High Performance Work Systems and Job Satisfaction of Teachers at the Spanish Public University

High Performance Work Systems (HPWS) are a series of organizational practices, with a positive influence on job satisfaction, organizational commitment and organizational performance, which have received increasing attention in the literature on human resources management. Researchers working in this field have studied the phenomenon in the manufacturing sector, leaving aside higher education institutions. This article has two objectives. It describes the degree to which the practices associated with HPWS have been applied in Spanish public universities. Second, the article gathers evidence on the relationship between HPWS and the job satisfaction of the academic staff. The empirical research uses quantitative methods based on the responses by 651 teachers to a questionnaire. The results show that the presence of the practices studied is uneven: the most widespread practices are those that fit better with collegialism, the traditional model of university management. The results also show that, in general, HPWS exert positive effects on the job satisfaction of academic staff, although the effect may be quite different depending on the specific practice considered.