Masoumeh dadashi; samira pali
Abstract
Abstract
The present study was conducted with the aim of testing the causal model of job performance based on communication skills with the mediation of job conflict in teachers. Based on this, the research method was descriptive, carried out by a survey method. The statistical population was 295 people ...
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Abstract
The present study was conducted with the aim of testing the causal model of job performance based on communication skills with the mediation of job conflict in teachers. Based on this, the research method was descriptive, carried out by a survey method. The statistical population was 295 people of elementary school teachers in Lahijan city in the academic year of 2021-2022 among whom 167 people was selected by simple random method as a statistical sample based on Cochran's formula. Data collection tools were Ladahl and Kenger's (1965) standard job engagement questionnaires, Patterson's job performance (1963), and Queen Dame's communication skills (2004). The validity of the questionnaires were examined and confirmed based on content validity using the experts' opinion, superficial validity based on some of the statistical population view, and structural validity by factor analysis method. The reliability of the questionnaires was estimated by Cronbach's alpha method as 0.88 for job performance, 0.80 for communication skills, and 0.78 for job involvement. Data analysis were carried out at two levels, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics, including modeling of structural equations. The results showed that there is a relationship between communication skills and job involvement with an impact factor of 0.67, between communication skills and job performance with an impact factor of 0.79, and between job involvement and job performance with an impact factor of 0.76. On the other hand, communication skills have a direct relationship with job performance with an impact factor of 0.50. In other words, job engagement has a mediating role in the relationship between communication skills and job performance.
Extended abstract
Introduction
Job performance is an important organizational behavior that plays an effective role in the success of the organization. This is the reason why successful organizations make great efforts to find effective factors on performance and behavior by which increase the performance of their employees (both quantitatively and qualitatively) (Karimi & Shahdousti, 2017). Psychologists believe that motivations and needs have an effect on people's performance and ultimately on economic growth and development. Job performance is a composite structure based on which successful employees can be identified from unsuccessful ones through a set of specific criteria (Ahadi & etal, 2015). In other words, the performance can be considered as the calculation or measurement of the results, also the job performance is a reflection of the employee's knowledge, skills, behavior and moral values (Mohammadi & et al, 2018). Communication skills are those skills by which people can engage in interpersonal interactions and the communication process; a process during which people share their information, thoughts and feelings with each other through verbal and non-verbal exchange (Haddad & Ebrahimi, 2020). Effective communication skills play an important role in students' academic success (Bahadorikhosroshahi & Habibi Kaleybar, 2017) and improve teaching and learning, and increase students' motivation towards learning and education (Kilic, 2013). Another fundamental factor in improving teachers' job performance is the degree of their job involvement. Job involvement is an important variable attitude in maximizing organizational effectiveness. Job involvement mainly includes job satisfaction, power, dedication and attachment.
This study is trying to answer this question if there is a relationship between communication skills and job performance with regard to the mediation of the teachers' job involvement in primary schools in Lahijan city or not.
Theoretical Framework
Performance, that is, the result of the activities of the human force in terms of the implementation of assigned tasks after a certain time, which can have the aspect of productivity and efficiency, and also, it is the sum of the job-related behaviors that people show themselves (Ghaderabadi&etal, 2017).According to Hellriegel & Slocum (1996), communication skill is the ability to send and receive information, thoughts, feelings and attitudes (Amiruddin & et al, 2021). Communication skills refer to managers' ability to effectively transfer ideas and information to others and also to effectively receive ideas and information (Tari & et al, 2020).Job involvement refers to positive psychological conditions in a person that prompts him to be actively involved in his role and organization. Harter & et al (2003) have defined employee job involvement as a combination of emotional and cognitive variables in the work environment including satisfaction, happiness, prosperity and positivity (Tabatabai Adnan & et al, 2021).
Al-Halaby & Al-Fares, (2022) investigated the relationship between communication skills and the job performance of employees of Iraqi government organizations. The results of the research showed that there is a significant relationship between the communication skills of employees and their job performance.
James & Tari, (2022) conducted a research entitled "The role of communication skills in improving the job performance of Rivers State University employees". The results of their research showed that there is a significant relationship between communication skills and the job performance of employees.
Methodology
The current research is applicable in terms of purpose and descriptive in terms of data analysis of correlation type (structural equation modeling). The statistical population of this research was made up of all the teachers of primary schools in Lahijan city, numbering 295 people (173 women and 122 men). 167 people were selected as a statistical sample by simple random sampling. In order to collect the data related to the communication skills variable, the questionnaire by Queendam (2004) was used, and the job involvement variable was based on the Ladahl and Kenger (1965) model, and the Patterson (1963) questionnaire was used for the job performance variable.
Discussion and Results
In order to investigate the research hypothesis and data analysis, SPSS and Lisrel software were used, and the results related to the first hypothesis showed that the strength of the relationship between communication skills and job engagement was calculated as equal to (0.67), which shows that the correlation is favorable. The significance statistic of the test was also obtained (7.65), which is more than the critical value of t at the 5% error level, i.e. (1.96), and it shows that the observed correlation is significant. Therefore, it can be said that communication skills have a positive and significant relationship with job involvement. The results related to the second hypothesis showed that the strength of the relationship between job involvement and job performance was calculated equal to (0.76), which shows that the correlation is favorable. The significance statistic of the test was also obtained (8.74), which is more than the critical value of t at the 5% error level, i.e. (1.96), and it shows that the observed correlation is significant. Therefore, it can be said that job involvement has a positive and significant relationship with job performance. The results related to the third hypothesis showed that the strength of the relationship between communication skills and job performance was calculated equal to (0.48), which shows that the correlation is favorable. The significance statistic of the test is also (5.46) which is more than the critical value of t at the 5% error level, i.e. (1.96) and shows that the observed correlation is significant. Therefore, it can be said that communication skills have a positive significant relationship with job performance. The fourth hypothesis analyzes the mediating role of job involvement in the relationship between communication skills and job performance. The results showed that the strength of the direct relationship between communication skills and job performance was calculated equal to (0.48), which shows that the correlation is favorable. The strength of the indirect relationship between communication skills and job performance considering the mediating role of job engagement is equal to (0.51). Considering that the power of the indirect path is greater than the direct path, the existence of the variable of job involvement increases the strength of the relationship and the mediating role of this variable is confirmed.
Conclusion
The present study was conducted with the aim of providing a structural model of job performance based on communication skills with the mediation of job involvement in elementary school teachers. The results of this research are consistent with the findings of Al-Halaby & Al-Fares (2022) and Yousefi (2021), ASAD & et al, (2022) and Rajabi farjad & farkhojaste (2021); as long as the teachers in their work environment can achieve the educational goals by spending their energy and capabilities and display a special performance, they will have the feeling that their maximum capabilities have been used to perform the assigned tasks and that they will be happy and refreshed if in their work environment are recognized as an exemplary teacher (Call & Ployhart, 2021). This procedure will increase the commitment and responsibility of teachers, and this will improve the overall effectiveness of the system and ultimately improve their performance. In this sense, the amount of overwork has not affected them, but their work satisfaction will increase along with their productivity.
According to the results of the present study, it is suggested that the authorities and those involved in education should provide a calm environment away from any tension for teachers to interact together. On the other hand, it should be noted that teachers should be rewarded based on their competence and merit. School administrators should take into consideration the performance and activities of teachers and give them feedback on their work. Involving school teachers in important educational decisions can help them improve their job performance. On the other hand, removing obstacles in the performance of teachers' duties and their direct interaction with other colleagues and asking about their work and hierarchical problems can play a significant role in improving job performance, and ultimately preventing and eliminating strict rules and administrative bureaucracy and creating flexibility in the way the teachers' training tasks are performed can also play an important role in improving communication skills and ultimately job performance.
management
Mohammad Hadi Asgari
Abstract
The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of authentic leadership on the job satisfaction of employees, emphasizing the mediating role of job involvement. The method of this study was descriptive-survey type. The statistical population of the research was 311 employees ...
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The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of authentic leadership on the job satisfaction of employees, emphasizing the mediating role of job involvement. The method of this study was descriptive-survey type. The statistical population of the research was 311 employees and managers of the central organization of Islamic Azad University (275 employees and 36 managers), of which 158 people were selected based on Cochran's formula and by simple random sampling as the sample size of employees. The census method was used to collect the managers' information due to the limited statistical population. To collect the data, the standard questionnaires of Ladahl and Kenger (1965) on job involvement with a reliability coefficient of (0.85), and Minnesota job satisfaction with a reliability coefficient of (0.88), and the authentic leadership of Walumba et al. (2008) with a reliability coefficient (0.90) was used; whose validity was confirmed by academic experts and their reliability was also confirmed through Cronbach's alpha coefficient test. In order to analyze the data, structural equation technique was used through Statistical software LISREL and Spss version 22. Quantitative findings from the test of research hypotheses showed that authentic leadership has a positive and significant effect on both job involvement and job satisfaction of employees. Job involvement has a positive and significant effect on employee job satisfaction. Job involvement has played a mediating role in the impact of authentic leadership on job satisfaction. The results of the research also showed that the components of transparency in relationships, balanced processing, internal aspects, and self-awareness had the most influence on job engagement and job satisfaction, respectively.
Extended Abstract
Introduction
Today, the importance of job satisfaction is a well-known and self-evident matter, and it is also a matter of concern in human resources management. Paying attention to this factor shows the importance that managements attach to human resources as one of the valuable capitals (Kiani & Nazari, 2022). It should be stated that employee satisfaction is the most important concern of leadership in organizations, and the requirement for successful leadership is that the manager pays primary attention to employee satisfaction programs, which include leadership methods and programs designed to change the role of employees. Changing the role of employees is important, because in today's era, the purpose of the university is not merely transfer of the cultural heritage and human experiences to the new generation; and to creation of favorable changes in the attitudes, cognitions and ultimately the behavior of people has a special position in it (Zavvar et al., 2021). The employees of the organization are one of the key and important elements of the higher education system, which must have the necessary competencies and qualifications to be able to undertake this important job (Rajabzadeh et al., 2015). Employees must have the necessary knowledge and skills, and be able to perform and apply them, and it is necessary for teachers to be motivated and work with motivation to achieve high job performance and have the necessary satisfaction. Creating satisfaction in employees causes their individual success to affect the overall effectiveness of the university, which employee satisfaction and then increasing the efficiency of the university depends on the role of managers within the organization, meanwhile, the key feature of a first-rate university is the presence of outstanding managers (Mousavi et al., 2020). Therefore, creating job satisfaction in employees is a very important matter that should be created in different ways. One of these methods is the institutionalization of managerial skills of managers. The way of managers' performance in applying the three-type management skill will attract the attention of the employees toward this matter, and the optimum of these skills will lead to the formation of job satisfaction in employees. On the other hand, the reasons for carrying out the research in order to eliminate the existing gaps can be examined from several aspects: the concept of employee job satisfaction in the literature of human relations and organizational behavior is so important that researchers from different angles have examined the predictors of this key structure in the realization of the organization. Job satisfaction is the feeling that a person has towards his profession (Abdullah, 2019). Another fundamental factor in improving the job performance of employees is the level of their job involvement. Job involvement is an important variable attitude in maximizing organizational effectiveness. Job involvement mainly includes job satisfaction, ability, dedication and attachment. Power indicates a high level of energy, psychological flexibility while working, the desire to spend effort in one's work and different in facing problems (Ziaei et al, 2015). High job involvement indicates the experience of the feeling of meaningfulness, enthusiasm, honor, being immersed in work and having a pleasant feeling towards work. In this situation, over time, a person becomes attached to his job (Braganza et al, 2021). People with low job involvement are usually at a higher level in terms of job burnout, psychopathy and extroversion. Job involvement is related with job resources including social support from colleagues and supervisors, performance feedback, leadership, job control, task variety, learning and growth opportunities, and training facilities. In addition, employees with high job involvement attach more importance to the job (Taştan & Türker, 2018). Therefore, conducting studies that examine the factors affecting the level of employee satisfaction is of great importance and necessity, and since the review of the research background shows that so far, a study that examines the effect of managers' managerial skills on employees' satisfaction with the role of managers has not been available to the researcher; therefore, the present research is a new work in this field and its results will solve the existing research gap in this field. According to the stated content and the statement that improving the quality of education and performance of the university depends on the knowledge and perception of managers and employees about their role, and the way managers work can affect various factors regarding employees, including their satisfaction as a member of the country's educational organization, therefore, according to the theoretical and research bases mentioned, this research tries to answer the question whether authentic leadership has a significant effect on the job satisfaction of employees by emphasizing the mediating role of university employees' job conflict?
Theoretical framework
Job conflict
Job involvement refers to positive psychological conditions in a person that prompts him to be actively involved in his role and his organization. Harter et al (2003) defined employee involvement as a combination of emotional and cognitive variables in the work environment; including satisfaction, happiness, prosperity and positive thinking (Tabatabai Adnan et al, 2021).
Authentic leadership
Authentic leadership is a social process that organizes all human, financial and technological resources by using human, conceptual, specialized and artistic, scientific and experimental skills; and realizes the goals and policies of the organization through the material and spiritual needs of the employees (Fadaei, 2017). According to Falath (1989), the term authentic leadership refers to the activities that managers perform or assign to others to increase employee learning. Authentic leadership places a high priority on improving the quality of performance, and tries hard to realize this vision (Mousavi Jahromi et al, 2018). The basic task of authentic leadership is to improve the learning situation. If someone in the position of authentic leadership cannot be effective in improving quality, his existence in this position cannot be defended and justified. In fact, the purpose of several decades of research on leadership, which has been associated with the creation of many theories, models and scales, is to increase our understanding of how leadership can lead to the best organizational results (Jafari & Rezaiee, 2018).
Job satisfaction
If the satisfaction of the employees increases, the quality of education, the efficiency of the higher education system, the saving of educational costs and the optimal use of time and educational facilities, and etc. will increase, and in general, the efficiency and effectiveness of the educational system will increase (Adli & Motallebi Varkani, 2018).
In a research, Zovar et al. (2022) investigated the mediating role of managers' creativity in the relationship between participatory management and their social responsibility with teachers' job satisfaction, and showed that collaborative management and managers' creativity have a direct and significant effect on teachers' job satisfaction, but social responsibility of managers do not have a direct and significant effect on teachers' job satisfaction, and the role of creativity as a mediating variable was confirmed (Zavvar et al, 2021).
In a research, Mousavi and Shirzadi (2019) investigated the impact of school administrators' social capital on teachers' job satisfaction, and showed that the structural dimension has the greatest impact on teachers' job satisfaction (Mosavi & Shirzadi, 2019).
Abdullah (2019) in the study of teachers' satisfaction with the perceived leadership of principals showed that there is a relatively strong correlation between the principal's perceived leadership style and the overall satisfaction of teachers, and the satisfaction of female primary school teachers was higher compared to that of the male teachers (Abdullah, 2019)..
Methodology
The research method is descriptive-correlative in nature, and practical in terms of purpose. The statistical population of the research was made up of managers and employees of the central organization of Islamic Azad University as many as 311 people (36 managers and 275 managers). The size of the research sample for employees was determined 160 people based on Cochran's formula. A simple random sampling method was used in order to give an equal chance to all of the statistical sample members of the teachers. The census method was used to collect the managers' information due to the limited statistical population. Based on this, the sample size of the managers was 36 people. Out of the total number of distributed questionnaires, 158 questionnaires were received from employees and 35 questionnaires from managers. The return rate of questionnaires related to employees was 99% and for managers was 97%. Library and field methods were used to collect data.
Discussion and Results
The main hypothesis analyzes the mediating role of job involvement in the influence of authentic leadership on job satisfaction. The results showed that the strength of the direct relationship between authentic leadership on job satisfaction was calculated to be equal to (0.48), which shows that the correlation is favorable. The strength of indirect authentic leadership on job satisfaction, with regard to the mediating role of job involvement is equal to (0.51). The results related to the first sub-hypothesis showed that the strength of the influence of authentic leadership on job involvement was calculated equal to (0.67), which shows that the correlation is favorable. The significance statistic of the test was also obtained (7.65), which was more than the critical value of t at the 5% error level, i.e. (1.96), and it shows that the observed correlation is significant. The results related to the second sub-hypothesis showed that the strength of the impact of job involvement on job satisfaction was calculated equal to (0.76), which shows that the correlation is favorable. The significance statistic of the test was also obtained (8.74), which was more than the critical value of t at the 5% error level, i.e. (1.96), and it shows that the observed correlation is significant. The results related to the third hypothesis showed that the strength of the influence of authentic leadership on job satisfaction was calculated equal to (0.48), which shows that the correlation is favorable. The significance statistic of the test was also obtained (5.46), which was more than the critical value of t at the 5% error level, i.e. (1.96), and it shows that the observed correlation is significant.
Conclusion
The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of authentic leadership on the job satisfaction of employees, emphasizing the mediating role of job involvement among employees of the central organization of Islamic Azad University.
The main hypothesis analyzes the mediating role of job involvement in the influence of authentic leadership on job satisfaction. The results showed that the strength of the direct relationship between authentic leadership on job satisfaction was calculated to be equal to (0.48), which shows that the correlation is favorable. The strength of indirect authentic leadership on job satisfaction, with regard to the mediating role of job involvement is equal to (0.51). Due to the fact that the power of the indirect path is greater than the direct path, therefore the existence of the variable of job involvement increases the power of influence and the mediating role of this variable is confirmed. In this regard, it can be said that an authentic leader with the variables such as self-awareness, relational transparency, balanced processing and internalized moral framework can give employees the confidence that he possesses a calculated behavior (Corriveau, 2020). Self-awareness and relational transparency convey that the authentic leader tries to acquire a correct recognition about himself, his moods, and his thoughts on one hand; and he is aware of the thoughts and moods of the employees and the environment on the other. As a result, he probably creates the confidence that he has as much correct information as possible. Balanced processing can ensure this confidence that the authentic leader will not have an unbalanced view as much as possible and will not make an unreasonable decision (Amiri, 2017). It is expected that the employees of the organization will have higher motivation and ability and their job success will improve. These results are in line with the results of the research findings of Nik Del Makki (2019).
The results related to the first sub-hypothesis showed that the strength of the influence of authentic leadership on job involvement was calculated as equal to (0.67), which shows that the correlation is favorable. The results of the second sub-hypothesis showed that the strength of the effect of job involvement on job satisfaction has been calculated to be (0.76), which shows that the correlation is favorable. Also, the results related to the third hypothesis showed that the power of authentic leadership on job satisfaction has been calculated equal to (0.48), which shows that the correlation is favorable. It can be said that authentic leadership has a positive and significant effect on job satisfaction. In this regard, it can be said that authentic leaders are people who have achieved self-knowledge and are aware of their thoughts and behavior. They are very hopeful, flexible and have a very moral personality (Bahmani, 2017). These results are in line with these research findings: Rajabzadeh et al, (2015), Call & Ployhart (2021), Rajabzadeh et al, (2015), and Wang et al, (2018). In this regard, the following suggestions can be made:
Organizations that are interested in raising the indicators of authentic leadership in their managers can teach the concepts of authentic leadership and the importance of paying attention to them by holding workshops. For more impact and expansion, it is suggested that this training starts from the higher levels of the organization. One of the effective mechanisms of authentic leadership is the creation of a common identity between the leader and the team members. The leader should pay attention that the more he can align the values and beliefs of his team members with the values and beliefs of himself and the organization, the more common identity and as a result more common emotional trust is created. This view in managers will be created that the reason for the existence of organizations in the first stage is the employees and in fact they are the ones who determine what organizational performance will be in front of the organization. Employees are the first step of managers in fulfilling organizational obligations.
