Assessing Construct Reliability of Human Resources Management Practices (HRM) and Employee Loyalty: A Preliminary Evidence from the Omani Logistic Sector

Abstract
Purpose: In the past few years, industry sector highly dominated the Oman’s economy, as the logistics sector forms the backbone of it, which accounted for 56.6% of GDP in 2019. The logistic sector is expected to provide 80,000 jobs by 2020 and 300,000 by 2040. Review of past literature on issues related to HRM impact on employee loyalty particularly from the Omani logistic sector revealed limited outcome. This paper aims in assessing the construct reliability of human resources management practices (HRM) and employee loyalty as well as the impact of HRM practices on employee loyalty, as HRM practices include recognition, compensation, promotion, training, selective hiring, job rotation, and working environment.Method: To achieve this objective, a quantitative approach was adopted, as questionnaire was distributed to 52 employees who work in logistics sector in Oman as pilot study cohort. Data were analyzed by using SPSS. Items of the research constructs were measured for its reliability value.Results: The results showed that employee loyalty construct obtained the highest mean (3.891), while compensation construct obtained the lowest mean (3.281). In addition, the results showed that reliability statistics for research constructs and their paragraphs achieved high Cronbach alpha, thus met the minimum trajectory of reliability value. The results of regression analysis illustrated that HRM best practices (recognition, compensation, promotion, training, selective hiring, job rotation, and working environment) had a significant impact on employee loyalty.Implications: This paper is expected to be a reference for other studies in other sectors to assess the construct reliability on HRM practices variables as well as employee loyalty.