HIGH-COMMITMENT HR PRACTICES, EMPLOYEE EFFORT, AND FIRM PERFORMANCE: INVESTIGATING THE EFFECTS OF HR PRACTICES ACROSS EMPLOYEE GROUPS WITHIN PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FIRMS

In this study, the authors examine the relationship between high-commitment HR practices and firm performance in professional services firms through the mediator of employee effort. In addition, they contribute to the debate in the field of strategic HRM on whether high-commitment HR practices should be used across all employee groups within a firm. Their study's results show that high-commitment HR practices positively relate to firm performance through employee effort for two employee groups within professional services firms. Further, they found that the relationship between effort and performance is contingent on the value of the employee group to firm competitive advantage, suggesting that companies may only want to expend the effort and resources on building a high-commitment HR system for employee groups that are clearly tied to creating firm competitive advantage. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.