Examining the Mediating Effect of Employee Engagement in the Relationships between Organizational Learning, Perceived Organizational Support and Employee Performance Outcomes in Vietnamese Small and Medium Enterprises

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effect of employee engagement in the relationships between organizational learning, perceived organizational support and employee performance outcomes in Vietnamese small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Using a cross-sectional survey design on a sample of 425 employees, four salient findings have been reported from the study. First, employee perceptions of organizational learning and organizational support were related to their citizenship behaviors through their engagement. Second, employee perceptions of organizational learning were related to their organizational citizenship behaviors, controlling for organizational support. Third, employee perceptions of organizational support were related to turnover intention, controlling for organizational learning. Fourth, employee perceptions of organizational learning and organizational support were not related to their intent to turnover through their engagement. Important theoretical implications include the combination of self-determination theory and job demands-resources model to account for the employee engagement phenomenon in Vietnam’s business context and systems thinking in designing for organizational effectiveness and employee development. Research implications and recommendations are given in regard of research substantiveness and possible alternative research designs and methods. The current study makes a two-fold contribution to practice. First, drawing primarily on system dynamics, learning, citizenship and engagement together frame a different way to view Vietnam as a society and SMEs as business organizations. Second, human resource development as a field of study and practice is suggestive of innovative approaches in its domains to developing and promoting SMEs in Vietnam. To wrap up, the original value offered by this dissertation is that of the first study on discovery of Vietnam’s SMEs on organizational learning, employee engagement and organizational citizenship behavior in the unique Vietnamese business context.