Pak. J. Statist.

2014 Vol. 30(5), 751-766

HIGH-PERFORMANCE WORK SYSTEMS,
ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTIFICATION AND JOB SATISFACTION:
EVIDENCE FROM CHINA
Guo Ming, Liao Ganli and Chu Fulei
School of Economics and Management, Beijing Jiaotong University
Beijing, 100044, P.R. China

Corresponding author Email: 11113197@bjtu.edu.cn

ABSTRACT
With a growing body of strategic human resource management research, it has
established an important relationship between high-performance work systems (HPWS)
and employee attitudes and behaviors, underlying mechanisms that link the connection is
unclear. This study investigates whether or not HPWS positively affects job satisfaction
in Chinese management context and explores the role of organizational identification in
relationship between HPWS and job satisfaction. The data was collected from 358
telecom employees and their managers across 12 city-level branch companies of China
Mobile and China Unicom, which are the top 2 largest telecom companies in China. The
results showed positive and significant correlation between HPWS and job satisfaction.
The organizational identification was found to mediate the moderate the relationship
between perception of the existence of HPWS and job satisfaction.
KEYWORDS
High-performance work systems; Organizational identification; Job satisfaction.
INTRODUCTION
Strategic human resource management (SHRM) scholars and practitioners have
increasingly indicated HPWS positively influence organizational performance (Bae &
Lawler, 2000; Delaney & Huselid, 1996; MacDuffie, 1995), but the mechanisms through
which HPWS works is unclear, (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004; Delery & Shaw, 2001). Combs
(2006) has especially focused on the mechanisms in service industry. Many scholars
suggest that the indirect relationship and the link flowing between these two variables are
mediated by the responses and reactions of employees (Takeuchi, Chen & Lepak, 2009;
Wu & Chaturvedi, 2009; Chadwick & Dabu, 2009; Ramsay et al., 2000). Utilization of
HPWS could influence employees attitude and behavior to achieve their goals and help
the organizations to get higher organizational performance and competitive advantages.
The mediating factors that link HPWS to organizational performance include
organizational citizenship behavior, job satisfaction, employee empowerment,
organizational commitment (Macky & Boxall, 2007; Messersmith, Patel & Lepak, 2011;
Wood & Menezes, 2011). Though to some extent the mechanisms through which HPWS
works are unfolded, some scholars propose that links between HPWS and employee
outcomes are oversimplified (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004; Nishii & Wright, 2008).
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High-Performance Work Systems, Organizational Identification

The positive effect of HRM depends on a set of operative premises, and we need to
understand HRM in the context of organizations and their environment. Based on
overview of many empirical research results, Jackson &Schuler (1995) stated that the
content and effectiveness of HRM were influenced by internal and external
environments. Emphasizing the importance of contextualizing in Chinese management
research, Tsui (2006) argued that scholars should consider the influences from not only
organizational environment but also history, economic, politics, culture, society, et al.
factors. The HPWS originated on American soil, and the early empirical researches were
in American management context. Though universal studies provided evidence that
HPWS positively affects the organizational performance and employees attitudes
(Guthrie, 2001; Gibbs & Ashill, 2013; Hyondong, 2013), the researches in China showed
opposite conclusions. Some scholars reported that HPWS has a positive influence to
organizational performance (Sun et al., 2007; Fan & Bjrkman, 2003; Xu & Yang, 2005;
Cheng & Zhao, 2006; Zheng et al., 2006), but others argued that the positive relationship
didnt exist (Liu, Zhou &Chao, 2005; Zhang, 2006). The context-specific approach to the
HPWS in China is increasingly recognized.
Job satisfaction plays an important role for job performance. Researcher found that
employees who are satisfied with their job are preferred to stay with their employers
(Bashir et al., 2011). Many researchers have reported that HPWS operates by providing
employees training to improve their knowledge and skills, opportunities to take part in
decision making process, and autonomy in work (Guest, 2002; Liao et al., 2009), which
made the employees feel satisfaction (Guest, 1999, 2004).Besides the theoretical
deduction, some empirical researches have supported there is a positive relation between
HPWS and job satisfaction(Bashir et al., 2011; Macky & Boxall, 2008; Messersmith,
Patel & Lepak, 2011). Our purpose in this study is to investigate whether or not HPWS
positively affects job satisfaction in Chinese management context. The data in this study
was collected from 358 telecom employees and their managers across 12 city-level
branch companies of China Mobile and China Unicom, which are the top 2 largest
telecom companies in China. The research results could test the applicability of HPWS in
China and enrich the empirical research of HPWS in different context. In addition, we
extend previous research findings by exploring the mechanism how HPWS affects job
satisfaction. Based on social identity theory, organizational identification affects lots of
individual level factors including job satisfaction (Gioia, Schultz & Corley, 2000; Sluss
& Ashforth, 2007). Therefore, we also examine the mediator of organizational
identification between these two variables.
LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESIS
Measure of HPWS
HPWS, also named high-performance HR systems, high-performance HR practices,
or high-involvement work systems. Although the terminology is different, the definitions
are similar. It can been seen as a bundle of separate but correlated human resource
practices which aims to improve the capacities and abilities of employees (Takeuchi
et al., 2007). Scholars have not come to a consensus on the measure of HPWS, but most
of them agree that HPWS contains strict process of recruitment and selection, extensive
training and practices, authorization and involvement, pay designing based on

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performance, and some other dimensions (Huselid, 1996; Batt, 2002; Kintana, et al.,
2006).The positive association between HPWS and organizational outcomes has been
found by some SHRM practitioners and researchers. For instance, the financial
performance of the enterprises, voluntary turnover of employees, firm productivity and
flexibility, and innovation performance (Bjrkman, 2002; Delery & Doty, 1996; Cappelli
& Neumark, 2001; Guthrie, 2001; Evans & Davis, 2005). Buthow HPWS affects
organizational outcomes is unclear. Many of recent studies focus on the mechanisms that
enable the relationship between HPWS and organizational outcomes (Guest, 2011).
In former studies, HPWS were accessed at organizational level and the information
about HPWS was mostly from the report of managers (Liao et al., 2009). The theoretical
premise was that report from managers could reflect the real HRM situation, because
managers set organizational HRM policies. But it was increasingly recognized that
employees perception of HRM is different from the real HRM practices operated by
organizations (Kinnie et al., 2005; Purcell & Hutchinson, 2007; Liao et al., 2009).
Scholars began to explore the influence of HPWS on organizational outcomes in
perspective of employees perception (e.g. Kinnie et al., 2005; Chen, 2012). But
employees are likely to differ in the perception of HPWS, because they are at different
positions and from different departments of organizations. So we aggregate the
perception of HPWS formed at individual level to organizational level. In addition,
because the variables of organizational identification and job satisfaction in this study are
both at individual level, aggregating perception of HPWS may mitigates the concern of
common method variance (Gerhart, 2008).
The Context: HPWS in China
By comparison with HPWS research in America and other western counties, the
researches in China showed different conclusions. Some scholars reported that HPWS
affects the organizational performance and employees attitudes. For example, Fan &
Bjrkman (2003) tested the association between HRM and organization performance in
62 manufacturing foreign invested enterprises in China. The positive association was
found between HPWS and organization performance. Moreover, the extent and degree to
which organizations used HPWS was also examined. On the basis of matching data from
201 employees and 32 HR managers of 32 Chinese companies, Miao (2013) found that
HPWS evaluated by HR managers positively affected employee attitudes. Leadermember exchange partially mediated the positive influence of HPWS on employee
attitudes. Likewise, the point of view was supported by meta-analysis (Zhang, Li & Yao,
2012) and empirical researches of Chinese textile and garment enterprises (Zhang et al.,
2011), pharmaceuticals industry (Zhang & Li, 2008), finance industry (Zhao & Zhao,
2010), and so on. Taking the opposite point of view, some scholars argued that there were
little evidences demonstrate the associations between HPWS and firms performance, as
well as employees attitudes (Zhang, 2006; Jiang & Zhao, 2004). A recent study proposed
by Liu, Zhou &Chao (2005) has analyzed the 83 Chinese chain stores and the results
showed that all of HR practices of HPWS did not affect organizational profit rate, market
share, or sales growth.
HPWS and Job Satisfaction
Herzberg (1959) introduced a motivation-hygiene theory, also named two factor
theory, which proposed that job satisfaction can be caused by several certain factors, and

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on the opposite, job dissatisfaction can also be caused by a set of separate factors in
organizations. As we know, the motivation needs of employees can be regarded as
achievements, successes, skills or some other individual realizations in the organizations.
Therefore, once these needs of employees are satisfied, they will feel happy. According to
AMO theory proposed by Appelbaum et al. (2010), there were three correlated ways
make HPWS contribute to the enhancement of performance, either of the employees or
the organizations (Cooke, 2001; Mackey & Boxall, 2007). These three ways are as
follows: (a) accessing and developing human capital to enhance employees knowledge
and skills; (b) increasing employees motivation to work hardly and efficiently;
(c) offering opportunities to employees in order to take part in the decision making
process and performance improving process. Within this framework, we could assume
that organizations gratify the employees motivation needs through utilization of HPWS,
which make them satisfied. Furthermore, through elements of HPWS, it is likely that
employees will better fit the jobs due to the knowledge and skills enhancing. The fitness
will contribute to the improvement of the satisfaction and perception which makes the
employees feel more competent to the jobs (Messersmith, Patel, & Lepak, 2011). In
addition, in this study we adopt the framework of AMO theory that HPWS were
composed of three kinds of HR practices, they are ability-enhancing, motivationenhancing, and opportunity-enhancing practices. There is evidence that HPWS influence
organizational outcomes and employees attitudes and behaviors both individually and in
its entirety.
Besides the theoretical deduction, there are evidences from empirical researches that
HPWS is positively related to job satisfaction. Sun & Zhang (2009) found that
empowerment and training opportunity in HPWS can increase employee satisfaction in
both state-owned and private enterprises. The influence effect is stronger in state-owned
than in private enterprises, and teamwork will undermine employee satisfaction in private
enterprises and have no effort in state-owned enterprises. Research work by Messersmith,
Patel, & Lepak (2011) reported that the enhanced levels of job satisfaction, as well as the
organizational commitment, psychological empowerment are related to the department
level of HPWS. Based on an analysis for the steel industry in the U.S., Berg (1999)
examined the influence of different HPWS practices on job satisfaction and demonstrated
that the relationship between these two variables mainly depended on the definitions of
the roles and duties of the jobs. Moreover, the relationship between employees and
managers was the key to balance the responsibilities of the jobs and the families.
According to the study of a rural Australian hospital, Young et al. (2010) proposed that
HPWS was notably related to job satisfaction, and social identify mediated the
association between them. Formally, we assume the following:
Employees perceptions of HPWS will be positively associated with
job satisfaction.
Hypothesis 1a: Employees perceptions of ability-enhancing practices will be
positively associated with job satisfaction.
Hypothesis 1b: Employees perceptions of motivation-enhancing practices will be
positively associated with job satisfaction.
Hypothesis 1c: Employees perceptions of opportunity-enhancing practices will be
positively associated with job satisfaction.
Hypothesis 1:

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HPWS and Organizational Identification

The definition of organizational identification can be seen as the perceptions of
organizational member, such as the sense of oneness and belonging (Ashforth & Mael,
1989). Organizational identification positively affects the employees supportive behaviors
for understanding the organizational goals (Hekman et al., 2009). The more organizational
identification employees have, the more they will support the organizations and feel like
members of the organization. Their objects will keep consistent with the organizational
values and goals, which will motive the employees and improve their job performance
(Dukerich, Golden & Shortell, 2002). According to social exchange theory, individuals and
organizations exchange not only physical objects but also psychological objects, such as
trust, support, self-esteem et al. When individuals receive economic and emotional
resources from their organization, they would be under the obligation to repay the
organization. Then individuals develop identification with the organization. Through
utilization of HPWS, organizations provide employees economic and socio-emotional
resources. Sun et al. (2007) reported that HPWS aimed to set up an exchange association
between the organization and employee in the long run. In a mutually beneficial exchange,
employees will repay the organizations through attitudes and behaviors that benefit the
organizations, which will enhance their organizational identification. There is also evidence
from empirical researches that HPWS are positively related to organizational identification.
Based on multilevel analysis of data from HR managers and 402 employees across 42
enterprises, Li & Wei (2011) found that some HPWS practices, such as incentive
compensation and staff flow, influenced the organizational identification positively and
significantly. Formally, we assume the following:
Employees perceptions of HPWS will be positively associated with
organizational identification.
Hypothesis 2a: Employees perceptions of ability-enhancing practices improved will
be positively associated with organizational identification.
Hypothesis 2b: Employees perceptions of motivation-enhancing practices will be
positively associated with organizational identification.
Hypothesis 2c: Employees perceptions of opportunity-enhancing practices will be
positively associated with organizational identification.
Hypothesis 2:

In the view of the social identity theory, several authors proposed that lots of
individual level factors, one of which is job satisfaction can be affected by organizational
identification (Gioia, Schultz & Corley, 2000; Sluss & Ashforth, 2007). Some studies
indicated that job satisfaction was the outcome variable of organizational identification.
The evaluation dimension of career identification and team identification could enhance
job satisfaction significantly, and so is the emotion dimension of school identification and
occupation identification (Dick, 2004). Based on data collected from 6 dance teams in the
Republic of Korea, Kwon (2010) examined the relationships among three variables of
female dancers organizational identification, job satisfaction, and organizational
commitment. It was tested that organizational identification affected job satisfaction and
organizational commitment. Wei, Chen & Zhang (2007) indicated that employees with
high organizational identification tended to consider themselves as representation of
organizations, and organization benefits were their primary consideration, which was
easy to create organizational citizenship behavior, cooperative attitude, and job
satisfaction. Furthermore, several researches demonstrated that organizational

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High-Performance Work Systems, Organizational Identification

identification can mediate the relationship between job satisfaction and other variables. Li
& Wu (2013) reported that the partly mediating role of organizational identification also
existed between the core self-evaluations and job satisfaction of senior middle school
teachers. Formally, we assume the following:
The association between employees perceptions of HPWS and job
satisfaction can be mediated by organizational identification.
Hypothesis 3a: The association between employees perceptions of ability-enhancing
practices and job satisfaction can be mediated by organizational
identification.
Hypothesis 3b: The association between employees perceptions of motivationenhancing practices and job satisfaction can be mediated by
organizational identification.
Hypothesis 3c: The association between employees perceptions of opportunityenhancing practices and job satisfaction can be mediated by
organizational identification.
Hypothesis 3:

METHOD
Procedure
In this paper, data was collected from a sample of 358 employees and their managers
from 12 city-level branch companies of China Mobile and China Unicom, which are the
top 2 largest telecom companies in China. The sampling was administered by the
researchers with assistance from the managers of each firm. Three questionnaires were
developed: the first one is designed to describe the HPWS, the second one records the
organizational identification and the third one is used to describe the job satisfaction for
the telecom employees. All the questionnaires were designed in English and translated
into Chinese. The Chinese version was reverse translated and pilot tested to ensure
consistency. Moreover, some remedies to reduce potential common method bias were
adopted. For instance, the demographic such as the age is used to separate variables in the
design. In order to reduce the influence of CMB, the positive and negative words were
used as well as the different scale types.
HPWS:
A list of human recourse practices was developed based on the AMO (ability,
motivation, opportunity) model which is proposed by Appelbaum in 2000. We assessed
the abilities by exploring the degree to which perception of employee perceived the use
of structured employment interviews, the extensive formal training, the long-term
potential in accelerating the speed of development, and the general trait of selected job
candidates. A sample question is The training procedure which is offered by
organization is highly official and systematic. All these practices are assessed by eight
items and in order to enhance the level of abilities, skills and capacity under the
employment context. Then, we measured the motivation practices by asking employees
the questions about the performance appraisal and the available bonuses on account of
the individual and group performance level, the high standard of salary for the diversity
scales of job accomplishment during the work, and the merit-based promotion
opportunities. This category includes seven items. For example, The organization
evaluates my job performance based on the objective and measurable results. At last, we
used fifteen items to measure the opportunity practices by asking about the regular

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757

information sharing communication, the implementation of formal participation

processes and the fair complaint procedures, the existence of employee autonomy in job
design modifications. A sample question is I have the opportunity to put forward the
advices about the job. All these practices make the employees believe that they can have
greater opportunities to make a difference which is an important contribution to the
establishment in the organization. The categories of the answers were as follows:
1=absolutely disagree and 7=totally agree instead of simply asking whether these
practices are present or not. Cronbachs and related reliability measures of factor
analysis were used to test the validity of each category. All categories of practices had
satisfying Cronbachs (average =0.78).
As the literature review mentioned above, the existence of HPWS is expected to occur
in the organization group level rather than the employee level, so that it could be the
appropriate indicator for the construction of human resource management. Moreover, it
allows us to test the consistency between the employees perception and the organization
level of HPWS. Therefore, these thirty items were split into the organization group level
based on the employees perception, and a shift composition model was adopted to the
HRM perception method. The intra class correlation coefficients (ICCs) were calculated
at the organization level for the HPWS. And the ICCs (ICC1 = .21, ICC2 = .61) for the
HPWS perception index showed that the responses to the high level were demonstrated
by employees aggregation.
Organizational Identification:
It was measured with six-items by Mael and Ashforth (1992) which was introduced in
previous studies. The six items are: (a) I feel like an individual censure when organization
were criticized by the others; (b) the opinion proposed by others about my organization
makes me feel interesting; (c) I usually use the vocabulary we instead of they when
organization is mentioned; (d) I feel like it is my success when organization achieve the
success; (e) I feel like an individual applause when organization win the applause; (f) When
the organization is criticized by the media, I feel embarrassment. The answering categories
of the questionnaires were range from: 1=totally disagree, 7=totally agree. The value of
Cronbachs , which must satisfied >0.80, was .739 in this paper.
Job Satisfaction:
We use the questionnaire which was constructed by Weiss, Dawis, England &
Lofquist (1967). This instrument is designed to measure satisfaction with 20 different job
aspects which were carefully refined, developed and validated. All these items are
considering the independence, variety, creativity, and achievement (noneconomic
factors), and satisfaction with security, company policies, pay, and working conditions
(economic factors). A sample question is I am satisfied with my working condition.
And the Cronbachs was 0.852 in this sample.
Control Variables:
In our analysis, the position and age were considered. We controlled the employees
position as a fixed effect in this paper because different positions vary in the job ability
and possibility of attracting committed and motivated. We also included the age as an
important control variable to fix the impact on the HPWS, organizational identification,
and job satisfaction which may be showed at employee or organization levels.

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Sample
A total of 358 usable questionnaires were returned. There are about 54.1% of the
respondents were male. About 57% of the employees were in the department of
management, about 29% were in the department of professional skills, and 14% were in the
department of administrative department. Cronbachs and related reliability measures of
factor analysis were used to test the validity of each category. All categories of HPWS
practices (ability, motivation, and opportunity), organizational identification and job
satisfaction had satisfying Cronbachs . The statistical description on the HPWS,
organizational identification and job satisfaction were showed in Table 1, respectively.
Table 1
Sample Descriptions
Scale
Min
Max
Ability-enhancing practices
1.50
6.75
Motivation-enhancing practices
1.28
6.85
Opportunity-enhancing practices
2.73
6.60
Organizational identification
2.16
7.00
Job satisfaction
2.95
6.50

Mean
4.34
4.66
4.83
5.39
5.11

SD
1.40
1.20
0.91
1.03
0.88

Alpha
0.913
0.845
0.812
0.739
0.852

ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

To further analyze, Pearson correlations were calculated between the variables.
Although moderate relationship existed between several variables, the multi-collinearity
was insignificant. The results appear in Table 2 and show that, as predicted, significant
positive correlations were found among all the dimensions of HPWS and job satisfaction.
On the other hand, positive association was also emerged between HPWS and
organizational identification. Examination of the correlations reveals that the more
implement of HPWS in the organization, the higher satisfaction to employee will have.
The hypothesis 1 and hypothesis 2 were tested by the correlation analysis. The
correlation coefficients between the HPWS and organizational identification are 0.454,
0.509 and 0.564 for ability, motivation and opportunity practices, respectively. In the
same way, the correlation coefficients between HPWS and job satisfaction are 0.619,
0.695 and 0.784 for these three dimensions, respectively. All the significant level reached
99% in our analysis. All the significant level reached 99% in our analysis. The
Hypothesis 1, 1a, 1b, 1c, 2, 2a, 2b and 2c were supported.
Table 2
Pearson Correlation Analysis
1
2
3
1. Ability-enhancing practices
1
2. Motivation-enhancing practices
0.668**
1
3. Opportunity-enhancing practices 0.759** 0.792**
1
4. Organizational identification
0.454** 0.509** 0.564**
5. Job satisfaction
0.619** 0.695** 0.784**
*p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001

1
0.560**

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759

A traditional three step method which used to explore the mediating variable, namely
the organizational identification, was adopted in the relationship between HPWS and job
satisfaction for the telecom employees. This method is proposed by Baron and Kenny in
1986 which is conventionally applied in organization psychology to explore the influence
of mediating role. According to the method, we needed to test that HPWS leads to job
satisfaction; that organizational identification leads to job satisfaction; and that when
HPWS and job satisfaction are included, and the organizational identification was
controlled, HPWS loses their importance, that is, organizational identification can be seen
as the mediator between these two variables. To examine the effects of the mediator
about the three components of HPWS, we repeated the analysis with the AMO three
dimensions.
Based on the method, we examine the causal relationship between the HPWS and job
satisfaction, as well as the organizational identification. As can be seen from table 3, we
found that the variance explained by HPWS was 63.0% (p<0.001) and in the job
satisfaction, and 32.3% (p<0.001) in the organizational identification. In addition, HPWS
has a significant contribution to job satisfaction except the ability-enhancing practices.
However, the impact from opportunity-enhancing practices (t=3.507) is higher than
motivation-enhancing practices (2.486). In the multiple regression analysis between
HPWS and organizational identification, the effect of the opportunity-enhancing and
motivation-enhancing practices are almost the same (t=2.493 and 2.421, respectively).
However, impact did not predict ability-enhancing practices with job satisfaction and the
beta weight of organizational identification are significant respectively (b=0.024 and
0.031, p=ns). Therefore, except for the dimension of ability, the motivation and
opportunity practices were satisfied with the first and the second criterion for Baron and
Kenny. Therefore, hypothesis 3a was not supported.
Table 3
Results of Standard Multiple Regressions
Job
Organizational
Satisfaction
Identification
B
SE B
t
B
SE B
t
Constant
1.279
0.623 2.053 2.620 0.988 2.650
Age
0.014
0.171 0.080 -0.136 0.272 -0.499
Position
0.070
0.098 0.712 0.027 0.155 0.176
Ability-enhancing practices
0.024
0.084 0.286 0.031 0.134 0.234
Motivation-enhancing practices
0.157* 0.063 2.486 0.138* 0.057 2.421
Opportunity-enhancing practices 0.562*** 0.160 3.507 0.456* 0.183 2.493
R square
0.630***
0.323***
*p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001
According to the significant relationship among the variables, we explore the
variation between the HPWS and job satisfaction under the control of the organizational
identification. Table 4 shows the results and we can find that the beta weight of HPWS is
insignificant in the dimension of motivation-enhancing practices (b=0.079, p=ns) and the
complete intervention is present. With regard to the dimension of the opportunityenhancing practices, in spite of that the beta weight is significant (b=0.281, p=<0.01) in

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the regression, the coefficient (p<0.01) substantially decrease under the control variable
(from 0.562 to 0.281). So the third criterion for mediator of organizational identification
between the motivation-enhancing and job satisfaction, opportunity-enhancing and job
satisfaction were satisfied. Therefore, hypothesis 3b and 3c were supported. And the
hypothesis 3 was partially supported.
Table 4
Results of Standard Multiple Regressions
Job satisfaction
B
SE B
t
Constant
0.928
0.657
1.412
Organizational identification
0.134
0.088
1.526
Age
0.032
0.170
0.188
Position
0.066
0.096
0.683
Ability-enhancing practices
0.020
0.083
0.239
Motivation-enhancing practices
0.079
0.060
1.320
Opportunity-enhancing practices
0.281**
0.092
3.069
R square
0.330***
*p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001
DISCUSSION
This paper aims to explore whether employees perception of utilization of HPWS
influenced employees attitudes in Chinese management context. Though universal
empirical studies had provided evidence that utilization of HPWS affected organizational
outcomes through employees attitudes and behaviors (Takeuchi et al., 2009), the
researches in China had not come to a consensus. The effectiveness of HPWS was
influenced by internal and external environments. The data of sample were collected from
358 employees and their managers from 12 Chinese telecom companies, and measures of
HPWS were in perspective of employees perception. This study showed that utilization
of HPWS affected employees attitudes to some extent in Chinese management context,
which kept consistent with the universalistic framework of SHRM. The universalistic
framework emphasized the existence of the best HR practices which worked in any
context. We adopt the frame of AMO theory that HPWS were composed of abilityenhancing, motivation-enhancing, and opportunity-enhancing practices. The analysis
results tested that all HPWS practices positively affected employees job satisfaction and
organizational identification, which showed the applicability of HPWS practices in
Chinese management context.
Furthermore, this study indicated the mechanism how utilization of HPWS affected
employees attitudes. Though researches had found the positive relationship between
HPWS and employees attitudes and behaviors, some scholars propose that links between
HPWS and employee outcomes are oversimplified (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004; Nishii &
Wright, 2008), and rare studies explored the influence mechanism. In this study, we
found that organizational identification can mediate the association between employees
perception of HPWS and job satisfaction. Respectively, organization identification
completely mediated between ability-enhancing practices and job satisfaction, partly

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mediated the association in opportunity- enhancing practices, but did not mediate in
motivation-enhancing practices. The mediating role of organizational identification was
showed in Figure 1. It was showed variables of employees attitude are not independent,
and interaction among them existed.
Abilityenhancing
Practices

Opportunityenhancing
Practices

Motivationenhancing
Practices

Organization
Identification

Job
Satisfaction

Organization
Level
Employee
Level

Fig. 1: The Mediating Role of Organizational Identification

Limitations
The positive association between utilization of HPWS and employees attitudes was
tested in this study. But in the area of HPWS researches, employees attitudes are just
factors that link utilization of HPWS to employees performance, then to organizational
outcomes. Practitioners focus on enhancing organizational outcomes through utilization
of HPWS. Further research should examine the influence of employees attitudes on
individual performance and organizational outcomes in Chinese management context,
and then explore the whole influencing chain from utilization of HPWS to organizational
outcomes. This study chose job satisfaction and organizational identification as variables
to explain the employees attitudes. Besides these two variables, there are some other
important attitude factors, such as organizational commitment, organizational citizenship
behaviors, which should be considered in future researches. The data of this study was
collected from a sample of employees from China Mobile and China Unicom, which are
the top 2 largest telecom companies in China. There are perfect HRM systems and
advanced HRM conceptions at both of the companies, which may be one of the
underlying reasons why HPWS works. Future researches should consider the quality of
HRM as control variable.
CONCLUSION
In the sum, our results demonstrate the utilization of HPWS positively affected
employees organizational identification in Chinese management context, as well as job
satisfaction, while organizational identification mediated the association between
utilization of HPWS and job satisfaction. This study tested the applicability of HPWS in
China, and enriched the research on the mechanism how HPWS worked. Furthermore,
this study suggested the importance of utilization of HPWS at Chinese enterprises. In
order to improve the employees positive attitudes to enhance individual performance, the
enterprises should act on the utilization of HPWS.

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High-Performance Work Systems, Organizational Identification

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