Human Resource Management Practices and Employees’ Engagement in Small and Medium Enterprises in Tanzania: The Mediating Effect of Organisation View

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are seen as an avenue of employment creation and income generation to many countries Tanzania inclusive.However, the sector is said to be at the infant stage with weak ability to compete in the market, high failure rate and high labour turnover (Lockhhead and Stephens, 2004; Olomi, 2009).In addressing the mentioned challenges, among others, SMEs need to engage their employees (Mushipe, 2003).It is further argued that many organizations fail to attain their business objectives because of the failure to engage their employees (Allen, Shore and Griffeth, 2003, Danish, et al 2014).It is therefore of great interest to research on the determinants of employee engagement in SMEs.Employee engagement has become a very important concept in business management in the last decade (Robertson and Cooper, 2009).This shows that employee engagement plays a vital role in determining the competitive advantage and performance level of the organizations including SMEs.It is important to link SMEs with employee engagement due to the relevance of SMEs and employee engagement in the economies of developing countries.Actively disengaged employees are dangerous individuals who not only do not perform well but may also influence others to perform poorly (Anitha, 2013).SMEs, on the other hand, acts as the pillars of economic development in Africa (Nyang'ori, 2010).For instance, in Tanzania, SME, play an important economic role in poverty alleviation and employment creation (FSDT, 2012; Stevenson & St. Onge, 2005).However, most of them operate informally and fail to have significant contribution in the economy (FSDT, 2012).With this fact, focus on SMEs in the developing countries including Tanzania is inevitable.However, this can have significant benefits to the host economy when it is connected with employees' engagement.SMEs performance may be highly connected with employee performance and decisions.Given the low specialization and division of labour in SMEs compared to the large firms, and their size, the disengaged employee may have a significant influence on SMEs ability to reach their objectives.This is due to the fact that employee engagement is one of the key determinants fostering high levels of employee performance (Macey et al, 2009, Mone&London, 2010).Despite its importance in the organisation, employee engagement is determined by internal and external factors.However, internal factors such as human resource practices (HRM) play an important role in determining employee engagement (Miles, 2001; Harter, et al, 2002; Holbeche & Springett, 2003; May et al, 2004).HRM practices have been considered to have significant influence in managing the attitudes and perceptions of employees towards the organisation and the job they perform (Luthans & Peterson, 2001).Wright et al., (1994) viewed HRM practice [HR Functions] as the means through which employees' perceptions, attitudes and behaviors are shaped.They are initiatives that organisations put in place to achieve their business objectives (Mensah, 2010).HRM practices are viewed by employees as a "personalized" commitment to them by the organization which is then reciprocated back to the organization by employees through