The Impact of Human Resource Management Practices on Educational Institutions’ Performance: The Mediating Role of Employee Engagement

Abstract

The role of human resource management (HRM) in the success of educational institutions has gained a new level of prominence since the performance of the institution heavily relies on the abilities, motivation and dedication of academic and administrative staff. This research explored how four HRM practices, including recruitment practices, training and development, performance appraisal and compensation and benefits have been related to the institutional performance, and employee engagement is a mediating mechanism explored. Quantitative and deductive research design was embraced in which a structured questionnaire was used on employees of an educational institution. Among 326 circulated questionnaires, 295 questionnaires that were useful were collected. The analysis was done with the help of the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), which has three parts measurement-model assessment, structural-model evaluation and mediation analysis.
This model of measurement showed good reliability, convergent and discriminant validities. The results indicated that institution performance was directly impacted significantly by the recruitment practices, but the training and development, performance appraisal, and compensation and benefits did not show any significant direct impact. There was a high positive influence of employee engagement on the performance of the institutions. All the four HRM practices had a great impact on employee engagement. The mediation analysis also revealed that the recruitment practices had a partial mediation and the other interventions training and development, performance appraisal and compensation and benefits mediation were fully mediated. The results thus suggest the HRM practices to add significant value to the performance of an institution which is remedied by the level of employee engagement.