TITLE:
Affective Engagement, Gender Diversity and Employee Performance in the Tanzanian Textile Industry
AUTHORS:
Flora Amsi, Abraham Kiflemariam, Thomas Ngui
KEYWORDS:
Affective Engagement, Adaptive Performance, Contextual Performance, Task Performance, Gender Diversity
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.10 No.5,
September
30,
2022
ABSTRACT: Employee performance is increasingly recognized as
one of the key variables in human resources management, and has been the
subject of increasing interest and research by many scholars. Given the dynamic
and volatile business environment, the survival of any business depends on the
ability of its work force to perform well in order to achieve its goals.
However, in some businesses the reality is not the same, where employees are
not performing well due to several factors such as low levels of affective
engagement and a lack of gender diversity, which are considered to be crucial
factors that influence employee performance. The low employee performance
observed in the textile industry in Tanzania can partly be explained by low
levels of affective engagement, and yet this sector is key to the economic
welfare of the country. Most of the reviewed studies have examined employee
performance based on a single dimension. This study investigated the influence
of affective engagement on employee performance considering the mediating
effect of gender diversity. The study sample consisted of 618 employees from
textile firms in four Tanzanian regions: Dar es Salaam, Mwanza, Shinyanga, and
Simuyu. Multistage sampling technique was employed, and descriptive and
structural equation model were used for data analysis. This study established
that affective engagement had a
statistically significant, positive influence on employees’ adaptive,
contextual and task performance, while gender diversity had a partial mediating
effect on the influence of affective engagement on contextual and task
performance. The study provided several recommendations, including the
suggestion that managers should promote an environment that fosters employees’
positive emotions, energy, and enthusiasm towards their roles.