The effect of HRM practices and employees’ job satisfaction on employee performance

Saudi Ports, is one of the busiest seaports in the world and the biggest ports in the Middle East, which is facing challenges from different ports such as Salalah and Dubai ports especially in the cargo section, which can release their cargoes and goods in a short time without any congestion of stock. The current challenges of Saudi Ports Authority are the overstock of cargo which is the result of low performance of workers at cargo field. This paper investigated the root of this problem based on the role of the human resource practices such as training and development, reward, job analysis, social support, recruitment and selection, employee relationship and empowerment, employee satisfaction into employee performance. In other words, the current study explored to know whether HRM practices offer direct impact on the employee performance or through employees’ job satisfaction on employee performance to solve the said problem. The study analysed the 367 Saudi port authority employees’ data and found a positive significant relationship between HRM practices and employee performance. Furthermore, the current study revealed a positive relationship between employee job satisfaction and employee performance. Moreover, the present study found the insignificant relationship between HRM practices and employee job satisfaction but reported no significant mediating role of employee job satisfaction between HRM practices and employee performance