An empirical study of the relationship between job demand-control-support model, self-efficacy, burnout, information learning, and job performance: a case of employees in the Thai banking sector

Abstract

Commercial banks in Thailand face many challenging tasks such as new regulations that impact business operations, the rapid adoption of digital banking by consumers. Commercial banks have employed a matrix organizational structure, combined with a flexible modern working practice. All these changes affect the form of organization that increase employees’ responsibilities and more autonomy than in the past. Employees have to perform multiple tasks which has led to increased levels of work stress. Additionally, employees need to acquire more knowledge and skill for their employability. At the workplace, informal learning is a valuable source of most innovation and performance improvement in organizations. In order to understand these circumstances, a job demand-control-support model has been adopted to explain the underlying psychological process of job characteristics and social support that have become influential vehicles for both enhancing burnout and for assisting in informal learning in employees. In addition, this study has additionally emphasized self-efficacy, which is an individuals’ sense of their capability to control and influence their environments in order to meet their desired attainment. Therefore, it was assumed that self-efficacy has a negative effect on burnout but that it has positive effect on a learner’s confidence attitude. Lastly, this study presented the effect of burnout and informal learning on employee job performance.

This study tries to render our understanding of the phenomenon of their associations in a Thai context which is believed to be somewhat rare. This study tries to fill this empirical gap by providing a useful resource for commercial banks, in order for Thai HR, managers to develop policies and a strategy to deal with the effect of job demand-control-support on burnout, and informal learning.

A total of 539 respondents were surveyed from three Thai commercial banks. The study adopted structural equation modelling (SEM) to represent theory showing how constructs are inter-related. The individual constructs, measurements, and structural models were validated through SEM and all achieved adequate overall fit. The results of this research showed that the job demand-control-support model could explain burnout and informal learning. Burnout arises when psychological job demands are high; job control is high, and are socially isolating. Job control can have a curvilinear relationship when employees receive too much freedom, which could later affect the employee’s wellbeing due to experiencing increased ambiguity, receiving high responsibility, and taking on more difficult tasks to make a decision. This research found that informal learning could be found in demanding situations, and that job control could help an employee to cope with further job demands, and promote learning. Since learning is a social process, an employee engaged in informal learning must do so through others. Supervisors and colleagues could give them support, encourage talking about problems, and feedback that will enable the employees to learn and implement new ideas. Individual with self-efficacy tried to proactively search for job resources that benefit to them. Thus, the finding of this research shows that informal learning could be stimulated by self-efficacy directly, and through demanding situations, job control, and social support provided by organization. A high level of self-efficacy reduced psychological demand, and later reduced burnout. When analyzed separately, it was found that each Thai bank had a unique context which resulted in different performance results. Therefore, banks should improve themselves for balancing employee’s works and health needs, and providing a supportive climate because these resources are performed to protect employee from work-related stress, and to motivate the employee to engage in informal learning.