Job Design and Employee Involvement on SMEs Performance: The Mediating Role of Employee Motivation

Abstract

The study used empirical data to explore the impact of job design and employee involvement on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs’) performance. Data was collected from 367 employees of Ghanaian SMEs using random sampling. IBM SPSS 24 and AMOS-SEM were used for confirmatory factor analysis and to analyse the latent variables. The measurement model was tested on the entire dataset using exploratory factor analysis. The investigation demonstrated a strong fit for a four-factor hypothesis model. The study revealed a statistically significant beneficial relationship between job design and employee involvement in organisational performance. It also found a favourable correlation between job design, employee involvement and motivation. However, there was a negative correlation between employee motivation and organisational performance. The study uniquely focused on SMEs in an emerging economy like Ghana using financial sector tiers two and three. The implication is that job design and employee involvement improve SMEs’ performance and give them a competitive advantage. The study underlines the significance of job design and employee involvement in Ghanaian SMEs, mainly in the Greater Accra Region. This study is of great value as it informs policymakers and actors of small and medium enterprises of the need to appropriately design jobs that interest and elicit employee involvement and performance.