The Effect Of High Commitment Human Resource Management On Employee Proactive Behavior

Due to the intense competition in banking industry and the diverse demands among customers, employers of banks expect their employees to perform more proactive behavior. They begin to promote employee proactive behavior through implementing human resource management practices. Given the spontaneity and risks involves in proactive behavior, control-based human resource management characterized by rigid institutions and surveillance is inappropriate. It necessitates employers to implement high-commitment human resource management system that relies on individual self-management and proactivity and triggers transformation from control-to commitment-based HRM. Up to now, as Chinese enterprises are undergoing the transition, many banks start to join the campaign and implement high-commitment HRM system. However, whether high-commitment human resource management is conducive to proactive behavior, as well as how and when it facilitates proactive behavior are still unknown. Taken the T branch of M bank as an example, the bank has been promoting commitment-based HRM since its birth, and has experienced rapid expansion and growth with a constant speed in the past decade. However, along with the rapid expansion, variation of the implementation of high-commitment HRM system in the branches starts to emerge, which consequently affect employee proactive behavior. To address the issue, the present research aims to investigate the relationship between high-commitment human resource management system and proactive behavior and the underlying mechanisms. By doing this, we intend to provide managerial implications for how to implement high-commitment human resource management system and promotproactive behavior.In the majority of extant literature, human resource management system is conceptualized at organizational level to explore HRM-performance relationship at the organizational level. In contrast, this research focuses on the varied implementation of HRM within the organization. In our sample of branches of M bank located in Taiyuan, this paper theorized high-commitment human resource management system at branch level and explored whether and how its variance at the branch level would account for individual proactive behavior. To reveal how high-commitment human resource management system affects employee proactive behavior, we adopted behavioral perspective to explore the underlying machnisms.Drawing from the Ability-Motivation-Opportunity model and the "can do", "reason to do" and "energized to do" antecedents of proactive behavior, this paper proposed that high-commitment human resource management system facilitated proactive behavior by cultivating relevant ability, generating motivation, and providing certain opportunities. Based on the literature review, the researchers interviewed 31 managers of the bank branches and specified the research model. The documents and interview records suggested that the branches did implementing high-commitment human resource management practices, such as selective recruition, internal promotion, developmental appraisal, team incentives, and competitive compensation. It indicated the match of the research problem and the sample. Then, the researcher analyzed the interview transcript using content analysis. The results showed that high-commtiment HRM system encouraged employees to go extra miles and proactive behavior called for employees’ capacities beyond work roles. Thus, the researcher assumed that role-breadth self-efficacy mediated the relationship between high-commtiment HRM system and proactive behavior. In regard with motivation, high-commitment HRM system leads employees to concentrate on and elicit their intererest in the job. Hence, intrinsic motivation was expected to mediate the relationship between hign-commitment HRM and proactive behavior. Considering opportunity for proactive behavior, the results revealed that high-commitment HRM system developed shared belief and norms of organizational concern among the employees. Meanwhile, proactive behavior involves risks and uncertainty and needs employees to go beyond self-interest and act for the collective interests. Then, we hypothesized that organizational concern climate mediated the relationship between high-commitment HRM system mediated and proactive behavior. That is, high-commitment HRM system enhancing employee proactive behavior through role-breadth self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation, and organizational concern climate. Moreover, the results of content analysis suggested that the effectiveness of high-commitment HRM system was contrained by trust in management. Moreover, drawing on the contingency perspective in strategic HRM, given the importance of trust and the lack of sound institutions in Chinese context, the current research identified trust in management as moderator on the relations of high-commitment human resource management system to role-based self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation, and organizational concern climate.Then, we conducted investigation in the 31 branches and collected the nested data. Using a sample of 309 employees nested in 30 branches of M banks, the hypotheses were examined with Hierarchical Linear Modeling. The results corroborated the variation of high-commitment HRM system across the branches and the variation then accounted for variance of employee proactive behavior. Role-based self-efficacy partially mediated the relationship between high-commitment human resource management system and proactive behavior. Intrinsic motivation partially mediated the relationship between high-commitment human resource management system and proactive behavior. Organizational concern climate fully mediated the relationship between high-commitment human resource management system and proactive behavior. Trust in management significantly moderated the relationship between high-commitment human resource management system and role-based self-efficacy. However, trust in management didn’t significantly moderate the relationship between high-commitment human resource management system and intrinsic motivation. Ttrust in management significantly moderated the relationship between high-commitment human resource management system and organizational concern climate. To summarize, except Hypothesis 6, all hypotheses were supported.Research findings showed that when implemented in organization, high-commitment human resource management system varied across the branches and the variance would ultimately account for individual work attitudes and behaviors. The results also indicated that high-commitment human resource management system increased employee engagement in proactive behavior through enhancing their ability, inducing their passion for the job and creating organizational concern climate. Thus, the pathways linking high-commitment human resource management system to proactive behavior based on AMO theoretical framework were supported. The significant moderation of trust in management on the association of high-commitment human resource management system with role-based self-efficacy and organizational concern climate concurred with the contingent perspective of strategic HRM, indicating that there were boundary conditions constraining the effectiveness of high-commitment human resource management system. The research findings also had some managerial implications. The management should pay close attention to the implementation of high-commitment human resource management system among the affiliated divisions and apartment after they had stipulate HRM policies and practices. To promote employees ability, motivation and opportunity to perform proactive behavior, the management are expected to provide training and growth opportunity, enrich the job and execute team performance appraisal. Moreover, the guarantee the implementation of high-commitment human resource management, the management also needs to build trust among the branches.The present research contributed to existent research threefold. First, from the behavioral perspective, this paper related high-commitment human resource management system to proactive behavior, conceptualized it at branch level and sought to how its variance at branch level predicted individual proactive behavior. Second, relying on AMO model, the present research explored the intervening mechanisms of high-commitment human resource management system. For one thing, it confirmed the generalizability of AMO model in high-commitment human resource management system. For another thing, the three conditions that should be met to generate proactive behavior were validated in the present research. Third, taking the contingent approach, the boundary conditions of the high-commitment human resource management system were investigated to offer guidance for its implementation. Then, the management can tailor the HRM practices to different employees and work groups, in case of the fallacy of one-for-all practice.