Could HR practices help to foster sustainable employee energy in the work?

Abstract

The paper aims to clarify the relationship between human resource (HR) practices and performance. Based on the self-determination theory, we developed and tested a theory of how human resource practices affect employee psychological empowerment and resultant employee energy in the work in this study. A survey of 227 employees from different companies showed that the human resource practices were positively related to the employee psychological empowerment including the feeling of meaning, impact, autonomy and competence. In turn, employee psychological empowerment played partial mediating role between human resource practices and employee energy in the work. Taken the 80's and 90's generation employees into account, results of the analysis indicated that employee energy in the organizations are influenced by the individual psychological condition significantly. The meaning, impact, autonomy and competence employees perceived in the work are related to the higher level of energy in the work.