The finding is particularly relevant to Indonesia’s automotive sales sector, where employees work under demanding conditions. Sales personnel are expected to meet targets, maintain customer relationships, and sustain performance in a highly competitive market. These pressures can influence how employees perceive their jobs and whether they remain psychologically attached to their organizations.
Tangerang represents an important setting for examining these workplace dynamics. The study notes that the city has a population of around 3.4 million and an annual population growth rate of 1.25 percent. It also has the highest number of four-wheeled vehicles in Banten Province, creating significant market potential for automotive businesses while increasing the need for effective human resource management.
Leadership That Gives Employees More Trust
The study focuses on Empowering Leadership, a management approach that gives employees greater authority, trust, and opportunities to participate in decision-making.
Instead of relying mainly on direct supervision and performance control, empowering leaders allow employees to take greater ownership of their responsibilities. This can include sharing relevant information, delegating responsibilities, involving employees in decisions, and allowing them greater autonomy in solving work-related problems.
The researchers examined this leadership approach alongside Organizational Commitment and Job Satisfaction. Organizational commitment refers to employees’ psychological attachment to their organization, including their willingness to remain part of it and support organizational goals. Job satisfaction reflects employees’ positive evaluation of their work experience.
The researchers used the Leader–Member Exchange (LMX) perspective to explain why relationships between supervisors and employees matter. According to this framework, relationships characterized by trust, respect, and reciprocal support can encourage more positive attitudes toward work.
Survey of 119 Automotive Sales Employees
The research used a quantitative survey involving 119 automotive sales employees in Tangerang. Respondents were selected purposively, with participants required to be at least 18 years old and to have worked for at least six months.
Participants responded to questionnaire statements using a five-point scale. The researchers assessed three main variables: empowering leadership, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction.
The collected data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) through SmartPLS 4. In simple terms, this analysis allowed the researchers to examine how leadership relates to organizational commitment and job satisfaction, including whether organizational commitment helps explain the relationship between leadership and satisfaction.
The measurement results showed that the indicators used for all three variables met the required validity and reliability standards. The study therefore proceeded with the analysis of relationships among the variables.
Empowering Leadership Has the Strongest Effect on Commitment
The results showed statistically significant positive relationships across all three main pathways examined.
The key findings were:
- Empowering Leadership → Organizational Commitment: β = 0.637, p = 0.000.
- Empowering Leadership → Job Satisfaction: β = 0.493, p = 0.000.
- Organizational Commitment → Job Satisfaction: β = 0.394, p = 0.000.
- Organizational Commitment partially mediates the relationship between Empowering Leadership and Job Satisfaction, with an indirect effect of β = 0.231, p = 0.002.
Among the direct relationships, empowering leadership had the strongest effect on organizational commitment, with a coefficient of 0.637.
The model also showed that empowering leadership and organizational commitment together explained 64.6 percent of the variation in job satisfaction. Meanwhile, empowering leadership explained 40.6 percent of the variation in organizational commitment. Other factors outside the research model accounted for the remaining variation.
These results indicate that employees who receive greater trust, autonomy, and involvement from their supervisors tend to develop stronger organizational commitment and experience greater satisfaction with their work.
Commitment Strengthens the Leadership Effect
One important finding is that empowering leadership does not influence job satisfaction only through direct interactions between supervisors and employees.
Organizational commitment acts as a partial pathway connecting leadership practices with employee satisfaction. When employees feel trusted and involved, they may develop a stronger psychological attachment to the organization. That attachment can then contribute to a more positive assessment of their work.
Manuel Adelio, Christy Ayu Sarah Panjaitan, and Margareta of Universitas Bunda Mulia interpret the findings as evidence that high-quality leader–employee relationships remain important in performance-driven workplaces. Their analysis suggests that leadership in automotive sales should extend beyond coordinating daily activities and meeting performance targets. Trust, autonomy, employee participation, coaching, and feedback can also help create stronger employee attitudes toward the organization.
Implications for Automotive Companies
The findings offer a practical direction for automotive companies facing intense competition and demanding sales targets.
Managers and supervisors can strengthen empowering leadership by:
- Involving employees in decision-making relevant to their work.
- Delegating responsibilities according to employees’ abilities and experience.
- Providing regular coaching and feedback to support employee development.
- Sharing information transparently so employees understand organizational expectations.
- Recognizing employee contributions to reinforce their sense of value.
- Creating clearer career development opportunities to strengthen organizational commitment.
The researchers emphasize that companies should not rely solely on performance control. A workplace that combines clear expectations with autonomy, trust, recognition, and opportunities for learning may provide stronger conditions for employee satisfaction and sustainable organizational performance.
The study also highlights the need for future research to examine other factors that may influence job satisfaction, including compensation, work environment, work–life balance, and career development. Research involving different industries and geographical areas could further test whether the same pattern appears in other organizational contexts.
Author Profile
Manuel Adelio, Christy Ayu Sarah Panjaitan, and Margareta are affiliated with the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universitas Bunda Mulia. Their research addresses organizational and human resource management issues, particularly empowering leadership, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction in the workplace.
The article identifies Margareta as the corresponding author. The source article does not provide the academic degrees of Manuel Adelio or Margareta, so no degree is added here to avoid introducing information not contained in the publication. The available source separately identifies Christy Ayu Sarah Panjaitan, S.E., M.M., in related material.
Source
Article: “Effect of Empowering Leadership on Job Satisfaction with Organizational Commitment as a Mediator”
Authors: Manuel Adelio, Christy Ayu Sarah Panjaitan, Margareta
Journal: International Journal of Economic, Finance and Business Statistics (IJEFBS)
Volume: 4, Issue 4, 2026, pp. 489–498
Publication year: 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.59890/ijefbs.v4i4.28
Official journal: http://journalijefbs.my.id/index.php/ijefbs
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