Is there internal fit among ability-, motivation-, and opportunity-enhancing HR practices? Evidence from South Korea

Recently, the traditional approach to high-performance work systems (HPWS) research has been questioned, primarily in regard to the following two areas: (1) its organizational-level measure cannot capture variability within organizations, and (2) its utilization of the summation index is predicated upon the individual HR practices that constitute HPWS having a synergistic impact on important outcomes. Despite the prevalence of this approach, empirical studies on the internal fit premise in the context of HRM are startlingly rare. Furthermore, the existing research has often reported mixed results. Herein, our study attempts to replicate recent developments by categorizing employee-rated HPWS along three subdimensions: ability-, motivation-, and opportunity-enhancing HR practices. Next, we conduct two different tests; namely, additive and interactive models, to predict individual performance. The results of the hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) demonstrate general support for the additive model. Most conspicuously, we find that motivation-enhancing HR practices negatively moderate the relationships between the other two dimensions and the outcomes. Only the interaction of ability- and opportunity-enhancing HR practices positively influences individual performance. Based upon the findings of the current research, we argue that the internal fit assumption should be viewed more cautiously and understood in the broader context wherein HPWS operate.