Job Stress, Involvement, Satisfaction and Performance of Employees in Garment 10 Corporation in Vietnam

Up to now, a great deal of literature has identified key factors influencing employee performance in developed countries – North America and Europe and to a lesser extent in other regions including a mix of developed and developing countries, such as Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Thailand. To put it another way, little research on factors influencing employee performance has been implemented in countries that are emerging as new potential markets with very high economic growth rates. Among these countries is Vietnam where its average economic growth rate (GDP) was over 7% during the 1990s and early 2000s, and especially more than 8% in 2006 - 2008, which made it one of the highest growing economies in the World. Together with Vietnam’s entry into the World Trade Organization dated on 7 November 2006, its companies are increasingly developing in accordance with the requirements set up by the World Trade Organization. These moves suggest that fierce competition among local and foreign companies in Vietnam, especially in the garment field. However, there are no comprehensive models or frameworks to explain the employee performance in garment field in Vietnam. This study has based on an extensive review of literature on employee satisfaction, employee commitment, job involvement, and job stress proposed a comprehensive model for employee performance in garment company 10. Furthermore, a set of model hypotheses presenting relationships among these factors have been set up. The model presented in this paper is unique as at present, there is no comprehensive theoretical and practical model for analyzing employee performance in the garment field in newly emerging countries such as Vietnam. None of the prior models have taken into account the linear and non-linear relationships among these factors to investigate employee performance in the garment field. We utilized the structural equation technique to test the hypotheses (linear and non-linear) and found that four of the seven hypothesized relationships were found to be statistically significant. Specifically, employee performance was most significantly influenced by job involvement (ɣ2 = 0.365, p < 0.01), followed by job stress (ɣ5 = -0.347, p < 0.01), and normative commitment (ɣ4 = 0.226, p < 0.05). Also, the relationship between job satisfaction and employee performance was found to be significantly positive moderated by affective commitment (ɣ6 = 0.158, p < 0.05). Our study provides comprehensive implications that can be benchmarked by many garment companies in Vietnam. The companies may implement management policies in general and marketing policies in particular to increase levels of job involvement, employee commitment, and reduce job stress. Specifically, the companies should provide opportunities and necessary resources for employees in order to escalate their performance.