Mediating effect of work passion on the relationship between individual, organizational, job factors and proactive work behavior among teachers in Selangor, Malaysia

Malaysian schools are constantly facing educational challenges in 21st-century teaching and learning. This scenario needs more excellent proactive teachers in accomplishing effective learning outcomes. Teachers' behavior, particularly proactive behavior at work, among other factors, is crucial to meet the current needs in education. It is one of the most important factors to meet current educational demand, especially with many changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic plaguing the world. Furthermore, exploring the virtual world in education postures new challenges for all educators in adapting to new life norms that require the teaching and learning process to be implemented online. Teachers need to be proactive in their work to deal with these challenges. Therefore, it is appropriate to conduct a study to see to what extent teachers have proactive work behavior and what makes them engage in this behavior that remains unclear. This research aims to examine the mediating mechanism of work passion in the relationship between individual factors: role breadth self-efficacy and learning goal orientation, organizational factors: bureaucratic structure and leader-member exchange, job factor: workload, and proactive work behavior. It is a descriptive correlational research design. This study uses Raosoft to determine the minimum sample size of 378, with a confidence level of 95 per cent and a margin of error of 5 per cent. To expect 80 per cent of response rate, the sample calculated is 473. A multistage sampling technique is used, and the sampling technique is done in two stages. A simple random sampling technique and proportionate sampling technique are applied to determine the samples. 484 secondary school subject teachers from Selangor, Malaysia, are involved in this cross-sectional study. The reliability and validity of the research questionnaire are determined using coefficient alpha and composite reliability for the subsequent descriptive analysis, correlation, and confirmatory factor analysis. Finally, the statistical procedures are used to analyze the data to address the research questions and hypotheses, including descriptive, structural equation modelling (SEM), and bootstrapping. Given that the hypothesized model is a good fit to the data, the findings show a moderate level of PWB (Taking Charge, Voice, Innovation & Problem Prevention: M = 3.45, SD = 0.63), which means the level of PWB of teachers in national secondary schools in Selangor as a whole is moderate. The result reveals that role breadth self-efficacy is the strongest and significant factor that affects proactive work behavior. The bureaucratic structure shows a positive and significant direct effect on proactive work behavior. While learning goal orientation and leader-member exchange show a significant indirect effect on proactive work behavior, workload shows an insignificant indirect effect on proactive work behavior. Finally, the mediating factor of work passion is found to mediate learning goal orientation and leader-member exchange. As for workload, it shows a weak mediating effect but is insignificant to the relationships. This study reveals that role breadth self-efficacy and bureaucratic structure directly affect teacher proactive work behavior. In addition, work passion plays a significant role in mediating learning goal orientation and leader-member exchange relationship with proactive work behavior. As for workload, the relationship with work passion is positive but does not significantly affect teacher proactive work behavior. Thus, this study gives a clearer picture of the factors that directly and indirectly affect proactive work behavior and the mediating role of work passion on teachers’ proactive work behavior. This study contributes to Self-determination Theory by adding the Dualistic Model of Passion that explains harmonious and obsessive passion as a motivational mechanism for teachers’ behavior in the teaching domain. In addition, the findings of this study provide data to the Ministry of Education about teachers’ proactive work behavior and the influencing factors affecting this behavior which may facilitate Human Resource Development in Education.

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