Impact of Managers and Human Resources on Supply Chain Performance

Abstract

Current competitive, complex, and uncertain markets push companies toward increasing active collaboration on the part of all human resources (HR) involved in the supply chain (SC), because increasing employee participation and SC collaboration among partners increase SC performance, competitiveness, and, consequently, financial and social success. In this article, we propose a structural equation model to measure the impact of human resources (independent latent variables) on SC efficiency (dependent latent variable). As data gathering instrument, we designed a survey that is responded in a Likert scale and then administered it to 284 participants, including company managers, SC managers, and operators in the Mexican manufacturing sector. For measure the dependence among variables, a structural equation model (SEM) integrates four latent variables: Role of Managers, Learning Environment, Employee Competencies, and Supply Chain Performance. The model is evaluated using Partial Least Squares (PLS) integrated in WarpPLS 6.0 software. Our findings revealed a positive interrelation among the four latent variables, yet in terms of magnitude, the Role of Managers reported the largest effect on the SC Learning Environment.