Affective Engagement, Gender Diversity and Employee Performance in the Tanzanian Textile Industry

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.

Examining Age Diversity, Gender Diversity and Teaching Performance in Higher Education in the Kathmandu Valley

“…Orientation variety to some degree intervened the impact of full of feeling commitment on relevant execution and assignment execution. In such manner, a decent blend among people, equivalent open doors for administrative positions, an ideal blend of the sexes in work distribution, equivalent open doors in vocation improvement, and an orientation portion strategy inside the association can all give a climate to emotional commitment to apply a positive effect on representative execution (Amsi, Kiflemariam, & Ngui, 2022).…”

Gender Diversity and Employee Performance in the Tanzania Textile Firms

“…Notwithstanding, various studies have been conducted on the influence of gender diversity on employee performance, but these studies examined employee performance on its totality without considering the three dimensions of employees' performance i.e., adaptive performance, contextual performance, and task performance. It is even supported by Amsi, Kiflemariam and Ngui (2022) who argue for examining employee engagement using its dimensions because it is likely that an independent variable may not have the same influence on the employees' performance dimensions.…”

“…Similarly, Amsi et al (2022) adopted the Contingency theory to examine the mediation effect which mainly focuses on the external environmental factors to the firm. However, the theory cannot well explain the relationship between gender diversity and employees' performance dimensions because gender diversity is an internal factor to the organisation.…”