SUMMARY
The purpose of this paper is to examine the black box by which high performance work systems (HPWSs) affect employee’s attitude. It attempts to show the mediating effect of human resource (HR) competency in the HPWSs-job attitude link, and the moderating effect of organization culture. More specifically, we propose that HPWSs have a positive effect on the both job satisfaction and HR competency, and that HR competency mediates the relationship between HPWSs and job satisfaction. Further, we propose that adhocracy culture in organization strengthens such relationships between HPWSs and HR competency as well as between HPWSs and job satisfaction. We use a nationally representative data set from Korea (firm-level samples: 215 firms, employee-level samples: 5577 employees) for testing the hypotheses. Results indicated support for the hypothesized that positive association between HPWSs and HR competency and between HPWSs and job satisfaction. HR competency has a partial mediating effect in the HPWS-job attitude link. The results were supportive of organization culture of the impact of HPWSs on HR competency and job satisfaction. Limitations of the study and implications for future research are discussed.