PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of high performance work systems (HPWSs) on employee voice, employee innovation and organization performance in a service organization. The study examines the mediating roles of employee voice on HPWSs and organizational performance.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey was distributed to 600 professional staff and a total number of 360 respondents returned the survey. The hypotheses are tested through the use of the variance-based structural equation modeling (SEM) technique.FindingsThese findings indicate that the HPWS has a significant impact on employee innovation and organization performance. The empirical evidence does not support the relationship between HPWS and employee voice and also employee voice does not mediate the relationship between HPWS and organization performance in a human resource (HR) service organization.Research limitations/implicationsEmployee voice does not empirically mediate the relationship between HPWS and organization performance; other factors can be further explored. Future research should employ other theories of strategic human resource management (SHRM) to further explore more factors that influence the HPWS on employee innovation, employee voice and organization performance.Practical implicationsThe organization should respond to employee voice through aforementioned rather than the use of traditional, strategic and operational methods or tools believed to be the best approach to employee issues.Originality/valueThis study builds a solid empirical investigation that contributes to the HPWS existing body of knowledge. It is also significant as it is one of the few studies that examine the link between HPWS and job outcomes, like employee voice, employee innovation and organizational performance, in an HR service organization and also employee voice as a mediator on HPWS and organizational performance.

The paper investigates whether cognitive style congruence of managers and employees on the analytic-intuitive dimension influence employee communication satisfaction. The cognitive style and employee communication satisfaction was measured in 136 manager/employee dyads. Polynomial regression and surface analysis were used to analyze communication satisfaction under four conditions. First, an analytic congruence condition where both manager and employee are analytical, second, an intuitive congruence condition where both are intuitive, third, an incongruence condition where an intuitive manager manages an analytic employee, and fourth, another incongruence condition where an analytic manager manages an intuitive employee. Results supported the similarity effect hypothesis indicating that congruence increases employee communication satisfaction in general. Furthermore, the surface analysis also allowed us to see that the communication satisfaction is higher in the intuitive congruence condition. The study did not support the hypothesis that in incongruent dyads intuitive managers are preferred.