The roles of justice climates on high-investment human resource system and unit/individual performance relationships

While there is evidence that high-investment human resource system (HIHRS) use is related to positive behavioral outcomes, our understanding of the underlying mechanism is wanting. Answering the calls for more cross-level human resource management (HRM) studies, we integrate and build on contemporary organizational justice climate research and the extant cross-level HRM research to investigate unit justice climates as novel mechanisms through which unit HIHRS use may advance the performance of units and their members. Adopting a multi-level and multi-source approach, we develop and test a moderated mediation model to explain how unit-level HIHRS use relates to unit and individual task performance. Analysis of multi-source data from 701 managers, 120 food and beverage units and 40 hotel properties of a multinational hotel chain illuminated the mediating influence of unit overall justice climates on the relationships between unit HIHRS use and unit and individual task performance. Moreover, unit procedural and distributive justice climates were found to have positive interactive effects on that performance. The current study’s findings, practical implications, limitations, and avenues for future research are discussed.