The Structural Relationships Between Organizational Structure, Job Characteristics, Work Involvement, and Job Performance among Public Servants

This study examined the structural relationships between organizational structure, job characteristics, work involvement, and job performance. A total of 268 of public servants from the agencies and departments under the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries participated in the study. The main objective of the study was to identify the significance of work involvement as a plausible mediator between organizational structure and job characteristics and job performance of public servants. Organizational structure consisted of decision making, hierarchy of authority, job codification, and rule observation while job characteristics comprised of skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. Job performance was measured in terms of task performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). The first objective was to assess the construct validity of the Malay-translated version of the instruments used in the study. The research results reported that all hypothesized individual as well as overall measurement models showed adequate fit with the data collected within the Malaysian public sector context, particularly for departments and agencies in the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries located in the northern region of the Peninsular Malaysia. Importantly, all of the Malay-translated instruments were reported to have good psychometric properties, especially in terms of construct validity and internal consistency reliability, indicating their utility in future Malaysian studies. The second objective was to examine the influence of all dimensions in organizational structure and job characteristics factors on work involvement and job performance. This study reported that task significance, feedback, and job codification had positively impacted work involvement of public servants. It was also found that skill variety had positively influenced overall job performance of the public servants while job codification negatively influenced their overall job performance. Work involvement was also found to have a positive impact on the overall job performance of the public servants in this study. It was also found that only work involvement had a significant influence on task performance but not OCB. The regression results also indicated that autonomy and hierarchy of authority had a significant influence on OCB but not task performance and overall job performance. This study reported that work involvement served as a significant mediator for the relationship between job codification and task performance, OCB, and overall job performance. Work involvement was also found to be a significant mediating factor for the relationships between task significance and task performance, OCB, and job performance. The similar result was reported for feedback and task performance, OCB, and overall job performance. Additionally, this study analyzed two hypothesized structural models. The first hypothesized structural model analyzed the second-order job performance measurement model as the dependent variable. The results indicated that 66.5 percent of the variance that explained public servants' work involvement was accounted for by the dimensions in job characteristics and organizational structure factors. However, only 17.2 percent of the variance that explained job performance was accounted for by dimensions in organizational structure, job characteristics, and work involvement constructs. The second hypothesized structural model examined the first-order job performance measurement model as the dependent variable. Similarly, the second hypothesized structural model reported that all dimensions in the independent variables explained 66.1 percent of employees' work involvement. Moreover, the percentage of variance that explained task performance and OCB were 28.8 and 2.8 percent, respectively. This also study evaluated the direct effect of organizational structure and job characteristics on the first-order and second order job performance measurement model. Based on the competing structural model, the mediating status of work involvement, i.e. fully or partially mediating, was reported. The results of the competing structural model indicated that the percentage of variance that explained task performance and OCB were 34.5 and 11.8 percent respectively. Finally, theoretical, practical, and methodological contributions as well as directions for future research were discussed

Psychometric properties of organisational structure scale in the Malaysian public service agencies: Preliminary results

Organisational structure has been assessed with various different scales resulting in inconsistencies in the measures of this construct. Hence, a re-conceptualisation of the organisational structure construct is crucial due to the fact that researchers have thus far provided inconclusive agreement on what dimensions should be included in measuring organisational structure, although many studies have conceptualized organisational structure as a multidimensional construct. This study attempted to examine the psychometric properties of the organisational structure construct by integrating four subscales – decision making, hierarchy of authority, job codification, and rule observation. A priori proposition was made that organisational structure measurement could be explained by four of the hypothesised dimensions. SPSS version 12 and AMOS 4 were used to analyse the data. Findings supported the hypothesis that organisational structure can be measured by the four aforementioned subscales. Findings also showed acceptable internal consistency reliability for the overall and the four specific subscales of organisational structure latent construct

Linking organizational structure, job characteristics, and job performance construct: A proposed framework

A growing emphasis has been given on employees’ job performance as a source of competitive advantage to promote responsiveness in enhancing overall organizational effectiveness. Although performance depends very much on personality traits, other external factors, also known as system factors or opportunities to perform, have a significant amount of influence on employees’ task and contextual performance. Constraints to perform, such as bureaucratic structure and ineffective job design, will influence individual task and contextual performance negatively.Such circumstance inadvertently hinders high organizational performance.This paper proposes that organizational structure, namely formalization and centralization, have direct effects on employee task performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Also, this paper posits that job characteristics, namely skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback, exert influence on employee task performance and OCB. To examine the applicability of the proposed framework, seven main propositions are identified and analyzed

HRM practices and employees’ rentention: The perspective of job embeddedness theory

In the current study several HRM practices (performance appraisal, promotional opportunities and job security) have been suggested to explain its impact on employees retention. Previously, other studies have endeavored to consider the impact of HRM practices and employees retention but their results are mostly conflicting, therefore further investigation is needed.Moreover, mediating effect of job embeddedness on the relationship between HRM practices and employees retention has been suggested to be investigated.Furthermore, the use job embeddedness theory may help to better understand the relationshi

From Supplier Relations to Triad in the Automotive Industry

This paper presents a review of the literature of supplier relations in the automotive industry towards triad and how this has an impact on the supplier selection for buyers. This paper focuses on the automotive sector specifically. The paper suggest that triads reflect the supplier relations attributes in previous literature yet stress on the need for further emphasis on the supplier-supplier relationshi

Job characteristics, work involvement, and job performance of public servants

Purpose: The primary purpose of this study is to assess the predicting role of job characteristics on job performance. Dimensions in the job characteristics construct are skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback.Further, work involvement is tested as a mediator in the hypothesized link. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 256 public servants reported on their job characteristics and work involvement while supervisory ratings were used to assess their level of job performance. SPSS version 14 and AMOS 16 were used for statistical analyses of the data.A hypothesized structural equation model was tested to examine both direct and indirect influence of job characteristics on job performance.Findings: The findings revealed that task significance and feedback significantly influence job performance and the relationships are mediated by work involvement. Skill variety, however, has a significant and direct influence on public servants’ job performance.Research limitations/implications: The research results have provided support for the key theoretical propositions.Specifically, this study has managed to substantiate some empirical evidences in partial support of the job characteristics theory.Practical implications: As for practical implication, the significant and positive impact of skill variety, task significance and feedback on job performance suggests the importance of these job characteristics dimensions in promoting high level of job performance among public servants.Originality/value: This study aims to provide additional empirical evidence in support of the job characteristics theory.The theoretical framework of this study managed to substantiate empirical evidence in partial support of the job characteristics theory

Unveiling the Incidence of Interfirm Collaboration: Evidence from Research and Development Companies in Malaysia

Nowadays, interfirm collaboration has become an increasingly popular strategy among many organizations in various industries, in order to remain competitive. Based on the contingency theory, this paper examines the moderating effect of interfirm collaboration on the relationship between Human Resource Management (HRM) practices and organizational performance. Interfirm collaboration refers to the collaboration strategies undertaken by R&D companies, with other companies in similar or diverse functional areas, including R&D, marketing, or manufacturing, to enhance performance.  Using data from 64 R&D companies, the hierarchical regression analyses showed that only collaboration in R&D and functional collaboration in manufacturing significantly moderated the relationship between HRM practices and organizational performance. Overall, the results provided partial support in the domain of the contingency theory. These results, however, are limited by the small sample size, which might have produced non-significant findings. Therefore, the generalization should be taken cautiously. Future research with a larger sample size is needed to confirm the findings

Unveiling the Incidence of Interfirm Collaboration: Evidence from Research and Development Companies in Malaysia

Nowadays, interfirm collaboration has become an increasingly popular strategy among many organizations in various industries, in order to remain competitive. Based on the contingency theory, this paper examines the moderating effect of interfirm collaboration on the relationship between Human Resource Management (HRM) practices and organizational performance. Interfirm collaboration refers to the collaboration strategies undertaken by R&D companies, with other companies in similar or diverse functional areas, including R&D, marketing, or manufacturing, to enhance performance.  Using data from 64 R&D companies, the hierarchical regression analyses showed that only collaboration in R&D and functional collaboration in manufacturing significantly moderated the relationship between HRM practices and organizational performance. Overall, the results provided partial support in the domain of the contingency theory. These results, however, are limited by the small sample size, which might have produced non-significant findings. Therefore, the generalization should be taken cautiously. Future research with a larger sample size is needed to confirm the findings

The perception of gen Y on organizational culture, religiosity and corruption in Malaysian public organizations

Organizational culture and religion plays a vital role in shaping and controlling employees behaviour and perception regarding corruption. This paper examined the relationships between organizational culture, religious and corruption in public organization setting.The instrument used to evaluate corruption was that of Jiang et.al, (2012).For organizational culture, the study utilized the items developed by Denison & Mishra (1995) while for religiosity, the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire developed by Plante & Boccaccini (1997) were adopted.A total of 120 questionnaires were distributed to Gen Y employees who are currently serving at public organizations in Kedah.A total of 110 questionnaires were returned and used for further analysis. The data were analyzed using SMART PLS to investigate the relationship between the variables. Organizational culture and religious indicated positive influence on corruption

Examination of the empirical dimensionality of job performance construct / Johanim Johari, Khulida Kirana Yahya and Abdullah Omar

This study attempts to examine the psychometric properties of the job performance constructs by espousing task performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) items. The latter comprises of sportsmanship, civic virtue, courtesy, altruism, conscientiousness, and innovative behavior. A priori proposition was made that the job performance measurement could be explained by two factors, which are task performance and OCB. SPSS version 12 and AMOS 6 were used to analyze the data. Findings supported the hypothesis that job performance could be measured by the two hypothesized factors. However, four factors of OCB i.e. civic virtue, sportsmanship, conscientiousness, and courtesy, loaded on the task performance factor, while altruism and innovative behavior loaded on the OCB construct. Findings showed evidence of construct validity of the job performance items, indicating that the instrument can be used in the Malaysian studies