Human Resource Management and Financial Problems in the Workplace: Systematic and Conceptual Review

Abstract

[EN] Personal financial problems are a growing concern for individuals and organizations. However, there is no consensus on the main constructs or measurement scales suitable to assess and measure these problems, nor a clear view of their consequences on workers’ performance. This review aims to summarize the findings over the last 20 years of research on the organizational outcomes of financial problems of salaried workers and identify the main constructs and scales used. We reviewed 135 fulltext articles published since 2002 in JCR- or SJR-ranked journals which used 16 selected constructs to study salaried workers’ financial problems. The results show evidence that financial problems are related to individual outcomes, such as health and family relations, and organizational outcomes, such as job performance, motivation, commitment, workplace behaviours, and professional relationships. The results also show that academic research is concentrated on a few constructs, and there are misalignments in their definition and measurement. In conclusion, this review points out that personal financial problems are a potential source of workers’ underperformance that could be dealt with through human resource management policies, but the development of interventions should be carefully designed to correctly assess the desired construct and avoid wasting resources.