The Role of Sustainable Human Resource Management Practices on Women's Job Performance: The Moderating Effect of Reward Systems in Pakistan's Higher Education Sector
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54938/ijemdss.2026.05.1.717Keywords:
Sustainable HRM, women's job performance, reward systems, fair evaluation, pay for performance, promotion, Pakistan education sectorAbstract
Objective: The study is an empirical study that aims at exploring the impact of Sustainable Human Resource Management (SHRM) practices including fair evaluation, pay for performance, and promotion on women's job performance within Pakistan's higher education sector. The paper also looks into the moderating role played by reward systems on this relationship.
Methodology: Quantitative methodology was used and data was collected from 250 female faculty members in universities located in southern Punjab. Analysis of the data was done by employing the most sophisticated statistical tools such as SPSS Version 25 and Process macro by Hayes.
Findings: The findings revealed that the average job performance score was 3.85 with a standard deviation of 0.72, which stated that the overall performance of the female faculty members was moderate or high. Correlation analysis demonstrated significant positive relationships between fair evaluation and job performance, while regression analysis confirmed that Sustainable Human Resource Management (SHRM) practices significantly predict job performance. Besides, moderation analysis showed that the effect of reward systems also significantly interacts with the relationship between the Sustainable Human Resource Management (SHRM) practices and job performance.
Implications/novelty: The results demonstrate the essence of introducing Sustainable Human Resource Management (SHRM) practice in improving job performance of women academics especially when coupled with reward systems. The findings of the study have useful implications on the formulation of gender sensitive policies of human resource management in the third world. Nevertheless, the study is not entirely free of limitations such as its regional orientation, and it would be possible to consider the inclusion of a larger scope of research in the future to obtain the most detailed results.
Downloads
References
Ahmed, Q., Khalil, A., & Tariq, K. (2022). The impact of harassment on employees' job performance: Mediating role of workplace stress: A study of female teachers' in Azad State of Jammu & Kashmir (AJ&K), Pakistan. Bahria University Journal of Management & Technology, 5(2), 45–61. https://doi.org/10.62533/bjmt.v5i2.52
Akhtar, N., Javed, F., & Ramzan, S. (2022). Implementation of HRM practices in higher education institutions of Pakistan: Investigating rhetoric and authenticity through a case study. Pakistan Social Sciences Review, 6(2), 615–629. https://doi.org/10.35484/pssr.2022(6-II)52
Arabadjieva, K., & Zwysen, W. (2022). Gender inequality in performance-related pay: A gap in the EU equal pay agenda (ETUI Research Paper – Policy Brief 2022.03). European Trade Union Institute. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.403149
Basnet, B. J., Timilsina, J., & Risal, N. (2024). The moderating role of gender between HRM practice and organizational performance. Pravaha, 30(1), 114–121. https://doi.org/10.3126/pravaha.v30i1.76898
Blau, F. D., & Kahn, L. M. (2017). The gender wage gap: Extent, trends, and explanations. Journal of Economic Literature, 55(3), 789–865. https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.20160995
Castilla, E. J. (2008). Gender, race, and meritocracy in organizational careers: The role of uncertainty in gender inequality. American Journal of Sociology, 113(6), 1479–1526. https://doi.org/10.1086/588738
Chi, H., Vu, T.-V., Nguyen, H. V., & Truong, T. H. (2023). How financial and non-financial rewards moderate the relationships between transformational leadership, job satisfaction, and job performance. Cogent Business & Management, 10(1), 2173850. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2023.2173850
Glass, C., & Cook, A. (2016). Leading at the top: Understanding women's challenges above the glass ceiling. The Leadership Quarterly, 27(1), 51–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2015.09.003
Hayat, R. S., Hussain, S., & Iqbal, S. (2024). Impact of socio-economic factors on women's entrepreneurial intension: The moderating role of skill development. International Journal of Contemporary Issues in Social Sciences, 3(3), 1826–1833.
Hussain, S., Kampoowale, I., Sadia, H., & Hali, S. M. (2022). Linking organizational climate with psychological capital: Organizational innovative culture as moderator. Journal of Hunan University Natural Sciences, 59(4), 18–30. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/XEWVC
Iftikhar, H., Hussain, S., & Tehrem, S. (2025). Influence of financial institution on women empowerment: A case study of Village Bank Salampur Swat, KP. Policy Research Journal, 3(3), 434–449. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15049389
James, K. V., & Priyadarshini, R. G. (2021). Responsible leadership: A new paradigm for organizational sustainability. Management and Labour Studies, 46(4), 452–470. https://doi.org/10.1177/0258042X211005325
Lopez-Cabrales, A., & Valle-Cabrera, R. (2020). Sustainable HRM strategies and employment relationships as drivers of the triple bottom line. Human Resource Management Review, 30(3), Article 100689. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2019.100689
Manzoor, F., Wei, L., Bányai, T., Nurunnabi, M., & Subhan, Q. A. (2019). An examination of sustainable HRM practices on job performance: An application of training as a moderator. Sustainability, 11(8), Article 2263. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11082263
Mehrzad, A., & Rostan, P. (2021). Job satisfaction of women employees of the public sector of Afghanistan. PSU Research Review, 8(1), 133–150. https://doi.org/10.1108/PRR-05-2021-0025
Mohamad, M. S. (2019). Workplace gender discrimination and job performance in Egypt: The moderating role of equity sensitivity. American Journal of Applied Psychology, 7(1), 11–19. https://doi.org/10.12691/ajap-7-1-2
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2025). Gender gaps in paid and unpaid work persist. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/25a6c5dc-en
Podgorodnichenko, N., Edgar, F., & McAndrew, I. (2020). The role of HRM in developing sustainable organizations: Contemporary challenges and contradictions. Human Resource Management Review, 30(3), Article 100685. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2019.04.001
Rehman, Z.-ur., Khan, H. A., Irshad, M., Hassan, A., & Iftikhar, S. (2023). Assessment of green human resource management in developing sustainable performance of manufacturing industry in Pakistan. Journal of Social Sciences Review, 3(1), 949–961. https://doi.org/10.54183/jssr.v3i1.335
Yasin, A., Hussain, S., Hali, S. M., & Iqbal, S. (2022). Digitalization and firm performance: Mediating role of smart technologies. Journal of Tianjin University Science and Technology, 55(4), 857–870. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/8FNDC
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Sana Fayyaz , Sidra Sabar

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Under the Creative Common Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) license, authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication.





