Do human resource systems indeed have "system" effects? The dual internal fit model of a high-performance work system.

The configurational or "internal fit" perspective proposes that human resource (HR) systems are most effective when individual practices are configured such that they fit together and are mutually reinforcing. The Ability-Motivation-Opportunity (AMO) model has emerged as a predominant way to select and configure HR practices based on whether they attempt to enhance employee ability, motivation, or opportunities. Despite the widespread use of the configurational perspective and AMO model in building a high-performance work system (HPWS), researchers have not clearly articulated how HR practices across the AMO domains should be configured to maximize internal fit across the system.

An expanded conceptualization of line managers' involvement in human resource management.

Recent research provides evidence that, contrary to implicit assumptions in much of the strategic human resource management (SHRM) literature, human resource (HR) systems and practices are in fact enacted with substantial variation across units even within organizations, with such variation largely a function of the line managers involved in implementing HR practices in the units under their supervision. While instrumental in demonstrating the critical role that line managers play in facilitating the causal chain linking organizations' HR practices with intended employee and organizational outcomes, we contend that the focus of this research on HR practice implementation as a singular and unidimensional characterization of line managers' involvement in human resource management (HRM) represents an oversimplification on several counts. Broadly, we propose that this focus fails to account for the varied nature of line managers' downward influences in the context of HRM.

What it takes to get proactive: An integrative multilevel model of the antecedents of personal initiative.

Building upon and extending Parker, Bindl, and Strauss's (2010) theory of proactive motivation, we develop an integrated, multilevel model to examine how contextual factors shape employees' proactive motivational states and, through these proactive motivational states, influence their personal initiative behavior. Using data from a sample of hotels collected from 3 sources and over 2 time periods, we show that establishment-level initiative-enhancing human resource management (HRM) systems were positively related to departmental initiative climate, which was positively related to employee personal initiative through employee role-breadth self-efficacy. Further, department-level empowering leadership was positively related to initiative climate only when initiative-enhancing HRM systems were low.

Tightening up the performance-pay linkage: roles of contingent reward leadership and profit-sharing in the cross-level influence of individual pay-for-performance.

Drawing upon line-of-sight (Lawler, 1990, 2000; Murphy, 1999) as a unifying concept, we examine the cross-level influence of organizational use of individual pay-for-performance (PFP), theorizing that its impact on individual employees' performance-reward expectancy is boosted by the moderating effects of immediate group managers' contingent reward leadership and organizational use of profit-sharing. Performance-reward expectancy is then expected to mediate the interactive effects of individual PFP with contingent reward leadership and profit-sharing on employee job performance. Analyses of cross-organizational and cross-level data from 912 employees in 194 workgroups from 45 companies reveal that organizations' individual PFP was positively related to employees' performance-reward expectancy, which was strengthened when it was accompanied by higher levels of contingent reward leadership and profit-sharing.