Career success of academicians in Malaysian private higher education institutions: The role of psychosocial work environment

This study explores how job demands and job resources, as components of the psychosocial work environment, shape both the objective and subjective career achievement of academic staff in Malaysian Private Higher Education Institutions (PHEIs), drawing on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model as its conceptual framework. In a sector marked by financial instability, intense market competition, and government-imposed performance indicators, Malaysian PHEIs place increasing expectations on academic staff to excel in teaching, research, administration, and community engagement, often within resource-constrained environments. Using a quantitative research design, the study investigated the hypothesized relationships through survey data from 413 academic staff across top-ranked PHEIs. The results from structural equation modeling highlighted that high job demands are strongly and adversely connected to both objective and subjective career success. Conversely, job resources are revealed to be robust positive predictors of both career success dimensions. Significantly, the study’s findings validate the JD-R model’s buffering hypothesis, providing evidence that job resources enhance career outcomes and improve career trajectory, while contravene the detrimental effects of excessive job demands, protecting against burnout and career dissatisfaction. From a theoretical point of view, this study expand the relevance and utilization of JD-R model to the ambience of private higher education, hence authenticating its cross-cultural applicability and underscore the salience of considering both internal and external dimensions of career success. This research concludes by advocating for a more holistic and humane approach to academic workforce management, which is essential for institutional excellence and national educational advancement.