“Strategic human resource management practices and human capital development: The role of employee commitment”

This paper studied the influence of strategic human resource management on human capital development through the mediation of employee commitment. A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used to collect data from 514 participants (medical staff) from five hospitals in northern Jordan. The hospitals involved were from different sectors, including governmental, private, and university hospitals. Several analysis methods were used in the study: Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), discriminant validity, and composite reliability. Direct and indirect hypothesis testing was also uti- lized using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The study showed that the practice of strategic human resource management had a direct positive impact on employee com- mitment; the practice of strategic human resource management had a direct positive impact on human capital development; the impact of employee commitment on hu- man capital development was positive and direct; employee commitment has a partial mediating effect between both of them. Accordingly, HR managers in hospitals should move from “softer” responsibilities and traditional HR activities to a more strategic level (i.e., developmental strategy), where HR strategies are aligned and reinforce the hos- pital’s vision and mission and link organizational strategy to HR strategies. Healthcare managers should invest more in human capital through formal education and training.


INTRODUCTION
Over the years, healthcare sectors are challenged by doctors and nurses uncommitted due to their decisions to leave an organization . The World Health Organization (WHO, 2003) has identified: "The most critical issue facing healthcare system is the shortage of the people who make them work." Globally, the employees' resigning decisions are affected by pull and push factors (WHO, 2006). Pull factors include work-life balance, acquiring experiences, better remunerations and raising the qualifications. Push factors include the lack of facilities, promotion, career development and training, fruitless management, and stress (Mano-Negrin & Kirschenbaum, 1999). All these factors influence employee engagement and commitment. Employee commitment (EC) increases productivity and helps healthcare organizations achieve their goals, mission, and vision.
Effective human resource management (HRM) has a strong impact on EC because it enhances employee engagement. This, in turn, will leverage their self-esteem, which improves their commitment to the organization (Jackson et al., 2014). Therefore, reliable HRM is aimed at adopting innovative techniques and methods to foster employee

LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES
Resource-Based View (RBV) theory is applied to justify the relationships between the study variables that stem from internal development; in such a process, the employees' sense of belonging to the firm will promote their commitment. Employee commitments increase when employees have a passion for what they are doing and willing to invest their skills and capacities for the organization's success (Meyer et al., 2013). On another side, Cyert and March (1963) argued that behavioral leadership theory depends on the principle that a leader's behavior can be learned rather than inherent. It concentrates on how leaders behave and assumes that leaders can be made. It focuses on their actions rather than their qualities. The purpose of adopting such theories is their importance in examining the role of SHRM practices and EC.
However, it is commonly known that human resources play an essential role in achieving competitive advantages along with SHRM. SHRM enables HR mangers to manage employee performance, knowledge, and skills effectively to impact strategic target achievement of firms considerably. In this regard, Dessler (2011) argued that SHRM entails making and performing practices and human resources policies that produce employee attitudes and efficiencies that the organization needs to achieve its strategic objectives. As a result, Mayhew (2018) indicated that SHRM enhances the relationship between employees and employers. In respect of the SHRM advantages, Hsu and Wang (2012) found that SHRM plays a role in collaborating and monitoring employees according to business strategies.
It is noteworthy that several studies (Guest, 1987;Schneider & Bowen, 1985;Ulrich et al., 1991) found a positive relationship between HRM policies and some variables such as productivity, equity, profitability, and commitment. The HRM practices and organizational performance relationship is also found in terms of labor productivity, turnover rates, and return on assets. All of these indicate employees' satisfaction that is reflected in their commitment to an organization. McMahan et al. (1999) indicated that employees' behavior plays a vital role in achieving an organization's strategy outcomes due to SHRM and sustainable competitive advantage (SCA). Truss and Gratton (1994) clarify the role of SHRM in aligning employee skills with organizational goals.
Several studies indicated the importance of HC for achieving positive outcomes for organizations. In this regard, Barney (1991) found that HC is considered as a tool that enables an organization to achieve its competitive advantages. Several reasons could explain that: First, the level of HC in an institution is a primary component in determining the quality of outputs and operations; secondly, the scarcity of human resources distributed in the organization; thirdly, the difficulty to imitate HC resources due to their ambiguity, specificity, social complexity and peculiarity (Barney & Wright, 1998). In respect of the relationship between HRM and HR, Ahmad and Schroeder (2003) found that HRM enhances the HR quality assumed as a source of competitive priority.
From a different perspective, Grant (1991) pointed out that human resources are the core of the organizational success because the individuals' role is manifested in helping the organization to achieve effective HRM; organizations must recognize that employees are their most significant asset. Resources are the inputs or the factors available to a company that help perform its operations or carry out its activities. To achieve effective employee management, continuous hard work is essential. Therefore, any organization that acknowledges its workers' vital role and values their capabilities will yield the results. Besides that, Mohrman (2007) clarified the contribution of human resources to creating critical issues in organizational design to achieve rapid organizational growth. Schultz (1993) considered HC as a primary factor for improving organization assets and employees for increasing productivity and the persistence of competitive advantage. The sustainability of the competitiveness of the HC organization is a tool used to enhance productivity. HC points to the processes concerning education, training, and other professional initiatives for improving skills, values and knowledge levels of an employee, consequent satisfaction and performance of an employee, and ultimately, firm performance. In this regard, Gundlach (1997) examined the relationship between HC and economic development, particularly at the macroeconomic level. The researcher revealed that the influence of human resource practices on the employees' organizational commitment is positive. In this respect, Amponsah-Tawiah and Mensah (2016) showed that employee retention is achieved by maintaining and increasing employee commitment. As a result, qualified and skilled employees from other organizations will be encouraged to join the organization. This study indicates that commitment is reflected in the performance of an organization's employees, since the commitment of employees generates a sense of connection within their organization, as well as a sense of fit and understanding of the institutional goals. Therefore, enhancing EC mediates the strategic HR department, indicating the relationship between its human resources and strategies. EC also serves the SHRM goals that revolve around enhancing flexibility, achieving competitive advantages, and innovation. Also, EC mediates HCD, indicating improving employee performance, capabilities, and resources. It is essential for the growth and productivity of the organization. Accordingly, the main objective of this study is to investigate the impact of SHRM on HCD through the mediation (MF) of employee commitment. Following the above rationale and previous studies, this study hypothesized the following: H1: SHRM practices positively impact employee commitment.
H4: EC mediates the relationship between strategic human resource management and HCD.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This study was a self-administered cross-sectional survey. It consisted of four parts, namely, socio-demographic, SHRM, HCD, and EC. The population was physicians, nurses, and medical technicians working in five healthcare institutions in Jordan (Irbid Governorate). The reason for choosing medical staff only was their contribution to achieving the mission, vision, and goal of the hospitals. The sample was a non-probability convenience sample. 700 questionnaires were distributed, 514 (73.4%) of which were returned and analyzed. Data collection was conducted between August to October 2020 The study instrument and variables are presented in Table 1.

Ethical considerations
The research protocol obtained approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Jordan University of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Health, and Irbid Specialty Hospital. Verbal and written approval in Arabic was obtained from participants before proceeding to the questionnaire about the study's purpose.

Data analysis
This study uses the SEM approach, which is a recommended method used to describe the relationships between variables (constructs) in detail. This method includes identifying the effect of EC as a mediator in the relationship between SHRM as an independent variable and HCD as a dependent variable. SPSS Version 21 was used for descriptive analysis. However, the Social Package of Social Sciences SPSS-AMOS Version 21 software was used to develop SEM.

RESULTS
In total, 514 medical workers took part in the survey (response rate 73.4%). Socio-demographic characteristics of the participants are shown in Table 2. Most participants were females (57.8) in the age group of 28-37years (56. 6). The table also shows that the majority of the participants had a bachelor's degree (66.3%).

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA)
This study used two data analysis methods: CFA, and SEM. Before running the SEM, data was checked for normality, validity, and reliability. According to Awang (2015), the data should be validated by measuring the constructs' conver-gent and discriminant validity to check the model validity. Fitness indices were used to assess validity; Average Variance Extracted (AVE) was also used to assess the convergent, while discriminant validity index was used to validate the discriminant validity. Composite Reliability (CR) is used to evaluate constructs reliability, and it has replaced Cronbach alpha for SEM (Bandalos & Finney, 2010). There are three standard fit indices that have respective indices and acceptable standard values (Table 3). This study's model had an independent variable, one mediating construct, and a dependent variable. The theoretical model of this study and the interest path with the examined hypotheses are given in Figure 1. The constructs involved in the model were measured using few items.

Figure 1. Conceptual model converted into AMOS graph
As Figure 1 shows, there were four hypotheses regarding the relationships between the constructs being analyzed in this study. The hypothesis statements are shown in Table 4, where the Path Analysis is used for all the hypotheses and Bootstrapping is used for hypothesis 4.

Pooled CFA for all constructs of the measurement model
It was also decided to evaluate another CFA process, namely pooled CFA, which includes all constructs in one model, rather than assess them individually. Therefore, all latent constructs involved in this study were first order, there were no dimensions or sub-constructs; the researchers were interested in starting the CFA process by pooling all constructs at once to get quick and accurate results. At this step, it was necessary to display the fitness indices for all variables included in the model, and another type of validity was evaluated, namely the Discriminant Validity between the variables. The pooled-CFA procedure is shown in Figure 2.  Table  3, the factor loading for every item should be at least 0.5, and the correlation coefficient between two constructs should not more significant than the value of 0.85. The multicollinearity problem occurs once this correlation exceeds 0.85. Interestingly, the double-headed arrow's correlation values indicate that all values were less than 0.85, hence the multicollinearity problem was not found.  Table 5.  Regarding the AVE and CR values, Table 5 shows that some of AVE and CR did not exceed their threshold values of 0.5 and 0.6, respectively. Fornell and Larcker (1981) indicated that if AVE is less than 0.5, but CR reliability is more significant than 0.6, the convergent validity of the construct is adequate.

Discriminant validity of constructs
Another important type of validity that concerns model evaluation is discriminant validity. This validity ensures that no redundant construct is in-volved in the respective model. These redundant constructs occur when a pair of constructs in the model is mostly correlated. To evaluate the discriminant validity, an index summary for all constructs was produced (Table 6).

Structural model and SEM
Once the CFA analysis was entirely performed and all values met the acceptable cut-off for both validity and reliability, this study concluded that the measurements of all variables were valid and reliable. Consequently, combine all constructs in the model to carry out the SEM procedure. The constructs have drawn from left to right, starting with the exogenous construct (independent) followed by the mediator construct (if any) in the middle, and the endogenous construct (dependent) at the right side. Based on the hypothesis direction, one needs to connect the independent variable with the respective dependent variable through a mediator using the arrows, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Structural model in AMOS
The arrows (Figure 3) indicate the independent variable's causal effects on the respective dependent variable being analyzed. As the current structural model consisted of only one independent variable, there was no need for a double-headed arrow to estimate the correlational effects between two or more independent variables. The structural model outputs that provide the standardized regression weights are given in Figure 4.
The outputs for the regression coefficient (beta) for the independent construct on the dependent construct extracted from Figure 4 are provided in Table 7.
The outputs for every direct effect in this study (test the study hypothesis), presented by the model in Figure 4, are given in Table 8.

Testing the mediation hypothesis
This study also examined the mediating effect of the hypothesis formulated for the mediator construct in the model, and this analysis was performed separately. The results of the MF effect are shown in Figure 5 and Table 9.
Based on the results obtained from Figure 5, the results can be summarized as follows:    5. Therefore, MF occurs, since both 1 and 2 are significant, the type of MF is a partial MF, since the direct effect 3 is still significant after entering the mediator into the model.
After testing the MF hypothesis and obtaining the type of an MF effect, this study performed a Bootstrapping analysis to confirm MF within the relevant paths (Awang, 2015). To calculate the MF effect, this study used the Maximum Likelihood Estimator (MLE) procedure in bootstrapping, which employed 1,000 bootstrap samples, with 95% for both bootstrap and bias-corrected confidence intervals. The results of testing employee commitment as a mediator in the relationship between SHRM and HCD are presented in Table 9. Based on these results, the bootstrapping results were consistent with the meditation test results given in Figure 5.

DISCUSSION
This study was aimed at examining the influence of SHRM practices on HCD through the MF of employee commitment. The study utilized both the "resource-based view" (RBV) and "behavioral theory" in the healthcare sector. It was found that SHRM practices in hospitals positively influenced HCD and EC. Similarly, Hamadamin and Atan (2019) found that SHRM practices positively impacted HCD and EC in the academic sector. They also found that SHRM had a direct positive impact on the achievement of competitive advantages. In line with the RBV theory, the achievement of sustainable competitive advantage requires the support of SHRM practices through human expertise development with core values of an organization. Emeagwal and Ogbonmwan (2018) applied the RBV theory and behavioral based view to investigate whether SHRM practices in the academic sector have a direct effect on the sustainable competitive advantage, and whether developing HC  This research, thus, suggests that hospitals should place more significant efforts on SHRM practices in their organizations, and these will enhance HCD by enabling employees to develop their knowledge and competencies. Moreover, efficient management of human resources will enhance employee engagement, making them part of an organization; this will raise their morale and be more commitment to the organization. Enhancing HCD enables employees to develop and improve their knowledge to be difficult for competitors to imitate. Mincer (1997) indicated that positive outcomes, such as greater productivity and higher salaries, would be reflected in the organization's more significant HC stock. Similarly, Baird et al. (2019) found that the relationship between the hospital performance and employee organizational performance, staff resources, and support facilities is linked to patient care and operational effectiveness by their effect on employee organizational commitment.
The findings indicated that employee commitment could improve developing HC. This study has also investigated, for the first time in healthcare sector, employee commitment as a mediator in the relationship between SHRM and HCD. A partial mediating role of EC was found between SHRM and HCD.
HCD improves organizational productivity and quality through employees' knowledge, skills, and competencies. Furthermore, Gundlach (1997) found a positive relationship between HC and economic development, particularly at the macroeconomic level, and also found that the effect of human resource practices on employee organizational commitment was positive. Similarly, Amponsah-Tawiah and Mensah (2016) found that employee retention was achieved by maintaining employee commitment. Crook et al. (2011) found a positive relationship between HC resources and corporate performance. All these studies are comparable to this research outcome, which could explain the reciprocal and intertwined relationships between SHRM, HCD, and employee commitment. The implication of these findings for hospital management is to pay more attention to HCD by involving employees in more formal training and education programs to enhance their competencies, abilities, and skills. On the other hand, hospital management should foster employee commitment that improves HC to accomplish their strategic goals.

CONCLUSION
The basic idea of this paper is to clarify the relationships between SHRM and HCD through EC. The results show that all relationships between the study variables are positive and significant. The results also show the importance of examining the relationship between SHRM and HCD, especially in the health sector, and the study adds further knowledge on the importance of EC practices as a mediating variable between SHRM and HCD.
Strategic HRM practices positively affect HCD and employee commitment. HR managers in hospitals should move from "softer" responsibilities and traditional HR activities, such as staffing and performance appraisal, to a more strategic level (i.e. developmental strategy), where HR strategies are aligned and reinforce the hospital's vision and mission, and link the organization's strategy to HR strategies. Healthcare employees who receive professional training and official education and development are less likely to leave their organizations or look for another opportunity. This underlines the career growth and development of healthcare professionals. Developing career opportunities and commitment is especially important for nursing staff, who usually feel unsatisfied due to feelings of limited career advancement opportunities. Thus, healthcare managers should invest more in formal training and organizational programs to enhance employees' skills and competencies related to organizational strategic goals.
The findings of this study also indicate that employee commitment has a significant positive effect on HCD. Employees tend to perform better based on their sense of belonging and loyalty towards their organizations. Therefore, the absence of EC in the organization increases their intent or even act-to-leave and reduces the overall organizational performance. Further, the study suggests that when employees are satisfied with their job, they are more likely to experience higher levels of commitment to their organization. Satisfied and committed employees are more willing to receive training and show more interest in development opportunities.