HR practices and life satisfaction: differences among for-profit, public, and social organisations
Navigating the challenges of the future of work requires human resource management (HRM) strategies that take a broader view of employees’ needs across different sectors. This includes a thorough understanding of how HR practices promote employees’ well-being. While the relationship between High-Performance Work Practices (HPWP) and job satisfaction is established, with other facets of well-being is less clear and consistent. Considering differentiated bundles of HR practices and overall measures of psychological well-being (e.g., life satisfaction) might help clarify this issue and develop sustainable HRM systems. Examining this relationship across different organizational types will broaden our understanding of how and when HRM contributes to the creation of sustainable organizations. Thus, the aim of this study is twofold: to analyse the relationship between two bundles of HR practices and two dimensions of well-being, life satisfaction and job satisfaction; and to study the generalizability of these relationships across three types of organizations (for-profit, public, and social). Using data from 1568 employees, results show a total mediation between HR practices and life satisfaction for social enterprises and two pathways to life satisfaction for the case of for-profit and public organisations: a negative direct pathway and a mediated path through job satisfaction. We suggest that these differences might be due to the different degrees of employees’ ownership in the implementation of HR practices. We discuss the importance of considering the relationship between HR practices and the two well-being indicators in the context of structural and cultural factors related to the type of organisation.
Villajos, E., N. Tordera, J. M. Peiró y M. Van Veldhoven (2026). «HR practices and life satisfaction: differences among for-profit, public, and social organisations». Review of Managerial Science, Springer Verlag (noviembre).
