Author:

Keywords:

Social Sciences, Management, Business & Economics, affective commitment, human resource management, line managers, relations-oriented leadership behaviour, service quality, HUMAN-RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, PERCEIVED ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT, SUPERVISOR SUPPORT, NORMATIVE COMMITMENT, PROCEDURAL JUSTICE, WORK PRACTICES, FIT INDEXES, PERFORMANCE, ATTITUDES, ANTECEDENTS, 1503 Business and Management, 1505 Marketing, 1605 Policy and Administration, Industrial Relations, 3505 Human resources and industrial relations, 3507 Strategy, management and organisational behaviour, 5201 Applied and developmental psychology

Abstract:

Based on social exchange theory, we investigate the impact of HRM investments made by two important HR actors, line managers and HR department, on employees’ affective commitment. More specifically, we examine the independent and joint impact of line managers’ enactment of HR practices, their relations-oriented leadership behaviour and the HR department’s service quality. Accordingly, we consider the largely neglected HRM role of line managers. In addition, we focus on perceived HRM which is seen as a determining factor in employees’ attitudinal and behavioural reactions. Data for this study were collected from 1363 employees, working in three service organizations. The results indicate that line managers can enhance employees’ affective commitment by both the effective enactment of HR practices and effective relations-oriented leadership behaviour. High service quality by the HR department also has a positive effect on employees’ affective commitment. Implications for research and practice are discussed.