Understanding the impact of HR practices on employee attitudinal and behavioral outcomes: The role of POS

Integrating the strategic human resource management (SHRM) literature with social exchange and perceived organizational support (POS) theories, I develop a model of the impact of a comprehensive set of human resource (HR) practices on employee attitudes and behaviors. I propose a framework of core HR practices which includes two types: discretionary HR practices are those that are strategically focused and non-discretionary HR practices are those that are administrative and compliance oriented. In this model, it is the employees' assessment of the quality of HR practices that contributes to the development of POS. Furthermore, POS mediates the relationship between HR practices and attitudinal and behavioral outcomes including organizational commitment, intentions to quit, customer commitment, in-role performance, and extra-role behaviors including organization-directed organizational citizenship behavior (OCBO) as well as individual-directed organizational citizenship behavior (OCBI). This model extends prior research on HR practices and POS by studying the impact of an expanded set of HR practices on POS (including discretionary and non-discretionary HR practices), either directly or through interactional justice. Drawing from SHRM research, I develop a measure to assess the quality of HR practices from an employee perspective. Finally, this is a longitudinal study that allows us to determine the causal direction of the relationship between HR practices and POS.; The initial findings indicate support for both discretionary and non-discretionary HR practices. The 8 discretionary HR practices include: training, pay for performance, performance management, promotional opportunities, selection, decision making, developmental opportunities, and participation; and the 4 non-discretionary HR practices include: benefits enrollment, information provided by HR, pay accuracy and processing of new hire paperwork.; The results of multiple regression analyses revealed support for the overall model of POS. Specifically, performance management and decision making had significant and positive effects on POS. As only one of the non-discretionary HR practices was found to have a direct effect on POS, this confirms the significance of the discretionary investment requisite and POS. Additionally, interactional justice was found to mediate all four non-discretionary HR practices and POS. The results indicate that POS mediates the relationship between performance management and commitment, decision making and commitment, and participation and commitment, performance management and turnover intentions, decision making and turnover intentions, and participation and turnover intentions. Finally, the longitudinal sample results found that selection and participation had significant effects on POS Time 2, suggesting that investment in HR practices by the organization can lead to POS.