The Work Engagement of Non-academic Administrators in Malaysian Public Universities:
An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)
Abstract
This article presents details on how to develop and validate a Malay-language work engagement questionnaire for non-academic administrators at a public university. This study employed a cross-sectional research design to establish reliable measures for the work engagement construct. The items were adapted and modified to suit this study. Study data was obtained using a structured, validated questionnaire from 100 randomly selected non-academic administrators from the 20 Malaysian public universities by using purposive sampling method. The final model EFA on the Malay version of work engagement indicated Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity was significant (Chi Square = 143.769, p value <0.05) and the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO = .756). The Cronbach’s alpha analysis of one (1) component in the work engagement exceeded the threshold value of 0.6. It was determined that the construct-measuring instruments used in this research met all criteria for internal validity. This study contributes theoretically by extending the applicability of the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Theory to non-academic administrators in Malaysian higher education and empirically by providing a validated Malay-language work engagement instrument that enables universities to assess, monitor, and strengthen employee engagement for improved administrative performance. The findings support cross-cultural generalisability and offer practical value for university leadership to develop targeted engagement strategies that enhance workforce retention, service quality, and organisational effectiveness.
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