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IRACST- International Journal of Research in Management & Technology (IJRMT), ISSN: 2249-9563

Vol. 3, No.6, December 2013

160

Job Rotation Practices, Stress and

Motivation:

An Empirical Study among Administrative

and Diplomatic Officers (ADO) in Sabah,Malaysia

SYUKRI SANALI1,

Assistant Director,Sabah Education Department,

Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

Email:[email protected]

DR. ARSIAH BAHRON2,

Associate Professor & Dean,

School of Business and Economics,

Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS)


Email: [email protected]

OSCAR DOUSIN3,Tutor,

Human Capital Management Program,

School of Business and Economics,Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS)


Email: [email protected]

Abstract:

The administrative and diplomatic scheme inMalaysia promotes the use of job rotation. Therefore,

the Administrative and Diplomatic Officers (ADOs)

are frequently transferred from one federal

government departments or agencies to another. Thispractice is made based on the concepts and theories

that linked to job rotation and motivation. This study

attempted to determine the influence of job rotation

practices on stress and motivation. In addition, thisstudy further examines the mediating effect of stress

in the job rotation practices motivation model. A

survey research method was used to gather 115

usable questionnaires from ADOs in Sabah. Theoutcome of linear regression analysis confirms that

there was a significant positive relationship between

job rotation practices and motivation but a significant

negative relationship between job rotation practicesand stress. The hierarchical regression analysisunsuccessfully reveals the mediating effect in the

relationship. The implications of this study to theory

and practice, conceptual and methodological

limitations and directions for future research arediscussed.

Keywords: job rotation practices, stress, motivation,

Administrative and Diplomatic Officers (ADOs)

1.0 OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY

In this present era, managing human resources effectivelyis a major challenge by most organizations. Humanresources department must have the capacity and ability

to design and developed a job that suits every level ofemployment. Job rotation refers to the systematic

movement of staff from one job to another (Malinski,2002). Job rotation sometimes involves lateral/non-lateral

transfers, within or between departments that enableemployees to work in different jobs. (Adomi, 2006). In

addition, Huang (1999) also defined job rotation as

lateral transfer of employees among a number ofdifferent positions and tasks within jobs where each

requires different skills and responsibilities. Jorgensen

(2005) further explain that job rotation is working at

different task or in different positions for one period oftime. Gomez et. al (2004) supported by mentioning that

it is a planned way using lateral transfer which purposelyto allow employees to expand their knowledge, skills and

competencies and also considered as a technique in on-

the-job-training. To conclude, the organization needs todesign their employees work setting and requirements to

be mobile and able to learn in one amount of time in

order for their employees to have a better understanding

on how ones organizations works.Motivation defined as a process governing

choices by persons among alternative forms of voluntary

activity (Vroom, 1964). Snape et. al. (2006) described

motivation as the internal factors that include action and

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external factors that can act as stimuli to action. Kreitner

(1995) defined motivation as the psychological process

that gives behaviour purpose and directions whileHiggins (1994) indentified motivation as an internal

drive to satisfy an unsatisfied need. A study conducted

by Adomi (2006) reveals that job rotation creates job

enrichment prospects open to staffs, which developsorganizational efficiency and effectiveness besides

reduces employees level of monotony and boredom. Inadditions, this study also reveals that these movements

encourages effectiveness and increased productivity ofemployees and also their organizations.

French (1971) defined job stress as theconsequences that an individuals ability or skills fail to

co-ordinate with the job or the job environment cannotsatisfy the individual demand. Jex et. al.(1992) classified

job stress in three ways; (i) job stress as a stimulus that is

as a job stressor or an environmental element or

occurrence (a cause) (ii) stress as a response to aworkplace event or strain (an effect) (iii) stress as a

stimulus response process due to the interaction between

an environment event or job stressor and the individualresponse or strain. Furthermore, Stevenson and Harper

(2006) stated that stress has two opposite effects on

individuals positive and negative effects. Broadly,acceptable level of stress helps to improve the

individuals performance whilst excessive amounts ofstress can lead to a decreased performance. In this

context of research, stress refers to the perceived burden

or workload that the Administrative and Diplomatic

Officers (ADOs) felt as due to their conditions of work.In this modern era, human resource

management is very essential and human factor has been

identified as one of the most important elements in

developing organization progress and producing highquality of productions and services. In 28thJanuary 2010,

Malaysian Prime Minister has drawn the government

transformation plan, which generally is a daring approachto revamp the working and the mind setting of the public

sector. In addition, the plan emphasized more on

performance and the public with their priority with hope

to change the public assumption and prejudice towardspublic sector that has been described as slow in their

implementation of the government policies.

Eriksson (2006) mentioned that employees

who participate in job rotation accumulate more human

capital than other employees because they are exposed toa wider range of experiences. The public service

department is currently designing a work design which

was able to keep their employees to work in a conducive

and competitive environment where it emphasizes onlearning to enrich their knowledge and skills. One

contemporary service scheme which involved in job

rotation practices is the administrative and diplomatic

services. Administrative and Diplomatic Scheme is a

commonly shared scheme of service in the public sectorthat can be assign either in domestic or foreign offices of

any ministries or federal departments and agencies. This

scheme is under the supervision of Public Service

Department of Malaysia. Generally, Administrative andDiplomatic Scheme is responsible planning, formulating

and implementing public policies on human resource and

organizational management, financial, economic,

administrative and regional/ local and land development,planning and social administration, international relations

and foreign affairs (including foreign services), security,national security and information technology

management. The employees of this scheme are

mobilized to any post within ministries, government

departments or agencies. Administrative and DiplomaticOfficers (ADOs) refers to the job position under the

administrative and diplomatic service with position

rankings identifies as M41, M44, M48, M52 and M54.

The number of ADO service is very small compared tothe other public services in Malaysia. It only has 7,000

officers for both the domestic and foreign services. In thestate of Sabah, there are 155 posting for ADO, regardless

of their ranks or levels in ADO schemes. This study hascovered the whole population of Administrative and

Diplomatic Officers who were posted in various federaldepartments in the state of Sabah.

2.0 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JOB

ROTATION PRACTICES, STRESS ANDMOTIVATION

Cavins and Pinto (2005) stated that effective human

capital management practices were positively related to

employee motivation. A study by Adomi (2006) andRobbin (1996) reveals that job rotation can reduces

boredom and increases motivation through the

divergence of employees activities. Besides, it alsoenhances the life of the organizations as the employees

were equipped with broad range of skills and hasflexibility in management of work. In addition, Foss et.

al.(2009) found out that reassignment of job where there

is a movement of employee from one department to

another will helps the current department with theprevious skills and knowledge the employees possess in

their previous department. As a result, their level of

motivation will boost up and they will learn the positive

effect of job enrichment (Foss et. al., 2009). This issupported by the study conducted by Griffin (1991)

which reveals that job design intervention will directly

affect employees perceive meaningful changes and tendto recognize those changes over time.

Moreover, Olorunsola (2000) conducted a

research on job rotation based on a group of librarian and

reveals that job rotation improves efficiency andproductivity of the employees by removing their

monotony and boredom. Besides, these research also

found out that job rotation have a significant relationship

with the decrease of stress or boredom level which lead

to boost the motivation level among the employees. Thisis supported by Guest (1997) whom argued that human

capital management practices can affect such

discretionary effort through their influence over

employee skills and motivation and throughorganizational structures that provide employees with the

ability to control how their roles are performed.

Furthermore, Azizi et. al. (2009) also found out that job

rotation is the most effective method of developing skills

and enhancing employees work motivation.Osman et. al. (2011) reveals that there is a high

influence of correlation between job design and the firmperformance. This refers to the level of employees that

given the autonomy to decide, participate and getinvolved in their area of work. It also enables employees

to feel empowered and to exercise elasticity in their job.The finding of this research is constant with the Herzberg

(1959) two-factor motivation theory which suggested thatemployees will be highly motivated if the intrinsic

factors like responsibility, recognition and personalgrowth are presented to the workers. Thus, by

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6.0 RESULTS AND FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

Table 1.0 shows the respondents profile for this study.Most respondent were male (61.0 %), at level M 41 (40.9

%) and aged between 30 39 years old (47.0 %). Many

of them have worked for 1 5 years (65.2 %) with two

times being transferred from one ministries/ departments/agencies to another (53.0%).

Table 1.0: Respondents Profile (n = 115)

Gender (%)

Male = 61.0

Female = 39.0

Age (%)

2029 years old = 42.6

3039 years old = 47.04049 years old = 7.0

5056 years old = 3.4

Status/ Ranks of ADOs (%)

M 41 = 40.9

M 44 = 22.6

M 48 = 29.6

M 52 = 6.1M 54 = 0.9

Length of Service (%)

1 5 years = 65.2

6 10 years = 27.010 years and above = 7.0

No. Of Transfer from OneMinistries/ Departments/

Agencies to Another (%)

1 time = 39.1

2 time = 53.0

3 time = 2.6

4 time = 4.35 time = 1.0

Table 2.0 shows the results of reliability score formeasurement scales. According to Nunnally and

Bernstein (1994), all research variables was exceeded the

acceptable standard of reliability analysis of 0.70. These

statistical analyses confirmed that measurement scalesused in this study have met the acceptable standard of

reliability analyses as shown in Table 2.0.

Table 2.0: The results of reliability analysis for

measurement scales

Variables TotalNumber of

Items

CronbachAlpha

Job rotation 6 0.839

Stress 6 0.951

EmployeeMotivation

6 0.759

5.1 Hypothesis Testing Results

H1: There is a significant relationship between jobrotation practices and employee motivation.

Table 3.0: Results for Linear Regression Analysis,

Relationship between Job Rotation Practices towardsEmployee Motivation.

Variables B t Sig.

Job rotationpractices

0.600 10.057 0.000

R 0.687

R2 0.472

Adjusted R2 0.468

Dependent variable: Employee motivation

Table 3.0 above showed that the linear regression

analysis reveals that job rotation practices is significantlyand positively correlated with employee motivation

(t=10.057, p < 0.001). In addition, the adjusted R value

was 0.468 and this indicates that job rotation contributes

46.8 % towards employee motivation. This resultdemonstrates that job rotation practices are important

antecedents of employee motivation in the organizational

sample.

H2: There is a significant relationship between jobrotation practices and stress.

Table 4.0: Results for Linear Regression Analysis,

Relationship between Job Rotation Practices towards

Stress.

Variables B t Sig.

Job rotation

practices

-0.767 -6.300 0.000

R 0.510

R2 0.260

Adjusted R2 0.253

Dependent variable: Stress

Table 4.0 above showed that the linear regression

analysis reveals that job rotation practices is significantlyand negatively correlated stress (t= -6.300, p < 0.001). In

addition, the adjusted R value was 0.253 and this

indicates that job rotation contributes 25.3 % towards

stress. This result demonstrates that job rotation practicesare important antecedents of stress in the organizational

sample.

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H3: Stress significantly mediates the relationship

between job rotation practices towards employee

motivation.

The mediating effect of stress on the relationship

between job rotation practices towards motivation was

determined using hierarchical linear regression analysis.The results of analysis are shown in Table 5.0 below.

Table 5.0: Results for Hierarchical Linear Regression Analysis, Stress Mediates the Relationship between Job RotationPractices towards Employee Motivation.

DV: Employee

Motivation (without

Stress as mediator)

DV: Stress

DV: Employee

Motivation (with

Stress as mediator)

B t Sig B t Sig B T Sig

Job

Rotation

0.687 10.057 0.000 -

0.510

-

6.300

0.000 -

0.049

-

0.370

0.714

Stress-

0.265

-

1.693

0.099

Table 5.0 above showed that the hierarchical linear

regression analysis reveals that stress unsuccessfullymediates the relationship between job rotation practices

towards employee motivation (t= -1.693, p = 0.099).

Even though this analysis reveals that there is a negative

mediating effect, however stress unsuccessfully mediatesthe relationship of job rotation practices employee

motivation. Thus, H3 was not supported and this result

indicates that stress does not act as an important mediator

between job rotation practices and employee motivation.

7.0 DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATION OF THESTUDY

Job rotation is a systematic movement of staff from one

job another (Malinski. 2002). Among the ADOs, there is

a periodic shifting from one task to another (Robbins,

1996) movement of staff in job rotation makes them

involved with different tasks which will probably be ofsimilar nature (Torrington & Hall, 1991). Generally, job

rotation involves lateral transfer, which enablesemployees to work at different job (Robbins, 1996). This

scenario was present in the ADOs scheme where therewas a probability of the officers to be rotated at least

once.The findings of this study reveal that there was

a significant and positive relationship between job

rotation practices towards employee motivation. On the

other hand, the relationships between job rotationpractices towards stress were found as significant and

negative relationship. However, this study reveals that

stress was not significantly moderates the relationship

between job rotation practices towards employeemotivation. The result of hypothesis testing of H1 and

H2 was consistent and supported by most previous studyconducted by Cavins and Pinto (2005), Foss et. al.(2009), Griffin (1991), Adomi (2006) and Robbin (1996)

where they stated that job rotation practices can reducesboredom and increases motivation through the

divergence of employees activities.

The scenario in the present Administrative and

Diplomatic Officers (ADOs) scheme was similar with thescenario stated by Robbins (1996) which described job

rotation involves lateral transfer to enables employees to

work at different job levels. The result of this study have

support the study by Ference, Stoner and Warren (1977)

which stated that job rotation is a potential solution toemployees lack of motivation. A surplus from this is an

increase in job satisfaction (Cosgel & Miceli, 1999). In

addition, the results of this study found that job rotation

significantly effects on stress. It is mention in Manshor

et. al. (2003) which explained that stressful working

conditions may be contributed by work overload,incompetent supervisors, conflicting performance

expectation and poor relationship with co workers.Employees may feel these effects at the beginning of

their terms after being rotated to other departments/ units/

agencies or ministries. In ADOs aspects, they will

encounter this experience in their new agencies orministries where they need to absorb more work

responsibilities and obligation and they may require

sufficient time to accumulate those job responsibilities.

Therefore, stress might occur during the period of

transition of job rotation.However, this study reveals that stress does not

mediates the relationship between job rotation practicesand employee motivation. Since stress was shown as a

non-significant mediator of the job rotation practices-

employee motivation relationships, other factors may

plays its mediating role such as employees personality,work efficacy or other related stress contributed by work-

life balance. Unfortunately, these variables were not

explored in this study. Therefore, implications that arise

from this study mainly strengthen the general notion thatjob rotation practices is a good job design to boost up

employee motivation and to decrease their level of stress.

This suggests that the current practice in the ADOs

scheme has helped to create a good workingenvironment, talented and generalist workers as well as

highly motivated workers. The result also implies thatsuch practice should be emulated in other public services

departments/ units/ agencies. The government in their

effort to improve the current productivity should considerpromoting the practice of job rotation to not only among

federal government departments/ units/ agencies but

extended to the states government departments/ units/

agencies as well.

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8.0 CONCLUSION

This study formulated the research model based on job

rotation practices and employees motivation standards

literature mostly published in Western settings. Thereliable measurement scales were used to measure the

direct and mediating effect of job rotation practices,stress and employees motivation in the hypothesized

model. Outcomes of testing the direct and mediatingmodel using a regression analysis revealed that job

rotation practices directly and significantly influenceemployees motivation. Besides, this study also reveals

that job rotation practices directly and significantlyinfluence stress. However, this study reveals that stress

would not mediates the relationship between job rotation

practices and employees motivation. Therefore H1 and

H2 were accepted while H3 were not supported in thisstudy. This empirical result of the direct relationship also

has supported and extended job rotation practices and

employees motivation research literatures, which mostlypublished in Western settings.

In addition, this study also supports the

research by Cavins and Pinto (2005), Foss et. al. (2009),Griffin (1991), Adomi (2006) and Robbin (1996) stating

that job rotation practices can reduces boredom andincreases motivation through the divergence of

employees activities. In addition, movement of staff

from job to job broadens employees skills and helps to

solve staffing and manpower problems. Job rotation aswell could become an important tool for a potential

solution to employees lack of motivation (Ference,

Stoner & Warren, 1977). In the contexts of ADOs job

rotation practices; it would enhance their knowledge,skills and competency, reduction of monotony and

development of social relations. They will be literally

exposed with new way of dealing with their job, learnnew expertise besides job rotation allows them to meet

with more people in the organization and this will expand

their social networking. Moreover, movement of

employees from one job to another also encouragedeffectiveness and increase productivity not only directly

to the employees but to the organization as a whole.

In a nutshell, one way to heighten employees

motivation particularly in this study of Administrative

and Diplomatic Officers, there must be some inducementto influence the action of the officers to give their best

commitment on their work, such as job rotation. As a

result, job rotation was one of the best ways to increase

employees motivation through divergence ofemployees activities. Besides, it also enhances the life of

the organization as employees that equipped with broad

range of skills will give the management more flexibility

in works.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors would like to extent their appreciation to all of the

Administration and Diplomatic Officers (ADO) in Public

Service Department (Sabah & Labuan region) for their support

and cooperation in their participation in this study.

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AUTHORS PROFILE

Syukri Sanali is the Assistant Director of Sabah

Education Department since January 2010. Syukri has a vast

working experience in the Public Service Departmentthroughout Malaysia. Syukri has completed his Masters in

Human Capital Management from Universiti Malaysia Sabah

(UMS).Dr. Arsiah Bahron, is an Associate Professor and

Dean of School of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaysia

Sabah (UMS). Dr. Arsiahs key area of expertise includes

human capital management, compensation and benefits

management and organization behaviour. Dr. Arsiah has

completed her Doctor in Business Administration fromUniversiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).

Oscar Dousin currently working as Tutor (Human

Capital Management programme) in Universiti Malaysia Sabah.

Oscar has completed his Masters in Human Capital Management

from Universiti Malaysia Sabah.

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