An evil in disguise: A Study of High Performance Work Practices and Employee’s Negative Personal outcomes

Abstract

The purpose of this study was examining the impact of two categories of HPWPs; challenge demand HPWPs (Performance evaluation and continuing education) and job resource HPWPs (Flexible working hours and participation in decision-making) on employee personal consequences (work fatigue, psychological withdrawal, neglect and aggression) through job stress as a mediator. Data were collected using survey questionnaires distributed to the sample of 500 construction industry respondents in Pakistan encompassing companies of Islamabad, Karachi, and Quetta. Hypotheses were tested by following the recommendations of Preacher and Hays (2012) i.e. PROCESS Macro. The study found that challenge demands HPWPs are positively related to the negative personal consequences whereas, job resource HPWPs are negatively related to negative personal consequences stress is positively related to personal consequences and mediates the relationship between HPWP and employee personal consequences. The research entailed few limitations in the form of being a cross sectional study and the focus being on one industry of Pakistan, while having significant practical implications and contributions to the literature. The present study highlights that considering the specific affects of different categories of HPWPs on personal level outcomes is important while adopting them to increase the performance of organizations.