Modeling the mediation roles in the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment of public sector forest engineers in Turkey

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ABSTRACT Forest ecosystems are critical for achieving sustainable development goals. All forests in Turkey are managed and controlled by the General Directorate of Forestry (GDF) as a public organization. In order to achieve sustainable forest management, forestry activities include intensive operations involving reforestation, combating forest fires and smuggling, supervising logging activities, etc. Because of these rigorous forestry activities, forest engineers face a number of challenges in their profession. These problematic issues affect the 4,830 Public Sector Forest Engineers (PSFEs) in terms of organizational commitment (ORC) and job satisfaction (JOS). This study proposed to determine and reveal the underlying problems of the PSFEs’ perception of ORC and JOS using causal models. A large number of data were collected from 397 participating PSFEs in Turkey via applied questionnaire forms. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and bootstrap methodology were used to determine the main factors and analyze the relationships between latent variables and working conditions (WOC) and turnover intention (TOI) as mediators. The SEM results showed a direct positive effect (0.77) between the JOS and ORC of the PSFEs in Turkey. Positive WOC (0.153) and negative TOI (0.775) mediation roles were also revealed. The study indicated that the GDF administration needs to increase the motivation factors using incentive tools such as rewards, promotions, etc. and to reconstruct the WOC to decrease the TOI of the PSFEs. The developed models will contribute to the literature in terms of their availability and adaptability to different professions.