- Title
- Mediating and moderating effects of social and relational factors on employee's attitudinal and behavioural loyalty
- Creator
- Balabeid, Abdualrahman Hassan O
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2024
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- Human resource practices have been documented to impact organisational performance through their influence on employees’ attitudinal and behavioural outcomes. The employees’ perception of various human resource (HR) practices are antecedents of attitudinal and behavioural outcomes, and therefore it is essential to understand the impact of HR practices along with their interaction with the internal and external stimuli to bring about the desired employee outcomes. While existing research on human resource management (HRM) has long established the impact of ability, motivation and opportunity enhancing practices on individual and organisational performance, there are calls for identifying mechanisms to uncover other factors in the ‘performance black box’ to explain these linkages. Although there is evidence that supports the proposition that the key dimensions of the Ability, Motivation and Opportunity (AMO) framework are associated with behavioural and attitudinal outcomes of employees, there is limited research on how other social and relational workplace contextual factors impact these outcomes. Overall, revisiting the knowledge gaps unveiled the need for a well-founded theoretical framework that explains the drivers of individual- and unit-level performance in the presence of enabling mechanisms or mediators. Therefore, the current study aims to address the research gap by developing and testing a theoretical model that includes the social and contextual variables that strengthen the relationship between AMO enhancing practices and the employees’ attitudinal and behavioural outcomes in the contextual setting of a services sector. This research incorporates the mediating role of relational coordination and the moderating role of democratic leadership and trust between AMO enhancing practices and employees’ commitment and intention to quit their job. This thesis employs a mixed-method approach to effectively address the research problem and the questions posed. Specifically, this research has followed a sequential research design, beginning with a qualitative phase, followed by a quantitative phase. Both phases of the study equally contribute in addressing the overarching research problem and the study’s questions. The mixed method approach not only allows the researcher to gain deeper insights into the phenomenon of the study, but also helps achieve the robust findings of the research problem. In stage one (the qualitative phase), the aim is to identify and explore the variables and the system of relationships between High Performing Work Practices (HPWP) and employees’ outcomes, and the effect of social and contextual factors with AMO practices on employees’ attitudinal and behaviour outcomes in the context of the Saudi Arabian Health care sector. To achieve the objectives of this research, purposive sampling was used to glean through the insights and information from the health care facilities where these AMO practices are implemented. In the first stage, 25 healthcare workers were purposively selected for interviews. Those who had over three years of work experience in the healthcare industry, and who were directly related to the provision of medical care services to patients were recruited. A minimum of three interviewees from each of the five occupation groups of nurses, allied healthcare workers, physicians and surgeons and administration officers were selected from each of the hospital locations, ensuring maximum extraneous variation. The quantitative phase primarily focused on empirically testing the study’s hypotheses that were formulated to address each of the research questions. Quantitative data were gathered in a cross-sectional survey through an online platform named Questionpro for time and cost savings. The data were collected from health care professionals in the Saudi health sector. This survey resulted in 426 usable responses suitable for subjecting to further analysis. The findings of this study provide the evidence that a set of High Performing Work Practices (HPWP), including ability, motivation and opportunity (AMO) enhancing HRM practices, cast a positive impact for employees’ affective and continued commitment and a negative impact for their intention to quit their jobs in Saudi Arabia’s health sector. This effect has been significantly reported in both qualitative and quantitative findings. Moreover, the mediating effect of relational coordination on employees’ commitment was found to be insignificant in the quantitative analysis. However, the qualitative analysis supports the influence of relational coordination in the work-setting on employees’ loyalty and willingness to stay with the organisation. The participants emphasised the significance of coordination across all levels and team synergies to produce better patient outcomes and to retain qualified and experienced staff in the organisation. Our findings also reveal that democratic leadership plays a significant role in moderating the relationship between AMO practices and employees' attitudinal and behavioural outcomes. However, the nature of this interaction is complex, and democratic leadership can have negative effects if it leads to role ambiguity or the ineffective communication of goals and expectations. This study is the first known conceptualisation of the interaction between AMO enhancing practices and democratic leadership as a moderator impacting employees’ outcomes. Finally, the study also identifies the significant and intricate role of trust in improving the effectiveness of AMO enhancing practices towards promoting employees' commitment and engagement. Several managerial implications for the strategic HR practitioners and theoretical implications for its contribution to the literature were identified. The healthcare sector provides a service context that requires high levels of coordination among employees to deliver high-quality medical care to patients. Specifically, compared with the developed countries, the context of Saudi health care is characterised by a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic work force, wherein a major portion of skilled staff, both frontline doctors and administrative staff, are non-native personnel due to a shortage of skilled local workers. Therefore, employees’ affective and continuance commitment, as well as their retention, is at the heart of HR strategy. Thus, this research contributes to practical implications for the managers by highlighting that cooperation at various levels and coordination across all levels, including for patients, helps to build relational coordination and team synergies. A compassionate work environment is critical to retaining qualified and experienced staff. Therefore, it is crucial for the organisational leadership to design effective HR policies and practices to promote cooperation and coordination among employees through effective communication of a shared vision and goals and team building efforts. Also, the HR practitioners need to focus on creating an inclusive and participatory climate for workers to enhance their job commitment. HR practitioners need to strategize the policies, considering the usefulness of the contingent framework, which contends that contextual dimensions should essentially be integrated in the conceptualisation of HRM-performance models.
- Subject
- employee's attitude; employee's behaviour; human resource practices; organisational performance
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1510162
- Identifier
- uon:56351
- Rights
- Copyright 2024 Abdualrahman Hassan O Balabeid
- Language
- eng
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