Research activities and outputs play a significant role in determining the standing and performance of a university. This article aims to examine the influence of individual factors, work resources, and organizational factors on research performance, and the mediation effect of work engagement on these relationships among academics at four Malaysian research universities. Theory of personal engagement at work and job demands-resources theory was employed to explain academics’ research performance. The study utilized a cross-sectional design and surveyed 252 randomly selected academics. Individual effort and professional development were found to be significantly correlated to academics’ research performance, while organizational and work resources were not significantly associated with research performance. Work engagement did not mediate the relationships between all predictor variables and research performance. The study highlights the importance of individual factors and professional development in facilitating academics’ research performance and highlights the significance of human resource development in facilitating academics’ research performance.
Abu Said, A., Mohd Rasdi, R., Abu Samah, B., Silong, A. D., & Sulaiman, S. (2015). A career success model for academics at Malaysian Research Universities. European Journal of Training and Development, 39(9), 815-835. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJTD-03-2015-0022
Afshar, H. S. & Yar, S. H. (2019). Investigating the relationship between attitude towards professional development, reflective teaching, self-efficacy, and job performance of Iranian English as a foreign language teacher. Teaching English Language, 13(2), 147-179. https://doi.org/10.22132/TEL.2019.96070
Aguinis, H., & O’Boyle, E. (2014). Star performers in twenty-first century organizations. Personnel Psychology, 67(2), 313–350. https://doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2013.35
Al-Tit, A., & Wadi, M. F. (2015). The mediating effect of employee engagement between its antecedents and consequences. Journal of Management Research, 7(5), 47–62. https://doi.org/10.5296/jmr.v7i5.8048
Ahmad, A. R., Farley, A., & Naidoo, M. (2012). An examination of the implementation federal government strategic plans in Malaysian public universities. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(15), 290–301.
Anderson, D. M., & Stritch, J. M. (2016). Goal clarity, task significance, and performance: Evidence from a laboratory experiment. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 26(2), 211–225. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muv019
Arifin, F., Troena, E. A., & Rahayu, M. (2014). The influence of organizational culture, leadership, and personal characteristics towards work engagement and its impacts on teacher’s performance: A study on accredited high schools in Jakarta. International Journal of Business and Management Invention, 3(1), 20–29.
Bakker, A. (2011). An evidence-based model of work engagement. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20(4), 265–269. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721411414534
Bakker, A.B., & Demerouti, E. (2007). The job demands resources model: State of the art. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 22(3), 309–328.
https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115
Bakker, A.B. and Demerouti, E. (2008). Towards a model of work engagement. Career Development International, 13(3), 209-223.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430810870476
Bakker, A.B., & Demerouti, E. (2014). Job demands-resources theory. In P. Y. Chen & C. L. Cooper (Ed.), Work and wellbeing (pp. 37–64). Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118539415.wbwell019
Bakker, A., & Demerouti, E. (2017). Job demands-resources theory: Taking stock and looking forward. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 22(3), 273–285. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000056
Basarudin, N.A., Yeon, A.L., Yaacob, N., & Rahman, R.A. (2016). Faculty workload and employment benefits in public universities. International Review of Management and Marketing, 6(S7), 73–82.
Bentley, P.J. (2015). Academic work from a comparative perspective: Cross-national differences in research orientation, productivity and time use. University of Twente. https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036539647
Brew, A., Boud, D., Namgung, S.U., Lucas, L., & Crawford, K. (2016). Research productivity and academics’ conceptions of research. Higher Education, 71, 681–697. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-015-9930-6
Cadez, S., Dimovski, V., & Groff, M.Z. (2017). Research, teaching and performance evaluation in academia: The salience of quality. Studies in Higher Education, 42(8), 1455–1473. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2015.1104659
Chapman, D.W., Chien, C.-L., Haddawy, P., Halevi, G., Ul Hassan, S., Katayama, Varghase, N.V. (2014). Higher education in Asia: Expanding out, expanding up - The rise of graduate education and university research. Montreal, Canada.
Christian, M.S., Garza, A.S., & Slaughter, J.E. (2011). Work engagement: A quantitative review and test of its relations with task and contextual performance. Personnel Psychology, 64(1), 89–136. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2010.01203.x
Chughtai, A., & Buckley, F. (2011). Work engagement: Antecedents, the mediating role of learning goal orientation and job performance. The Career Development International, 16(7), 684-705. doi:10.1108/13620431111187290
Deci, E.L., & Ryan, R.M. (2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227– 268. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327965PLI1104_01
Demerouti, E. (2006). Job characteristics, flow, and performance: The moderating role of conscientiousness. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 11, 266-280. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.11.3.266
Demerouti, E., & Cropanzano, R. (2010). From thought to action: Employee work engagement and job performance. In A. B. Bakker (Ed.), Work engagement: A handbook of essential theory and research (pp. 147-163). Psychology Press.
Dubbelt, L., Rispens, S., & Demerouti, E. (2016). Work engagement and research output among female and male scientists: A diary study. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 15(2), 55–65. https://doi.org/10.1027/1866-5888/a000150
Edgar, F., & Geare, A. (2013). Factors influencing university research performance. Studies in Higher Education, 38(5), 774–792. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2011.601811
Hair, J.F., Anderson, R.E., Tatham, R.L., & Black, W.C. (1998). Multivariate data analysis. 5th ed. Prentice-Hall International, Inc.
Idris, M.K. (2011). Over time effects of role stress on psychological strain among Malaysian public university academics. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2(9), 154–161.
Kahn, W.A. (1990). Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. Academy of Management Journal, 33(4), 692–724.
https://doi.org/10.2307/256287
Kahn, W.A. (1992). To be fully there: Psychological presence at work. Human Relations, 45(4), 321–349. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872679204500402
Kwiek, M. (2016). The European research elite: a cross-national study of highly productive academics in 11 countries. High Education, 71, 379–397.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-015-9910-x
Lee, M.N.N. (2004). Global trends, national policies and institutional responses: Restructuring higher education in Malaysia. Educational Research for Policy and Practice, 3(1), 31–46. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10671-004-6034-y
Macey, W.H., & Schneider, B. (2008). The meaning of employee engagement. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 1(1), 3–30. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2007.0002.x
Menguc, B., Auh, S., Fisher, M., & Haddad, A. (2013). To be engaged or not to be engaged: The antecedents and consequences of service employee engagement. Journal of Business Research, 66(11), 2163–2170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2012.01.007
Ministry of Education Malaysia. (2015). Malaysia education blueprint 2015-2025 (higher education).
Ministry of Higher Education. (2007a). National higher education strategic plan beyond 2020.
Ministry of Higher Education. (2007b). National higher education action plan 2007- 2010: Triggering higher education transformation.
Mohd Rasdi, R., Garavan, T.N., & Ismail, M. (2013). Networking behaviours and managers’ career success in the Malaysian public service: The moderating effect of gender, Personnel Psychology, 42(6), 684-703. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-07-2010-0117
Mohd Rasdi, R., Tauhed, S. Z., Zaremohzzabieh, Z., & Ahrari, S. (2023). Determinants of research performance of university academics and the moderating and mediating roles of organizational culture and job crafting. European Journal of Training and Development, 47(7/8), 711–728.
Nguyen, H.T.L. (2016). Building human resources management capacity for university research: The case at four leading Vietnamese universities. Higher Education, 71(2), 231–251. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-015-9898-2
Patel, R.S., Bachu, R., Adikey, A., Malik, M., & Shah, M. (2018). Factors related to physician burnout and its consequences: A review. Behavioral Sciences, 8(11), 98, 1-7. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs8110098
Pourbarkhordari, A., Hua, E., Zhou, I., & Pourkarimi, J. (2016). How individual-focused transformational leadership enhances its influence on job performance through employee Work Engagement. International Business and Management, 11(2), 249– 261. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v11n2p249
Prathap, G., & Ratnavelu, K. (2014). Research performance evaluation of leading higher education institutions in Malaysia. Current Science, 109(6).
https://doi.org/10.18520/v109/i6/1159-1164
Rich, B.L., Lepine, J.A., & Crawford, E.R. (2010). Job engagement: Antecedents and effects on job performance. Academy of Management Journal, 53(3), 617–635. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMJ.2010.51468988
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). When rewards compete with nature: The undermining of intrinsic motivation and self-regulation. In C. Sansone & J. M. Harackiewicz (Eds.), Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: The search for optimal motivation and performance (pp. 13–54). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-012619070-0/50024-6
Ryan, J.F., Healy, R., & Sullivan, J. (2011). Oh, won’t you stay?: Predictors of faculty intent to leave a public research university. Higher Education, 63(4), 421-437. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-011-9448-5
Salehi, P., Mohd Rasdi, R. & Ahmad, A. (2015). Personal and environmental predictors of academics' work-family enrichment at Malaysian research universities. The Asia Pacific Education Researcher, 24(2), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-014-0190-5
Schaufeli, B.W., & Bakker, B.A. (2004). Job demands and job resources and their relationship with burnout and engagement: A multiple-sample study. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 315, 293–315. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.248
Swanson, R.A. (1995). Human resource development: Performance is the key. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 62(2), 2017–2213.
https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.3920060208
Tauhed, S. Z., Rasdi, R. M., Samah, B. A., & Ibrahim, R. (2018). The influence of organizational factors on work engagement among academics at Malaysian research universities. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 8(10), 973–988.
Tie, F.H. (2012). Research publication as a strategy to improve international academic ranking. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 15(4), 437–450.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2012.696707
