This study examines how employee perceptions of the availability and the (in)effectiveness of human resource (HR) practices in schools relate to employee performance via work engagement. Incorporating the views of 208 Dutch primary and secondary education teachers, this study's findings show that both the availability and effectiveness of HR practices are positively associated with teacher work engagement and in turn job performance. However, when employees perceive the available HR practices as effective, this has a stronger effect on teacher work engagement compared to when they only perceive the HR practices as available. Moreover, results show that HR practices that are mentioned as available, but considered ineffective, are negatively related to employee engagement and job performance. Finally, our results provide initial evidence for potential differential effects of ability-, motivation- and opportunity-enhancing HR bundles on work engagement and job performance, depending on whether the availability, ineffectiveness or effectiveness of HR practices is studied.
