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The purpose of this paper is to introduce the idea of dimensions of human resource (HR) differentiation defined as characteristics which may influence employees’ attitudinal responses to unequal working conditions. The paper concentrates on five dimensions: the number of segments, the strength of HR differentiation, its content, absolute and relative stability and analyses how they could moderate the relationship between employee segment membership (core or peripheral) and job satisfaction, affective commitment and turnover intentions.

The research hypotheses were tested on a sample of 978 employees from Polish co-operative banks. Hierarchical linear modelling was used to examine the moderating effect of the dimensions of HR differentiation.

Results indicate that employees in the core segment experience higher job satisfaction, affective commitment and lower turnover intentions than those in the peripheral segment. The moderating effect of HR differentiation dimensions occurred to be relatively weak. However, when the interaction effect was significant, the results always supported the hypotheses, indicating that the number of segments and the strength of HR differentiation are positively correlated with the size of the differences between the core and peripheral employees’ positive attitudes level.

This is the first attempt to classify several dimensions of HR differentiation and formulate their hypothetical moderating effect drawing on human capital theory, social exchange theory and social comparison theory.