Examining the intermediate role of employee abilities, motivation and opportunities to participate in the relationship between HR bundles and employee performance

During the last decades, research on human resource management (HRM) has focused on examining the mechanisms that explain the effects of HR practices on employee performance. Drawing on the AMO model, our study constructs an integrative model to analyze the contribution of employees’ abilities, motivation and opportunities (employee AMO) to participate in the relationship between HRM and employee performance. In doing so, we test a multilevel model that analyzes the top-down influence of three HR bundles (skill-, motivation-, and opportunity-enhancing) on employee AMO, and the bottom-up contribution of these three employee-related variables on their collective performance. We use matched data from 83 HR managers, 83 R&D managers and 262 R&D employees in a sample of Spanish firms. Our results provide evidence that the skill-enhancing and opportunity-enhancing HR bundles increase both employee abilities and motivation; the opportunity-enhancing HR bundle also contributes to increasing employee opportunities to participate.