Lecturers’ emotional exhaustion and innovative work behavior in the era of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity in Higher Education

Abstract

The digital revolution has changed many aspects of higher education since the era of Society 5.0. The changes have led to a paradigm shift in higher education, including curriculum changes, contemporary learning methods, and demands for achieving key performance indicators. The rapid changes without rapid competencies enhancement and preparation may lead lecturers to be emotionally exhausted. The purpose of this study was to examine several factors influencing emotional exhaustion, including job and competency compatibility, lecturers' development supports, workplace friendship, and their relations to innovative work behaviors [IWB]. This study used online questionnaires to 202 university lecturers in Indonesia. The data were analyzed by SEM-Amos software. The results showed that job-competency compatibility and leaders' development support had an insignificant negative effect on lecturers' emotional exhaustion. Also, workplace friendship had a positive but insignificant effect on lecturers' emotional exhaustion while emotional exhaustion had a positive insignificant effect on IWBs. Moreover, by using emotional exhaustion as mediator, the influence of job-competency compatibility, leaders' development support, and workplace friendship on IWBs were significant. This study also provides readers with recommendations for future research related to the variables.