Linking employee engagement towards individual work performance through human resource management practice: from high potential employees perspectives

Abstract

Most previous studies of employee engagement and performance have been rooted in either Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) or the Social Exchange Theory (SET), giving often inconclusive outcomes. In fact, there are only a few researchers in social science focusing on the level of high potential employee’s engagement towards individual work performance through human resource management practices. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between employee engagement and individual work performance with mediation role of human resource management (HRM) practices for selected manufacturing organizations in Malaysia. Two hundred and fifty-two usable questionnaires are collected to empirically test the hypotheses using IBM SPSS software and Smart Partial Least Square (SmartPLS) version 3. The results suggest that high potential employee engagement positively and significantly influence on individuals’ work performance. Additionally, human resource management practices play significant role in mediating the relationship between employee engagement and individual work performance among high potential employees. Therefore, these results should provide insight towards managing high potential employees, especially in the manufacturing sector.