High commitment performance management: the roles of justice and trust

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship betweenemployees' perceptions of a particular subsystem of HRM practices (performancemanagement) and their commitment to the organisation. In addition, the studyseeks to examine the mechanisms by which these perceptions translate intoemployee attitudes and behaviours. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 524questionnaire responses were collected from four organisations in the UK.Findings – The findings show that the link between employee experiences of highcommitment performance management (HCPM) practices and their level of commitmentis strongly mediated by related perceptions of organisational justice. Inaddition, the level of employee trust in the organisation is a significantmoderator. Research limitations/implications – This is a cross-sectional studybased on self-report data, which limits the reliability of the findings. Thefindings may also be specific to a particular context. However, the results bycompany support their generalisability. Practical implications – The findingslead one to believe that it is essential to observe the actual experiences ofHCPM practices and outcomes at employee level, and to consider the broaderorganisational context, if one is to understand their effects on performance.Originality/value – When exploring the impact of high commitment work practiceson firm performance, little attention has been paid to the employee perspective:employees ultimately are the recipients of an organisation's HRM practices, andas such their perceptions of these practices affect their attitudes andbehaviour in th