Experienced high performance work system in the public healthcare sector: Conceptualisation, scale validation and examination of its “dark side"
Date of Award
2023
Document Type
Thesis - ECU Access Only
Publisher
Edith Cowan University
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
School
School of Business and Law
First Supervisor
Stephen Teo
Second Supervisor
Diep Nguyen
Third Supervisor
Jennifer Lajom
Abstract
Recently there has been considerable evidence that high performance work system (HPWS) has garnered scholarly interest in the public healthcare context. Despite this growing interest, there remain a number of gaps that need to be addressed. First, human resource (HR) scholars have criticised the HPWS concept as lacking an established definition and consensus about the number of bundles that should be combined to constitute an experienced HPWS measure. Second, there is limited research examining when employees evaluate their experienced HPWS as a bundle of job demands. Based on these knowledge gaps, I conducted a two-phase study in the public healthcare context in Ghana to fill the identified gaps.
The first phase of this study sought to validate a measure of experienced HPWS that has both content and context relevance in the public healthcare setting. The second phase of the study examined the moderating effect of experienced HPWS as a bundle of job demands on the first and second stages of the indirect effects of interpersonal conflict and emotional demands through belongingness on work engagement. This was guided by theoretical insights from transactional model of stress and the literature on the dark side of HPWS.
To achieve the objective of the first phase of this study, I utilised the Delphi method to validate bundles of HR practices that were generated from the HPWS literature in the public healthcare context. The Delphi is a suitable method because it helps to resolve conceptual discrepancies and provide clarity on a valid and theoretically coherent measure of experienced HPWS based on the consensus opinion of expert panellists. Results from three Delphi surveys were analysed using descriptive statistics. In phase two, I used field survey data to examine the moderating effect of experienced HPWS as a bundle of job demands on the association between job stressors (i.e., interpersonal conflict and emotional demands) and belongingness on one hand, and the association between belongingness and work engagement on the other hand.
The results of the Delphi method revealed 10 bundles containing 32 HR practices as having both content and context relevance for conceptually measuring registered nurses’ experienced HPWS in public sector hospitals in Ghana. Second, findings of the field survey revealed a negative direct effect of interpersonal conflict on belongingness but not on work engagement. However, emotional demands were positively associated with belongingness and work engagement. In addition, belongingness intervened in the negative effect of interpersonal conflict, as well as the positive effect of emotional demands on work engagement. Finally, experienced HPWS, as a bundle of job demands, moderated the effect of emotional demands on belongingness on one hand, as well as the effect of belongingness on work engagement on the other hand.
This study offers a validated measure of experienced HPWS that is intended to provide consistency in empirical research findings since previous studies have utilised different bundles of HR practices to conceptualise their HPWS measure as a result of a lack of a validated HPWS measure in the public healthcare context. In addition, by describing an experienced HPWS measure as actual HPWS experiences of registered nurses rather than their emotional appraisal of the HR practices, this study responds to calls for more transparency in measuring employees experienced HPWS in public healthcare. Moreover, by conceptualising the experienced HPWS measure as a bundle of job demands that moderates the positive effect of emotional demands on belongingness, as well as of belongingness on work engagement, this study adds to our knowledge of the dark side effect of HPWS in the HPWS – engagement linkage in public healthcare context. Finally, this study extends the application of transactional model of stress beyond psychology and management literatures to explicate how interpersonal conflict, emotional demands and experienced HPWS as job stressors exert their differential effects on belongingness and work engagement. The findings of this study are unique, with research that explicitly examines the dark side effect of HPWS needed to progress our understanding of the HPWS–work engagement linkage in the public healthcare context. This finding will enlighten HR managers and hospital superintendents in public sector hospitals in Ghana on how to strategically deploy the bundles of HR practices for the experienced HPWS to generate benefits for employers and employees and in the end create a supportive workplace for frontline nurses.
DOI
10.25958/1WHC-9B05
Access Note
Access to this thesis has been embargoed until 6th June 2028.
Recommended Citation
Gyensare, M. A. (2023). Experienced high performance work system in the public healthcare sector: Conceptualisation, scale validation and examination of its “dark side". Edith Cowan University. https://doi.org/10.25958/1WHC-9B05