The Relationship between Sustainable Human Resources Management Practices and Employees’ Work Behaviour in Egypt: An Examination of the Role of Work Engagement

Nowadays, the utilization of Sustainable Human Resource Management (Sustainable HRM) practices is widely believed to lead to a strategic advantage for organisations. However, while there is now a sufficient body of evidence to indicate that sustainable HRM practices are related to superior firm-level outcomes, it is still unclear how these practices affect such outcomes and whether these practices result in desirable employee level outcomes. The current research aims to fill this gap by empirically examining the effect of sustainable HRM practices on employees’ work behaviour (in-role and extra-role behaviours) in the Egyptian banking sector. This research also sheds light on the mechanisms through which Sustainable HRM practices affect employees’ work behaviour by examining the mediating effects of work engagement (WE) on this relationship. In so doing, the current research aims to contribute to the literature in the fields of HRM and organisational behaviour. Using a sample of 476 employees in the Egyptian banking sector, a partial mediation model is outlined and tested using structural equation modelling (SEM). The research results show that Sustainable HRM practices have significant positive relationships with both in-role behaviour and extra-role behaviour. Work engagement also has significant positive relationships with in-role behaviour and extra-role behaviour. In addition, the results reveal that work engagement partially mediates the relationship between sustainable HRM practices and extra-role behaviour (towards both organisation and individual) but has weak mediation effect on the relationship between sustainable HRM practices and in-role behaviour. Therefore, the research findings suggest that the adoption of Sustainable HRM practices in the banking sector not only leads to desirable employee behaviours, but also have an indirect effect on extra-role behaviour via work engagement. The research recommends that banks working in Egypt should; incorporate Sustainable HRM initiatives, as employees prefer to work for socially responsible banks, believing that such banks give them more opportunities for personal growth. In addition, the current research shows that employee perception of Sustainable HRM practices is important for their sense of engagement to their work in the bank. Hence, a positive perception of Sustainable HRM practices can trigger engagement, which results in desirable employees’ behaviour. Implications for researchers and managers are discussed and limitations are identified at the end of the research.