Nigerian agriculture workers’ outcomes from perceived organisational support and protestant work ethics: Job satisfaction as a mediator

Abstract

Orientation: The mechanism facilitating the development of organisational commitment and performance of citizenship behaviours is of research interest to scholars. Recent research trends suggest that job satisfaction can mediate the development of employee commitment and citizenship behaviours.

Research purpose: The present study hypothesised that job satisfaction mediated the relationships between the predictors (perceived organisational support and protestant work ethics) and outcomes (organisational citizenship behaviours and organisational commitment).

Motivation for the study: There is paucity of literature on the mediating influence of job satisfaction on predictors-outcomes linkages amongst agriculture workers in Nigeria. Available studies either examined the main effect of perceived organisational support on citizenship behaviours or the mediating influence of satisfaction on citizenship behaviours and not the proposed model.

Research design, approach and method: The present study was survey-correlational in design. Data were obtained from 223 heterogeneous samples from different organisations (such as ministry of agriculture, parastatals, banks, private agro-allied companies, and insurance companies).

Main findings: Results showed that job satisfaction fully mediated the relationship between perceived organisational support and citizenship behaviours and partially mediated the relationship between perceived organisational support and organisational commitment. Further, employee satisfaction partially mediated the relationships between protestant work ethics and citizenship behaviours and organisational commitment.

Practical/managerial implications: This study indicated that both protestant work ethics and perceived organisational support are important in motivating employees to engage in cooperative behaviours and exhibit greater commitment through job satisfaction.

Contribution/value-add: The present study showed that job satisfaction is a mediator linking both perceived organisational support and protestant work ethics to organisational commitment and citizenship behaviours.