Individual pay for performance and commitment HR practices in South Korea

Despite the rapid growth of the use of pay-for-individual-performance systems in collectivistic societies including Korea, there are very few empirical studies regarding their effects on employee attitudes. With a data-set of 37 companies and 959 employees from South Korea, this research examines whether the new compensation system influences Korean employees’ organizational commitment and work effort and how these effects are moderated by HR practices. Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling, we found that pay-for-individual performance and commitment to HR practices did not have effects on organizational commitment, but a positive interaction effect was found. Regarding work effort, positive effects of pay-for-individual performance and the commitment HR were found as well as a significant interaction effect between them. Implications of the results are included.