THE MEDIATION EFFECT OF JOB SATISFACTION ON EMPLOYEES’ ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT

Many studies have confirmed the organizational commitment is an important factor deciding the success or failure of the organization. However, how to commit employees with the organization is still a challenge for many organizations. This study was conducted to determine the factors that affect employees' organizational commitment in Ethiopian public sector. The survey study was conducted on 272 sampled respondents from randomly selected 14 federal ministries. From the total of 272 questionnaires, 260 usable questionnaires were returned and out this, 84 were women and164 were men. For the purpose of analysis, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed using AMOS software, version 21. The study results showed that employees in the public sector relatively had a higher level of affective commitment, followed by normative and continuance commitment respectively. Even though job satisfaction had a statistically significant positive effect on employees' organizational commitment, the existing level of employees' job satisfaction was found to be satisfactory. Based on the study finding, job satisfaction had a mediation effect on the relationship between independent variables, perceived organizational support and training, and the dependent variable, employees' organizational commitment with statistically significant positive indirect effect. And job satisfaction had a mediation effect on the relationship between perceived supervisors support and organizational commitment with statistically significant negative indirect effect. Hence, the study recommends that to enhance employees' organizational commitment; the public sector should work towards improving employees' job satisfaction by strengthening their organizational support and training.