The Role of Cultural Values on the Relationship between High-Performance Human Resource Practices and Work Effort

This study investigates the moderating role that cultural values have on the relationship between High-Performance Human Resource Practices and work effort. Even though the effect of these practices on employee work effort has been researched, little attention has been paid to the effect that individual cultural values held by employees have on the success or failure of the implementation of these HR practices in terms of individual performance. Using data collected from 25 European countries, this study focuses on three broad categories of values, namely openness to change, self-enhancement, and conservation, each inclusionary of a number of values. The results from the regression analyses indicate that only the value of conservation has a positive effect on the relationship between these HR practices and work effort. The effect that HR practices focusing on skills-enhancement have on work effort is moderated to a greater extent by values related to conservation in comparison to HR practices related to autonomy. The value of openness to change is found to have a negative effect on the relationship between these practices that are related to autonomy, while the value of self-enhancement affects negatively the relationship between practices related to skills-enhancement and work effort.