Relationship Between Human Resource Practices, Trust, and Performance in Higher Education Institutions

The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between trust and human resource practices in the performance of academic faculty within higher education institutions in Zambia. Using a survey design, 43 HEA-accredited HEIs participated, with 267 valid responses from 311 distributed questionnaires, yielding a strong response rate of 89%. The sample consisted of 145 randomly selected participants from public HEIs and 131 from private HEIs. Based on the pilot test results, no significant changes were made to the research instrument.
The collected data were analyzed using Smart PLS-SEM software to assess the correlations between individual and organizational trust and HR practices, with particular attention to performance indicators such as employee commitment, engagement, productivity, and effectiveness.
The findings indicate that trust is a crucial yet underutilized factor in implementing HR practices within Zambian HEIs, contributing to weakened employee confidence and, in turn, suboptimal performance. These findings validate the strategy of fostering trust through targeted HR practices as an effective approach to improving performance. Additionally, the study's multi-group analysis revealed no significant differences, suggesting that trust-performance dynamics are universal across Zambian HEIs. An important benefit for HR practices will be for HEIs’ recognition of the need to go beyond the personnel functions, which tend to solve functional tasks, to modern HRM concepts that are strategic and focus on the development of an entire organization and the potential of employees based on trust rather than control.

Trust, HR Practices, HEIs, Employee Performance

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