고몰입 인적자원관리에 대한 인식이 직무스트레스에 미치는 영향

Does the Perception of High-Commitment Human Resource Management Decrease Job Stress? The Moderating Role of Employees' Perceptions of the Industrial Relations Climate

고몰입 인적자원관리(high commitment human resource management)는 종업원의 태도에 영향을 끼쳐 성과 향상에 기여한다고 알려져 왔다. 본 연구는 고몰입 인적자원관리가 종업원 개인 수준의 성과에 미치는 영향을 알아보기 위해서 고몰입 인적자원관리에 대한 종업원에 대한 인식이 직무스트레스에 미치는 영향을 연구하였다. 또한, 고몰입 인적자원관리에 대한 인식과 직무스트레스의 관계를 환경 변수인 노사관계 분위기에 따라서 변화할 것이라는 점을 파악하고자 하였다. 본 연구를 위한 설문은 노조가 있는 국내 자동차 기업의 6개 공장에서 실시되었으며, 973명의 생산직 종업원이 설문에 참여하였다. 분석 결과, 회사가 고몰입 인적자원관리를 하고 있다고 인식하는 정도가 클수록 직무스트레스가 낮았다. 또한, 노사관계 분위기가 우호적이라고 느낄수록 직무스트레스가 낮았다. 그리고, 노사관계 분위기가 우호적이라고 느끼는 종업원들에 비해, 노사관계 분위기가 비우호적이라고 느끼는 종업원들이 고몰입 인적자원관리와 직무스트레스의 관계가 더 강하게 나타났다. 본 연구의 결과를 바탕으로 이론적, 실무적 시사점과 향후 연구 방향을 논의하였다.

High-commitment human resource management (HC-HRM) aims to increase organizational effectiveness by encouraging employees to be highly involved in the organization and committed to their work. As HC-HRM has been considered to be positively associated with organizational performance, it has received a great deal of attention from HR researchers. The existing literature on HC-HRM has shown that it influences employees' attitudes toward their organizations or job, which in turn contributes to firm performance and productivity. However, despite the significant volume of research on HC-HRM, its effectiveness in terms of individual level outcomes remains unknown. In order to fill this gap, the present study attempted to investigate the relationship between employees' perceptions of HC-HRM and job stress. HC-HRM includes HR practices such as performance-based compensation, job security, employees' high involvement, and extensive training, all of which are regarded to have a positive effect on the attitude of employees. Effective HC-HRM is characterized by motivation, knowledge sharing, the maximizing of employees' participation, and an increase in the commitment to their job or organization (Guest, 2000). Participation in decision-making tends to allow employees to improve their work environment in order to relieve job stress. HC-HRM also allows employees to have a high level of autonomy, which may lead to their empowerment. Added to this, employment security tends to increase the emotional or psychological stability of employees. In other words, HC-HRM contributes to making a job interesting and satisfies employees, and this in turn decreases their stress at work. Thus, we suggest Hypothesis 1: Employees' perceptions of HC-HRM have a negative relationship with job stress. This means that employees who perceive that their employers adopt a great deal of HC-HRM practices are less likely to suffer from work stress than those who their employers adopt a few HC-HRM practices. Employee perception of the industrial relations climate can influence not only their job stress but also their emotional well-being, one of the critical elements in a successful working environment. Unlike adversarial labor relations, cooperative labor relations are likely to guarantee that employees become highly involved in decision making regarding their own work. When management is supportive of the union, employees tend to resolve problems that would otherwise result in a poorer work environment. In addition, if cooperative industrial relations are established, management will attempt to improve working conditions because they consider the union or employees to be partners in the pursuit of the common goal of increased productivity. Therefore, if employees perceive the relationship between the union and management to be cooperative, they are less likely to experience stress on the job than are those employees who perceive an uncooperative relationship. This leads to Hypothesis 2: Employees' perceptions of the industrial relations climate has a negative relationship with job stress. Finally, this study examines whether the relationship between the perceptions of HC-HRM and job stress is moderated by employees' perceptions of the industrial relations climate. Given the effectiveness of HC-HRM, it is influenced by the industrial relations of the organization. Industrial relations are also one of the most important elements in the workplace affecting employee work stress. We thus suggest Hypothesis 3: For employees who perceive that the management adopts high levels of HC-HRM, the relationship between their perception of HC-HRM and their job stress is likely to be stronger than that for employees who perceive that the management adopts low levels of HC-HRM. Participants were recruited from the employees of six plants operated by a large South Korean automobile company that has an employee union. Results show that employees' perceptions of HC-HRM have a