Employee Resilience as Psychological Capital: Transforming Organizational Resources into Proactive Work Behavior

Abstract

The role of employee resilience as psychological capital in mediating the relationship of organizational resources to proactive work behavior of lecturers is very critical. Especially in the context of Sustainable Development Goal 4 on quality education. This research was quantitative with an explanatory approach based on the Conservation of Resources Theory. The research subjects were 240 permanent lecturers from 25 private universities in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, a geographically peripheral area with significant institutional and resource limitations. The data were analyzed by employing Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) to test the direct and indirect relationships among the suggested variables and the mediating role of employee resilience. The findings indicate that perceived organizational support (β = 0.284), empowering leadership (β = 0.385) and job autonomy (β = 0.237) have positive and significant influence on employee resilience with a Variance Accounted For (VAF) of 54.2%. Furthermore, employee resilience significantly mediates the transformation of these organizational resources into proactive work behavior, with significant indirect effects of 0.061, 0.083 and 0.051, respectively. These findings indicate that the development of psychological capital is a stronger determinant than structural resource provision in fostering sustainable faculty proactivity. Therefore, improving quality education in resource-constrained regions requires strengthening empowering leadership, organizational support and lecturers’ professional autonomy alongside infrastructure development and institutional capacity building to encourage sustainable academic performance and innovation.