Making good things last longer: Savoring and the relationship between HRM and employee outcomes

This work studies the mediating and moderating processes through which the perceptions of human resource management (HRM) systems are linked with affective commitment. We sampled one hundred and seventeen sales managers and tested whether feelings of engagement (e.g., vigor and dedication) mediated the relationship between perceptions of HRM systems and affective commitment. Furthermore, we tested whether managers’ savoring strategies would moderate the positive relationship between perceptions of HRM and engagement, and if the strength of the hypothesized indirect effects were conditional on the use of savoring strategies. Results showed that the relationship between perceptions of HRM and affective commitment was mediated by feelings of dedication, but not vigor. In addition, savoring strategies were found to moderate the relationship between perceptions of HRM system and vigor and dedication, so that the highest levels of engagement were found in individuals who reported high perceptions of HRM and high use of savoring strategies. Finally, results support a conditional indirect effect of HRM on predicting affective commitment via dedication when levels of savoring strategies were moderate to high, but not when their use was low. Altogether, these results demonstrated that engagement and savoring strategies represent key elements in explaining how perceptions of HRM systems are associated with affective commitment.