An examination of the moderating role of managerial level is made to determine
whether working as a human resource manager, chief financial officer or chief executive
officer affects the association between psychological empowerment or organisational
commitment and the level of job satisfaction.
The results of testing Hypothesis 3 show partial support for the association between
psychological empowerment and job satisfaction, moderated by managerial level.
Specifically, there is a significant positive association between the autonomy dimension
of psychological empowerment and job satisfaction for chief financial officers
(β = 0.227; p = 0.008). That is, chief financial officers perceive significantly greater
job satisfaction when they are given greater levels of autonomy. Similarly, the results
show a significant positive association between autonomy and job satisfaction for
human resource managers (β = 0.181; p = 0.037). This indicates that human resource
managers feel a greater sense of job satisfaction when they are given greater levels
of autonomy in their workplace. However, none of the managerial levels perceived
a significant association between any of the other dimensions of empowerment
(competence, influence and meaningfulness) and job satisfaction.
The results of testing Hypothesis 4 show full support for the association between
affective commitment and job satisfaction, moderated by managerial level. There
are significant positive associations between the affective commitment dimension
of organisational commitment and job satisfaction for each of the three managerial
levels: chief executive officer (β = 0.208; p = 0.004), chief financial officer (β = 0.176;
p = 0.015) and human resource manager (β = 0.136; p = 0.045). That is, when each
manager has a greater level of affective commitment for their organisation, they feel
a greater sense of job satisfaction. The results also reveal that there are no significant
associations between continuance commitment and job satisfaction for any of the three
managerial levels.
In summary, the results of investigating Hypothesis 1 show overall support for an
association between autonomy and job satisfaction. However, the results of testing
Hypothesis 3 show that the association between autonomy and job satisfaction is
particularly important for chief financial officers and human resource managers rather
than for chief executive officers. Also, while the results of testing Hypothesis 2 show
overall support for an association between affective commitment and job satisfaction,
the results of testing Hypothesis 4 reveal that each specific managerial level shows
a connection between affective commitment and increased job satisfaction, but no
statistically significant association of continuance commitment and job satisfaction.