MEDIATING EFFECT OF AUTONOMY IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JOB KNOWLEDGE, JOB MOTIVATION, JOB SATISFACTION AND JOB PERFORMANCE AMONG PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYEE

The purpose of this study is to examine the mediating role of autonomy in the relationship between job knowledge, job satisfaction, job motivation and job performance. The sample used in this study includes 252 response from public sector employees (municipalities) mainly middle management collected through structured questionnaire. The study used Partial Least Square (PLS) analysis technique using the Smart-PLS 3.2.7 software. Findings confirmed that autonomy, knowledge, motivation, and satisfaction were the key constructs for promoting performance among public sector employee in Palestine. Furthermore, the importance-performance matrix analysis (IPMA) has shown that autonomy was the most important factor. Where, the autonomy was the most influential factor in the prediction of employee performance followed by motivation, satisfaction, and knowledge respectively. The municipalities must focus on how to provide autonomy and promote motivation at municipalities. Also, the study results stated that autonomy mediates the relationship between knowledge and performance; motivation and performance; and satisfaction and performance