Volunteer High Performance Work Systems and Service Performance： An Empirical Study of Beijing Olympic Volunteers

• Published in: Frontiers of business research in China Vol. 10; no. 4; pp. 605 - 635
• Main Authors: Cai, Yujie, Han, Jian, Peng, Siqing, Sun, Luping
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing Higher Education Press 01-12-2016; Higher Education Press Limited Company
• Subjects: Empowerment; Games; high performance work system; Human resources; Leadership; Olympic games; Olympic volunteers; Performance management; psychological empowerment; service performance; Studies; transformational leadership; Volunteers; 人力资源; 北京奥运会; 回归分析; 工作系统; 志愿者; 数据收集; 服务补救; 绩效管理; Beijing China; China
• ISSN: 1673-7326; 1673-7431
• DOI: 10.3868/s070-005-016-0022-3

This study examines the key human resources factors that affect volunteers＇ service performance from the perspectives of volunteers and managers in the Beijing Summer Olympic Games of 2008. Survey data were collected from 1,727 volunteers and 243 managers at the Beijing Olympics test events held at 10 venues between November 2007 and April 2008. Regression analyses and a moderation test were combined to test the hypotheses. A set of high performance work systems （HPWS） for volunteers in the Beijing Summer Olympic Games were developed which include performance management, training, recognition, teamwork and volunteer participation. Volunteer HPWS were positively related to psychological empowerment, which was in turn positively related to service recovery performance. Moreover, transformational leadership moderates the relationship between volunteer HPWS and psychological empowerment in such a way that the relationship is stronger when transformational leadership is at a higher level than when it is at a lower level.Implications and limitations were also discussed.