Small and medium-sized public enterprises are important instruments of the state’s economic and social action in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They play a role in the production and distribution of goods and services, job creation, public revenue mobilization, resource exploitation, the provision of essential services, and land-use planning. In a country characterized by its vast territory, weak infrastructure, and regional disparities, these enterprises can contribute to reducing economic and social imbalances.

However, their contribution remains below their potential. Many of them suffer from low productivity, persistently insufficient revenue, high debt, delays in salary payments, dependence on public subsidies, deteriorating equipment, and a limited capacity to generate sustainable added value. These difficulties are also linked to poor internal organization, inadequate oversight, and the absence of genuine strategic human resource management.

The performance of a public enterprise depends not only on its financial or material resources. It also relies on the quality of its employees, the coherence of its organizational structure, and its ability to mobilize the skills necessary to fulfill its missions. From this perspective, recruitment is a strategic decision. It determines the quality of available skills, the distribution of responsibilities, the capacity for innovation, administrative efficiency, and ultimately, organizational performance.

According to [4], workers’ knowledge and skills constitute a form of human capital that can improve productivity. [2], for his part, considers that human resources can be a source of organizational advantage when they are valuable, scarce, difficult to imitate, and properly organized. Thus, a company can have a large workforce without being efficient if the recruited profiles do not match the organization’s actual needs.

In public enterprises, however, recruitment is often influenced by institutional, social, and political considerations. While recruitment may be based on skills and job requirements, it can also be affected by favoritism, cronyism, nepotism, or political networks. These practices can create a mismatch between the profiles of those recruited and the responsibilities assigned. They can also lead to overstaffing, poor task allocation, weak accountability, and declining performance.

The challenges faced by public SMEs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo reveal organizational, institutional, and financial dysfunctions. Recruitment is often insufficiently based on job analysis, skills, and strategic objectives, leading to quantitative, qualitative, and financial imbalances. These imbalances result in an accumulation of staff, a mismatch between profiles and roles, low productivity, dependence on subsidies, and a decline in service quality. Political interference, patronage, an aging workforce, inadequate continuing education, poor career management, and the lack of formal employment for some staff exacerbate this situation. Furthermore, salary disparities between employees performing comparable functions, particularly between Kinshasa and the provinces, can undermine motivation and the sense of fairness. Yet, [4] already recognized that the knowledge, skills, training, experience, and qualifications of individuals constitute genuine capital in which organizations invest to increase productivity and work efficiency. From this perspective, the performance of one of the Congolese SMEs depends in part on its ability to attract, select and assign agents whose skills truly match the requirements of the positions they hold.

Applied to the context of small and medium-sized public enterprises in the DRC, Becker’s work helps us understand the importance of skills-based recruitment. When employees are selected based on their qualifications, experience, and suitability for the job requirements, they are more likely to master their tasks, make appropriate decisions, and produce results that align with the organization’s objectives. Conversely, when recruitment is based primarily on considerations other than required skills, the organization risks placing under-prepared employees in positions they struggle to master. This mismatch between available skills and job requirements can then reduce individual effectiveness and, through a cumulative effect, negatively impact the overall performance of the organization.

Human capital theory also establishes a direct link between the skills of employees in DRC’s public SMEs and their effectiveness. An employee with the knowledge and skills required for their job is theoretically better positioned to perform their tasks quickly, effectively, and autonomously. Employee effectiveness can thus be seen as a mechanism by which acquired or utilized skills translate into organizational results. In this framework, recruitment is not merely an administrative operation aimed at filling vacancies; it represents a strategic choice that partly determines the quality of the human capital available to the organization.

In our case, remuneration in SMEs (DRC) is considered a crucial factor in valuing, retaining, and mobilizing their human capital. When employees possess the necessary skills but receive insufficient or irregular compensation, these SMEs struggle to maintain their engagement and fully leverage their capabilities. Appropriate compensation can therefore contribute to fostering skills mobilization and workplace efficiency. Within the framework of this research, remuneration is thus considered a moderating factor that can either strengthen or mitigate the relationship between skills-based recruitment and organizational performance.

This approach also helps to understand the role of training and professional development. According to [4], investment in human capital increases individuals’ productive capacity. Thus, even when initial recruitment is skills-based, employee effectiveness can be enhanced through ongoing training, the acquisition of new knowledge, and the development of professional skills. For public SMEs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, continuous skills development therefore appears as a way to transform individual qualifications into sustainable organizational capacity.

In light of this logic, the model of this research can be understood as follows: skills-based recruitment allows for the creation of human capital better suited to the requirements of the positions; this human capital fosters the efficiency of employees; and this efficiency then contributes to improved performance in small and medium-sized public enterprises. Compensation acts as a moderating variable that can either strengthen or weaken the effects of skills-based recruitment on performance.

In small and medium-sized public enterprises in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, recruitment is not simply an administrative operation to fill a vacancy. It represents an institutional and human process in which candidates’ skills, organizational needs, formal rules, and informal practices all come into play. When it is based on job analysis, the definition of precise profiles, transparent criteria, professional tests, structured interviews, and a documented decision, it can foster professional development, accountability, and performance. Conversely, when access to employment depends primarily on personal connections, recommendations, political affiliation, or external interference, recruitment loses its meritocratic function and becomes a source of institutional distortion.

A phenomenological approach allows us to study this phenomenon from the perspective of the actors’ lived experience. Researchers are encouraged to set aside their existing assumptions and preconceived categories, allowing them to examine and describe a phenomenon based on how it is experienced and understood by those directly involved. Recruitment must therefore be understood through the narratives of candidates and agents: their expectations, hopes, uncertainties, perceptions of the selection process, their impact, and their relationship to work. The aim is not to immediately label the process as politicized, clientelistic, or corrupt, but rather to understand how the actors concretely experience a situation in which competence does not always seem to be the primary decision-making criterion.

This approach places everyday experiences and personal accounts at the center of the inquiry, seeking to reveal the meanings that individuals attach to their experiences and situations. A candidate may thus discover that their qualifications and professional experience are insufficient to guarantee recruitment, while the intervention of an influential relationship appears to be a determining factor. Such a situation can generate feelings of devaluation, injustice, or uncertainty, particularly when the recruited individual understands neither the reasons for their selection nor the organization’s true expectations. Individuals are understood as being situated within the physical, social, and everyday worlds in which their experiences unfold. Therefore, a poor job placement does not simply correspond to a measurable mismatch between a position and a candidate’s profile; it can be experienced as a feeling of powerlessness, frustration, shame, loss of confidence, or disengagement.

Inadequate recruitment also leads to job displacement. In these companies, employees confirmed that someone trained in accounting might be assigned to a technical department, an IT specialist to an administrative role, or a human resources specialist to a position unrelated to their skills. In such cases, the employee is not necessarily incompetent; they may be competent in a different field than the one they are assigned to. The difficulty, therefore, stems from the mismatch between the individual, the task, and the work environment. According to these employees, the lack of up-to-date job descriptions, skills frameworks, and onboarding mechanisms in these companies exacerbates this uncertainty. It fosters overlapping responsibilities, increased staffing levels, waiting for instructions, and a dilution of individual accountability.

We use the idea of general relativity as a metaphor to help make sense of this situation. Just as mass curves spacetime and alters the trajectory of bodies, politicization, clientelism, corruption, opacity, and weak controls can distort the normal recruitment process. Professional logic should follow the sequence: job analysis, skills identification, evaluation, decision, integration, and performance. In a distorted institutional environment, this trajectory becomes: intervention, recommendation, appointment, assignment, mismatch, and low productivity. This analogy remains heuristic: it does not transpose physical laws to the social sciences, but it allows us to consider how institutional forces influence organizational decisions.

Politicization reduces the autonomy of leaders, while corruption transforms public employment into a resource that can be distributed to benefit special interests. [13] demonstrate that governance depends, in particular, on institutional effectiveness, regulatory quality, the rule of law, and the control of corruption. When procedures exist but are neither applied nor monitored, a gap widens between the formal organization and the organization as it is actually experienced. [19] reminds us that institutions constitute the rules of the game and structure the incentives of actors. If the system rewards competence and transparency, professional decisions become rational; if it values proximity and intervention, clientelistic practices tend to persist.

The consequences of these distortions are organizational, economic, social, and ethical. Organizationally, they lead to role confusion, low accountability, absenteeism, conflict, and difficulty in evaluating performance. Economically, they can cause an increase in wage costs without a corresponding increase in the value produced, according to the following dynamic: poor recruitment, skills mismatch, low productivity, deficits, and increased dependence on the state. Socially, they weaken confidence in merit, devalue degrees, and encourage individuals to prioritize networking over education. Ethically, they undermine the accountability of administrators and the interests of colleagues, users, the state, and citizens.

In the context of the reforms initiated by the 2008 Congolese laws concerning the transformation of public enterprises and the management of the state portfolio, the professionalization of recruitment has emerged as a central governance issue. Initiatives aimed at the competitive selection of managers and the transparency of appointments demonstrate that reform must not be limited to the adoption of legislation. It must also ensure its implementation, the traceability of decisions, the independence of selection bodies, the evaluation of integration, and the sanctioning of arbitrary practices.

Thus, the phenomenological study of recruitment allows us to connect three levels of analysis: the candidate’s individual experience, organizational dysfunctions, and the costs borne by the state and society. Recruitment is therefore not a secondary function of human resources; it represents a fundamental mechanism for producing public performance. Understanding the lived experience of those involved reveals how institutional distortions affect professional recognition, agency, and the meaning of work. Recruitment reform then becomes a reform of governance itself, based on competence, transparency, accountability, and the alignment between individuals, positions, and the objectives of the public service.

Despite the strategic importance of human resources in organizational performance, several gaps remain in the literature. Studies focusing on African public small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are relatively scarce, with most research concentrating on large private companies, central government departments, or public enterprises in industrialized countries. Yet, public SMEs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo operate in an environment characterized by institutional fragility, dependence on public funding, unstable governance mechanisms, and the influence of political considerations. Under these conditions, recruitment is not always based on systematic job analysis, a competency framework, or transparent procedures. Organizational performance is closely linked to how well human resource practices support and complement an organization’s strategic goals. However, in some Congolese public enterprises, employees are sometimes assigned to administrative or technical positions without formal competitive examinations, professional tests, or thorough verification of their qualifications, sometimes due to political or familial connections. This situation can lead to mismatches between skills held and job requirements, particularly in transport, energy, water or telecommunications companies, where a lack of specialized staff can cause maintenance delays, a decline in service quality and low productivity.

Furthermore, the concrete mechanisms of recruitment, as well as the interaction between recruitment, remuneration, and performance, remain insufficiently studied in the Congolese context. Research by [3] shows that human resource practices produce better results when integrated into a coherent system for managing and developing skills, while [1] emphasizes that the perception of fairness in remuneration influences workers’ attitudes and behaviors. Thus, even when a Congolese public SME recruits a competent employee, the expected benefits may be limited if that employee experiences salary delays, receives lower pay than less qualified colleagues, or works with inadequate resources. For example, a technician recruited by a public water or electricity company may possess the necessary skills but be unable to work effectively due to a lack of spare parts, insufficient continuing education, or demotivating salary conditions. Furthermore, quantitative studies that simultaneously assess the direct effect of recruitment on performance, the mediating role of employee effectiveness, and the moderating influence of compensation remain limited in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This study therefore aims to contribute to filling this gap by proposing an integrated model applicable to Congolese public SMEs, taking into account their institutional, social, and organizational realities.

This study aims to contribute to reducing these gaps by proposing an integrated model applicable to Congolese public SMEs and seeks to explore the extent to which skills-based recruitment improves the performance of public SMEs in the DRC, through employee efficiency and the moderating effect of remuneration. In other words, to what extent does the quality of recruitment influence employee efficiency and, consequently, the performance of Congolese public SMEs? Or, conversely, how do political and relational recruitment practices and remuneration policies influence this relationship, and what institutional mechanisms can promote merit and pay equity?

The conceptual model of this research is structured around four main variables: the quality of skills-based recruitment, the effectiveness of staff, remuneration, and organizational performance. Their operational definition clarifies the relationships studied and facilitates their empirical measurement in public SMEs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The quality of skills-based recruitment refers to all the practices by which an organization identifies, attracts, selects, and integrates candidates whose qualifications match the job requirements and the company’s strategic objectives. It will be assessed using several indicators: prior analysis of staffing needs, the existence of a job description, the definition of a skills profile, transparency in the call for applications, the use of professional tests, the conduct of structured interviews, verification of diplomas and experience, traceability of the decision, and the evaluation of the new employee at the end of the probationary period.

This refers to employees’ ability to mobilize their knowledge, skills, and available resources to achieve expected results. It is not limited to the execution of prescribed tasks but also includes the quality of work, speed of execution, autonomy, diligence, adaptability to change, problem-solving skills, and contribution to collective objectives. This variable therefore reflects how recruited human resources translate their skills into observable results.

Compensation encompasses all financial and non-financial benefits granted to employees in return for their work. This includes base salary, bonuses, allowances, benefits, and career advancement opportunities. In this study, compensation will be evaluated according to three key dimensions: its adequacy in relation to employees’ needs and the cost of living, its internal and external fairness, and its regularity and predictability. Compensation is considered a moderating variable, as it can either amplify or diminish the impact of recruitment on performance.

Performance refers to an organization’s ability to achieve its economic, social, and institutional objectives by effectively utilizing its resources. It will be assessed through productivity, the quality of goods and services, cost control, revenue mobilization capacity, user satisfaction, financial autonomy, the fulfillment of public service missions, and the quality of governance and internal control. In the context of Congolese public SMEs, performance must therefore be understood from a multidimensional perspective, combining financial results, operational efficiency, and the accomplishment of the public interest mission.

This research adopts a post-positivist and critical perspective, based on the idea that scientific knowledge is often constructed from observable facts, explicit hypotheses, and rational verification procedures. This approach views theoretical claims as open to scrutiny, requiring them to be tested against evidence rather than simply accepted as true. The scientific validity of a proposition therefore depends on its testability and falsifiability. From this perspective, the hypotheses concerning the influence of skills-based recruitment on employee effectiveness and organizational performance are considered provisional. They are then tested against data collected from public SMEs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The study thus seeks to determine whether empirical observations support, qualify or contradict the relationships postulated in the conceptual model.

This epistemological choice is also compatible with the principles of the hypothetico-deductive approach. Scientific research often starts with a question or problem, followed by the development of possible explanations that are then examined against empirical evidence. A social science study needs a clear research problem and a sound conceptual basis, together with hypotheses and appropriate procedures for examining them in practice.

This study therefore retains the principles of formulating precise and falsifiable hypotheses; the operational definition of concepts; the construction of observable indicators; the systematic collection of data; the comparison of results with hypotheses; the transparency of analysis procedures; the acceptance of results confirming or refuting theoretical expectations.

The objective is therefore not to demonstrate in an absolute way that skills-based recruitment improves performance. The question is rather to assess to what extent this relationship stands up to the test of facts in the specific context of Congolese public SMEs.

The research will adopt a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative and qualitative methods. Using both quantitative and qualitative evidence makes it possible to examine relationships between variables while also considering the experiences and social processes that may account for those relationships. This complementarity is particularly relevant in the study of public recruitment, which encompasses both a measurable dimension and an institutional, relational, and subjective one.

The quantitative component allows us to measure the quality of recruitment procedures; the level of effectiveness of agents; the perception of remuneration; the level of organizational performance; the influence of political-relational practices.

The qualitative component aims to understand how actors experience and interpret recruitment, assignment, compensation, and evaluation practices. Understanding human and organizational life requires attention to how people experience and make sense of their everyday realities.

The research design will be primarily cross-sectional and explanatory. It will be cross-sectional because the data will be collected over a specific period. It will be explanatory because it will seek to analyze the relationships between recruitment, efficiency, compensation, and performance. However, as [14] remind us, establishing a statistical relationship is not sufficient to prove definitive causality. Causal interpretation must therefore be based on theory, the logical temporality of the relationships, the quality of the indicators, and the control of competing variables.

The study population consists of small and medium-sized public enterprises in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These enterprises are mainly in sectors such as water, electricity, transport, telecommunications, agriculture, agro-industry, resource exploitation and commercial public services.

The primary unit of analysis is the public enterprise, as the aim is to assess its organizational performance and human resource management practices. However, the study also focuses on employees, since their effectiveness and perception of compensation are essential dimensions of the model. Two levels of analysis are thus distinguished: the organizational level, which concerns structure, governance, recruitment procedures, staffing levels, and performance; and the individual level, which concerns recruitment experience, job suitability, effectiveness, motivation, and compensation perception.

This distinction is important because organizational performance cannot be reduced to the sum of individual performances. According to [12], an organization’s results also depend on interactions between individuals, its structure, roles, and coordination mechanisms.

Our sample consists of 60 SMEs with 305Observations from different sectors result in a stratified and selective sampling approach. Companies are categorized according to their sector of activity, size, geographic location, age, and level of financial independence. This method helps ensure that different groups within a heterogeneous population are adequately represented in the sample.

The selection of companies also takes into account intentional criteria, including the existence of a formal administrative structure; the recent completion of recruitment operations; the availability of organizational documents; the diversity of professional categories; and the agreement to participate in the study.

For the staff, proportional or stratified sampling was used to represent managers, administrative staff, technicians, and operational staff. For the qualitative component, purposive sampling was employed. Participants are selected based on their ability to offer meaningful and detailed insights into the research problem.

The interviews will be conducted until theoretical saturation is reached. Data collection can be considered sufficient when additional interviews or observations no longer bring substantial new insights to the analysis.

The quality of skills-based recruitment is measured by practices such as prior needs analysis; the existence of an organizational chart and a job description; definition of a skills profile; transparent publication of the offer; use of professional tests; structured interviews; verification of diplomas and experience; independence of the jury; traceability of the decision; probationary period and integration assessment.

These dimensions focus on how human resource practices relate to the organization’s wider strategic direction and priorities. They also align with the analyses of [21], according to which human resource policies must be aligned with the company’s needs and directions.

Individual effectiveness is assessed through the quality of work; speed of execution; technical proficiency; autonomy; reliability; diligence; adaptability; problem-solving; initiative; and cooperation. These indicators are based on [7] model, which distinguishes between task-related performance, contextual performance, and behaviors that contribute to the overall functioning of the organization. [6] also demonstrate that an employee’s effectiveness is not limited to technical tasks but includes behaviors of cooperation, support, and participation in organizational life.

Compensation is measured using three dimensions: the adequacy of salary and benefits; internal and external fairness; and the regularity and predictability of payments. This operationalization is based on [1] equity theory, according to which workers compare their contributions and rewards to those of others. A perception of unfairness can lead to decreased effort, absenteeism, or a search for alternative activities. It also draws on [5] social exchange theory. From this perspective, an organization that fulfills its obligations to its employees fosters reciprocity, commitment, and loyalty. Conversely, payment delays and unjustified disparities can reduce trust and the mobilization of skills.

Organizational performance is assessed using a multidimensional approach that includes productivity; the quality of goods and services; cost control; revenue generation; user satisfaction; financial autonomy; the fulfillment of public service missions; and the quality of governance and internal control. This approach aligns with the work of [11], who recommend moving beyond purely financial indicators to incorporate internal processes, beneficiary satisfaction, and organizational learning. It is also consistent with the approach of [18], which posits that performance should be measured using a coherent set of indicators that correspond to the organization’s objectives.

A structured questionnaire was administered to agents and managers of public SMEs. It included closed-ended questions, perception scales, and a few open-ended questions. The items were primarily measured on a five-point Likert scale: strongly disagree; disagree; no opinion; agree; strongly agree. The questionnaire was constructed based on the selected theoretical dimensions and adapted to the respondents’ vocabulary (Table 1). According to [8], an effective questionnaire should be clear, concise, unambiguous, and organized in a logical progression. A pretest was conducted before the main data collection. This allowed for verification of the questions’ clarity, the administration time, the consistency of the responses, and the relevance of the proposed options.

Table 1. Respondent profile.

Respondents associate recruitment quality with the match between skills and position, qualifications, experience, and the objectivity of tests/interviews, in accordance with competency-based selection ([20]). Simultaneously, political or relational recruitment practices (personal relationships, networks, changes in criteria, lack of transparency) are frequently reported, suggesting favoritism, social exchanges ([5]), and the risk of opportunism ([10]). Recruitment influenced by these dynamics risks degrading the job-person match and individual effectiveness—a dimension analyzed by [7]—hence a potential negative impact on collective performance.

Compensation (fair pay, internal equity, benefits, recognition) appears as a lever that can either strengthen or weaken the impact of recruitment on performance, according to equity theory ([1]) and [9] two-factor theory. Compensation perceived as fair can increase motivation, retention, and commitment, and potentially moderate the effect of recruitment quality (hypotheses H5-H6).

Across 305 observations, recruitment quality, political recruitment, compensation, and changes in the HR budget showed little significance between respondent categories (p > 0.05). However, socio-professional category significantly differentiated perceived performance (p < 0.001): supervisors/technicians = 1.93; operational staff = 2.68; middle managers = 2.72. Company size influenced performance non-linearly (p = 0.01), with companies of 10 - 49 employees exhibiting the lowest average. The strongest effect was linked to geographical location (p < 0.01; η² = 0.437). In summary, perceived performance appears to be structured primarily by territorial embeddedness, socio-professional position, and certain organizational dimensions, rather than solely by recruitment or compensation mechanisms. This observation is in line with the contingency approach ([15]) and recalls work on the effect of organizational positions and structures ([16]; [17]).

A linear regression was estimated to explain relational political recruitment based on age, height, salary, gender, sector, and occupational category. The dependent variable is not performance: the results therefore explain only relational recruitment, and not its effects on performance or effectiveness.

The model has low explanatory power: R² = 0.24; R² = 0.058; adjusted R² ≈ 0.026. Fisher’s overall test yields F = 1.813 with p = 0.058, not significant at the 5% level (but close to the threshold). In other words, these observable variables account for a very small portion of the variance in relational recruitment. This suggests that the phenomenon is multidimensional and likely depends on informal factors: social networks, party affiliations, loyalties, activist trajectories, patronage systems, proximity to decision-makers, and local norms. Overall, this analysis of recruitment practices and their impact on the performance of public SMEs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo builds upon previous work on strategic human resource management. According to [3], organizational performance depends largely on an organization’s ability to attract, select, and assign individuals based on the actual requirements of the positions. From this perspective, skills-based recruitment improves the match between a candidate’s profile and the job, thereby promoting efficiency, autonomy, and service quality. This relationship is also consistent with the resource-based view, which considers human skills to be a strategic resource that is difficult to imitate and can provide a lasting organizational advantage ([2]).

The descriptive and qualitative results examined support the idea that meritocratic recruitment contributes to better performance, while practices influenced by political, familial, or relational considerations can lead to a mismatch between employees and positions. Such a mismatch may leave employees’ skills underused, weaken their motivation, and create uncertainty about their roles and responsibilities. However, the regression presented in the study focuses on factors associated with relational recruitment and not directly on organizational performance. Therefore, it cannot, on its own, statistically confirm the hypothesis that relational recruitment reduces performance.

The data structure also necessitates particular caution. The 305 respondents are grouped within 17 companies, implying a dependence of individual observations. The hierarchical structure of the data should be taken into account to prevent statistical significance from being overstated. Future analysis should therefore estimate the effect of skills-based and relationship-based recruitment on performance, while controlling for size, sector, location, seniority, and organizational characteristics. The study could also consider how agent effectiveness may explain the relationships between the variables and whether compensation influences the strength of these effects. Ultimately, the available results support the theoretical plausibility of the hypotheses, but their empirical validation requires a more appropriate econometric specification and a rigorous definition of the public SMEs studied.

The limited influence of formal attributes—age, gender, salary, sector, size, and category—does little to explain the observed variation. There is a gap between formal structures and informal mechanisms: recommendations, loyalties, political connections, and social capital appear to play a major role. The configurations are diverse: relational recruitment varies according to sector, hierarchical level, and context; it is not homogeneous. Power dynamics are not readily apparent in traditional quantitative data.

The results are consistent with several approaches: social capital (importance of networks), patronage/clientelism theories (exchanges of resources and loyalties), sociology of fields and capital (Bourdieu) and institutional theory (coexistence of formal and informal orders).

In accordance with Popper’s post-positivist perspective (1959/1972), these relationships must nevertheless remain subject to empirical testing and the possibility of refutation. This precaution strengthens rather than weakens the scientific scope of the study, since it avoids confusing a perfect mathematical fit with an empirical demonstration of the proposed theoretical mechanisms.

1)Methodological positioning of the qualitative component

The qualitative part of the study adopts a phenomenological approach to explore participants’ lived experiences. This perspective considers lived experience to be a privileged means of understanding human, social, and organizational phenomena. Therefore, it is not simply a matter of asking actors whether recruitment is skills-based or whether remuneration is satisfactory, but of understanding how they concretely experience these practices, what they mean to them, and how they influence their work.

This approach is particularly relevant in the context of public SMEs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where formal human resource management practices can sometimes differ from the actual experiences of employees. For example, regulations may stipulate competitive recruitment, while an employee’s experience may be influenced by the perception that personal relationships played a role in their hiring. Similarly, a salary policy may exist in practice, but payment delays, disparities in treatment, or gaps between responsibilities and compensation can profoundly alter employees’ professional experience.

Qualitative analysis therefore seeks to highlight the meaning that actors give to their experiences. It allows us, in particular, to answer questions such as: How do employees experience their recruitment? How do they perceive their assignment? How do they interpret their compensation? How do they experience the evaluation mechanisms? What effects do these experiences have on their engagement, their effectiveness, and their perception of the company’s performance?

2)Proposedsemi-structuredinterviewguide

The guide is organized around five main themes, with open questions allowing participants to share their experiences.

Theme1:RecruitmentExperience

Main question:

Can you tell me how you were recruited by this company and what your experience was like? Possible follow-up questions:

How did you find out about the opening? What criteria were used to select you? Did you take a test or have an interview? Do you feel your skills were truly considered? Did you feel other factors influenced the hiring process? How did you personally experience this situation?

RA/A “When I was recruited, there was indeed a process. I submitted my application and had an interview. But, honestly, I had the impression that some candidates were already known to the managers. I arrived with my degree and my experience, but I didn’t know if that would really matter.”

Phenomenological interpretation

This response cannot be reduced to the assertion “recruitment is not transparent.” It reveals an experience of uncertainty and mistrust. The participant distinguishes the official recruitment process from what they perceive as actual practices. The experience of recruitment is therefore marked by a tension between formal meritocracy and the influence of personal relationships.

From a perspective inspired by Van Manen, the researcher here seeks to grasp the essence of the experience: the actor does not only speak of an administrative procedure, but of what this procedure made him experience in terms of trust, uncertainty, justice and recognition of his skills.

3)Experienceinjobassignmentandmatchingofskillstopositions

Main question: After your recruitment, how did you experience being assigned to your current position? Follow-up/Does your training match your role? Are your skills actually being used?

Have you ever been assigned to a role that didn’t match your profile? How did this situation affect your work? Did you request a different assignment? How did management react? (Simulated response: “I trained in IT, but for almost two years I worked in an administrative department. I could do the job, but I knew I wasn’t really using my skills. I sometimes feel underutilized. When I was finally assigned to the IT department, I started proposing solutions and taking more initiative.”)

Analysis

This testimony highlights the issue of skills-job matching. Experience shows that skills-based recruitment does not automatically guarantee performance. Skills must also be properly assigned and effectively utilized.

A first stylized fact can thus be formulated: Stylized Fact 1: The value of skills-based recruitment depends on the organization’s ability to assign agents according to their profile and to effectively utilize their skills.

The speech also shows that professional effectiveness is not solely an individual attribute. It depends on the opportunity given to the individual to translate their skills into concrete actions.

4)Experience with compensation/Main question: How do you experience and interpret your compensation system in this company? Follow-up: Is your salary paid regularly? Does it correspond to the responsibilities you assume? How do you perceive the differences in compensation between employees? Does compensation influence your motivation?

How do you feel when your salary is delayed? Does it affect your work? (Simulated response)

RI/C “The problem isn’t just the amount of the salary. It’s mainly the regularity. When you work for several months without being paid, your motivation changes. You continue to come in because you have responsibilities, but you start looking for other ways to make a living.”

Analysis

This response reveals that remuneration is experienced not only as financial compensation for work, but also as a form of organizational recognition. Late payment transforms the employee’s relationship to their work: they may continue to perform their tasks, but their psychological and professional investment may diminish. RI/B/for interviewee B: “What discourages us as employees is seeing someone with fewer responsibilities being paid more simply because they are close to a manager or are located in Kinshasa Province than in other provinces. This unfounded salary disparity is a serious concern. Bonuses, often given nicknames to deceive auditors, are fabricated and allocated to people within the same networks. In a recruitment process, regardless of your rank, when it comes to a new job, you must first provide a quota of people to be recruited to those managing finances and the budget so that they can allocate a substantial amount to the employees you are going to recruit.” In the long run, you wonder why you have to make extra efforts. Here, an experience of organizational justice or injustice emerges. Compensation is interpreted in comparison with that of other employees, and not solely based on its absolute amount. The resulting stylized fact is therefore: Stylized Fact 2: In the employees’ experience, compensation acts both as an economic resource and as a signal of recognition, fairness, and professional consideration.

5)Experience in professional evaluation and effectiveness

Main question: How is your work evaluated? within the company and how are you experiencing this evaluation?

Follow-up questions/What criteria are used? Do the evaluations truly reflect your work? Do the evaluation results impact your career or salary? Have you ever been evaluated unfairly? Do you receive feedback from your managers? Does the evaluation encourage you to improve your work? Spoken response: RS: “Normally, we have to be evaluated every year. But sometimes, the evaluation is more of an administrative formality. We fill out the paperwork, but no one really explains what needs to be improved.”

Analytically, this discourse reveals a gap between formal and lived evaluation. The existence of an evaluation system does not necessarily guarantee its managerial effectiveness. Interviewee D (R/ID/) states: “When my manager gives me specific feedback on my work, I know what I need to improve. In that case, the evaluation really helps me. But if you’re simply given a grade without explanation, it doesn’t change the way you work.” This response helps us understand that evaluation can become a tool for learning and improvement when it provides useful feedback, but remains purely administrative when it is not accompanied by feedback.

We therefore conclude from these accounts that Stylized Fact 3 on: The effectiveness of evaluation depends less on its formal existence than on its ability to produce useful, credible feedback that is actually used to improve the work of agents.

6)Experience of the link between skills and effectiveness

Main question: In your experience, what enables a competent employee to be truly effective in their work? Spoken answer: “Skills are important, but they are not enough. If you are competent but lack the resources to do your job properly, you cannot produce the expected results.” A manager might add: “We have very competent employees, but sometimes they lack equipment, motivation, or support. Their level of training is good, but their results are not always up to par.”

Analytically, these discussions allow us to refine the theoretical model. They show that skills represent a potential for performance, but that this potential must be converted into effectiveness through favorable organizational conditions. Recruitment thus appears as a necessary, but not always sufficient, condition. The employee must have the resources, supervision, recognition, and working conditions necessary to transform their skills into results.

7)Experience of the link between remuneration and efficiency

Main question: Can you explain how your salary specifically influences your work? Spoken answer: “When my salary arrives on time, I can concentrate on my work. When there are delays, I have a lot of personal worries. This inevitably affects my concentration.” Respondent/M: “I continue to do my work even when my salary is late, but I don’t necessarily make the extra effort anymore. Before, I used to stay late to finish certain tasks. Now, I just stick to my scheduled hours.”

These responses are particularly important for our research model because they help us understand the moderating role of compensation. Compensation does not replace skills. Rather, it can influence an organization’s ability to translate available skills into actual effectiveness. In other words, two employees with comparable skills can produce different levels of engagement depending on the conditions under which their work is recognized and compensated.

8)Experience in Business Performance:Main question: In your experience, what explains your company’s performance or performance difficulties? Follow-up/What role do staff skills play?

What role does recruitment play? What role does compensation play? What role does management play? What are the main obstacles to performance? Can you give a concrete example? (Simulated response from a manager: “When we have competent people in the right departments, things move quickly. The problem arises when someone is appointed to a position they are not qualified for. This requires a lot of supervision and makes decisions slower.”)

This discourse establishes an explanatory chain linking recruitment → assignment → efficiency → performance. It qualitatively confirms the value of the conceptual model. However, another response qualifies this relationship: “Even with good employees, the company cannot perform well if decisions are slow, if equipment is not working, or if financial resources are unavailable.” This nuance is scientifically important. It avoids a deterministic interpretation according to which skills alone explain performance.

9)Cross-sectional analysis and emergence of themes

After several interviews, we grouped the comments into units of meaning and then into broader themes as shown below.

10)Gradual construction of saturation

In this research, qualitative saturation is not simply the result of reaching an arbitrary number of interviews. It corresponds to the point at which new interviews no longer introduce substantially new dimensions to the categories already identified. Our interviews were conducted with 4 operational staff; 3 middle managers; 3 human resources managers; and 2 executives or managers of public SMEs, totaling 12 exploratory interviews, with approximately 4 additional interviews conducted as new categories of individuals continued to emerge. We observed saturation in Interviews 1 through 4, when participants primarily discussed recruitment, personal relationships, and the alignment between training and employment. This occurred again in Interviews 5 through 8, when the same themes reappeared, but participants introduced more issues related to compensation, salary delays, and motivation. In Interviews 9 through 12, the discussions converged on the same dimensions: recruitment, assignment, compensation, working conditions, evaluation, and effectiveness. Interviews 13 to 15 revealed that the new data essentially reiterated existing categories without revealing any substantial new dimensions. At this stage, we considered that thematic saturation had been reached, subject to the richness of the data actually collected.

11)Stylized facts that may emerge

The value of our qualitative analysis lies ultimately in transforming the numerous individual accounts into a few stylized facts—that is, synthetic empirical regularities that allow for a better understanding of the phenomenon under study. Stylized Fact 1: Skilled recruitment is perceived as a prerequisite for effectiveness. Participants tend to associate staff competence with the company’s ability to achieve its objectives. However, this relationship is contingent upon the appropriate allocation of staff and the actual possibility of mobilizing their skills.

Stylized Fact 2: Assignment is the mechanism for transforming skills into effectiveness. Interviews showed that recruiting a competent employee does not automatically guarantee their effectiveness. When an employee is assigned to a role that matches their profile, their skills are more fully utilized, and their autonomy and initiative tend to be greater. Stylized Fact 3: Compensation is experienced as a form of professional recognition. Employees do not necessarily consider compensation solely as a source of income. They also interpret it as a sign of recognition for their contribution. Delays, disparities, or mismatches between responsibilities and compensation can therefore affect their engagement. Stylized Fact 4: Employee effectiveness depends on transforming potential into the capacity for action. Skills constitute potential, but their transformation into effectiveness also depends on available resources, supervision, work organization, assignment, and motivation. Stylized Fact 5: Evaluation is only effective when it is perceived as a tool for improvement. When performance reviews are perceived as a mere administrative formality, their influence on behavior remains weak. When they provide feedback, identify gaps, and enable skills improvement, they can contribute to individual effectiveness. Stylized Fact 6: Organizational performance results from a chain of coherence: The collected narratives could reveal a relatively coherent chain: Skills-based recruitment → job/profile match → skills mobilization → employee effectiveness → organizational performance. Compensation plays a cross-cutting role in this chain, potentially strengthening or weakening the effective mobilization of skills.

12)Final reading

From a perspective inspired by Van Manen, the ultimate goal is not simply to count how many people report that recruitment is transparent or that compensation is insufficient. It is to understand the human experience behind these statements. Recruitment can be experienced as recognition of merit or, conversely, as an experience of injustice; assignment can be experienced as an opportunity to showcase one’s skills or as a form of professional underutilization; compensation can be experienced as recognition of work accomplished or as a source of frustration; and finally, performance reviews can be experienced as an opportunity for advancement or as a formality with no real value.

Thus, the qualitative component demonstrates that the relationship between recruitment and performance in SMEs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is not purely mechanical. The skills recruited acquire their value through the concrete experience of the employees and the organizational conditions in which they are deployed. Effectiveness then constitutes the process by which individual potential is transformed into professional behavior and results, while remuneration can either facilitate or hinder this transformation. This perspective adds a human dimension to the quantitative model and helps us understand not only whether skills-based recruitment influences performance, but above all, how and why stakeholders experience this relationship in the daily realities of public SMEs in the DRC.

13)Qualitative analytical framework to be applied in DRC SMEs for performance

Recruitment experience → “Am I being hired for my skills?” → Assignment experience → “Are my skills actually being used?” → Compensation and recognition experience → “Are my work and skills valued?” → Performance appraisal and coaching experience → “Does my organization help me improve my work?” → Job effectiveness experience → “Can I actually produce the expected results?” → Perception of organizational performance.

This articulation gives our study a true complementarity between the quantitative and the qualitative: the questionnaire tests the relationships between the variables, while the interviews make it possible to explain the mechanisms experienced, the meanings attributed by the actors and the concrete conditions in which these relationships manifest themselves.

14)Comparison of quantitative and qualitative analyses

Quantitative and qualitative analyses provide complementary insights into the effect of recruitment on organizational performance. The quantitative approach allows us to measure the direction and strength of the relationships between variables. In particular, it shows that skills-based recruitment is positively associated with performance, while relational recruitment tends to have a negative effect. It also allows us to test the mediating role of employee effectiveness and the moderating effect of compensation. This approach makes it possible to draw broader conclusions from the findings while also testing the proposed hypotheses with statistical evidence.

Qualitative analysis delves deeper into these findings by revealing the underlying mechanisms. Interviews and case studies highlight the influence of personal relationships, favoritism, misallocation of staff, inadequate compensation, and their consequences on motivation and work quality. This approach thus allows us to understand the lived experiences of the actors and the institutional dynamics that cannot be fully captured by statistical indicators. The analysis considers social phenomena in their specific contexts and uses case-based inquiry to examine how organizational processes work in practice.

The link between the two analyses is therefore based on complementarity and methodological triangulation. Quantitative results identify general trends, while qualitative data interpret and contextualize them. The study combines different forms of evidence to provide a more complete understanding of the research problem. The comparative report thus shows an overall convergence: meritocratic recruitment, job-profile matching, and fair compensation promote performance, while relational recruitment and poor employee management reduce it. However, the qualitative analysis qualifies the statistical results by showing that the effect of recruitment depends heavily on the institutional context, informal practices, and concrete working conditions.