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Introduction

The article was written by Assefa Tsegay Tensay and Manjit Singh, from a Department of
Management, University of Gondar, Ethiopia and School of Applied Management, Panjabi
University, Patiala, India respectively, on 2020 on the title of “The nexus between HRM,
employee engagement and organizational performance of federal public service organizations in
Ethiopia.” In light of little study in the area; given the transformation of the Ethiopian economy
and more attention of the government towards public service organizations, it is necessary to
critically examine the contribution of HRM towards organizational performance through the
mediation model. This study contributes to the HRM-performance debate by providing empirical
evidence from developing country's context in the public service through a mediation model.

2. The method used and Major finds

The study was conducted on federal public service organizations. In this study, a multi-stage
random sampling procedure was engaged by bearing in mind the type of sector as strata. First,
the federal public service organizations were categorized into four sectors (strata) and then two
organizations were randomly selected from each sector (8 organizations) and Ministry of Public
Service and Human Resource Development, the governing body of the country's civil service
administration is intentionally included in the sample. To that end, authors distributed 400
questionnaires in the official language (Amharic) of the country to permanent employees of the
randomly selected nine federal public organizations. As a result, they used 340 properly filled
questionnaires for final data analysis and the effective rate of return was 85%, which is
considered to be sufficient enough to run the SEM analysis.

This study analyzed the data using both SPSS (version 24) and AMOS (version 23). Before
going into further discussion, preliminary analysis to test for missing data, outliers, normality
and multicollinearity concerns were performed to improve the accuracy of the data preparation
and screening process which is critical stage in SEM. Then descriptive statistics and Pearson
correlation was performed to evaluate the reliability and association between constructs. Finally
Hypothesis testing was accomplished using SEM to examine the direct and indirect effect of
HRM on public service performance.

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As it was hypothesized, it was found that HRM has a positive and significant effect on
organizational performance. This result is consistent with the previous empirical findings
(Wright et al., 2005; Combs et al., 2006; Ko and Smith, 2013; Kehoe and Wright, 2013; Ko and
Walter-Smith, 2013; Vermeeren, 2014). In Ethiopia, public service organizations are a
government organ which provide and plays a key role in delivering the basic service to its
citizens such as education, health, transport, telecommunication, electricity, water, and others.
Such basic services are provided by the employees and so it is necessary to develop sound HRM
in order to bring better performance levels to their customers measured in terms of productivity,
quality, satisfaction, fairness, efficiency, and equity. In today's competitive environment, modern
organizations are working day and night to have a productive workforce.

Finding of this study also established a positive relationship between HRM and Employee
Engagement, indicating that employees become engaged when they believe that they are treated,
valued and trusted (Saks, 2006; Rich et al., 2010; Alfes et al., 2013). This is in line with the
AMO and SET that the degree of engagement level highly depends on the reaction from their
organization's practices. Drawing on the social exchange theory, if organizations invest and treat
their employees as strategic partners and assets, employees become happier and engaged. As to
AMO theory, skill-enhancing bundles improve the ability, knowledge, and attitude of employees
and this helps employees to be more engaged with their work; motivation enhancing bundles
improves the willingness and degree of effort of employees to exert on their work and this
directly may enhance the engagement level of employees. Largely, the finding of the study
established that HRM is a strong predictor of employee engagement.

Similarly, the present study found a positive and significant link between employee engagement
and performance, which is consistent with prior studies (Harter et al., 2002; Markos and Sridevi,
2010; Sundaray, 2011; Harter et al 2002; Rees et al., 2013; Sibanda et al., 2014). The main point
here is that employee engagement is a strong predictor of performance of public service
organizations because an engaged workforce is happy, motivated and hence can boost
organizational performance (Rees et al., 2013). And also Sundaray (2011) posited out employee
engagement as a decisive factor for organizational effectiveness (productivity, profits, quality,
and customer satisfaction). That means an engaged workforce can fully contribute to
performance with happiness, dedication, and motivation.

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Regarding the mediation effect, the finding of the study ensured partial mediation. Specifically, it
was found that as hypothesized, employee engagement partially mediated the relationship
between HRM and Organizational Performance.

Finally, this study also examined the differing effect of the six HR practices separately on both
employee engagement and organizational performance. The finding of the study supported that
all six HR practices have a significant and positive effect on both employee engagement and
organizational performance in the public service. From the individual HR practices, autonomy
was found as an important driver in both employee engagement and organizational performance.
This means that if employees have given the freedom and possibility of involving in decision
making, offering their comments and providing feedback in the operation of the organizations,
then it will enhance the engagement level of employees. The implications are that the HRM in
their system form and individually have an effect on the performance of organizations.

3. The conclusion of the author/s

This article is among the few studies in the HRM-Performance debate using mediation model in
public service organizations and developing country's context. The study concluded a positive
and significant relationship between HRM Systems, employee engagement and perceived
organizational performance. It was also found that employee engagement partially mediate the
HRM-Performance Linkage. This implies that investment in the human resource and building
sound HRM system will help organizations to produce an engaged workforce, which in return
improves the performance of organizations. Concerning the effect of the individual HR practices,
the present study revealed a positive and differing effect of HR practices on both engagement
and performance although the magnitude effect is smaller than, the combined effect of the HR
practices together. Moreover, Autonomy was identified as an important driver of both
engagement and performance.

Conclusively, this article contributes to the body of knowledge in the HRM-Performance debate
in the developing country's public service organizations and supported the universal perspective
and mediation approach.

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4. The student takeaways

After critical assessment of the article paper, I understand the following points:

Major strength of the article

 The article has clearly spelt out research gap and significance of the study.

 To achieve an objective of the study the researchers was used primary data specifically
questionnaire was used. This is also consider as the research outcome is more reliable and
consistence with the research area.

 The study carried out by using descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation to evaluate the
reliability and association between constructs and properly tested Hypothesis testing using
SEM to examine the direct and indirect effect of HRM on public service performance.

 Research objective and conclusion made by researcher are confirmed or support each other’s.

 The article also included ethical approval, practical implications, theoretical implications and
limitation and future research direction in this study.

 The journal cites properly all references in this study.

Major weakness/limitation of the article

 To collect the data the researchers say questionnaire used for respondents like clients,
auditors. But the journal not indicates the target populations of study area, to selected
respondents from each stratum.

 The researcher only applied one type of data collection technique i.e. questionnaire rather
than using multiple instruments.