An examination of affect and job satisfaction as mediators in the relationship between personal mastery and work behaviors

Personal mastery is a type of motivational disposition that has received little attention in research as a possible predictor of work behavior. In a recent study, Diefendorff and Mehta (2007) demonstrated a relationship between personal mastery and counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs). Building on Diefendorff and Mehta (2007), the current study develops and tests affect and job satisfaction as possible mediators between personal mastery and CWBs, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs), and turnover intentions. Data was collected from an employed student sample and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) and Sobel mediator tests. Personal mastery was correlated to CWBs and OCBs but not turnover intentions. Personal mastery was also related to the hypothesized mediators affect and job satisfaction. However, additional analyses revealed that job satisfaction was a better mediator than negative affect for the personal mastery-CWB relationship, positive affect was a better mediator than job satisfaction for the personal mastery-OCB relationship, and job satisfaction and positive affect were sequential mediators of the personal mastery-turnover intentions relationships (personal mastery predicted positive affect, which predicted job satisfaction, which predicted turnover intentions).