The role of physical and financial, social, human and natural capitals in explaining work performance of employees in Malaysian public sector

Abstract

In this paper, we investigated the influence of four basic types of capital: physical and financial, social, human, and natural on work performance of the employees in public sector at federal ministry level in Malaysia. A structured research instrument was utilized to survey a sample of 1253 employees from 19 federal ministries in Malaysia. Pearson correlation was employed to analyze the relationships between the independent variables and dependent variable. Enter method regression was employed to determine to what extent these capital factors explain the variation of work performance among employees. Analysis shows that there are positive linear relationships between the four capitals and work performance. Only three of the four capitals considered in the regression model namely human, social, and physical and financial capitals were significant in explaining the variation of work performance. Natural capital did not show significant contribution. Human capital made the highest contribution in explaining variation of work performance, followed by the three nonhuman capitals: social, and physical and financial capitals. Natural capital made an insignificant contribution. Key words: Physical and financial capital, social capital, human capital, natural capital, work performance.