Abstract

This paper explores the ways in which employees may experience and respond to tensions inherent in the mix of potentially conflicting HR practices that comprise hybrid models of employment relations. By drawing on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) literature and viewing HR practices as 'demands' and 'resources', we explore the impact of performance management and employee voice practices on employee well-being, as exemplified by engagement and emotional exhaustion, in a large public sector organization in Ireland. Our findings suggest that employee voice mechanisms may act as a resource in both enhancing engagement but also in counterbalancing the demands presented by a performance management system, thus reducing the deleterious effects of emotional exhaustion. Our study extends understanding of hybrid models of HRM and of the ways in which employees manage the contradictory signals that such models may send in terms of performance expectations.