ABSTRACT Organizations use compensation to attract, retain, and motivate employees to achieve their strategic goals. This research shifts the focus of pay differences from individuals to groups by focusing on pay differences among employees in the same functional work teams (i.e., within‐group pay dispersion) and between employees across functional work teams (i.e., between‐group pay dispersion). Drawing on identity theories, we propose that between‐group pay dispersion strengthens employee collective identity orientation, which in turn increases employee task performance and in‐group helping. This relationship is less salient when within‐group pay dispersion is larger and more salient when within‐group pay dispersion is smaller. The results of two multi‐wave field survey studies (Studies 1 and 4) support our predictions. Two controlled experiments (Studies 2 and 3) strengthen the causal explanations and enhance result robustness. Our findings suggest that between‐group pay dispersion may lead to desirable employee performance behaviors and provide insights into pay strategies.
This study integrates organizational theory and strategic human resource management research to examine how corporate standards for managing frontline employees shape human resource (HR) implementation at the unit level. While prior research has recognized the role of line managers, less is known about how HR investments directed at line managers influence their implementation of HR practices. We argue that more extensive HR-related corporate standards, embedded in chain training and technology systems, lead franchisees to invest in line manager training and compensation. These investments enhance line managers' ability and motivation to implement HR practices for frontline employees in line with corporate standards. We further propose that corporate enforcement mechanisms, in the form of contract terminations, strengthen these relationships. Using a nationally stratified random sample of 908 franchisee-owned units across 143 U.S. fast food chains, we combine survey data on unit-level HR practices with independent measures of corporate standards from franchise disclosure documents. Results reveal that corporate standards do not simply flow through to frontline employee HR practices but are instead transmitted through line manager HR investments, with stronger effects under greater enforcement. These findings identify line managers as key conduits through which corporate standards are enacted in unit-level practices and highlight the importance of aligning standards, managerial investments, and enforcement in decentralized organizations.
Virtual work has become a defining feature of contemporary organizations, yet Human Resource Management (HRM) scholarship lacks an integrated understanding of how it should be managed. We address this disconnect by shifting the focus from individual and team experiences to the organizational management of virtual work through HRM. We conceptualize virtual work and organize prior research along four dimensions: spatial, temporal, technological, and employment relationship. Building on this, we develop an integrative framework based on two axes, the degree of virtuality and the nature of the employment relationship, from which four forms of virtual work emerge and between which organizations may transition: co-located, hybrid, fully virtual, and virtual gig work. We delineate four corresponding HRM roles and their implications for managing and transitioning between these arrangements: traditional, integrative, enabling and empowering, and algorithmic HRM. We conclude by outlining future research directions to advance HRM in virtual work, with a focus on emerging technologies, global contexts, and rethinking theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches.
Cross-border acquisitions involving developed and emerging economies serve as an important source of organizational learning and performance renewal. Yet, how these cross-border learning opportunities are internalized through human capital investment and how such investments influence post-acquisition outcomes remain a theoretically rich but empirically underexplored question. Based on the resource-based view of the firm and, in conjunction, the absorptive capacity literature, we propose that acquisitions between firms from different economic categories (developed vs. emerging economies) have a positive effect on the training investments, which, in turn, positively mediates the effect of cross-border acquisitions on post-acquisition firm performance. We further propose firm-specific contingencies that bound the relationships between cross-border acquisitions, training investments, and firm performance. Specifically, we argue that acquirers with prior experience are less reliant on training investments, and R&D of the acquired firm plays a complementary role to training investments in generating higher returns from the acquisition. We test these propositions using data on 1759 acquisition deals during the period 2004-2023. Our results provide support for our theoretical arguments. The findings advance the human resource management literature by highlighting the capability-building role of training in leveraging human capital to enhance firm performance in cross-border acquisitions. The study also has practical implications for multinational acquirers aiming to strengthen organizational capabilities and build post-acquisition resilience through targeted training investments.
As hybrid working blurs boundaries between work and nonwork, it is critical we understand how these boundaries are negotiated by employees. Existing literature establishes that work-life flexibility policies and relational others shape their boundary management, yet the mechanisms through which they do so remain underspecified. Drawing on border theory, we examine how these policies and relational others within and outside work influence the construction of employees' work-nonwork boundaries. Qualitative data were collected from hybrid working academics with varied relational circumstances through interviews aided by photo-elicitation, revealing the complexity of their boundary management. Our findings make three contributions to border theory and HRM scholarship and practice. First, we extend border theory by theorizing the critical mechanisms through which relational others and work-life flexibility policies shape employees' boundary management by prompting, facilitating, and legitimizing boundaries. Second, we reveal the complexity that arises when multiple boundary-keepers act simultaneously, at times reinforcing and at others undermining one another. Third, we offer a more differentiated understanding of how flexible working policies inform employee boundaries in practice, demonstrating that they can also prompt, facilitate, and legitimize these boundaries, or fail to do so. These findings generate important implications for how work-life flexibility policies are designed, implemented, and evaluated.
The present study examined factors predicting employee participation in employee stock purchase plans (ESPPs). Despite the plausible benefits of ESPPs for participating employees, many employees do not participate in ESPPs even when they are eligible. To shed light on this puzzle, we investigated key variables related to the plan (i.e., discount rates), the firm (i.e., stock price movements), and an external event (i.e., COVID-19 pandemic) in relation to employees' participation in ESPPs. Using a unique proprietary dataset on employee stock purchases from 40 publicly traded companies with a total of 1,005,300 employees, we found that discount rates and past stock price increases, on their own, were not associated with higher participation. However, these relationships became significantly positive when past stock prices displayed stability rather than volatility during certain pre-participation periods. In addition, we observed that the firms in our dataset had significantly higher ESPP participation rates during (vs. before) the pandemic. These findings offer various research and practical implications, extending the compensation and employee ownership literature that has paid little attention to the predictors of employees' ESPP participation.
The proliferation of electronic performance monitoring (EPM) has made digital surveillance ubiquitous in modern workplaces. Meta-analytic evidence indicates that, on average, EPM leaves performance unchanged while consistently increasing employee stress. We propose that this null overall effect reflects two counterbalancing pathways triggered by the same monitoring stimulus. Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory of stress, we posit that EPM is positively associated with employees' perception of objectification, which in turn triggers two divergent coping pathways: (a) an emotion-focused path in which hostile affect positively predicts workplace incivility and negatively predicts job performance, and (b) a problem-focused path in which problem-focused reactance positively predicts job performance. Three complementary studies, an online experiment (Study 1, with two sub-studies; N = 240), a multisource, multiwave field survey (Study 2; N = 224), and a 10-day experience sampling study (Study 3; N = 96, yielding 612 daily observations), support this dual-pathway model. Crucially, we identify development idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) as a pivotal moderator: employees who secure personalized growth resources amplify problem-focused behaviors while mitigating the interpersonal and performance costs of emotion-focused responses. This research offers a nuanced understanding of EPM, providing organizations with insights into how to balance monitoring efficiency with employee initiative through human-centric i-deals.
HR faces a conundrum over how to organize hybrid working patterns given the pros and cons associated with conducting work across multiple domains. Many organizations are currently seeking to clarify and often increase the requirements for employee presence at employer premises, meaning studies are needed to better understand how HR should look to influence decision-making regarding office attendance practices. We draw on theories of boundary control to examine the relationship between return-to-office (RTO) policy enforcement, office time, and eudaimonic worker wellbeing; specifically work-related vitality and work meaningfulness. We propose that enforced RTO policies serve to lower eudaimonic wellbeing via reducing both the psychological experiences of volition (working from one's preferred location) and control (being able to choose where one works). Across two time-lagged survey studies, including a field study in an organization implementing a new RTO policy (Study 1), we find broad support for our propositions. We further find higher office time does not automatically follow RTO policy implementation and that office time is unrelated to eudaimonic worker wellbeing. In our third study, interview data collected over 2 years from key stakeholders of the RTO implementation allows us to explore unresolved and new questions prompted by the two survey studies. We discuss these findings in relation to building theory-informed insights into office attendance policies and the importance of worker volition and control over hybrid working patterns.
Within pay-for-performance (PFP) systems, employee motivation changes over time. Lower-performing employees, in particular, are more likely to reduce their effort in the future as their expectancy perceptions weaken. This study examines a critical yet underexplored design feature of PFP systems: PFP payment timing, which refers to the temporal distance between performance feedback and reward disbursement. Drawing on expectancy theory, we propose that instant PFP payments exert stronger incentive effects on future performance among lower-performing employees than do delayed PFP payments. We test these hypotheses using a field experiment conducted in a real estate sales firm. The results indicate that, relative to delayed PFP payments, instant PFP payments improve the subsequent performance of lower-performing employees, although this effect attenuates over time. These findings underscore that PFP payment timing is a human resource management intervention for sustaining motivation among lower-performing employees, while also revealing the temporal limits of its effectiveness.
Human resource management (HRM) theory has long recognized that context shapes employee behavior and performance. Less developed is the employee competency through which individuals determine what a given context requires and adjust their behavior accordingly. This article develops contextual agility as a competency needed when expectations, norms, cues, or relationships are unfamiliar, unstable, conflicting, or under-specified. Under these conditions, routine responses are often insufficient; employees must adapt, recombine, or construct responses that fit the context. I argue that contextual agility operates through three interrelated processes: attentional openness, regulatory flexibility, and response enactment. At the individual level, these processes are supported by six durable skills: curiosity, humility, resilience, tolerance of ambiguity, perspective-taking, and relationship-building. The article contributes to HRM theory by specifying contextual agility as a competency that links contextual demands to appropriate behavioral responses, and by explaining how HR systems can select, develop, reinforce, and scale this competency to build a contextually agile workforce.
The COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed a global shift toward working from home (WFH), potentially reshaping workplace norms and employee expectations. As organizations began scaling back previously available WFH arrangements in the post-pandemic period, questions emerged about how such changes affect employee satisfaction. Drawing on psychological contract theory, this study examines how reductions in WFH availability influence employee job satisfaction and tests psychological contract violation as the key causal mechanism underlying this relationship. Using two complementary studies, we provide evidence that scaling back WFH availability leads to declines in employee job satisfaction after the pandemic. The first study leverages longitudinal organizational data from U.S. federal agencies spanning 2016 to 2023 and a quasi-experimental research design to examine how sharper reductions in WFH availability affect employee job satisfaction. The second study uses a scenario-based experimental design to demonstrate that reductions in WFH availability increase perceptions of psychological contract violation, which in turn reduce job satisfaction. Together, these findings highlight that post-pandemic reductions in previously available flexibility are not merely logistical adjustments, but meaningful relational changes with important implications for employee attitudes.
Research on how to leverage high-performance work systems (HPWS) and other strategic human resource management (HRM) systems to improve performance outcomes has long been a cornerstone of the HRM discipline. This study offers a comprehensive mapping of the field through bibliometric analysis and a thematic synthesis of 3503 peer-reviewed articles published across 156 leading journals from 1995 to 2025. By revisiting the HRM-performance relationship and tracing the evolving trajectories of scholarly inquiry, the review identifies four major thematic domains: (1) configurational HRM architectures, (2) multilevel HRM-performance impacts, (3) "black box" mechanisms that mediate and moderate the HRM-performance link, and (4) emerging topics in HRM systems in responding to crises and socio-technological changes. The review finds evidence for complex transmitting patterns through which HRM systems improve performance, characterized by a horizontally interwoven and vertically multi-level nature. The study addresses longstanding conceptual fragmentation by clarifying the structure and theorization of HRM systems and contributes a synthesized framework to guide future research. It also highlights promising but underexplored avenues, such as the role of algorithmic HRM, methodological pluralism, and configurational logics, in advancing the understanding of HRM-performance dynamics. Practical implications are elaborated, translating theoretical findings into actionable guidance for practitioners.
This study unravels how the effects of work-life policies (WLPs) on individual employees' perceived control over their work schedule have cumulative effects across employees, ultimately crossing levels to enhance organizational outcomes like sales. We tested a multilevel mediating model comprising two cross-level mechanisms: a top-down link between the organization's availability of WLPs and individual-level variables like control over work schedule and job satisfaction, and a bottom-up link between job satisfaction (aggregated within the organization) and sales growth. Analyses of multilevel, multisource data from 3262 employees in 70 organizations supported the top-down hypotheses predicting that gains in employee control over their work schedule mediate the positive relationship between WLPs availability and job satisfaction. Furthermore, analyses of sales growth data using a matched subsample of 39 organizations and 1872 employees supported the bottom-up hypothesis that organization-level job satisfaction is positively associated with sales growth over a three-year span. Our results begin to shed light on the micro-foundations of doing well (i.e., increasing sales) by doing good (i.e., increasing employees' control over their work schedules through WLP).
Fragmented work arrangements increasingly challenge conventional firm-centric approaches to human resource management (HRM), as HR activities become distributed across multiple actors. The concept of HR ecosystem offers a powerful lens for understanding this shift, yet we know little about how such ecosystems emerge and evolve over time. Drawing on 178 in-depth qualitative interviews from China's online food delivery sector, we find that HR ecosystems evolve through four stages: pre-emergence static alignment, misalignment, realignment, and dynamic alignment. A defining feature of this process is the emergence of functional shared governance, in which HR responsibilities are distributed out of operational necessity rather than consensual power sharing. As this diffusion disrupts previously established static alignment, organizations respond through maintenance and adaptation strategies, with digital technologies enabling coordination and responsiveness across dispersed participants. These efforts produce dynamic alignment-an ongoing process through which HRM is continually recalibrated to maintain coherence while accommodating variation and change. Our findings contribute to the literature by theorizing how HR ecosystems emerge, how functional shared governance develops, and how dynamic alignment is achieved over time.
Gender diversity in leadership helps organizations address environmental issues, one of the grand challenges. However, much of the existing research treats corporate environmental strategies as a monolithic concept, overlooking important distinctions between different types of environmental approaches. Based on the approach/inhibition theory of power, we argue that TMT gender diversity influences different types of TMT motivation (i.e., approach or avoidance focus), which in turn lead to distinctive environmental strategies (i.e., proactive or reactive strategies). This relationship is shaped by gender power dynamics at both regional and organizational levels. Using panel data comprising 6741 observations from firms in high-polluting industries, we find that under conditions of traditional regional gender norms or high TMT gender power inequality, gender diversity fosters reactive environmental strategies by activating TMT avoidance focus. Conversely, when TMT gender power inequality is low, gender diversity promotes proactive environmental strategies by activating TMT approach focus. This study highlights the critical roles of gender power equality and team psychological motivations in shaping the impact of female TMT representation on corporate environmental strategies.
