Success or growth? Distinctive roles of extrinsic and intrinsic career goals in high-performance work systems, job crafting, and job performance

Despite the increasing evidence that has demonstrated the strengths of high-performance work systems (HPWS), there is no consensus on the relation between HPWS and job performance. By integrating HPWS theory with the model of career goals, we developed a mediated moderation model to explain the way career goals moderate the relation between employee-experienced HPWS and job performance, and whether job crafting mediates these interactive effects. Based upon a multi-phase, multi-source sample of 398 employees and their direct supervisors, we found that employee-experienced HPWS is related positively and significantly to job performance only when intrinsic career goals are high or when extrinsic career goals are low, and the results showed that job crafting mediates these moderated relations. Theoretical contributions, practical implications, and limitations are discussed as well.