Testing a conditional mediation model of the reciprocal payoffs of performance management

Drawing from the social exchange theory, we proposed and tested a conditional mediation model of the reciprocal payoffs of performance management. This study is based upon survey data from employees in a Ghanaian parastatal organisation, and uses regression with bootstrapping via Hayes’s PROCESS techniques for the analyses. The results show that performance management practices positively influence meaningful work and employee loyalty. Meaningful work also increases employee loyalty, and further significantly mediates the relationship between employee loyalty and each of the three performance management practices. However, this mediation is only significant statistically among short-tenured employees compared to long-tenured employees. Consequently, our study provides original evidence to extend PM literature and its reciprocal psychological payoffs through the viewpoints of the social exchange theory. This is a crucial insight for minimising meaningfulness crises and averting destructive attitudes of employees, specifically, disloyalty in organizations.