The finding is particularly relevant as government institutions continue to adopt digital technologies in administration and public services. Although digital competence is increasingly important, the study suggests that employees’ technical ability to use digital tools does not automatically translate into better performance. Instead, confidence in their own capabilities appears to play a more prominent role.
Employee Performance Faces New Challenges
Rapid technological development, increasingly complex organizational demands, and rising public expectations require government employees to work efficiently, professionally, and responsively.
The situation is also reflected in the performance data of the North Sumatra High Prosecutor’s Office cited in the study. Overall case-handling performance declined from 94.50% in 2022 to 94.25% in 2023 and 92.20% in 2024.
The decline provided an important context for examining factors that could influence employee performance within the prosecution service. Nugraha, Dalimunthe, and Absah examined three key factors: digital literacy, self-efficacy, and work discipline.
Digital literacy in the study extends beyond the ability to operate computers or digital applications. It includes the ability to access, understand, analyze, evaluate, and appropriately use digital information.
Self-efficacy refers to an employee’s confidence in their ability to complete tasks and achieve goals. Meanwhile, work discipline involves responsibility, punctuality, compliance with organizational rules, and consistency in carrying out assigned duties.
Study Involved 55 Employees
The researchers used a quantitative approach to examine the relationships among digital literacy, self-efficacy, work discipline, and employee performance.
The initial population consisted of 88 employees at the Tebing Tinggi District Attorney’s Office. After applying the study’s inclusion criteria, which excluded employees in prosecutorial positions and those approaching retirement preparation, 55 employees qualified for the study.
All 55 eligible employees were included through a total sampling method.
Primary data were collected using a questionnaire containing 38 statements designed to measure digital literacy, self-efficacy, work discipline, and employee performance.
The researchers analyzed the data using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS 4.0.
The measurement results showed that the research instruments met the required validity and reliability standards. The Average Variance Extracted (AVE) values for all variables exceeded 0.50, while the reliability measures also surpassed the required threshold.
Self-Efficacy Shows the Strongest Influence
The study’s most important finding is that self-efficacy emerged as the strongest factor in the research model.
Self-efficacy had a positive and statistically significant effect on work discipline, with a path coefficient of 0.365 and a p-value of 0.005. This means employees with stronger confidence in their own abilities tended to demonstrate better work discipline.
Self-efficacy also had a positive and significant effect on employee performance. The path coefficient was 0.294, with a p-value of 0.043.
In practical terms, employees who believe they are capable of handling their responsibilities are more likely to maintain disciplined work behavior and achieve better performance outcomes.
The main findings can be summarized as follows:
Self-efficacy → Work discipline: positive and significant effect.
Self-efficacy → Employee performance: positive and significant effect.
Digital literacy → Work discipline: negative but non-significant effect.
Digital literacy → Employee performance: negative but non-significant effect.
Work discipline → Employee performance: positive but non-significant effect.
Digital literacy → Work discipline → Employee performance: non-significant indirect effect.
Self-efficacy → Work discipline → Employee performance: non-significant indirect effect.
The findings indicate that work discipline does not function as a significant mediator between self-efficacy or digital literacy and employee performance.
Digital Literacy Does Not Automatically Improve Performance
One of the study’s notable findings concerns the relationship between digital literacy and employee performance.
Digital literacy showed a coefficient of -0.221 toward employee performance, with a p-value of 0.147. Because the p-value exceeded the 0.05 significance threshold, the relationship was not statistically significant.
Digital literacy also had a negative but non-significant relationship with work discipline, with a coefficient of -0.225 and a p-value of 0.099.
These findings do not mean that digital literacy is unimportant in the workplace. Rather, they suggest that digital skills alone are not sufficient to guarantee higher employee productivity.
Other organizational and psychological factors may determine whether employees can effectively translate their digital capabilities into improved work outcomes.
The researchers point to several possible factors that were not included in the model, including organizational culture, leadership, work stress, employee engagement, and potential techno-stress or digital overload.
The Model Explains Only Part of Employee Performance
The study found that digital literacy and self-efficacy together explained 16.7% of the variance in work discipline.
Meanwhile, the two variables explained 19.5% of the variance in employee performance.
This means that a substantial proportion of employee performance is influenced by factors outside the research model.
The finding highlights the complexity of managing employee performance in government institutions. Improving performance cannot rely solely on digital training or stronger enforcement of workplace rules. Organizations may also need to consider leadership, organizational culture, motivation, working conditions, employee engagement, and psychological factors.
Strengthening Employee Confidence May Be Important
For the prosecution service, the findings provide an important message for human resource development.
Digital training remains necessary as government institutions continue to implement digital transformation. However, training programs may be more effective when accompanied by initiatives that strengthen employees’ confidence in their ability to use their skills to solve workplace problems.
Nugraha, Dalimunthe, and Absah demonstrate that self-efficacy occupies the most prominent position in their research model. Employees who have stronger confidence in their abilities tend to demonstrate more disciplined behavior and better performance.
The results also indicate that compliance with workplace rules alone may not be enough to produce significant improvements in employee performance. Technical competencies and organizational discipline need to be supported by stronger individual capabilities and psychological readiness.
However, the findings should not be generalized to all government institutions without further research. The study involved only 55 employees from one organizational setting and relied on self-reported data collected during a specific period.
Future studies could incorporate additional variables such as transformational leadership, organizational culture, work stress, motivation, and work engagement to provide a broader explanation of employee performance.
Author Profile
Willy Aditya Nugraha is the main author of the study and is affiliated with Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU). The research was conducted together with Ritha F. Dalimunthe and Yeni Absah, who are also affiliated with Universitas Sumatera Utara. Their research addresses topics related to human resource management, organizational behavior, digital competence, work discipline, and employee performance.
Research Source
Article Title: The Influence of Digital Literacy and Self Efficacy on Employee Performance with Work Discipline as an Intervening Variable at the Tebing Tinggi District Attorney’s Office
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