The relationship between human resources management practices and job engagement: The mediating role of psychological capital

Article history: Received: April 8, 2020 Received in revised format: April 25 2020 Accepted: May 14, 2020 Available online: May 14, 2020 The primary objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between Human Resources Management Practices (HRMP) and Job Engagement with mediating role of Psychological Capital (PsyCap) in Telecommunications companies in Jordan (Zain, Orange, Umniah). The researcher relied on descriptive analytical method to analyze and classify the data to achieve the objectives of the study and to identify the variables of the study. A total of (270) questionnaires are sent out to the top and middle management of Jordanian telecom companies in Amman (Zain, Orange, Umniah), 9 questionnaires are excluded, as they were not valid for statistical analysis. The number of questionnaires analyzed are 261 (96.7%). The results showed that there was an impact of the dimensions (Jobs analysis and description, Selection and recruitment, Training, Performance appraisal) on Job Engagement and Psychological Capital. Also, the results indicate an impact of Psychological Capital on Job Engagement and there is a partial impact of the Psychological Capital, that is, there is an impact of Human Resources Management Practices through the moderator variable (Psychological Capital). © 2020 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada


Introduction
Many theoretical studies in the field of business strategies addressed the human factor as one of the most important factors that business organizations can rely on in order to achieve their goals, policies and strategic vision. Regarding the need for serious thinking on how to preserve, improve and develop these human resources; numerous scientific recommendations have become more prominent, in light of the changing and accelerating business environment and complex economic conditions. In addition, because of the large obtainable advantages for business organizations, which include increasing the degree of employee engagement to work thus will ultimately be reflected in the overall performance of the organization, such as increasing productivity rates and increasing customer loyalty, in addition to improve the organization overall financial performance (Harter et al., 2013;Afacan Fındıklı et al., 2013). In that regard, it is indicated and well-established in the study of Schaufeli et al. (2002), that an employee whose organization management enables higher work engagement creates more energy and efficiency on his performance of tasks and duties. Also, Bakker (2009) came up with the fact that the employee who proves engagement towards his work is characterized by high performance and is greatly able to create his own personal resources within the work, to enable him achieve his work tasks and duties more effectively. The concept of psychological capital has emerged and mainly aims to enhance the individual self-efficacy. It also further learns what enables the business organizations to focus on the employee's strengths instead of weaknesses. In other sense, looking for methods aiming to enhance the organizational effectiveness of employees and overall health and efficiency, instead of focusing on the disturbances and solutions. This, ultimately leads to a reduction in the rate of undesirable behaviors at work, by raising the employee's level of optimism, hopes and expectations (Gohel, 2012). Based on the above, this study aims to introduce the mediating role of psychological capital on the relationship between human resources management practices and employee engagement.

Human resource management
The human factor is considered as a significant and crucial one in every productive organization in all commercial, educational or governmental organizations (Hallberg & Schaufeli, 2006). The viability of the organization and the achievement of its goals depend on the method used to obtain the human factor, as well as the method used by the human resources management system (Mathis & Jackson, 2011). Accordingly, the management ought to continuously consider it seriously, know how to use correctly to develop these resources at the end through designing human resources management strategies and policies or through the used methods and procedures in exploiting the workforce. Therefore, the organization has to make the best possible use of the provided human resources (Dessler, 2005). In this context, the goals of the human resources management in the organization are liked with the same goals of any organization management. Although, the director of human resources management undertakes a variety of activities related to the exploitation of human resources, these activities are not applied in other departments in the organization. Nevertheless, this action contributes to achieving the same goals that other directors seek to achieve (Gilani et al., 2012). Consequently, the strategic goals of human resources management, lie in two types of interrelated goals, namely, maximizing the organization productivity. Obviously, this goal is not considered as a new one, since it is known for quite some time as a main goal for other organizations (Armstrong, 2008). Meanwhile, the other goal is the organizational security. Although it is linked to the first goal, it keeps the introduced organization as a one unit, and consistently progress forward against the internal and external pressures. As expected and noticed through previous scientific studies, human resources management plays acritical role in creating conditions that contribute to the stability of the organization (Detert et al., 2000). Assuming that human resources management directors' responsibility is to define the goals, strategies, policies, procedures and programs, these make the organization an attractive place to work (Schuler & Jackson, 2014). Also, at the same time, it reduces threaten job struggle and conflict to the lowest possible level, additionally it raises the rates of job satisfaction and employee engagement. So, when these efforts show success and achieve the required internal stability, then the central unit of the organization is in a strong position against the external and internal pressures (Sattar et al., 2015). It has been noticed that the behavioral sciences contribute significantly in supporting human resources management decisions. Also, the derived researches from behavioral fields help human resources management to a large extent in multiple domains, such as job satisfaction and workers morale (Alfes et al., 2013). Moreover, the behavioral sciences contributes significantly on educating individuals, groups, and different forces. Hence, that enables the business environment adapting new changes in order to have stability and continued viability (Ericksen & Dyer, 2007).
In addition to the previous strategic goals, there is a range of other organizational goals for human resources management, that contribute to achieve the aforementioned strategic goals, which include achieving effective cooperation between workers within the organization, developing good relations at work among all workers, providing appropriate working conditions, and raising the rates of employee's confidence and providing them with knowledge and skills needed (Findikli et al., 2015). Based on the foregoing, it is possible to identify the functions of human resources management, including jobs, analysis and description, i.e. the process of collecting, studying, analyzing and recording the related data to the duties and powers of the job, its various dimensions, work conditions surrounding it, as well as the basic operational requirements. Thereby, the direct result of this analysis is presented via the prepared job description card, which is a list clarifies the duties and responsibilities of the respective job (Stoilkovska & Serafimovic, 2017). In short, it indicates the required duties, how they are done, and why. Accordingly, the job description card is considered as a standard, and it therefore outlines its powers and responsibilities ( Siddique, 2007). Regarding the employee's selecting and recruiting strategy, it is considered as one of the most significant processes for preparing and establishing the organization workforce (Ramona & Anca, 2013) which means the process that enables the organization to obtain both the necessary quantity and quality human resources through analyzing and describing jobs processes (Chanda et al., 2010). Many previous studies highlighted the importance of selecting and recruiting employees' process, as it is a prominent key for the success of business organizations in the changing and accelerating business environment. Also, it is the way which enables them achieving the competitive advantages (Yu & Cable, 2012). Furthermore, the business organizations proper selection and recruitment will ensure that business organizations are assigning the tasks and duties to the appropriate individuals, and in a manner matches their scientific capabilities and practical skills. Even though, integrating creative and highly skilled human resources within the organization will be positively reflected in reducing job turnover rates, and increasing loyalty and job satisfaction rates (Silva & Shinyashiki, 2014). However, one of the significant human resources management jobs is the evaluation. Where by all business organizations must find a structured and particular approach for the purpose of measuring the relative significance for organizing various jobs, taking into consideration the challenges it went through before (Heneman, 2003). Hence, it should not be confused with job analysis that is concerned with collecting and analyzing job data, and job evaluation which means measuring the job and the employee specifications (Brannick et al., 2007). Whereas an important objective of the proper wages and salaries structure is to ensure that each worker within the organization has a wage fit with the requirements of his job and other workers paid wages rate. With this, in order to achieve this objective, the organization must be able to define requirements of every job accurately (Kahya, 2018). Eventually, the result of the job evaluation process is to achieve a kind of internal and external proportionality in wages and salaries. As so, the internal consistency is related to how the organization determines the relative wages. In addition, the contribution of job evaluation in the selection and recruitment processes must be in a way that helps to place the right person in the right place (Steven, 2007). Likewise, another job of the human resources management, is the training this job which can be defined as an organized procedure through which employees acquire new knowledge and skills that improve their work performance (Vinesh, 2014). Consequently, it helps to develop the employees and improve their adaptability with new work methods. In other words, the training aims to achieve a change in these trainees' behavior. Also, training is considered as a basic criterion, through which the quality of job performance is guaranteed (Ross, 2018). Among these advantages is reducing the time of learning to reach acceptable performance, and increasing organizational flexibility, achieving stability, security and engagement in work. As a result, it connects the employees' interests with the employers' interests, and excluding any conflict between them. Training results in achieving a shared interest between the two parties (Nassazi, 2013). If we wish to speak about the job performance evaluation, we can see how significant it is, especially if we want to check the validity of the employees' performance and behaviors in accordance with the established standards. In return, it leads to the organization goals' achievement (Shah & Aslam, 2009). Thereby the evaluation results become a basis for future decisions making concerning employees' policies and any amendments, such as changes in wages and salaries, promotions, transfers, and dismissals. The evaluation of the employees' performance mainly aims to provide data about the employee previous, present, as well as expected performance in the future so that appropriate management decisions can be taken (Khan, 2013).
Over and above this, performance evaluation leads to achieve the management's goals; namely focus on setting specific performance goals through agreeing on them after a shared discussion between the employee and his direct manager. There are also many methods for business organizations to follow. Among these methods, firstly, conducting periodic tests for the employees to evaluate their performance in carrying out their workloads, evaluate if they are qualified for promotion or transfer them to other jobs, too. Secondly, the periodic efficiency reports, which reveal the employee efficiency in carrying out their work in light of specific standards. Also, it could be argued that there are several other methods to estimate the employees' efficiency through the prepared report by the direct manager. These include traditional and modern methods such as the ranking scales as a traditional method, on the other hand, the balanced checklist or the substantive procedures as a modern method (AbuSheikha, 2018)

Psychological Capital
Business organizations of all types are recently working in a characterized business environment by many rapid changes. In a way that provoked business organizations to think seriously about how they can achieve a competitive advantage. Taking into account that economic capital is no longer an adequate tool to achieve high performance and a strategic success leading to a continuous competitive advantage. Hence, many studies examined the positive psychology, specifically in 1991, emerged from the fact that the human factor has more mental capabilities and energies than the exploited and utilized in the workplace. More to the point, the maximum benefit from the segmental energies is the true source in case the organization wants to be distinctive, and raise its ability to achieve high and non-traditional achievements. The concept, psychological capital was defined as a set of positive personal motivations that the individual feels and these motivations help him make distinctive positive contributions, stand against work problems and be optimistic about his future career (Gohel, 2012). In like manner, Seligman et al. (2005) defined it, the crucial positive psychological factors and in particular, it is the positive organizational behavior standards. However, Luthans et al. (2004) addressed it as the individual's positive psychological state that extends beyond the Human capital. It is possible during this state to obtain and maintain a competitive advantage. In view of the foregoing, and as emphasized by Newman et al. (2014) the psychological capital could be dealt with according to the level of analysis, and at many levels. Moreover, the psychological capital can be tackled as a developed positive psychological state of the individual, which can be described through: -The confidence possessed by the individual to make the necessary efforts in successfully performing the challenging task (self-efficacy) (Bandura, 2012) -The distinctive positive contributions, individual make towards achieving the success in the present time and future (optimism) (Schmitt et al.,2013) -The persistence and endeavor of the individual to see some rays of goals and readjust the studies when necessary. For the purpose of achieving the desired success (hope) (Harvey et al., 2009) -The ability of the individual to endure and get back to his normal state when facing various problems and obstacles in his pursuit of goals (flexibility) (Newman et al., 2014)

Job Engagement
Referring to the importance of job engagement in the success of organizations, developing job engagement among workers has been a significant topic that has attracted researchers' attention, because of its impact on many organizational and behavioral results. Hence, it contributes in increasing the degree of job satisfaction and reducing job quitting rates. In addition to its contribution in enhancing the organizational citizenship behaviors (Saks;2006, Simons & Buitendach, 2013. Schaufeli et al. (2002) pointed out that job engagement reflects a positive and satisfactory mental state, characterized by the enthusiasm and engagement. Ordinarily, it is important to mention that the concept job engagement is the contrary of the concept job burnout. Whereby it is made up of three factors; the emotional exhaustion, the emotional blunting, and finally reaching low level of professional competence. Therefore, job engagement must be measured in a different way than job burnout (Schaufeli & Salanova, 2007). After reviewing the method used in measuring the dimensions of job engagement in previous studies, the researcher has found the following: Garber (2007) employed the following ten characteristics in order to measure job engagement; commitment, behavior, bias, communication, goals, client-focused, integration goals, loyalty, engagement, and partnership. However, Schaufeli and Salanova (2002) indicated that job engagement consists of three dimensions, which are enthusiasm, dedication, and engagement. While, Macey and Schneider (2008) and Khan (1990) established the following three dimensions of job engagement; perceptual engagement, emotional engagement, and behavioral engagement. But rather, Rothbard (2001) indicated that the job engagement consists of two dimensions, namely, attention and engagement. Based on the foregoing, the researcher will adopt the dimensions of Schaufeli and Salanova (2002) for the purpose of measuring the job engagement, since these dimensions are the most frequently used in measuring employees' job engagement. For instance, it can be said that the following two studies Herbert (2011) and Rich et al. (2010) used the three dimensions as explained below: First dimension, the Vigor, it refers to the high levels of energy and mental flexibility an individual has during work. Second dimension, dedication, stand for the employee's interest in his job, his sense of job value and importance. And Third dimension, Absorption, indicates the degree of individual immersion in his job and the difficulty of separating himself from it.

Literature review
The present study is built on several previous studies contributed in constructing it. For instance, Alzyoud (2018) investigated how human resources' management practices influence the employee engagement. Namely, employee communication, employee development and rewards, and recognition. However, employee engagement has become one of the most important topics in the field of human resources' management. As a result, it comes out that human resources' management practices have an influence on the employee job engagement. Thereby, employers need to develop suitable and organized human resources management policies in order to achieve high level of job engagement among the employees. Moreover, Aybas and Acar (2017) examined a psychological capital model, to consider it as an intermediate in the relationship between each of human resource practices and employee job engagement. Hence, the researchers collected data included 590 office employees, who were working in different sectors from private companies in Turkey. Consequently, the study showed that there are considerable intermediate roles for the psychological capital, mainly the impacts of motivation and proficiency which enhance job engagement by human resources practices. On the other hand, considerable intermediate and moderate role for the psychological capital, namely the impacts of the prospects in enhancing job engagement through human resources practices and working conditions. While Aktar and Faizuniah (2017) discussed the relationship between human resources' management practices and employee engagement. According to the social exchange theory criteria, this study has improved a framework in order to investigate the role of perceived organizational support on human resources' management practices along with employee engagement. Thus, survey data has been collected from employees working in variant private commercial banks in Bangladesh. Furthermore, the outcomes of structural equation modeling showed that human resources' management practices including career advancement, job security and performance were considerably and positively related to employee engagement. It also showed that the perceived organizational support can modulate the relationship between human resources' management practices and employee engagement. Subsequently, it suggests that in case there is a reasonable low level of perceived organizational support, there won't be an employees' perceptions about relevant job resources. But a high level of it effect employees' behavioral outcomes, which will produce employee engagement.
Likewise, the study of Paek et al. (2015) confirmed the direct and indirect relationships between psychological capital, job satisfaction and organizational commitment through the intermediate role of job engagement. Apart from this, the study found that the psychological capital is a strong determinant of these variables. By this, the higher level of psychological capital leads to higher job engagement, and therefore achieve job satisfaction and organizational commitment. In the same vein, Erbasi and Ozbek (2016) tackled the effect of psychological capital on job engagement, by applying questionnaires to 280 research assistants who are working at Selcuk University in Turkey. Their study demonstrated that the linear combination of values, for instance; durability, hope, optimism, durability, and job engagement are therefore an integral part of psychological capital components, geared towards predicting job engagement at a significant level. In terms of the regression equation value, it came out that the following components; hope, durability, and optimism are significant in predicting job engagement. When in fact, the results showed that the component 'self-sufficiency' has no statically effect on job engagement. On the contrary, the component 'durability', seen to be the best psychological capital component predicting the job engagement. It should be noted that the effect of psychological capital dimensions on each dimension of job engagement was examined, too. According to the results achieved, the dimensions 'hope, durability, and optimism' predict the vigor dimension. Whereas, 'self-efficacy, hope, durability, and optimism' predict the concentration dimension. Another study conducted by Costantini et al. (2017) directed at evaluating the extent of job engagement and its relationship to the psychological capital in Italian local administration. This study argued that there is a positive relationship between the psychological capital and job engagement in the pretest and post-test stages, considered separately. Over and above, comparing pre-test and post-test results showed that the intervention significantly improved both psychological capital and job engagement. This shows that an improvement in the psychological capital is consistent with an increase in the job engagement. Equally important Rodriguez (2017) study focused on identifying the practices used during organizations' selection processes, which influence the accuracy of employees' an-ticipated person-job and person-organization fit, besides the employees' ultimate levels of engagement. Obviously, this mediation model was not supported when including covariates. However, the accuracy of person-job fit perceptions was almost significant as a mediator between applicants' perceived information-richness of the selection process and their subsequent engagement with the job. Similarly, Sahar and Siddiqui (2019) analyzed the impact of training, development and communication on employees' engagement in banking sector of Karachi. The results showed a positive impact of training, development and internal communication on engagement. It came out that there is a potential practical implication for managers and employees alike, where they can increase engagement level in banking sector through strategic and tactical communication process and also fulfilling the training needs of employees, as to meet the current job requirement settings. Aside from that, Levan (2017) examined the long-standing debate among scholars and practitioners regarding the effectiveness of the performance appraisal process, being as a useful tool to manage individual and organizational performance. Also, they studied the relationship between employees' reactions to the performance appraisal process and the perceptions of engagement in the workplace. Therefore, this study major result is as follows: a significant correlation of both the performance appraisal ratings and frequency with the employee engagement. Arguably, the implications of the result suggest that an organization's ability to create, implement, and manage its performance appraisal process will affect the employee engagement and, ultimately, the organizational productivity.

The proposed study
The investigators of the human resources management's role in all business organizations, consider how this role is being improved from the traditional perspective to the crucial and strategic role. This has been due to the awareness of business organizations' accordance with the significant role of human resources management in enhancing and supporting the job performance by striving to strengthen employee work engagement. In light of both the theoretical framework and previous studies, it comes out that there is a big attention from researchers' towards work engagement and psychological capital. Whereas, psychological capital plays a critical role in strengthening work engagement. Furthermore, the researcher found a shortage in Arab studies that tackled the mediating role of the psychological capital in enhancing and strengthening employee engagement with their diverse organizations. Accordingly, the study problem can be crystallized, the attempt to highlight and answer the following main question: What is the mediating role of psychological capital in the relationship between human resource management and work engagement? This study derives its importance from the role played by human resources management practices within the organization in enhancing the functional engagement of employees, which lead and contribute to a greater sense of stability and appreciation, in order to support productivity of the organization and reduce turnover rates within organizations. The study also draws its importance in highlighting the subject of psychological capital as one of the most important topics in recent years, which contributes to strengthening the engagement of employees with their work. Despite this, there is still a dearth of critical academic literature on this subject in the Arab environment, which needs to guide a lot of researchers' efforts to this subject to keep pace with global trends academically and practically.

Research Hypotheses
H 1 : There is no statistically significant impact between Human Resources Management Practices and Job Engagement.
H2: There is no statistically significant impact between Human Resources Management Practices and Psychological Capital.
H3: There is no statistically significant impact between Psychological Capital and Job Engagement.
H4: There is no statistically significant indirect impact between Human Resources Management Practices and Job Engagement, through Psychological Capital as a mediator variable.
The researcher relied on descriptive analytical method to analyze and classify the data to achieve the objectives of the study and to identify the variables of the study. This approach is based on a fundamental scientific descriptive method to analyze the current situation or problem using statistical analysis. The study population consisted of telecommunications companies in Jordan (Zain, Orange, Umniah). The study sample was 270 which includes the top and middle management of Jordanian telecom companies in Amman (Zain, Orange, Umniah), where the questionnaire distributed to collect information needed for this study. (9) questionnaires were excluded, as they were not valid for statistical analysis. The number of questionnaires analyzed were 261 representing 96.7% of the questionnaires. Table 1 demonstrates the distribution of the questions of the survey. The researcher developed a questionnaire to cover all dimensions of the independent and dependent variables in a way that is enable the testing of the hypotheses of the study, which were constructed, configured and distributed to the sample members.
To increase the degree of reliability and credibility of the data collected, the researcher relied as much as possible on measuring the variables of the study based on the measures of previous studies, (Harter et al., 2013;Ericksen, & Dyer, 2007;Alzyoud, 2018) where they proved their credibility and reliability. The responses of the study sample were distributed according to the Likert quintile scale, which indicates the extent of the respondent's agreement with the questionnaire paragraphs ("strongly agree" signs 5, "OK" signs 4, "neutral" signs 3, 2 for "disapproval", and 1 for "strongly disagree"), (Sekaran equation, 2010). The Cronbach's Alpha is used for internal consistency to ensure that the questionnaire is valid as a data collection tool for the current study. The researcher used Cronbach's Alpha coefficient to measure the level of internal consistency of the resolution of the paragraphs, where it can be seen in Table 2.  Table 2 demonstrates that the security coefficients of the variables were higher than 60%. This shows inward consistency between the passages. (92.5%), which affirms the legitimacy of the survey in the theory tested (Abu-Salih, 1989). Table 3 presents details of testing the first hypothesis of the survey. As we can observe from the results of Table 3, F-value is statistically significant which means there is a linear relationship between independent variables and dependent variable. Adjusted R-Square is equal to 0.533 which means the regression estimates approximately 53 percent of the changes on the dependent variable. All t-values are meaningful when the level of significance is once percent. The results of coefficients for the impact of Human Resources Management Practices dimensions (Jobs analysis and description, Selection and recruitment, Training, Performance appraisal) on Job Engagement (Vigor, Dedication, Absorption) are summarized in Table 3. Therefore, the first hypothesis is confirmed which means HRM practices influence on job engagement. Table 4 shows the results of regression analysis on the relationship between HRM practices and Psychological capital. The result of ANOVA test yields a t-value of 48.717 which is meaningful when the level of significance is one percent. Moreover, Adjusted R-Square is equal to 0.355, which means the independent variables describe approximately 36% of the changes of the dependent variable. Moreover, all t-student values are statistically meaningful when the level of significance is one percent and we can conclude that all component of HRM practices influence significantly on Psychological capital and the second hypothesis of the survey is confirmed.

Third hypothesis: The effect of Psychological capital on Job engagement
The third hypothesis of this survey investigates the effects of psychological capital on job engagement. Table 5 shows the results of regression analysis. As we can observe from the results of Table 5, Adjusted R-Square is equal to 0.352 which means the regression analysis may describe approximately 35 percent of the changes on the dependent variable. T-value is statistically meaningful when the level of significance is one percent. Therefore, the hypothesis is confirmed and we can conclude that psychological capital influences on job engagement.

Fourth hypothesis: The effect of Human Resources Management Practices and Job Engagement, through Psychological Capital as mediator variable
The last hypothesis of this survey examines the effect of Human Resources Management Practices and Job Engagement, through Psychological Capital as mediator variable. Table 6 shows the results of testing the hypothesis using path analysis test (PLS).  Table 6 shows the results of the path analysis where the table shows the value of (LL, UL) confidence period (66.8%) which gives the minimum (LL) and the maximum (UL) as well as the values (VAF) that were greater than (20%) and less From (80%), which indicates that there is a partial impact of the Psychological Capital, that is, there is an impact at the level ( VAF <20% no mediation 20% -80% Partial Mediation VAF> 80% Full Mediation.

Conclusion
Based on statistical analysis, the researcher can summarize the results as follows: -There is an impact of the dimensions (Jobs analysis and description, Selection and recruitment, Training, Performance appraisal) on Job Engagement.
-There is an impact of the dimensions (Jobs analysis and description, Selection and recruitment, Training, Performance appraisal) on Psychological Capital.
-There is an impact of Psychological Capital on Job Engagement.
-There is a partial impact of the Psychological Capital., that is, there is an impact at the level (0.05) of Human Resources Management Practices through the moderator variable (Psychological Capital).
In light of the results of the study, the author proposed some recommendations for telecommunication companies in Jordan. Firstly, It is necessary for the telecom sector companies in Jordan to Redesign the job in a way that reduces stress and conflict, and this requires periodic review of job description cards and taking into account modern tasks and activities.
Secondly, the telecom sector companies must praise the efforts of the employees, offer awards to distinguished employees, and encourage them to do more and provide the necessary innovations, which is reflected in the development of the organization and its effectiveness. Developing the psychological capital balance of managers and subordinates in the telecommunications sector in Jordan through training in the development of the four dimensions of psychological capital.
Thirdly, the telecom sector companies must involve employees in making decisions that affect the future of the organization through collaborative initiatives, and adopt an interactive approach in dealing with employees and help them change their thinking patterns and attitudes.