2.5 Hypotheses Development
2.5.1 Employee Strategic Alignment Impact on Employee Performance
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theory presents the link between employees' experimental conditions and work roles (Kwon &
Park, 2019). The theory is based upon two premises: first, "psychological experience of work derived people behaviours and attitude" and second, "individual, interpersonal, group, intergroup and organizational factor simultaneously influence these experiences" (Kahn, 1990, p. 695).
Meaningfulness designates employees' perception that their work tasks are valuable (Upadhyay
& Palo, 2013). It answers the question of how meaningful it is to put effort into reaching a specific performance or sense of return on investment (Kahn, 1990).
Safety refers to the perception that the work environment is supportive and trusty (Upadhyay &
Palo, 2013); in other words, how safe is it for an employee to do so (Kahn, 1990). Finally, availability, which means the employees have "physical, psychological and emotional" reasons to engage in their job tasks at any time (Upadhyay & Palo, 2013) or are they available to do so (Kahn, 1990). This theory is connected to the engagement need-satisfaction approach ( (Schaufeli, 2013); (Shuck, 2011)).
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and are linked to higher goals, this might lead them to adjust their performance to accomplish what is required (Kalgin, et al., 2018).
Furthermore, strategic human resources practices are referred to as practices that signify the ability and involvement of employees and encourage their commitment and their efforts.
Encouraging employees through active participation, detailed performance analysis and aligning incentives with performance are considered high-performance work practices (Sanchez, et al., 2013). Huselid (1995) described high-performance work practices as practices that can enhance the "skill, knowledge and abilities" of an organisation's employees, enhance their motivation and decrease turnover.
Sanchez et al. (2013) stated that as long as high-performance practices are linked to performance, employees will be encouraged and motivated so that their abilities and behaviours are going to be directed toward better performance.
According to Alagaraja and Shuck (2015), it is imperative that organisational systems and procedures are strongly aligned and linked with job specifications and responsibilities in order to enhance employee performance. Additionally, Alagaraja & Shuck (2015) stated that from a Human resource perspective, alignment of organisational-level procedures such as reward systems affects the job design, job specifications, and performance standards of individuals (Alagaraja & Shuck, 2015).
According to the goal-setting theory, employees will be motivated when they have specific and challenging goals linked to higher-order goals. Additionally, clear goals decrease role ambiguity and integrate one work within the organisation. All these factors result in highly motivated employees will produce a better outcome (Kalgin, et al., 2018). Setting strategic performance
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indicators at the individual level will be associated with a feedback system. Hence, employees who do not meet the target work toward enhancing performance (Lin & Kellough, 2019).
Alignment cognitions are critical forerunners of an employee's inclination to engage fully with tasks. They are similar to resources as they can decrease constraints that adversely affect job performance alignment and endorse intrinsic and extrinsic motivations by fulfilling psychological needs (Biggs, et al., 2014 ).
Most of the world's governmental sectors are suffering from improving organisation outcomes without increasing costs and creating performance measurements to improve the quality of work. Several factors play a role in managing and measuring performance, including customer and stakeholder satisfaction, improving service delivery, and integrating risk management (Moullin, 2017).
Furthermore, creating a periodic review system based on performance indicators creates a sense of seriousness, leading to performance-oriented work culture. Studies suggest that performance management positively affects performance in governmental organisations because it eliminates weak performance and attracts high-quality employees (Kalgin, et al., 2018).
After understanding the impact of employees' strategic alignment on employees' performance, the following hypotheses are presented:
H1: Employee's strategic alignment has a significant positive impact on employee performance.
H1, a: Creating Strategic Awareness (CSA) has a significant positive impact on employee performance
o H1, a,1: Creating Strategic Awareness has a significant positive impact on employee task performance
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o H1, a,2: Creating Strategic Awareness has a significant positive impact on employee contextual performance
o H1, a,3: Creating Strategic Awareness has a significant negative impact on counterproductive employee performance
H1, b: Defining personal objectives (DPO) has a significant positive impact on employee performance
o H1, b,1 Defining personal objectives has a significant positive impact on employee task performance
o H1, b,2: Defining personal objectives has a significant positive impact on employee contextual performance
o H1, b,3: Defining personal objectives has a significant negative impact on employee counterproductive performance
H1, c: Linking incentives and compensation to achieving organisational goals (LIP) has a significant positive impact on employee performance
o H1, c,1: Linking incentives and compensation to achieving organisational goals has a significant positive impact on employee task performance
o H1, c,2: Linking incentives and compensation to achieving organisational goals has a significant positive impact on employee contextual performance
o H1, c,3: Linking incentives and compensation to achieving organisational goals has a significant negative impact on employee counterproductive performance Previous studies have examined the link between employee strategic alignment from several points of view (including strategic awareness, performance alignment and compensation alignment with BSC) and employee performance. For instance, Mascareño et al. (2020)
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examined the impact of goal alignment on team creativity and innovation. The result of their study showed that goal alignment affects team innovation but does not affect team creativity.
Team innovation leads to better performance. Table (3) presents a summary of previous studies on the relationship between Employee Strategic Alignment and Employee Performance.
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TABLE 3: PREVIOUS STUDIES ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMPLOYEES' STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT AND PERFORMANCE
Title and citation Objectives Variables Method Findings Exploring Organisational
Alignment-Employee Engagement Linkages and Impact on Individual Performance
Alagaraja, M., &
Shuck, B. (2015).
Provide better apprehending of the alignment- engagement relationship to individual performance
Organisational alignment Employee engagement Individual performance
developing an exploratory conceptual model that links the study variables
“The Impact of
Employees’ Perceptions of Strategic Alignment on Sustainability: An Empirical Investigation of Korean Firms” (Kim, Kim and Kown, 2020)
To test the relationship between variables related to strategic alignment, role clarity, employee engagement, and
organisational performance
Independent variable: strategic alignment Mediation variable; Goal clarity, process clarity
Dependent variable:
Employee engagement, Organisation performance.
Surveying 244 participants in 74 Korean companies.
Strategic alignment is indirectly related to organisational performance through goal clarity and employee engagement. This study also clarifies the motivation of strategic alignment in terms of individuals (e.g., psychological stability of individual goals and actions) and organisations (e.g., high level of engagement toward the organisation's active
Support).
‘The interplay between performance
measurement and management, employee engagement and Performance.”
(Smith, Umit S Bititci, 2017)
The research developed a conceptual model that links performance measurement and
management with employee engagement and
performance.
Independent variable:
Performance measurement Mediation variable;
Organisation control, Employee engagement Dependent variable:
Organisational performance
The research followed an explorative action method that involved pilot and control groups from two bank
departments in the United Kingdom.
The change in the organisational control to change in the performance system resulted in better engagement and performance.
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“Can internal strategic alignment influence performance? An empirical research applying structural equation modelling”
(Prieto and de Carvalho, 2018)
Investigate the impact of internal strategic alignment on business performance.
Independent variable: Internal strategic
alignment Dependent variable:
Organisation performance measured by market growth, profitability, product and service innovation and corporate reputation
survey-based research analysed using the Partial least squares method, a structural equation modelling the technique is applied to estimate the model
confirm the positive relationship Between internal alignment and business performance.
“Performance management
practices in the public sector
organisations Impact on performance”
(Verbeeten, 2008)
whether performance management practices impact
performance in public sector organisations
Independent variable: clear, measurable goals, incentives Dependent variable:
Organisation performance is measured by the quantity of work, quality of work, innovation, excellence, efficiency, and morale.
survey data from 93 public sector organisations in the Netherlands
The research demonstrates that the definition of clear and measurable goals is positively associated with quantity
performance as well as quality
performance
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