How and when service-oriented high-performance work systems foster employee service performance : A test of mediating and moderating processes

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how and when service-oriented high-performance work systems (HPWS) impact employees’ service performance. Design/methodology/approach Survey data was obtained from 568 frontline service employees and their supervisors across 92 branches of a large bank in China. The hypotheses were tested with hierarchical linear modeling. Findings The results suggested that service-oriented HPWS affected employee service performance via its simultaneous impact on employees’ service ability, customer orientation, and service climate perception. Moreover, the indirect effects of HPWS on service performance via service ability and customer orientation were significant only when service-oriented HPWS consensus was high. Practical implications To elicit employees’ provision of excellent service, organizations should invest in service-oriented HRM practices to improve all of their service ability, customer orientation, and service climate perception, making them able to, willing to, and having the chance to perform high-quality service performance. Organizations should also pay attention to the variability in employees’ HRM perceptions within the same group. Originality/value The research contributes to the extant literature by presenting a more complete understanding of how service-oriented HPWS elicits employee service performance, and when this HPWS is and is not effective.