Human Resource Strategic Orientation, Employee Job Performance and Performance of State Corporations in Tanzania
Abstract
Employees‘ job performance is among the key elements for success in today‘s competitive
business environments. Researchers in
Strategic
Human Resource Management
(HRM) have
established a relationship between HRM and organizational performance, but the relationship
between HR strategies and organizational performance intervened by
Employee Job Performance
remains largely unexplored. The broad objective of this study was to establish the relationship
among HR strategic orientation, employee job performance, organizational factors and
performance of state corporations in Tanzania. Drawing from the theory of individual differences
in job performance, resource-
based view, Job characteristics theory and control theory, we tested
a model that examines the mechanisms through HR strategic orientation (as a blend of bundles
from both control and commitment HR strategies) facilitates employee task and
contextual
performance, moderated by organizational factors namely structure, culture and politics leading
to organizational performance (financial and non-
financial), together with mediating effect of
employee job performance.
A total of eight hypotheses
were established to test for the
relationships.
A cross-
sectional
survey
research design was adopted.
Primary data was
collected
through a properly designed
questionnaire
while secondary data
was
obtained through
published
information. A multisource
ratings
data
on employee job performance variable was
obtained
from
80
Supervisors
and Self-
reports from a sample size of 284 employees
who perform core
functions of the organization. Furthermore,
53
responses from
Tanzania‘s state corporations
HR
managers on H
R strategic orientation
variable
was obtained and used to analyze the
hypothesized relationships.
All the measurement items met the reliability test.
We used factor
analysis, correlations analysis and regression
(both liner, hierarchical and multivariate)
analyses
to examine the direct and moderating effects
of
hypotheses.
In addition, path
analysis
(Baron and
Kenny, 1986) was followed
to assess mediation effect of employee job performance
variable.
Results of this study provide support for the central hypo
thesis of this study that employee job
performance
is
a mechanism through which HR strategic orientation influences organizational
performance. Specifically,
this study has found out that; first,
there was no direct
and
significant
relationship between HR
strategic orientation and the four organizational performance
components
(ROE, ROA,
ROS
and Non-financial).
Second, there was a partial support for
control and commitment HR strategies
(individually)
on the two dimensions of employee job
performance.
Findings
also
showed that interactive effect contributed significantly to employee
job performance.
Third, in terms of moderating variables, culture and politics moderated the
relationship
between HR strategic orientation and organizational performance
while structure
had
no significant effect
on the same. Fourth, path analysis for mediating effect was not
performed due to failure to meet the requirements
of Baron and
Kenny
(1986). Lastly, as
hypothesized, this study reports a positive and significant joint effect of HR strategic orientation,
employee job performance and organizational factors on performance of state corporations in
Tanzania.
This study has contributed to the theoretical foundation in the SHRM literature by
adding another intervening variable
(employee job performance)
hence opening up a ̳black box‘
conundrum.
A detailed discussion on the research findings was done to examine the relationships
and compare with previous studies. It was recommended that a longitudinal survey to be carried
out in order to establish the causal chain of these variables.
Publisher
University of Nairobi