Work-Life Balance as Mediator: AI Self-Efficacy, Digital Perceived Organizational Support, and Sustainable Employability Among Indonesian Female Workers

Abstract

Female workers in Indonesia's formal sector face mounting digital adaptation pressures, yet research on their long-term career sustainability remains scarce. This study examines Work-Life Balance (WLB) as a mediating mechanism linking AI Self-Efficacy (AISE) and Digital Perceived Organizational Support (Digital POS) to Sustainable Employability (SE). Data from 176 purposively sampled formal-sector female workers were analysed via SEM-PLS (SmartPLS 4.0) with 5,000-resample bootstrapping. Results confirm AISE significantly predicts SE (β = 0.171, p = 0.022) and WLB (β = 0.244, p = 0.001); Digital POS strongly predicts WLB (β = 0.397, p = 0.000) but not SE directly; and WLB significantly predicts SE (β = 0.338, p = 0.000). WLB partially mediates AISE→SE (VAF = 32.7%) and fully mediates Digital POS→SE (VAF = 50.4%). These findings suggest organizations should embed work-life balance support within digital transformation policies, not treat AI training and flexible-work programs as separate initiatives; concretely, this means pairing AI-skills training with flexible-hour policies and tracking work-life balance as a formal KPI of digital transformation initiatives. This study offers novel evidence that WLB fully mediates the effect of Digital POS on sustainable employability, a pathway not previously tested among female workers in a developing-country context.