The Mediating Role of Employee Engagement in Explaining the Phenomenon of Performance Stagnation: A Study on the Effectiveness of Training and Development in the Forestry Industry (PT SBA Wood Industries)
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Abstract
Although PT Sebangun Bumi Andalas Wood Industries (PT SBA WI) invested heavily in training, reaching 86.3 percent of its workforce in 2023, the firm continued to experience flat employee performance. For two successive years, most staff stayed within the average performance band, while the level of work engagement had not yet met the target set by management. Such a pattern points to a mediating mechanism that remains empirically unclarified in the forestry sector. The present research therefore investigates how the effectiveness of training and development shapes work engagement and performance, and whether engagement carries the influence of training onto performance at PT SBA WI. Drawing on Social Exchange Theory (SET) together with Job Demands Resources (JD-R) Theory, the study adopts a quantitative and causal design. Responses were gathered from 224 staff members selected through proportionate stratified random sampling using a questionnaire scored on a Likert scale, and the data were processed with Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) in SmartPLS 4.0. The estimates reveal that training effectiveness raises work engagement (β = 0.740; p = 0.000) and that engagement in turn lifts performance (β = 0.859; p = 0.000), whereas training shows no significant direct link to performance (β = 0.029; p = 0.693). Because the indirect path is significant (0.636; p = 0.000) while the direct path is not, engagement operates as a full mediator. The evidence indicates that spending on training does not raise performance by itself unless the firm first cultivates a strong sense of engagement among its people.
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