Job Autonomy and Organizational Commitment: The Mediating Role of Work Meaningfulness
Keywords:
Job Autonomy, Work Meaningfulness, Organizational CommitmentAbstract
This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of work meaningfulness in the relationship between job autonomy and organizational commitment among Chinese employees. A descriptive correlational design was employed, and data were collected from 490 full-time employees in China using stratified random sampling. Standardized instruments were used to measure job autonomy, work meaningfulness, and organizational commitment. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation coefficients were computed using SPSS-27, while Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was conducted using AMOS-21 to test the hypothesized mediation model and assess the overall fit of the structural model. The results of Pearson correlations indicated significant positive relationships among all study variables: job autonomy was significantly correlated with work meaningfulness (r = .49, p < .001) and organizational commitment (r = .38, p < .001), while work meaningfulness was strongly correlated with organizational commitment (r = .56, p < .001). SEM analysis demonstrated good model fit (χ² = 148.72, df = 84, χ²/df = 1.77, CFI = .96, TLI = .95, RMSEA = .039). Path analysis revealed that job autonomy significantly predicted work meaningfulness (β = .49, p < .001) and organizational commitment directly (β = .26, p < .001). Work meaningfulness significantly predicted organizational commitment (β = .52, p < .001), and the indirect effect of job autonomy on commitment through meaningfulness was also significant (β = .26, p < .001), indicating partial mediation. The findings confirm that job autonomy enhances organizational commitment both directly and indirectly through the experience of work meaningfulness. This highlights the importance of designing autonomous and meaningful work environments to foster long-term employee commitment, particularly in collectivist cultural contexts such as China.
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