نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
عنوان مقاله English
نویسندگان English
Purpose: The importance of human relations and human behavior reached its peak with Elton Mayo's Hawthorne studies and the emergence of the human relations school. Recognizing the positive influence of positive psychological states on employee behavior, Luthans and his colleagues proposed the concept of positive organizational behavior (POB) and introduced psychological capital as a construct for assessing positive organizational behavior. Employees with higher levels of psychological capital typically possess greater psychological resources for solving problems, sustaining effort, restoring motivation, and adapting to change. Despite the growing body of research on psychological capital, subjective well-being, work engagement, perceived organizational support, and job performance, a considerable proportion of previous studies have examined these variables separately or through bivariate relationships. In particular, it remains unclear whether employees' perceptions of being valued and supported by their organization, as well as empathy, strengthen the relationship between psychological capital and job performance. From an empirical perspective, most studies examining psychological capital and job performance have been conducted in commercial, industrial, or service organizations, while the university context in Iran has received less attention. Accordingly, this study seeks to answer the following research question: Does psychological capital affect employees' job performance through the mediating roles of work engagement and subjective well-being, and are these relationships moderated by perceived organizational support and empathy?
Design/Methodology/Approach: This study is applied in terms of its purpose and descriptive in terms of its data-collection method, falling within the category of field studies. With respect to the relationships among the research variables, it is correlational. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. The study population consisted of employees of Tarbiat Modares University and the University of Tehran. The sample size was determined using the structural equation modeling approach, for which a sample of 5 to 15 observations per measured variable may be considered appropriate. In this study, 11 participants were selected per variable. Given the 41 variables in the study, the sample comprised approximately 450 participants, selected through simple random sampling. Data were collected using a researcher-developed questionnaire. The questionnaire used a five-point Likert scale ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.” To assess validity, subject-matter experts reviewed the questionnaire, and their feedback was solicited. Its validity was confirmed following their approval. Questionnaire reliability was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha, calculated separately for each variable. For all variables, both Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability exceeded 0.70, indicating that the research instrument had acceptable reliability. In variance-based methods, convergent validity is assessed using the average variance extracted (AVE). Discriminant validity indicates the extent to which a construct differs from other constructs.
Findings: The research findings indicated that psychological capital influences subjective well-being, job performance, and work engagement. Furthermore, the mediating roles of subjective well-being and work engagement were confirmed. Additionally, it was shown that perceived organizational support and empathy do not moderate the relationship between psychological capital and job performance.
Discussion and Conclusion: Today, employee performance depends not only on knowledge and technical skills but also on employees' psychological capital, which plays a decisive role in how they cope with job pressures, rapid changes, and uncertainties in the workplace. Psychological capital can enhance employees' energy, concentration, motivation, and involvement by increasing subjective well-being and strengthening work engagement, ultimately improving their job performance. Therefore, understanding these relationships is of strategic importance to organizations, as it enables them not only to enhance performance and productivity but also to reduce burnout, preserve employees' mental health, and create a flexible, humane work environment. Accordingly, the present study examined the effect of psychological capital on job performance, with subjective well-being and work engagement as mediators, and perceived organizational support and empathy as moderators. The results indicated that psychological capital significantly affects subjective well-being, job performance, and work engagement, and the mediating roles of subjective well-being and work engagement were confirmed. In addition, the findings showed that perceived organizational support and empathy do not moderate the relationship between psychological capital and job performance. These results suggest that the effect of psychological capital on performance operates primarily through employees' internal psychological and motivational states rather than external conditions, highlighting the importance of fostering positive psychological resources within university settings.
کلیدواژهها English
