How Situational Factors at the Workplace Affect Work Engagement among Public Administrators: A mediation moderated framework

Abstract

Situational factors at work may influence work engagement among employees. With 169 respondents from public administrators in the Johor Bahru Tengah Municipal Council, Malaysia, the findings were derived. The survey data from respondents were analyses using hierarchical multiple regression analysis. Findings showed that ambiguity and imbalance impaired work engagement. Meanwhile, distributive fairness significantly influences work engagement directly and indirectly. The results suggest that the influence of an ambiguous situation at work decreased work engagement, but can be improved, mainly through distributive fairness. Distributive fairness also moderated the linkage between ambiguous situational at work and work engagement. Keywords: Work engagement, Public administrators, Situational factors, Ambiguity, Imbalance, Distributive fairness. eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5iSI1.2330