Title: Human Resource Management (HRM) strategies and the
impact on
well-being of employees and
effectiveness in Danish private and public firms.
Kjeld Nielsen
Department of Sociology and Social Work
Aalborg University
E-mail: Kjeld@socsci.aau.dk
Peter Nielsen
Department of Political Science
Aalborg University
Email: Peter@socsci.aau.dk
Abstract
This article presents a new view of human resources deployment where management gives employees
discretion e.g. self-control, but also seeks commitment in the work organization, that motivates and
involves employees and create foundation of well-being and effectiveness (individual innovative
behavior) among employees. This view rises following research question: How do HRM strategies
connect to the employee psychological well-being and effectiveness?
The analytical results build on data from project Meadow (Employee and Employer Survey 2012) of
Danish firms. The research in this paper analyzes self-reported informations from a questionnaire
answered by 3362 employees (response rate 37,2) belong to both private and public sectors.
The results are that the two strategies, (control and commitment strategy) generally have ambiguous
impact on well-being and effectiveness. But both control and commitment strategy are submitting a
changed and intensively work context, leads to a conflicting outcome on low well-being and positive
effectiveness. Furthermore, to support evidence of the conflicting outcome in the HRM research
literature, it can also be concluded that well-being scores high on both organizational and job
commitment, but this connection has no mediated and significant impact on effectiveness. This result
can be interpreted within a mixed HR strategy of a decentralized self-control, but a centralized
commitment which are sprouting up in the knowledge society.