The moderation effect of job tenure on psychological empowerment and employee performance in Malaysia public sector

Public employee performance is very critical as it affects the government’s reputation and performance. Meanwhile, the tenure of service could influence the effect of psychological empowerment on employee performance. Thus, the objectives of this study are, first, to investigate the effect psychological empowerment on employee performance, and second, to examine whether the tenure of service moderates the relationship between psychological empowerment and employee performance among public service employees in Malaysia. A total of 286 sets of a questionnaire are collected from the public sector department. Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) using SmartPLS 3.3.2 is used to analyze the data. The findings show that psychological empowerment is positively related to employees’ performance. Besides, employees’ tenure of service indicates a moderating effect on the relationship between psychological empowerment and employee performance. The longer the tenure, the better the employees adapt to their work, leading to the feeling of empowerment and a higher level of effort, which, in turn, increase employee performance. The study’s findings contribute to the field of management literature through the development and empirical test of a causal model of psychological empowerment on employee performance by considering employees’ tenure of service in the context of Malaysia public sector