Researchers have recently begun to examine the effect of employee-rated high performance work systems(hereafter, HPWS) on various individual outcomes. This vein of studies reflects responses to recent concerns raised as regards HPWS research tradition. That is, HPWS research utilizing firm-level data implicitly assume that HPWS is implemented across the organization at least to the extent that human resource(hereafter HR) professionals or management report, and individuals attach similar meanings to actual HR experiences. Although a few studies have examined that there is indeed discrepancy between manager- and employee -rated HPWS, and individual-level perception of HPWS accounts for greater variance in explaining performance outcomes, little efforts have been made to explicate how distinctively individuals react to messages sent out from HPWS implementation. Therefore, our current study attempts to offer insight into the following question, “how does a certain individual trait systematically manipulate the relationship between employee perception of HPWS and individual outcomes?” Considering this perspective in the context of HPWS can yield interesting response patterns that have not been captured in prior studies. In this study, we regard employee goal orientation as individual dispositions through which HR signals are processed, thereby influencing performance outcomes accordingly. When employees are goal oriented, they make efforts to show, and thereby attain favorable judgments of, their competence via task performance and individuals make efforts to comprehend something new or to increase their level of competence in their role and responsibility. Here, we hypothesize that the HPWS-individual outcome link will be strengthened when individuals possess low level of goal orientation, not necessarily in the presence of high goal orientation. We explicate this phenomenon with substitute for leadership theory. The theory suggests that substitutes exist to make leader behavior unimportant in predicting performance outcomes. For example, it is probable that, for a cohesive work group, leader behaviors directed at team building are not necessarily required to promote work group performance. In this line of reasoning, our study suggests that goal orientation may substitute for the utilization of HPWS. Hierarchical regression analysis from a large Korean cosmetics company (n=182) confirmed that, consistent with prior studies, employee HPWS is positively associated with both individual in-role performance and OCB. In support of our hypotheses, our results demonstrate that when an employee is highly goal oriented, HPWS does not provide additional variance in predicting in-role performance. Moreover, a high individual goal orientation negates the positive effects of HPWS on OCB. Our results reveal that HPWS works as predicted only for an individual whose goal orientation is relatively low. This study contributes to the HPWS literature in a meaningful way by proposing that the effects of HPWS on established individual performance outcomes should be considered in the context (i.e., individual characteristics) in which the relationship occurs. In the literature, the HPWS-performance relationship has often been unquestioned. Thus, the possibility that individual trait can systematically modify the effects of HPWS on performance indicators has rarely been considered. Our empirical investigation extends the current HPWS literature by suggesting that considering a certain individual trait can reveal counterintuitive HPWS-outcome patterns that have not been sufficiently captured in studies exploring the relationship in isolation of situational factors.