Investigating the impact of human resource management practices on employee engagement, and the moderating role of strategy implementation in Egypt

Orientation: The concept of employee engagement has attracted the attention of both academics and practitioners due to its importance in enhancing the performance and profitability of organisations. Research Purpose: This article examines the impact of human resource management (HRM) practices on employee engagement in the Egyptian context. The purpose of this article was to develop an in-depth understanding of the concepts of HRM practices and their impact on employee engagement, and the moderating role of strategy implementation. Motivation for the study: Given the scarcity of research that examines the impact of HRM practices on employee engagement especially in the banking sector, this article examines how different HRM practices can influence the level of employee engagement. Research approach/design and method: For the purpose of answering the research questions and testing the proposed hypotheses, a quantitative research approach was adopted by distributing a questionnaire to 228 employees from the banking sector in Egypt. Main findings: The findings indicated that HRM practices had a positive significant impact on employee engagement. In particular, these practices included selection and hiring, job design as well as reward and payment systems. However, the findings showed that the strategic implementation does not moderate the relationship between HRM practices and employee engagement. Practical/managerial implications: This article provides some guidelines for organisations to follow to fully utilise the power of employee engagement by applying effective HRM practices. Contribution/value-add: The contribution of this study is that it is one of the few studies that have so far investigated this relationship in the Egyptian environment.