Abstract

This study describes the impact of human resource management (HRM) practices on employee engagement in the readymade garments (RMG) industry of Bangladesh—the second-largest RMG manufacturer in the world. It further explores the moderating effect of a supervisory role on this impact. The strategic role of HRM practices, which has been marked as one of the critical aspects of employee engagement in the workplace,has created the essence of this study. Under the approach of mixed method research design, data collected from 280 respondents through a structured questionnaire and two focus group discussions (FGDs) were analyzed. The analysis results reveal two significant findings: firstly, four functions of HRM practices individually and collectively influence employee engagement in the RMG industry of Bangladesh. Secondly, the result unveils that the supervisors of employees, by their actions, moderate the interplay between HRM practices and employee engagement in this industry. In sum, the contribution of this study to the literature is that employee engagement will exist in the organization as a reciprocation of HRM practices if the employees can significantly view such practices as a commitment to their well-being. However, the major limitation of this study is that it did not cover all the dimensions of HRM practices, which could be a potential venue for future researchers to move toward further investigation.

Keywords: HRM, Employee engagement, Supervisory role, RMG, SEM, Regression