Title: Developing civil servants' engagement and participation in cost reduction policy through meta-abilities: a case of Malaysia

Authors: Mohamad Hisyam Selamat

Addresses: Faculty of Business, Accounting and Management, SEGi University, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

Abstract: This study examined the factors affecting cost reduction policy implementation amongst Malaysian civil servants through meta-abilities and a sense of engagement. The studied intrinsic values were cognitive skill, self-knowledge, emotional resilience and personal drive. Civil servant engagement in the workplace has treated as the mediating variable. All these values have included in the conceptual framework. A cross-sectional survey was adopted to validate the framework. The sample size for the population of this study has determined at 400. From the analysis, it has found that cognitive skill, emotional resilience and personal drive influenced participation in cost reduction policy implementation significantly. On the other hand, engagement has negatively influenced by cognitive skills. Additionally, engagement did not mediate the relationships between cognitive skill, self-knowledge, emotional resilience and personal drive and participation in cost reduction policy implementation. Nevertheless, it has found that engagement influenced participation in cost reduction policy implementation significantly. The practical implications are the discovery of theoretical, personal, and workplace practical best practices for the participation in cost reduction policy implementation in public organisations.

Keywords: cognitive skill; reduction policy; civil servants; participation; meta-abilities; Malaysia.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMP.2021.111776

International Journal of Management Practice, 2021 Vol.14 No.1, pp.69 - 87

Received: 12 Dec 2019
Accepted: 29 Jan 2020
Published online: 14 Dec 2020 *

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