IMPACT OF STRATEGIC INTERNAL COMMUNICATION ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE AND THE MEDIATING ROLE OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Abstract The present study attempts to analyse the impact of strategic internal communication (SIC) on employee performance (EP) and the mediating role of employee engagement (EE). Data from 612 associates in public and private sector organizations (selected from most contributing industries to GDP) was gathered using a cross-sectional approach. All three constructs were reflective (first and second order). The indirect effect of SIC→EE→EP was moderately significant (β = 0.19, p < .000), while the direct effect of SIC on EP was highly significant (β = 0.45, p < .000). Employee Engagement was found to mediate the SIC-EP relationship moderately. The study assessed two models (No Mediation and With Mediation) to determine the mediator's impact (Sarstedt and Moisescu, 2023). Results indicate EE as a significant mediator. The study is unique in two ways. First, Strategic Internal Communication which is a popular concept with internal communication practitioners is hardly studied in academic literature. This paper provides an empirical investigation using this concept. Second, testing the quality of the mediated model against the original model to ascertain if the mediator is required to be introduced (recent statistical revelation) is checked in this paper.