Job engagement and individual work performance among academic staff in Malaysia higher education institutions

• Main Author: Sin, Rodney Ming Keen
• Format: Final Year Project / Dissertation / Thesis
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: BF Psychology; HT Communities. Classes. Races; LB2300 Higher Education; LG Individual institutions (Asia. Africa)
• Online Access: http://eprints.utar.edu.my/4783/1/2003715_DIS.pdf; http://eprints.utar.edu.my/4783/

Job engagement is alarming, specifically among academic staff in Malaysia‘s higher educational institution. Not to mention that they may face setbacks in their job performance during the Covid-19 pandemic. Prior studies suggested that the association between job engagement and individual work performance among academic staff remains scarce and complex and deserves more attention. The present study aimed to study the association between the dimensions of job engagement (vigour, dedication, absorption) and individual work performance (task performance, contextual performance, counterproductive work behaviour (CWB) among academic staff in higher education institutions. The present study employed a cross-sectional and quantitative research design. Using the purposive sampling method, the target sample was 124 Malaysian academic staff recruited from three public and three private universities located in Sarawak, Sabah, Penang, Pahang, Kuala Lumpur, and Johor. The online survey method consisted of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9) and Individual Work Performance Questionnaire (IWPQ) indicated good reliabilities were used to measure the variables of this study. Pearson‘s Product-Moment Correlation (PPMC), and Hierarchical Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) were conducted using SPSS version 23 to produce meaningful outcomes. The PPMC results revealed that job engagement was positively associated with task performance and contextual performance while negatively associated with CWB. The predictions results showed that job engagement predicts task performance and contextual performance but not CWB. The findings of this study contributed to the literature by exploring how the sub-dimensions of job engagement and IWP can be linked to each other independently. Practically, HEIs should pay attention to nurturing academic staff‘s job engagement to enhance their work performance, especially during the pandemic time.