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DOI:
10.1111/1748-8583.12139
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Citation for published version (APA):
Guest, D. E. (2016). Human resource management and employee well-being: towards a new analytic
framework. HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, 27(1). DOI: 10.1111/1748-8583.12139
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Download date: 05. Jun. 2018
2
Human Resource Management and Employee Well-Being: Towards a New Analytic
Framework
1
Abstract
The mutual gains model suggests that human resource management should benefit both
individuals and organizations. However the dominant models within HRM theory and
research continue to focus largely on ways to improve performance with employee
concerns very much a secondary consideration. Furthermore pressures at work and in
society more widely are creating an increasing threat to employee well-being. If employee
concerns and the threats to well-being are to be taken seriously, a different analytic
framework for HRM is required. The paper sets out an alternative approach to HRM that
gives priority to practices designed to enhance well-being and a positive employment
relationship, proposing that both elements are essential. Evidence is presented to support
the choice of practices and to argue that these also hold the potential to improve both
individual and organizational performance. It therefore offers a different path to mutual
gains. The research and policy implications of this approach are discussed.
Key words: HRM, well-being, the employment relationship, mutual gains, performance
1
An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Academy of Management HR Division’s second International HRM
Conference held at the University of New South Wales, February 2016.
3
Human Resource Management and Employee Well-Being: Towards a New Analytic
Framework
Introduction
Over the past thirty years, theory and research on human resource management (HRM) has
made considerable progress. For example, we now have a clearer understanding about the
strategic role of external and internal fit (Boxall and Purcell, 2016), about the process
whereby HRM can be linked to performance (Jiang, Lepak, Hu and Baer, 2012), about its
association with firm performance (Paauwe, Guest and Wright, 2013) and about the
challenges of managing effective implementation (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004). Although
there appears to be much to commend, not everyone agrees that this represents significant
progress. For example, Kaufmann (2012) proposed that thirty years of HRM research
deserves a failing grade while Guest (2011) suggested that researchers are “still searching
for answers”.
The argument in this paper is somewhat different. While progress in the field is
acknowledged, it is claimed that the search for a link between HRM and performance has
been pursued at the expense of a concern for employee well-being. Furthermore, changes
in the nature and context of work support the case for a greater focus on well-being. What
is therefore needed is a different approach to HRM that is more likely to enhance employee
well-being but which may also offer an alternative route to high performance. The aim of
this paper is to set out and justify such an approach.
The changing context and the challenge to employee well-being.
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There is a strong ethical case for focusing on employee well-being. In addition changes at
work and in the conditions surrounding work risk eroding work-related well-being with
harmful consequences for employees and, potentially, for organizations. These changes
have been widely signalled but often ignored in the core HRM literature and justify
prioritising HR practices that can help to ameliorate their impact. For example, changes in
technology continue to affect work-related well-being. While some changes are positive
leading to the automation of routine activities, opportunities to work from home and
greater access to information, others present challenges to employee well-being.
Information technology can increase demand and create work overload (Derks and Bakker,
2010), lead to work-home interference (Derks et al.2014), affect the quality of recovery time
(Sonnentag, 2003), enhance the opportunities for surveillance with its implications for loss
of control and increased stress (Deery, Iverson and Walsh, 2002) and contribute to skill
obsolescence and associated job insecurity. While research has demonstrated the benefits
for well-being of redesigning jobs to provide greater autonomy, Felstead, Gallie and Green
(2015), find that in the UK average levels of autonomy have declined while work demands
have increased, notably in low skill jobs. Following the 2008 financial crisis, pressure at work
has been exacerbated by the challenge of stalled productivity in most advanced economies.
Analysing the UK productivity challenge, Bryson and Forth (2015) found widespread
increases in workload alongside static wages. This has reduced fairness, threatened well-
being but failed to improve productivity.
Reduced fairness can be linked to growing inequality in society (Picketty, 2014), particularly
affected by pay, while Wilkinson and Pickett (2010) claim that countries with less dispersion
of wealth show higher well-being among their populations. Evidence about growing income
inequality is startling. For example OECD figures reveal that in the USA between 1979 and