Impact of Attitudinal Factors on Job Performance of Executives and Non-Executive Employees in Apparel Industry in Sri Lanka

On the scenario of continuous discussions on challenges faced by apparel industry in Sri Lanka, human involvement is yet to be considered as a significant organizational element. There are several human resources problems such as high labor turnover and absenteeism etc, which have made a huge barricade to minimize the effort of the achieving organizational objectives in the apparel industry. All the categories of human resources have a significant role to play in maintaining the highest labor productivity in this sector. However the available literature does not provide empirical evidence with regard to the impact of attitudinal factors on performance of executive and non-executive employees in this industry in Sri Lanka. Therefore, this study empirically investigated three attitudinal variables, which could influence on the job performance of the executive and non-executive employees in the apparel industry. The data were collected from a randomly selected sample of 354 executive employees and 536 non – executive employees in the apparel industry by administrating a structured questionnaire, which consisted of 85 questions/statements with 5 points scale. The data analyses included the univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses. The findings of the study are that job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job involvement were positively and strongly correlated with job performance of executive employees while job satisfaction was positively and strongly correlated with job performance of non-executive employees in this sector. Organizational commitment and job involvement were positively correlated with job performance of non-executive employees in this sector. A strong and positive significant relationship exists between job satisfaction and job performance in both categories of employees. As per the multiple regression analysis, 84% of the variance in the job performance of executive employees has been accounted for by the three independent variables jointly and 83% of the variance in the job performance of non-executive employees has been accounted for by the three independent variables jointly. It is concluded that among the three attitudinal factors, especially job satisfaction should be considered to enhance the performance of executive and non-executive employees in this industry as a common attitudinal factor. However, the behaviors of attitudinal factors among executive and non-executive employees are divergent in nature. Key words: Job Involvement, Job Performance, Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment