The influence of self-efficacy, technology advancement, role ambiguity and work overload on employees' performance

The alarming figure of poor performers in public service organization in Malaysia had caused the government to look into this matter seriously. The Exit Policy was introduced in 2015 as a management guideline to deal with the underperformers to the extent that they can be dismissed. However, factors that might influence employees’ performance in public service organizations should be identified before these poor performers being punished. Thus, based on previous findings, this study was conducted to examine whether there are relationships between self-efficacy, technology advancement, role ambiguity and work overload towards employees’ performance in public service organization, specifically in Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) of Malaysia. 300 questionnaires were distributed to the respondents and 243 were returned. Due to convenient sampling technique that was conducted, the result showed that there was disparity in respondents’ demographic data that might affect the result. Pearson Correlation was used to test the correlation between independent and dependant variables while linear regression was conducted to see the strength and direction of the relationships. The results showed that there was positive and strong relationship between self-efficacy and employees’ performance, while a negative relationship established between role ambiguity and employees’ performance. A positive relationship was also detected between technology advancement and employees’ performance but no relationship was found between work overload and employees’ performance. These three variables (self-efficacy, role ambiguity and technology advancement) were also considered as influential factors that affected employees’ performance by 46.7 percent. Recommendations for future research were made to strengthen the sampling technique, as well as to identify other factors that might strongly influence employee’s performance in public service organization