<![CDATA[Objective: This study examines how perceived High Performance Work Systems (HPWS) are associated with civil servant performance through three theoretically distinct employee states: psychological empowerment, emotional exhaustion, and affective commitment. The study distinguishes cognitive-motivational, energetic depletion, and relational pathways to better explain the employee-level mechanisms linking HPWS with performance. Design/Methods/Approach: A quantitative cross-sectional design was employed using survey data from 397 civil servants in an Indonesian public-sector organization. The hypothesized relationships were analyzed using Covariance-Based Structural Equation Modeling (CB-SEM) with LISREL 8.80. Findings: Perceived HPWS was positively associated with psychological empowerment and affective commitment and negatively associated with emotional exhaustion. Psychological empowerment was positively associated with employee performance, whereas emotional exhaustion showed a negative association. In contrast, the direct relationship between HPWS and employee performance and the relationship between affective commitment and performance were not statistically significant. Mediation analysis showed significant indirect effects of HPWS on employee performance through psychological empowerment and emotional exhaustion, whereas the indirect effect through affective commitment was not significant. Supplementary CB-SEM bootstrapping confirmed the same pattern of mediation results. Originality/Value: This study contributes to the HRM black-box literature by distinguishing three theoretically different employee states rather than treating employee responses to HPWS as a single mechanism. Psychological empowerment and emotional exhaustion are examined as cognitive-motivational and energetic states informed by the Job Demands-Resources perspective, while affective commitment is examined as a relational state informed by Social Exchange Theory. The findings suggest that these employee states may differ in their observed associations with performance. Practical/Policy implication: Public-sector managers should strengthen HR practices that support employee competence, participation, autonomy, and role clarity while remaining attentive to emotional exhaustion. The findings also caution against assuming that stronger affective commitment alone will necessarily translate into higher employee performance.]]>
