Title: Should teachers be agile? Postulating the self-determination theory

Authors: Yi Shern Lim; Hasliza Abdul Halim; T. Ramayah

Addresses: School of Management, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia ' School of Management, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia ' School of Management, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia

Abstract: This paper aims to bridge the gap of literature in workforce agility among employees in educational institutions, postulating on Self-Determination Theory by examining the relationship between digital competence, employee empowerment, knowledge sharing, social media usage and workforce agility. Further, the moderating effect of social media usage is also investigated. Findings based on the data collected from 217 respondents using PLS-SEM showed all exogenous constructs are significant, however the moderating analysis proved otherwise. It can be inferred that age, years of working experience, generations gaps and also egocentrism attributed to the findings. The outcomes of this work would assist policymakers and school administrators in Malaysia to facilitate and promote an agile workforce in educational organisations besides manifesting motivation in employees, in achieving the goals of the third wave of transformation in MEB 2013-2025. This paper also concludes that future studies should employ IPMA and also PLS-MGA for further in-depth analysis.

Keywords: teachers; workforce agility; digital competence; employee empowerment; knowledge sharing; social media usage; DigComp.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIE.2022.126587

International Journal of Management in Education, 2022 Vol.16 No.6, pp.636 - 663

Received: 20 Aug 2021
Accepted: 04 Dec 2021
Published online: 28 Oct 2022 *

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