Boosting Public Sector Organisational Competitiveness through Corporate Governance: The Mediating role of Human Resource Management Practices

Abstract

The study aims to explore the relationship between corporate governance and organisational competitiveness, with human resource management practices (HRMP) as a mediating variable. The study was anchored in the Resource-Based View (RBV) and the stakeholder theory. Data was drawn from 79 public sector organisations. Four questionnaires were administered to senior managers, and 265 questionnaires were considered in the final analysis. Construct reliability and validity were determined through Smart PLS. The postulated model and hypotheses were evaluated using Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-EM). The results reveal that corporate governance, HRMP and organisational competitiveness are significantly related. Additionally, the results show that HRM practices mediate the relationship between corporate governance and organisational competitiveness. The study used cross-sectional data and focused on semi-autonomous public sector organisations for data collection. Therefore, the findings should be cautiously generalised. The results provide a comprehensive valuable understanding for public sector policymakers in terms of crafting and implementing corporate governance practices to improve the human resource function and activities in order to improve public sector organisational competitiveness. Empirically, the study provides evidence that HRM practices mediate the relationship between corporate governance and organisational competitiveness. Therefore, this paper extends the related literature.
Keywords: Competitiveness, HRM Practices, Corporate Governance, Public Sector Organisations.