Exploring the relationships between high involvement work system practices, work demands and emotional exhaustion: A multi-level study

This study explores the impact of enacted high involvement work systems (HIWS) practices on employee emotional exhaustion. This study hypothesized that work overload and job responsibility mediate the relationship between HIWS practices (ability, motivation, opportunity and work design HIWS practices) and employee emotional exhaustion. A total of 360 employees (nested within 49 work units) rated their feelings of work overload, job responsibility and emotional exhaustion. The line managers from these work units rated the enacted HIWS practices. Results indicate that ability- and motivation HIWS practices are positively related to work overload, and ability-, motivation- and work design HIWS practices are positively related to job responsibility. In turn, job responsibility reduces emotional exhaustion, whereas work overload has a positive effect on emotional exhaustion. The findings of this study underline the importance of blending the occupational health psychology literature with macro insights of the strategic human resource management (SHRM) literature to develop a more refined multi-level model of the processes by which HIWS affects employee emotional exhaustion.