A structural equation modeling analysis of leadership behavior, organizational commitment and job satisfaction of employees in Taiwanese health clubs (China)

In recent years, health clubs in Taiwan, Republic of China, have faced an increasingly competitive environment. Leadership, organizational commitment and job satisfaction have been considered as three important factors for business survival in this competitive environment. Prior research shows that leadership behavior can have a positive influence on the organizational commitment and job satisfaction of employees. The purpose of this study was to establish a comprehensive causal model for leadership behavior, organizational commitment and job satisfaction and to examine it with empirical data.; The instruments selected to collect data were the Organizational Commitment Scale (OCS), modified from the Affective, Continuance, and Normative Commitment Scales; the Leadership Practices Scale (LPS), modified from the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI); and the Job Satisfaction Scale (JSS), modified from the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS); as well as a demographic survey. The sample size included 469 non-management employees from 30 health club branches that were randomly selected from a pool of 129 recreational sport/fitness clubs.; The data received from the survey were analyzed using the Software Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSSPC+) 10.0 and LISREL 8.52. Frequency and percentage were used to calculated demographic variables in order to understand the personal characteristics of the sample. Structural equation modeling was used to test the validity of the constructs of leadership behavior, organizational commitment and job satisfaction as well as to examine the causal relationships among them.; The results showed that the measurement model for leadership practices was a valid and reliable model. Improvement of predictive validity and parsimony of the model also needs to be tested in consideration for future research. The measurement of organizational commitment was a saturated model. Except for affective commitment, all of the variables were reliable. In summary, the measurement model for organizational commitment was valid and fairly reliable. The results showed that the measurement model for job satisfaction was acceptable. Although the model could be perceived to be valid internally, it is not parsimonious and also does not have good predictive validity.; In testing structural relationships, the results showed that leadership practices directly influence (a standardized coefficient value of 0.34) job satisfaction and indirectly influence (a standardized coefficient value of 0.36) it through organizational commitment. The results also showed that organizational commitment directly influences (a standardized coefficient value of 0.55) job satisfaction. It is worth noticing that leadership practices have a direct effect on job satisfaction, but the indirect effect is larger than its direct effect. This consequence indicates that organizational commitment could play an important role with employee intervention.