EXAMINING THE MEDIATING ROLE OF MOTIVATION TO TRANSFER IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SUPERVISOR SUPPORT AND EMPLOYEE’S EXTRA-ROLE BEHAVIOR

Abstract

Training is often acknowledged as a major source of developing talented employees in a knowledge-based organization. It encourages employees to continuously learn and master the necessary knowledge, up-to-date skills, latest cognitive and emotional abilities, positive attitudes and new capabilities consistent with the global market of the 21st century. Some recent studies reveal that the competency of supervisors to provide moral and material support in administering training programs will strongly invoke employees’ motivation to transfer. As a result, this motivation may lead to a higher extra-role behavior. Even though the relationship is interesting, the mediating effect of motivation to transfer has largely been ignored in the workplace training research literature. Therefore, this study is conducted to fulfill the literature gap by quantifying the mediating effect of motivation to transfer in the relationship between supervisor support and extra-role behavior. Self-report questionnaires were used to collect data from public servants at public service agencies in West Malaysia. The SmartPLS was used to evaluate the psychometric properties of the measurement scale and test the research hypotheses. The outcomes of structural equation modeling demonstrate three important results: first, supervisor support is a significant antecedent of extra-role behavior. Second, supervisor support is a significant antecedent of motivation to transfer. Third, motivation to transfer is an important mediating variable in the relationship between supervisor support and extra-role behavior. Hence, this study finding offers significant recommendations that may be used by practitioners to understand diverse perspectives of motivation to transfer concepts and to devise strategic human capital development action plans to become organizations as an employer of choice in times of global competition and unpredictable economy.