The Challenge of Putting High‐Performance Work Systems Into Effect: How Team Leaders' Cost‐Reduction Attribution and Extrinsic Motivation Impede HPWS Effectiveness

ABSTRACT This study aims to address the puzzle of why the implementation of high‐performance work systems (HPWS) may fail to deliver the expected outcomes. By integrating the process model of SHRM and social information processing theory, we propose that team leaders' HPWS cost‐reduction attribution and extrinsic motivation create a gap between their implementation of HPWS and employees' experiences of HPWS, and this gap impedes the effectiveness of HPWS. We test our hypotheses using multisource data from 151 team leaders and their 996 employees in China. The results indicate that when team leaders implement HPWS with higher cost‐reduction attribution or extrinsic motivation, team members have weaker collective experiences of HPWS, which, in turn, leads to lower organizational commitment and work engagement. These findings contribute to the HPWS literature by highlighting the significant role of team leaders' attributions and motivations in HPWS implementation, and by explaining why HPWS may not yield the desired results.