The significance of psychosocial work environment factors on attitude to retire early among senior employees in Sabah: life satisfaction as mediator / Rosdiana Sukardi

This study utilized a credible research philosophy which is positivism, through a consistent set of assumptions in the ‘research onion’. It develops and tests a model of psychosocial work environment factors (older worker disposition, opportunities to develop, social relations) on attitude to retire early among senior employees in Sabah with life satisfaction as mediator. Life course perspective, life satisfaction theory and role theory illustrated the relations between these constructs. Quantitative self-administered questionnaire was distributed online and by hand. Nonprobability convenience sampling technique and the G*Power software determined a minimum sample of 244 participants. The survey was conducted over a period of three months from March to May 2020 in five major administrative districts of Kota Kinabalu, Tawau, Sandakan, Keningau and Kudat. A set of 440 questionnaires were distributed, and 415 usable ones were returned and analysed with SPSS. T-statistics for all paths were generated using the SmartPLS3.0 bootstrapping technique to test the significance level. Findings show that opportunities to develop has a positive significant indirect effect relationship with attitude to retire early. Meanwhile, social relations and older worker disposition has no indirect effect relationships. Hence, the mediating role of life satisfaction is determined. In contrast, the findings reveal opportunities to develop, and life satisfaction show a direct effect positive significant relationships with attitude to retire early. As for the factors older worker disposition and social relations, there were no direct effect relationships with attitude to retire early. This doctoral research provides valuable insights to organizations that life satisfaction has no significance to senior employees who want to continue working. This is an original contribution to the retirement literature and the findings provide a proxy of attitude to retire early among senior employees in the public and private sectors in Sabah. The novelty of this study, unlike previous works, considers life satisfaction as the mediator in the model. Finally, this can be a benchmark for organizations and the Sabah government to formulate strategies to manage shortage of experienced locals. Longitudinal research (immediate, short-term, long-term) is suggested to explore the correlates of life satisfaction on the persistence of employee’s attitude to retire early as their working years continues.