Caring human resources management and employee engagement

• Published in: Human resource management review Vol. 32; no. 3; p. 100835
• Main Author: Saks, Alan M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Greenwich Elsevier Inc 01.09.2022; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Caring HRM; Employee engagement; Employee involvement; Human resource management; Organizational care; Organizational climate; Strategic HRM; Wellness programs; Caring HRM; Organizational climate; Strategic HRM; Organizational care; Employee engagement
• ISSN: 1053-4822; 1873-7889
• DOI: 10.1016/j.hrmr.2021.100835

Research on employee engagement has demonstrated that human resource management (HRM) practices and systems are positively related to employee engagement. However, it is not clear what HRM practices or system of practices is most important for employee engagement or the theoretical mechanisms that intervene and explain the link between HRM and employee engagement. In this paper, I provide answers to these two important questions by developing a model of caring HRM and employee engagement based on the engagement, organizational climate, and strategic HRM literatures. The model indicates that a system of caring HRM practices (job design, training and development, flexible work arrangements, work-life balance, participation in decision making, health and safety, career development, and health and wellness programs) will result in an organizational climate of care and concern for employees that employees will respond to by caring for the organization which they will enact with higher levels of engagement. This model provides many avenues for future research and practice on HRM and employee engagement and introduces the notion of a caring HRM system and an organizational climate of care and concern for employees to the literature on employee engagement. •Caring human resources management (HRM) practices will be positively related to an organizational climate of care and concern for employees.•An organizational climate of care and concern for employees will be positively related to employee caring for their organization.•Employees who care about their organization will enact their care by being more engaged in their job and work roles.•An organizational climate of care and concern for employees will mediate the relationship between caring HRM practices and employee engagement.