates the relationship between high performance HR practices and job satisfaction, organizational commitment and quit intentions. P-O fit also mediates (but does not moderate) the relationship between PSM and employee attitudes. Therefore, the study findings suggest that the adoption of high performance HR practices in the public sector not only leads to desirable employee attitudes, but is also associated with enhanced employee motivation to serve the public and better fit between employees and their organizations. Keywords: High Performance HR Practices, Public Service Motivation, Person-Organization Fit, Employee Attitudes, Egyptian Public Secto