Developmental HRM, employee well‐being and performance: The moderating role of developing leadership

• Author: Anneleen Forrier,Elise Marescaux,Sophie De Winne
• Date: 01 June 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12168
• Published date: 01 June 2019

Developmental HRM, employee well-being

and performance: The moderating role of

developing leadership

ELISE MARESCAUX,

1

SOPHIE DEWINNE

2

and ANNELEEN FORRIER

2

1

IÉSEG School of Management, (LEM-CNRS 9221) Lille, France

2

Faculty of Economics andBusiness, Antwerp, Belgium

Answering the call for more insights in the relationship between human resource management (HRM), employee

well-being and performance, this study examines the link between developmental human resource (HR) practices

and employee task performance, and includes bothhappiness (i.e., affective organizational commitment) and health

related (i.e.,exhaustion) well-being as mediators. Based on social exchangetheory and cognitive dissonance theory,

we also explore the line manager’s developing leadership behaviour as a moderator in the relationship between

developmental HRM and well-being. The multi-source data from 403 employees and 53 line managers show that

distinct developmental HR practices influence well-being and employee performance differently, and suggest that

the developingleadership behaviour of line managersinfluences the way in which developmentalHR practices affect

employees. Overall, the results underline the need for a configurational perspective on HRM, well-being and

employeeperformance, taking line managers’behaviour into accountas an essential element of the HRM system,next

to formal HR practices.

Keywords: developmental HR practices;developing leadership behaviour; well-being;employee task performance;

social exchange theory; cognitive dissonance theory

Introduction

To explain how human resource management (HRM)

contributes to firm performance, employee well-being

has been put on the forefront, in the sense that HRM is

believed to influence performance indirectly through

employee well-being (e.g., Boxall and Macky, 2009;

Guest, 2017). Yet, at the same time, there has been

considerabledebate on the exact role of well-being within

this relationship(Van de Voorde et al., 2012). Proponents

of the so-called mutualgains perspective argue that HRM

sends employees a signal that their contribution, well-

being and development is valued and taken care of,

thereby fostering their well-being (e.g., commitment and

satisfaction).This, in turn, enhances performance, thereby

creating a win-win situation for both employees and

employers (Guest, 2017; Peccei et al., 2013; Van de

Voorde et al., 2012). In contrast, supporters of the

conflicting out comes perspective challenge this optimistic

view and see an inherent dark side to HRM. Human

resource (HR) practices may indeed increase

performance, but by intensifying work and increasing

the strain on employees. As such, they are implemented

at the expense of well-being and create a lose-win

situation for employees and organizations respectively

(e.g., Godard, 2001; Ramsay et al., 2000).

These contrasting views can be attributed to the

multidimensionality of well-being. Building on Grant

et al.’s (2007) model, HRM research typically considers

one or more of three types of well-being: happiness

(e.g., job satisfaction, commitment), health (e.g., stress,

exhaustion) and social (e.g., trust, social support) well-

being (e.g., Baluch, 2017; Heffernan and Dundon, 2016;

Veld and Alfes, 2017). In their review, Van de Voorde

et al. (2012) showed that there might be an inherent

well-being trade-off as HR practices were found to

improve both happiness and social well-being, thereby

boosting performance, yet at the expense of health well-

being. Hence, depending on the dimension of well-being,

either the mutual gains or conflicting outcomes

perspective seems to hold. Their review showed a strong

need for more balanced studies incorporating multiple

Correspondence: Elise Marescaux, IÉSEG School of Management, 3 Rue

de la Digue, 59000,Lille, France. E-mail e.marescaux@ieseg.fr

European Management Review, Vol. 16, 317–331, (2019)

DOI: 10.1111/emre.12168

©2018 European Academy of Management