Linking human resources practices with performance: the simultaneous mediation of collective affective commitment and human capital

Independent streams of research propose that human capital and employee motivation serve as mediation mechanisms that explain the relationship between high-performance work systems (HPWS) and performance. A multiple mediation analysis is used to test employee perceptions of subsets of HPWS practices, which emphasize the enhancement of employees' abilities, motivation and opportunities, as predictors of business units' performance, when mediated by human capital and motivational paths, in a sample of business units in Chilean organizations. Collective affective commitment is used as proxy for the motivational path, and differentiated from other measures used to test such path. Results indicate that personnel selection, performance evaluation and training, job descriptions, and empowerment practices make simultaneous contributions to the human capital and affective commitment paths. The partial mediation effects observed suggests that additional mechanisms contributing to the HPWS-performance relationship should be explored. However, compensation and incentives practices only contribute to the motivational path, while the human capital path and direct effects are non-significant. Results support the complementarity of both mediation mechanisms, the differential effects of subsets of HR practices on the mediation paths, and the significance of these effects at a business unit aggregate level of analysis. Theoretical contributions, practical implications and limitations are discussed.