THE IMPORTANCE OF SUPPORTIVE LEADERSHIP IN THE SERVICE INDUSTRY IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

Apart from having a good economic growth and becoming creative and innovative, the advancement sector needs to discover and maintain its high ground (Emeagwal &Ogbonmwan, 2018), however, without appropriate sanitation management and development, ill-health dominates a life devoid of dignity, and inadequate sanitation has an influence not only on human health but also on the environment. Employee commitment seems to be an important aspect of accomplishing organizational realization.

Previous studies have proof that employee in services industry tend to get negative impression and it has an impact on the workers, which lead to high occupational stress and low employee commitment (Bahkia et al, 2020). Thus, a supportive leadership approach is important to reduce gaps and imbalances. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to identify the significance of supportive leadership in the service industry since the nature of work, combined with workload and pressure, has resulted in considerable occupational stress among workers, which translates into poor job commitment.

The random sample was taken from the employee list of the selected services company, which consists of employees of the Malaysian sewerage operation company, Indah water Konsortium (IWK). The data was collected via a self-administered questionnaire distributed to randomly selected respondents. Meanwhile, data were analyzed using the second-generation method of multivariate analysis called Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in IBM-SPSS-AMOS 24.0.

The method of examining the mediation effects in the model described by Awang et al. (2018); Kashifet al. (2015, 2016); Afthanorhan et al. (2018); Mohamad et al. (2016, 2018); Mohd Azli et al. (2017); Yusof et al.(2017), and Asnawi et al. (2019 was used in the study. When employees serving in any organization and receive support from their leaders, the level of occupational stress drops and they will show their commitment towards their work. An employee always wants to have a leader who cares for them and motivate them, understands their problems, and assist in solving problems. In this regard, the present study assessed the Importance of Supportive Leadership in the Sewerage Operation sector in Indah Water Konsortium Pte Ltd (IWK). Employee's work commitment declines when they meet a high level of occupational stress, which can be improved through a supportive leader who keeps employees, motivated even at unfavourable situations. It means that supportive Leadership plays a mediating role in the relationship between occupational stress and employee work commitment. The results of the present study also revealed that Occupational Stress did not have a direct positive impact on Employee Work Commitment.