The management of professional employees: linking progressive HRM practices, cognitive orientations and organizational citizenship behavior

Abstract

The present research examines the relationships between progressive HRM practices and the organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) of professional employees. Drawing on recent HRM literature, our research model includes a perceived organizational support (POS)-commitment mediation hypothesis. Taking into account previous studies on professional employees, a job satisfaction-commitment pathway is also integrated. We tested both mediational pathways as part of a single structural equation model using a sample of 329 professional employees. Our results show that the relationship between recognition and OCB is mediated by the POS-commitment pathway, while the relationships between fairness of rewards, skills development and OCB are mediated by the job satisfaction-commitment pathway. The specificities of the HRM of professional employees related to their multiple cognitive orientations are discussed.

Keywords:

• Professional employees
• progressive HRM practices
• perceived organizational support
• job satisfaction
• organizational commitment
• OCB

Acknowledgment

Thanks to Jill Bennoson for the linguistic revision of this paper and her helpful comments and suggestions.

Notes

1. Sometimes referred to in terms of high performance work system, high-commitment work system or high involvement work system.

2. 2015 annual report of the Order of Occupational Therapists of Quebec: http://www.oeq.org/userfiles/File/Publications/Rapports_annuels/OEQ_RA_2014-2015.pdf