Mediating effect of self-efficacy on relationship between psychosocial work environment factors and employee wellbeing among air traffic controllers in region 1 Peninsular Malaysia

Examining the determinants of employee wellbeing are essential for both theoretical and practical reasons because it will contribute to a more inclusive thought of working life. They are related to the everyday work and life experience of all organizational members which must be seriously viewed by the managers to prepare employees to face head-on on new ways of working due to the global environmental changes. In the Eleventh Malaysia plan, civil aviation is one institution that should have been given greater attention. Air traffic controllers (ATCs) as a profession is classified as the most stressful occupation. The successful passing of certain competency test still does not guarantee that ATCs will sustain a high level of wellbeing at the workplace. Hypertension among ATCs is three times higher than normal for their age group. In year 2017, the volume of air traffic in Malaysia has grown tremendously due to the increase in the demand for air travel from 6.5% to 11.8%. When the complexity of the aviation industry increases, ATCs can become overwhelmed with air traffic and it will affect their wellbeing. Employees’ mental health at the workplace should be optimized as workplaces are built and designed to be one of the factors for employee wellbeing advancement. The most worrying part is the mental health problem which is expected to be a major problem among Malaysians by 2020. A comprehensive empirical approach to employee wellbeing has not been completely established in Malaysia. Wellbeing Theory of PERMA’s five pillars of Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationship, Meaning and Accomplishment was used in this study as the underlying theory which could measure the employee wellbeing of ATCs at their workplace. This a logical step and render the variable to be measurable to account for the strength of wellbeing among the ATCs. Hence, this study is to examine the level of contributions of psychosocial work environment factors and employee wellbeing of civil ATCs in Malaysia which is mediated by self-efficacy. A quantitative approach with cross-sectional design as a survey method has been employed in this study and purposive sampling was used as the sampling technique. The instrument adapted was tested and validated by expert opinions and a pilot study. A total of 209 usable questionnaires were processed in this study. Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to validate the research model and to test the hypotheses while the bootstrapping analysis in PLS-SEM was used to test the direct, indirect and the mediation effect of self-efficacy. The measurement model used established satisfactory reliability and validity measures where all indicator loadings were greater than 0.50 while the internal consistency of all the constructs were able to obtain composite reliability (CR) values of more than 0.60, thus demonstrating construct reliability. Coefficient of Determination (R2) value for employee wellbeing is 0.625, which can be considered high and it indicated that 62.5% of the variance in the employee wellbeing was explained by psychosocial work environment factors. This study found that the level of psychosocial work environment factors and employee wellbeing level among ATCs are high. The study also shows that there is a relationship between psychosocial work environment factors and employee wellbeing among ATCs while self-efficacy is also found to have a relationship with ATCs’ wellbeing. Findings in this study also proved that self-efficacy mediated the psychosocial work environment factors and employee wellbeing. This study may be broadened to enrich the knowledge on ATCs with regards to understanding their HRD needs and to suggest a new direction on their HRD practices especially on future workplace development plans. In general, having a clear understanding of what and how these variables influence employee wellbeing is important as it can help CAAM to excel in all its endeavors. With respect to practice, this study should assist Human Resource Development (HRD) researchers, leaders and practitioners in understanding the problem of employee wellbeing. Hence the result of this study could be used to help them in advocating the wellness and wellbeing program and provide adequate training to leaders about employee wellbeing. It is also a first in developing an integrated model that explicitly accounts for the influence of psychosocial work environment among civil ATCs in Malaysia.

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