Employee Voice and Perceived Organisational Performance in Manufacturing Industries in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: Mediation Effect of Employee Absenteeism and Labour Turnover

Abstract

Despite extensive studies on the relationship between employee 
voice and organisational performance, little is known about how this 
relationship varies based on the situation. Therefore, this study 
examines the influence of employees' voices on perceived 
organisational performance in manufacturing industries in Dar es 
Salaam, Tanzania, with employee absenteeism and labour turnover as 
mediating variables. A cross-sectional study design was employed, 
with human resource managers as the unit of observation and 
manufacturing industries as the unit of analysis. Data for the survey 
came from 126 manufacturing companies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. 
Descriptive statistics and partial least squares structural equation 
modelling (PLS-SEM) were used to analyse the data. The results show 
that employee voice has a significant positive effect on organisational 
performance (β = 0.409, p = 0.009) and a negative effect on 
employee absenteeism (β = -1.595, p = 0.000) and labour turnover (β 
= -0.442, p = 0.029). Furthermore, employee absenteeism exerts a 
significant partial mediating effect on the relationship between 
employee voice and perceived organisational performance (β = 1.136, 
p < 0.05), but not on labour turnover (β = 0.001, p > 0.05). The study 
concludes that employee voice significantly enhances performance 
both directly and indirectly by reducing employee absenteeism. The 
findings suggest that manufacturing industries should use employee 
voice mechanisms to encourage presenteeism in order to improve 
their performance.