What drives alignment between offered and perceived well-being initiatives in organizations? A cross-case analysis of employer–employee shared strategic intentionality

This study investigates the conditions of alignment between an organization’s business strategy, the well-being initiatives (WBIs) offered to employees and employees’ perceptions of the latter. We conducted a comparative study on the conditions of alignment between offered and perceived WBIs in three companies with different business strategies. Findings highlight that the alignment between offered and perceived benefits depends on what we label as ‘shared strategic intentionality’: (1) how employers’ use their understanding of the organization’s business strategy to craft WBIs and (2) employees’ perceptions of WBIs at the light of the attributions about why their employers offer WBIs the way they do, and of the broader understanding of the organization’s business strategy. We contribute to the Strategic HRM literature by proposing an integrative position with respect to the macro (i.e., employer-focused) and micro (i.e., employee-focused) research traditions. Our position has the advantage of looking at employers’ intentions and at employees’ attributions of intentions simultaneously and unravels the central role of business strategy in shaping their alignment. From a practical standpoint, not only do we bring a more nuanced understanding of the strategic HRM challenges faced by employers and employees in settings with different business strategies, but also initiate a discussion about the traps and best practices associated to configuring effective WBIs in organizations.