Work Competence Boosts PDAM Employee Performance, While Motivation and Discipline Need Strategy Redesign

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FORMOSA NEWS

Researchers Sari Atiana and Endang Mulyani from Yogyakarta State University reveal that work competence plays a crucial role in determining employee performance levels in the clean water public service sector in 2026. This research is vital because human resource quality is the main determinant of a company's success in providing reliable basic service needs for the community.

Regional-Owned Drinking Water Enterprises (BUMD) bear a heavy responsibility to ensure sustainable clean water supplies. However, operational challenges such as varying company health ratings and national water leakage rates indicate that human resource management and employee performance optimization must become core strategic focuses in public service organizations.

To explore this dynamic, the study applies a descriptive analysis method and a Structural Equation Modeling-Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS) statistical approach, involving survey data from employees at PDAM Tirta Jati, Cirebon Regency.

Based on in-depth data analysis, this research uncovers several key findings:

• Work competence proves to have a positive and significant direct effect on improving employee performance.
• Work discipline does not show a significant direct effect on improving employee performance in the field.
• Work competence and work discipline both provide a positive and significant drive toward the formation of employee work motivation.
• Work motivation does not prove to have a significant direct effect on employee performance.
• Work motivation does not function as a mediating variable between competence or work discipline and employee performance.

These findings provide an important implication for businesses and public service management that increasing technical skills and capacity (competence) must be prioritized clearly to boost work productivity. According to Sari Atiana and Endang Mulyani from Yogyakarta State University, organizations need to re-evaluate the forms of motivation and disciplinary enforcement applied so they can genuinely yield optimal performance impacts rather than mere administrative formalities.

Author Profile

• Sari Atiana, M.M. (Lead Author) – Master of Management, Faculty of Economics and Business, Yogyakarta State University. Field of expertise: Human Resource Management.
• Endang Mulyani, M.Si. (Co-Author) – Faculty of Economics and Business, Yogyakarta State University. Field of expertise: Management and Economic Education.

Research Source

• Article Title: The Effect of Work Competence and Work Discipline on Employee Performance with Work Motivation as a Mediating Variable (Study on PDAM Tirta Jati, Cirebon Regency)
• Journal Name: International Journal of Asian Business and Applied Economics (IJBAE)
• Publication Year: 2026
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.55927/ijbae.v5i4.54