Employees' HR attributions count: the effects of high-performance work systems on employees' thriving at work and emotional exhaustion

Purpose Although prior research has documented substantive knowledge of the benefits of high-performance work systems (HPWS), results regarding both sides of HPWS are inconsistent. To reconcile these inconsistencies, the authors identified two specific HR attributions—employee well-being HR attribution and performance HR attribution, and examined their roles in the relationship between team-level HPWS and employees' thriving at work and emotional exhaustion. Design/methodology/approach The authors collected multi-source data from 36 team leaders and 181 individuals. Given the nested nature of the data, the authors used Mplus 7.4 to conduct multilevel structural equation modeling for hypothesis testing. Findings The results showed that team-level HPWS and employee well-being HR attribution interact to affect psychological availability, which subsequently promotes thriving at work. However, team-level HPWS and employee performance HR attribution do not interact to influence role overload/psychological availability; team-level HPWS and employee well-being HR attribution do not interact to affect role overload. Originality/value Current literature has overlooked identifying key contingencies for both sides of HPWS effects on employee outcomes. Therefore, this study developed a mediated moderation model and incorporated HR attributions to explore two distinct pathways by which HPWS affects employees' thriving at work and emotional exhaustion. The present study helps to reconcile the inconsistent findings regarding the HPWS double-edged sword nature. In addition, the authors focused on HPWS at the team level, which is also underexplored in the existing HPWS research.