The influence of human resource practices on empowerment and employee perceptions of management commitment to quality

Abstract We hypothesized that certain human resource (HR) management practices establish a platform for basing employee empowerment, and that increasing empowerment would be positively related to perceptions of leadership commitment to quality. Using multi-stage structural equation modeling, we tested these hypotheses on data collected internally from 529 employees in a high-technology manufacturer well known for its quality initiatives. Results supported these predictions, and point to ways to further integrate HR management and quality management practices.

[1]  Anne S. Tsui,et al.  SELF-REGULATION FOR MANAGERIAL EFFECTIVENESS: THE ROLE OF ACTIVE FEEDBACK SEEKING , 1991 .

[2]  Richard H. Price,et al.  Empowered Managers and Empowered Workers: The Effects of Managerial Support and Managerial Perceived Control on Workers' Sense of Control over Decision Making , 1994 .

[3]  Mark A. Huselid.  The Impact of Human Resource Management Practices on Turnover, Productivity, and Corporate Financial Performance , 1995 .

[4]  Cathy A. Enz,et al.  The Impact of Empowerment on Service Employees , 1995 .

[5]  T. E. Zorn,et al.  Empowerment in organizations: Employees’ perceptions of the influences on empowerment , 1995 .

[6]  J. Pfeffer.  Competitive Advantage Through People , 1994 .

[7]  David P. Lepak,et al.  Human Resource Management, Manufacturing Strategy, and Firm Performance , 1996 .

[8]  K. Thomas,et al.  Cognitive Elements of Empowerment: An “Interpretive” Model of Intrinsic Task Motivation , 1990 .

[9]  W. Deming.  Quality, productivity, and competitive position , 1982 .

[10]  R. Banker,et al.  Contextual Analysis of Performance Impacts of Outcome-Based Incentive Compensation , 1996 .

[11]  David W. Gerbing,et al.  Assumptions and Comparative Strengths of the Two-Step Approach , 1992 .

[12]  Elizabeth E. Graham,et al.  Corporate conditions conducive to employee voice: A subordinate perspective , 1988 .

[13]  Mary E. Graham,et al.  New Directions in Compensation Research: Synergies, Risk, and Survival , 1995 .

[14]  Allan P. Jones,et al.  Perceptions of a Quality Program and Relationships with Work Perceptions and Job Attitudes , 1993 .

[15]  G. Spreitzer.  PSYCHOLOGICAL EMPOWERMENT IN THE WORKPLACE: DIMENSIONS, MEASUREMENT, AND VALIDATION , 1995 .

[16]  James W. Thacker,et al.  Influence Of Quality Of Work Life On Company And Union Commitment , 1992 .

[17]  John Paul Macduffie.  Human Resource Bundles and Manufacturing Performance: Organizational Logic and Flexible Production Systems in the World Auto Industry , 1995 .

[18]  Peter M. Bentler,et al.  Practical Issues in Structural Modeling , 1987 .

[19]  David I. Levine,et al.  Reinventing the Workplace: How Business and Employees Can Both Win , 1995 .

[20]  F. Herzberg.  Work and the nature of man , 1967 .

[21]  Mark A. Huselid,et al.  The Impact of Human Resource Management Practices on Perceptions of Organizational Performance , 1996 .

[22]  William I. Gorden,et al.  Employee perceptions of corporate partnership: An affective-moral quid pro quo , 1992 .

[23]  Charles C. Manz,et al.  Employee self-management without formally designated teams: An alternative road to empowerment , 1992 .

[24]  Randall S. Schuler,et al.  Managing Human Resources , 1984 .

[25]  R. Schroeder,et al.  A THEORY OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT UNDERLYING THE DEMING MANAGEMENT METHOD , 1994 .

[26]  Manuel London,et al.  Relationships between career motivation, empowerment and support for career development , 1993 .

[27]  James C. Anderson,et al.  STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING IN PRACTICE: A REVIEW AND RECOMMENDED TWO-STEP APPROACH , 1988 .

[28]  B. Schneider,et al.  The service organization: Human resources management is crucial , 1993 .

[29]  M. Joseph Sirgy,et al.  The effects of personal alienation on organizational identification: A quality-of-work-life model , 1991 .

[30]  Employee Perceptions of Management Commitment and Customer Evaluations of Quality Service in Independent Firms , 1993 .

[31]  John E. Delery,et al.  Modes of theorizing in strategic human resource management: Tests of universalistic, contingency, and configurational performance predictions , 1996 .

[32]  Casey Ichniowski,et al.  The Effects of Human Resource Management Practices on Productivity , 1995 .

[33]  J. Hoelter.  The Analysis of Covariance Structures , 1983 .

[34]  G. Spreitzer.  Social structural characteristics of psychological empowerment , 1996 .

[35]  Fred Dansereau,et al.  Leadership and Empowerment: A Social Exchange Perspective , 1995 .