Examining the Effect of Psychological Empowerment of Employees on Job Performance by Explaining the Mediating Role of Job Attachment

Positive psychology, as a new approach in psychology, focuses on understanding and explaining happiness and the subjective feeling of well-being, as well as accurately predicting the factors that affect them. One of the indicators of positive psychology is psychological capital, which is defined as a person's belief in his abilities to achieve success, to persevere in pursuing goals, to create positive documents about himself, and to endure problems (1). Hope is another human characteristic that helps him overcome disappointments, pursue his goals, and reduce the feeling of the future being unbearable. Bandura defines self-efficacy as a person's perception and judgment of his skills and abilities to perform tasks that are needed in special situations. In his opinion, people's previous skills and achievements are not suitable predictors for their future performance; Rather, a person's belief about his abilities to do them is effective on how he performs (2). Also, research shows that a person who is attached to work and organization provides a stable and positive level of energy for himself and the people around him. (12). Job attachment (regarding the job as a self-representation) refers to the degree or extent to which a person considers his job as a self-representation and his work or performance as a source of pride and gaining prestige and credit, or in other words, how much a person cares about his work. In fact, he spends his time with his job, and this workforce needs motivation, and we know that motivation or motivation cannot be observed directly, and it must be seen through the behaviors of living beings and the results of such Inferred behaviors. According to these cases, it is necessary to examine the relationship between psychological empowerment and performance and to find its results and effects on job attachment so as to increase the job performance of employees (13). Amor et al. (2020) investigated the mediating role of structural empowerment in the positive relationship between transformational leadership and job participation and concluded that structural empowerment has a mediating role in the relationship between transformational leadership and job participation. Therefore, considering the issue, These questions are raised, to what extent does the psychological empowerment of employees have an effect on their job performance by explaining the mediating role of job attachment?

This research is a kind of descriptive-correlational and applied study. The data collection tool, the questionnaire and the statistical population of this research include 604 employees from 15 branches of Razavi National Bank of Khorasan, using the cluster random sampling method and based on Cochran's formula, with an error rate of 0.05, the sample size 235 people were determined. A total of 245 questionnaires were distributed among employees working in Bank Melli branches, 240 questionnaires were returned (93 percent), and finally 237 of them were usable. The present research questionnaire has four parts (demographic questions, psychological empowerment of employees, job performance and work attachment). Cronbach's alpha coefficient and composite reliability index (CR) were used to evaluate the reliability of the questionnaire items. To evaluate the validity of the questionnaire, two measures of convergent validity (AVE) and divergent validity (root of AVE) were used. The value of Cronbach's alpha coefficient and the combined reliability of all three constructs are more than the acceptable minimum, i.e. 0.7; Therefore, the study constructs have good reliability. Also, the examination of the AVE criterion, which expresses the average variance extracted, shows that all the constructs have a value higher than the minimum acceptable value, i.e. 0.5, so the constructs of this study have good convergent validity. have. The average root of the extracted variance (AVE) for all structures is higher than the correlation between the corresponding structure and other structures; Therefore, all constructs have adequate validity in terms of divergent validity. For data analysis, SPSS 24 software was used for descriptive data analysis and Smart PLS 3 software was used to examine the effect of the proposed variables in the hypotheses and to test the final model of the research. According to the surveys, the coefficients of the factor loadings of all questions and relationships were higher than the minimum acceptable, i.e. 0.4. which indicates the appropriateness of the criteria. In the second stage, the fitting of the structural model of the research and the examination of the existing variables (structures) along with the relationships between them were discussed. For this purpose, the most basic criterion, i.e. t-values, was used.

The test of the main hypothesis (there is a relationship between psychological empowerment of employees and their job performance by explaining the mediating role of job attachment) shows that in the best model for determining psychological empowerment on job performance, the value of the correlation coefficient is 0.792, which indicates the relationship It is average between the predictor variables and the criterion variable. The coefficient of determination is 0.627 and it indicates that 62% of the changes (variance) are related to psychological empowerment. There is a significant relationship between psychological empowerment and job performance. (r=0.734). This means that for one unit increase in the independent variable of psychological empowerment, the dependent variable - job performance will improve by 0.734. All the components are in a positive direction, that is, by increasing Psychological empowerment and its components, job performance and its components also increase. There is a significant relationship between psychological empowerment and job attachment. (r=0.720). This means that for one unit increase in the independent variable Psychological empowerment, dependent variable - job attachment, improvement 0.720 will find All components are in the positive direction. That is, it went up.

Empowerment of human resources, as a new motivational approach within the job, means freeing the internal forces of employees and providing platforms and creating opportunities for the flourishing of talents, abilities and competencies of people. Empowerment begins with changing the beliefs, thoughts and attitudes of employees, which means that they should believe that they have the ability and competence to perform their duties successfully and feel that they have the freedom to act and be independent in doing so. activities, believe that they have the ability to influence and control job results, feel that they are pursuing meaningful and valuable career goals, and believe that they are treated honestly and fairly. Since the job attachment index increases the employee's interest in the job, as a result, it forces him to perform the task assigned to him as correctly and better as possible, and as a result, the performance of the employees becomes relatively better than before.