The nexus between HRM, employee engagement and organizational performance of federal public service organizations in Ethiopia

Assefa Tsegay Tensay,Manjit Singh

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04094

Abstract

The study of HRM and Performance of public service is an extremely relevant theme. Although studies on the HRM-performance link have been well documented, the results were inconclusive. Besides, previous studies have paid little attention to the public service from developing country's context. Drawing on the AMO Model and SET, the present study examined the effect of HRM System on Employee Engagement and Organizational Performance. Likewise, this study tested the intervening effect of Employee Engagement in the HRM-performance link. Using a sample of federal employees (n=340) in government organizations, we tested the hypothesized three-factor model using SEM. The finding of the study shows that there is a positive and significant relationship between HRM, Employee Engagement and Organization Performance. Besides, employee engagement partially mediated the link between HRM and Performance. Concerning the effect of the individual HR practices, the present study revealed a positive and differing effect of HR practices on both engagement and performance although the magnitude effect is smaller than, the combined effect of the HR practices together. Moreover, Autonomy was identified as an important driver of both engagement and performance. This result contributes to the HRM-performance debate. As a final point, the present study incorporates conclusions, implication and future research direction.

Highlights

It is widely recognized that the performance of public sector organizations has become an increasingly critical issue in this knowledge-based economy (Vermeeren, 2014)
Considering the above arguments, the present study build a conceptual model which includes mediation effect in the HRM-performance debate. As it is illustrated in the figure, the current study proposed that, assuming other things constant, HRM positively and significantly related to employee engagement and organizational performance
Employee Engagement should demonstrate a positive relationship with Organizational Performance which is true in the present study and the relationship between HRM and Organizational Performance should significantly reduce upon the addition of the intervening variable in the model (Employee Engagement)

Summary

Introduction

It is widely recognized that the performance of public sector organizations has become an increasingly critical issue in this knowledge-based economy (Vermeeren, 2014). Knies and colleagues (2018) argued that basically, the welfare of the country depends on the performance of the public service organizations. Armstrong and Taylor (2014) emphasized that HR is a basic input that contributes enormously to the performance of organizations. The basic issue here is that HRM is a critical function in organizations that influences their performance (Macky and Boxall, 2007). The study of HRM and Performance of public service is an extremely relevant theme (Knies et al, 2017)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion