Mediating Effect of Job Satisfaction in the Relationship Between Psychological Empowerment and Job Performance

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among the four components of psychological empowerment (i.e. meaning, self-determination, competence, and impact), job satisfaction and job performance. This study also tested the mediating effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between the components of psychological empowerment and job performance. A survey questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 238 employees in manufacturing industry. SPSS was used to conduct the statistical analysis of all data in this study. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the postulated hypothesis and test the direct and mediated relationships among variables. The findings indicated that meaning, self-determination and impact had positive significant effects on job satisfaction, but competence had no effect on job satisfaction. In addition, competence, self-determination and impact had positive effects on employees’ job performance while meaning did not support the proposed relationship. The results suggested that job satisfaction significantly affected job performance. Furthermore, overall job satisfaction fully mediated the relationship between meaning and job performance. In contrast, job satisfaction partially mediated the relationships between competence and job performance, between self-determination and job performance, and between impact and job performance.