Performance Management, Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment1

A number of investigations have focused on aspects of human resource management policy and their impact on employees. The study reported here examines the extent to which the main elements of performance management systems are associated with positive employee attitudes. Questionnaire measures of performance management variables and of employee attitudes were obtained from 860 staff in nine organizations, all of which had been ascertained to be operating performance management systems. The findings indicate that most elements of performance management did contribute to positive employee attitudes, and that between them they accounted for a substantial proportion of the variance in measures of organizational commitment and (especially) job satisfaction. Some differences in the data from public and private‐sector organizations were found.