THE INTERVENING EFFECT OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HIGH PERFORMANCE WORK PRACTICES AND EMPLOYEE JOB PERFORMANCE

Abstract

It is evident that high performance work practices are bringing competitive advantage to the organizations. On the other hand, employee engagement is all about employee’s cognitive, emotional and behavioral involvement of his/her job as well as with the organization. The purpose of this study was to investigate the intervening role or the mediating role of employee engagement on the relationship between high performance work practices and employee job performance. Methodology. Data gathered from 135 managerial level employees in the Sri Lankan public listed banks. Hypothesis was developed based on the theoretical assertions and empirical evidence. Three hypotheses were tested in a non-contrive study setting as a cross sectional study. After the reliability is ensured the correlation, regression and sobel test used to examine the hypothesized relationships. Results The findings of this study reveals that significant mediating effect of employee engagement on the relationship between High Performance Work practices and employee job performance. Practical Implications This study is beneficial for the banks to improve their job performance by adopting high performance work practices including realistic job preview, pay for performance, staff attitude surveys, self-directed teams, regular appraisals, extensive training and symbolic egalitarianism. Originality. This study makes two theoretical contributions. A novel theoretical framework built on the foundation of system theory is presented first, laying the groundwork for further investigation. Secondly, this study adds new knowledge to signaling theory by ensuring the high-performance work practices such as symbolic egalitarianism signals the employee that the organization recognize their worth and enhance and their job performance.