Effects of Crisis Management Leadership, Perceived Self-Efficacy, and Job Performance on Facility Management Professionals’ Job Satisfaction in a Crisis

Abstract

In a crisis, drastic changes in the working environment require strong leadership to supervise the team of facility management professionals (FMPs) managing facilities to improve their job performance and job satisfaction, as well as reduce the turnover rate. The critical period of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was characterized by lockdowns and a largely unvaccinated population, was used as the context to study a crisis. This research investigated the forms of crisis management leadership (CML) that engender job satisfaction in FMPs during a crisis and explored the effects on FMPs’ perceived self-efficacy, job performance, and job satisfaction in a crisis context. Using an online survey, 102 sets of completed questionnaires were received from FMPs who managed facilities in Singapore during the critical period of the COVID-19 pandemic. partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was conducted to explore the relationship between CML, FMPs’ perceived self-efficacy, job performance, and job satisfaction. The study identified 10 leadership competencies that are essential for CML and demonstrated CML’s positive impact on FMPs’ perceived self-efficacy, job performance, and job satisfaction during crises. Notably, FMPs’ perceived self-efficacy was found to mediate the relationship between CML and job satisfaction in crisis situations. The primary contributions that this research makes to the body of knowledge include identifying specific leadership competencies applicable in crises and enriching the literature on the interplay between CML and job satisfaction by examining the mediating effect of perceived self-efficacy. Furthermore, the study offers criteria for selecting suitable crisis leaders and suggests strategies to enhance FMPs’ job outcomes in crisis contexts. In a crisis, drastic changes in the working environment require suitable leadership to supervise the team of FMPs to improve their job satisfaction. This study identified 10 leadership competencies that are associated with FMPs’ job satisfaction. These competencies are visibility, providing sufficient resources and support, a sense of urgency, frequent communication with the team, organized response to unexpected changes, clear information sharing, personal resilience, objectivity in perceiving others, creative problem-solving to prevent operational damage, and transparent communication. Amongst them, being objective in perceiving others was observed to have the strongest correlation with FMPs’ job satisfaction; a leader’s visibility to reduce FMPs’ anxiety hold the strongest correlation; and maintained personal resilience positively correlates with organizational justice during the pandemic. We found that organizations can improve employee’s perceived self-efficacy so that they can work at a high level of satisfaction when they face significant psychological pressure and health threats in a crisis. Organizations may do this by providing opportunities for mastery of their work through training, offering feedback, and mentoring, as well as providing crisis management leaders who have the 10 competencies identified in our study.