Examining the Mediating Role of Commitment to the Supervisor in Employees’ Affective Commitment: Temporary Employees Versus Permanent Employees

Abstract

One of the challenges faced by human resources management departments in recent years is how to manage employees with different employment contracts, in particular, temporary compared with permanent. This study tries to examine commitment to the supervisor as a mediating variable between psychological contract and empowerment, on one hand, and affective commitment, on the other. Commitment to the supervisor is considered a mediating variable since it emphasizes the importance of the supervisor’s role in the relationship between employees and the organization. The differences between commitment to the supervisor among temporary and permanent employees have not yet been studied, nor the effect of empowerment on organizational commitment among temporary employees. The sample comprised 367 permanent employees and 155 temporary employees from 11 organizations operating both in public and private sectors. Commitment to the supervisor partly mediated the relationships between empowerment, fulfillment of the psychological contract, and affective commitment among permanent and temporary employees. In practical terms, supervisors play a role in upholding and maintaining the psychological contract and cultivating employee empowerment, whether the employee is permanent or temporary.