Mechanisms of Public-Sector Efficiency: Employee Engagement and Knowledge Management as Mediators of Organizational Support and Transparency in Thai Government Agencies

Prior studies of public-sector efficiency in Thailand have established that perceived organizational support (POS), organizational transparency, employee engagement, and knowledge management (KM) each exert a direct influence on management efficiency. However, treating these four factors as parallel, independent predictors leaves a critical theoretical question unanswered: through what mechanisms do structural and psychological enabling conditions translate into operational efficiency? This study reframes the four-factor model as a two-stage mediation system in which POS and transparency function as distal enabling conditions that operate through two proximal behavioral mechanisms—employee engagement and knowledge management—to shape management efficiency. Drawing on Social Exchange Theory and a process view of organizational capability, the study analyzes survey data from 400 personnel in Thai government agencies, measured with a validated 5-point Likert instrument (Cronbach’s α = .869–.937). Regression-based mediation analysis with bootstrapped confidence intervals indicates that engagement and KM significantly mediate the effects of both POS and transparency on efficiency. Employee engagement is the dominant mechanism (b = .52, p < .001); the indirect path of POS through the two mechanisms (.13) exceeds its direct effect (.10), whereas transparency retains a substantial direct effect (.30) alongside meaningful indirect transmission (.14). The findings shift the explanatory emphasis from “which factor matters most” to “how support and transparency are converted into efficiency,” offering public-sector managers a mechanism-based roadmap for intervention.