This study examined the effect of human resource strategic orientation on employee job performance in Tanzania State Corporations. A total of nine hypotheses were established to test for the hypothesized relationships. A cross-sectional survey research design was adopted. Primary data was collected through a properly designed questionnaire while secondary data was obtained through published information. Data on human resource strategic orientation variable was obtained from HR managers in 53 State Corporations in Tanzania. Furthermore, a double source ratings data on employee job performance variable was obtained from a sample of 284 employees and 80 Supervisors. Correlations and hierarchical regression analyses were performed to examine the relationships. Results of this study provide support for the central hypothesis of this study that human resource strategic orientation (as a bundle of control and commitment) has a positive and significant effect on employee job performance. This study has contributed significantly to the conceptual and theoretical understanding in the strategic human resource management literature.
Aiken, L. S., and West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting
interactions. Newbury Park: Sage.
Arthur, J. B. (1994). Effects of human resource systems on manufacturing performance
and turnover. Academy of Management Journal, 37(3), 670-687.
Balkin, D. B. and Gomez-Mejia, L. R. (1987). Toward a contingency theory of
compensation strategy. Strategic Management Joumal, 8, 169-182
Bamberger, P. and Meshoulam, I. (2000). Human resources strategy: Formulation,
implementation and impact. Academy of Management Review, 25 (4).
Bana, B. (2004). Human resource management in the Tanzanian civil service.
Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Manchester.
Barick, M. R., and Mount, M. K. (1991). The big 5 personality dimensions and job
performance. Personnel Psychology, 44, 1-25.
Barney, J. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage.
Journal of Management, 17, 99–120.
Becker, B. E. and Gerhart, B. (1996). The impact of human resource management on
organizational performance: progress and prospects. Academy of Management Journal, 39, 779–801.
Becker, B. E. and Huselid, M. A. (1997). High performance work systems and firm
performance: a synthesis of research and managerial implications. To appear in Research in personnel and Human resources
Borman, W. C. and Motowidlo, S. J. (1993). Expanding the criterion domain to include
elements of contextual performance. In N. Schmit and W. C. Borman (Eds.), Personnel selection in organizations, 71-98.
Boselie, P. (2002). Human resource management, work systems and performance: a
theoretical-empirical approach. Thela Thesis Publishers. Tinbergen Institute Research Series
Bratton, G. and Golds, J. (2003). Human resource management: Theory and
contemporary human resource management. Harlow. Pearson Education.
Brumbruch, G. B. (1988). Some ideas issues and predictions about Performance
Management. Public Personnel Management, Winter, 387-402.
Campbell, J. P. (1983). Some possible implications of "modeling" for the
conceptualization of measurement. In F. Landy, S. Zedeck, & J. Cleveland (Eds.),
Performance measurement and theory, 277-298).
Cyr, L. A. and Welborne, T. M. (1997). Human Resource Management in Initial Offering
Public Firms: Validation of a Control Orientation Typology. Advances in Entrepreneurship, Firms Emergence and Growth, 3, 249-294.
Delaney, J.T. and M.A. Huselid. (1996). The impact of human resource management
practices on perceptions of organisational performance. Academy of Management Journal, 39 (4) 949–69.
Delery, J. E. and Doty, D. H. (1996). Modes of theorizing in strategic human resource
management: tests of universalistic, contingency, and configurational performance predictions. Academy of Management Journal, 39, 802–35
Eisenbardt, K. M. (1985). Control: Organizational and economic approaches.
Management Science, 3, 134-149
Etzioni, A. (1969). A comparative analysis of complex organizations. New York: Free
Fombrun, C., Tichey, N. M. and Devanna, M. A. (1984). Strategic human resource
management. New York: Wiley.
Gooderham, P., Parry, M. and Ringdal, K. (2008). The Impact of Bundles of Strategic
Human Resource Management Practices on the Performance of European Firms. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 19, (11) 2041-2056
Govindarajan. V. and Fisher, F. (1990). Strategy, control systems, and resource sharing:
Effects on business-unit performance. Academy of Management journal, 33, 259-
285
Grant, J. M. (2000). Proactive organizational behavior. Journal of Management, 26, 435-
462.
Griffin, M. A., Neal, A. and Parker, S. (2007). A new model of work role performance:
Positive behavior in uncertain and interdependent context. Academy of Management Journal, 50 (2), 327-347.
Guest, D. (2002). Human resource management, corporate performance and employee well-
being Building the worker into HRM. The Journal of Industrial Relations 44(3): 335-358.
Hackman J. R, Oldham, G.R. (1975). Development of the Job Diagnostic Survey. Journal
of Applied Psychology 60, 159-170.
Holzer, H. (1996). What Employers Want: Job Prospects for Less-Educated Workers.
New York: Russell Sage,
Huselid, M.A. (1995). The impact of human resource management practices on turnover,
productivity, and corporate financial performance. Academy of Management
Journal, 38,635–672.
Ichniowski, G., Shaw, K. and Prennushi, G. (1994). The impact of human resource
management practices on productivity. Columbia Business School working paper 015, Columbia University, NY.
Kahya, E. (2007).The effects of job characteristics and working conditions on job
performance. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 37, 515–523
Katz, D. and Kahn, R.L. (1966). The social psychology of organizations. New York: Wiley.
Khatri, N., Halbesleben, J.R.B., Petroski, G. F. and Meyer, W. (2007). Relationship
between management philosophy and clinical outcomes. Health Care management Review, 32 (2), 126-139
Kiggundu,M. Jargensen, J. and Hafsi, T. (1983). Administrative theory and
practice in developing countries: a synthesis. Administrative Science Quarterly. march, pp. 66-84.
Kim S. K. (1981) Enterprise Performances in the Public and Private Sectors: Tanzanian
Experience, 1970-75. The Journal of Developing Areas, Vol. 15, (3)471-484
Kiragu, K. and Mutahaba, G. (Eds) (2006). Public service reforms in eastern Africa:
Issues and challenges. Mkuki na Nyota Publishers.
Kochan, T. and Osterman, P. (1994). The Mutual Gains Enterprise. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard Business School Press.
Legge, K. (1995). Human resource management: rhetorics and realities.
Basingstoke: McMillan.
MacDuffie, J. P. (1995). Human resource bundles and manufacturing performance—
Organizational logic and flexible productions systems in the world auto industry. Academy of Management Journal, 48 (2) 197-221.
Mbelle, A.V.Y. (2005) productivity performance in developing countries. Country case
Studies. Tanzania
Motowidlo, S. J., and Van Scotter, J. R. (1994). Evidence that task performance should
be distinguished from contextual performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79, 475–480.
Roche, W. 1999. In search of commitment-oriented human resource management
practices and the conditions that sustain them. Journal of Management Studies, 36: 653-678.
Nyerere, J.K (1968). Freedom and Socialism. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Organ, D. W. (1988). Organizational citizenship behavior: The good soldier syndrome.
Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
Ostroff, C. (1993). Rater perceptions, satisfaction and performance. Journal of
Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 66, 345-356
Pfeffer, J. (1994). Competitive advantage through people. Boston: Harvard Business
School Press.
Schmidt, F.L., Hunter, J., Outerbridge, A.N. (1986). Impact of job performance and
ability on job knowledge, work sample performance, and supervisory ratings of job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71 (3), 432–439.
Snape, E. and Redman, T (2010). HRM practices, organizational citizenship behavior and
performance: A multi-level analysis. Journal of Management Studies, 47 (7)
Snell, S.A., and Youndt, M.A. 1995. Human resource management and firm
performance: Testing a contingency model of executive controls. Journal of Management, 21(4): 711-737.
Sonnentang, S. and Frese, M. (2001) Performance concepts and performance theory.
Psychological management of individual performance, December, 17.
distinction or the dog that didn't bark. Personnel Review 24 (4) 6-16.
Therkildsen, O. (2000). Public sector reform in a poor AID-Dependent country
Tanzania. Public Administration and Development, 20, 61-71.
Truss, C. and Gratton, L. (1994). Strategic human resource management: A
conceptual approach. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 5 (3) 663-86.
URT, (1999). Public Service Management and Employment Policy of 1999
Walton, R E, (1985). From control to commitment in the workplace. Harvard
Business Review, 63, 76-84.
Watson, T.J. (1995). In search of HRM: beyond the rhetoric and reality
distinction or the dog that didn't bark. Personnel Review 24 (4) 6-16.
Welbourne, T. M. and Cyr, L. A. (1996). Control orientation and firm performance: Test
of an agency theory interpretation of strategic human resource management (CAHRS Working Paper No. 96-05). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies. http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrswp/176
Wenerfelt, B. (1984). A Resource-Based View of the Firm. Strategic Management Journal.
5. 171-180.
Wood, S. and De Menzes, L. (1998). High commitment management in the UK: evidence from
the workplace industrial relations survey and employer’s manpower and skills practices surveys. Human Relations, 5(4) 485-515
Wright, P. M., McMahan, G. C., and McWilliams, A. (1994). Human resources and
sustained competitive advantage: A resource-based perspective. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 5 (2), 301–326.
Wright, P. M., Dunford, B. B. and Snell, S. A. (2001). Human resources and the resource
based view of the firm. Journal of Management, 27(6): 701-721.
Kiowi, L. O., K’Obonyo, P. O., & Ogutu, M. (2016). Exploring the Effect of Human Resource Strategic Orientation on Employee Job Performance in Tanzania State Corporations. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 6(8), 29-49.
Copyright: © 2016 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
