“Mediating role of employee empowerment for transformational leadership and job satisfaction”

The study aimed to investigate the relationship between transformational leadership and job satisfaction. In addition, it analyzes whether employee empowerment mediates the mentioned relationship. Data were collected from 228 employees of pharmaceutical companies in Jordan (Al Hayat Pharmaceutical Industries, Al Hikma Pharmaceutical Company, and Jordan Swedish Medical Products). The study employed SPSS for data analysis and hypotheses testing. The findings reveal a statistically significant impact of transformational leadership on job satisfaction, empowerment on job satisfaction, transformational leadership on empowerment, and transformational leadership on job satisfaction through empowerment in Jordanian pharmaceutical firms. Furthermore, the results showed that the beta value represents the relative importance, where the intellectual stimulation factor reached the highest level in the size of the impact on the dependent variable, and its value was 0.37 of the total impact. In contrast, inspirational stimulation was the second factor, then the idealized influence factor with 0.30, while the smallest impact size was shown by the dimension of individualized consideration with approximately 0.151. This result indicates the leader’s weak interest and respect for subordinates. The study recommended adopting transformational leadership, supporting employees by empowering them, and conducting more studies on transformational leadership and empowerment in the future.


INTRODUCTION
Companies need successful transformational leadership capable of understanding the main components of creative strategic thinking, the stages of the creative planning process and its implementation as well as understanding the strategic plan.Transformational leadership is influential in strategy implementation through many leadership practices or actions.For example, most companies usually monopolize a competitive atmosphere between the heads of departments at the same level and between the employees in the performance of their organizational duties because they obtain conditional rewards at the end of the specified period (Al-Ghazo & Awad, 2010, p. 36).Job satisfaction is a behavioral term in managerial thought because it expresses individuals' attitudes, beliefs, and opinions about the work.These tendencies and beliefs are affected by several organizational factors such as fair pay, promotion, internal work environment, wages, incentives, rewards, achievements, and others.What motivates the individual is the fulfillment of his desires and needs.Thus, functional empowerment can be the most crucial driver, positively reflected in the behavior at work.This is reflected in the job satisfaction and productivity of these working individuals, and, in the end, the organization's success and ability to continue, progress, and show creativity (Muhammadiyah, 2016, p. 147).
According to Al Saed and Abu Bakir (2019), pharmaceutical firms operate according to health standards.However, the concept of management must be taken into consideration.It stresses the importance of transformational leadership techniques and methods that affect job satisfaction, highlighting its importance in industrial and service fields.Individuals always have basic and secondary needs that a leader must know and always investigate to be able to meet them to achieve job satisfaction.The problem of this study represented many challenges pharmaceutical companies in Jordan face due to the intensity of competition locally and internationally.These challenges impose to have a leader capable of adopting empowerment to reach employee satisfaction and to identify the problems facing them through their answers considering the importance of leadership and empowerment in employee satisfaction (Abdul Hussein, 2012;Joo & Lim, 2013).In addition, such leaders with attractive personalities and high morals encourage their followers to move forward in bringing about change in their organizations.Bass (2008) indicated that personal considerations are primarily concerned with personal giving.Hence, it is vital to properly treat employees, care for their needs, and meet their desires, as these are all transformational leadership factors.

METHODOLOGY
A descriptive analytical approach is employed to collect the data and test the hypotheses.The population consists of a non-probability sample of three pharmaceutical companies in Jordan out of fifteen businesses specializing in the pharmaceutical industry.The sample comprises Al-Hayat Pharmaceutical Industries, Al-Hikma Pharmaceutical Company, and Jordanian Swedish Medical Products, which are pioneers in this field.
Two hundred and eighty-seven questionnaires were distributed to the study sample, and 228 were retrieved for further analysis.A questionnaire assessed independent, dependent, and me- diating variables test the elaborated hypotheses.This study relied on the measures used in previous studies to ensure proper data reliability and credibility.A questionnaire consisted of two parts.The first part investigated the demographic characteristics of the sample.In contrast, the second assessed the study's variables, i.e., transformational leadership, job satisfaction, and empowerment in Jordanian pharmaceutical companies.

RESULTS
To ensure measurement validity and reliability, a questionnaire was evaluated by ten experts and teachers working in different universities in the business administration department.Both have submitted demographic-related comments on the questionnaire, an introduction to variable measurement, and a few comments.Comments have been made and considered.According to Sekaran and Bougie (2016), Cronbach's alpha assesses the scale's reliability, and the value should be 0.60 or higher, showing good convergence or internal consistency.The results in Table 1 show acceptable levels.Table 3 shows the impact of transformational leadership on job satisfaction (H01).The calculated F value (265.55) at a significance level of 0.000 indicates the model's suitability to the regression test; the model is appropriate.Thus, the null hypothesis was rejected; as a result, there is a statistically significant impact at α ≤ 0.05 for transformational leadership dimensions on job satisfaction at pharmaceutical firms in Jordan.Furthermore, the results of the correlation coefficient R (0.990) at the level of 0.05 and the coefficient of determination R 2 (0.980) show that 98% of the changes in job satisfaction are due to transformational leadership.
The beta value represents the relative importance, where the intellectual stimulation factor reached the highest level in the size of the impact on the dependent variable, and its value was 0.37 of the total impact.In contrast, inspirational stimulation was the second, then the idealized influence factor with 0.30, while the dimension of individualized consideration showed the lowest value of approximately 0.15.This result indicates the leader's weak interest in and respect for the subordinates in the pharmaceutical companies operating in Jordan.
Table 4 shows a high significance of the F value (338.78) at a 0.000 statistical significance level, less than the level of significance (0.05) for transformational leadership dimensions (idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration) (H01-1).
The results of the correlation coefficient R (0.219) at the level of 0.05 and the coefficient of determi-nation R 2 (0.318) indicate that 31% of the fairness of pay and promotion changes are due to transformational leadership.Therefore, the null hyis rejected; as a result, there is a statistically significant impact at 0.05 of transformational leadership dimensions (idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration) on the fairness of pay and promotion in pharmaceutical businesses in Jordan.Table 4 further shows the beta value, which represents the relative importance.The factor of the leader's interest in and individualized consideration reached the highest effect size on the dependent variable, and its value was 1.4 of the total impact.The second factor was fairness pay and promotion with 0.36.The smallest impact sizes were shown by the dimensions of inspirational motivation and intellectual stimulation (33.0).This result indicates the weakness of inspirational motivation and intellectual stimulation of leadership in pharmaceutical companies operating in Jordan.
Table 5 shows a high significance of the F value (148.7) at a 0.000 statistical significance level, which is less than 0.05 for the transformational leadership dimension of individualized consideration (H01-2).The results of the correlation coefficient R (0.620) at the level of 0.05 and the coefficient of determination R 2 (0.362) mean that 62% of the changes in the external work environment are due to transformational leadership.Thus, the null hypothesis is rejected; as a result, there is a statistically significant impact at the level of 0.05 of individualized consideration dimensions on the external work environment in pharmaceutical companies in Jordan.
The factor of inspirational stimulus reached the highest level in the size of the impact on the dependent variable, and its value was 0.910 of the total impact.The second factor was intellectual stimulation, with an effect size of 0.813.Finally, the third factor (individualized consideration) had an effect size of 0.208, while the lowest value was obtained by the idealized influence (0.132).This result indicates the weakness of the idealized influence of leadership in pharmaceutical businesses in Jordan.
Table 6 showed a high significance of the F value (116.75) at a 0.000 statistical significance level, less than 0.05 for transformational leadership di- The factor of idealized influence reached the highest level in effect size on the dependent variable, and its value was 0.227.The second factor was intellectual stimulation, with 0.209.Furthermore, the third factor (inspirational motivation) showed 0.121, while the individualized consideration showed 0.064.This result indicates the weakness of the leader's interest the subordinates in pharmaceutical firms operating in Jordan.
Table 7 showed a high significance of the F value (162.26) at a 0.000 statistical significance level, less than 0.05 for empowerment as a mediating variable (H02).The results of the correlation coefficient R (0.646) at the level of 0.05 and the coefficient of determination R 2 (0.418) indicate that 41% of the changes in job satisfaction are due to empowerment.From the above, the null hypoth-esis is rejected; as a result, there is a statistically significant impact at the level of 0.05 of empowerment on job satisfaction dimensions (fairness of pay and promotion, internal work environment, achievements) in pharmaceutical companies in Jordan.As shown in Table 7, the size of the effect of empowerment on job satisfaction is 0.082.This result indicates the weak impact of the mediating variable (empowerment) in the pharmaceutical firms operating in Jordan.
Table 8 showed that there is a high significance of the F value (102.22) at the 0.000 statistical significance level, less than the level of significance (0.05) for empowerment as a mediating variable (H02-1).
The results of the correlation coefficient R (0.558) at the level of 0.05 and the coefficient of determination R 2 (0.331) mean that 33% of the changes in the dimension of fairness of pay and promotion are due to empowerment.
Therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected; as a result, there is a statistically significant impact at the 0.05 level of empowerment on the fairness of pay and promotion in pharmaceutical companies in As shown in Table 8, the beta value, which represents the relative importance, is the size of the impact of empowerment on the fairness of pay and promotion (0.588).
Table 9 showed a high significance of the F value (118.976) at the 0.000 statistical significance level, less than 0.05 for empowerment as a mediating variable (H02-2).The results of the correlation co-  Note: α ≤ 0.05.
efficient R (0.587) at the level of 0.05 and the coefficient of determination R 2 (0.345) indicate that 34% of the changes in internal work environment dimension are due to empowerment.
From the above, the null hypothesis is rejected; as a result, there is a statistically significant impact at the level of 0.05 of empowerment on the internal work environment in pharmaceutical companies in Jordan.As shown in Table 9, the beta value, which represents the relative importance, is the size of the impact of empowerment on the internal work environment (0.587).
Table 10 showed a high significance of the F value (138.140) at the 0.000 statistical significance level, less than 0.05 for empowerment as a mediating variable (H02-3).The results of the correlation coefficient R (0.616) at the level of 0.05 and the coefficient of determination R 2 (0.379) mean that 37% of the changes of achievements are due to empowerment.
Thus, the null hypothesis is rejected; as a result, there is a statistically significant impact at the level of 0.05 of empowerment on the achievements of pharmaceutical companies in Jordan.As shown in Table 10, the beta value, which represents the relative importance, is the size of the effect of empowerment on achievements (0.616).
Table 11 showed a high significance of the F value (109.72) at the 0.000 statistical significance level, less than 0.05 of transformational leadership di-mensions (idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration) (H03).The results of the correlation coefficient R (0.406) at the level of 0.05 and the coefficient of determination R 2 (0.164) mean that 16% of the changes after empowerment are due to transformational leadership.The null hypothesis is rejected; as a result, there is a statistically significant impact at the level of 0.05 of transformational leadership dimensions (idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration) on empowerment in pharmaceutical companies in Jordan.
The factor of idealized influence reached the highest level in the size of the effect on the dependent variable, and its value was 0.239 of the total impact.The second factor was individualized consideration, with 0.146.The third factor (intellectual stimulation) had an impact size of 0.072, while inspirational stimulus showed 0.065.This result indicates the weakness of inspirational motivation of leadership in pharmaceutical companies operating in Jordan.Path analysis (Table 11) was conducted to confirm this hypothesis due to the presence of three types of variables (independent variable, dependent variable, and mediator).
Table 12 showed that transformational leadership directly impacts job satisfaction at the significance level of 0.000 (H04), less than 0.05.Next, transformational leadership impacts empowerment at the significance level of 0.000, less than 0.05.Transformational leadership also, directly and   indirectly, influences job satisfaction at the significance level of 0.000, less than 0.05.Moreover, empowerment affects job satisfaction at the signiflevel of 0.000, less than 0.05.The statistical analysis results showed that transformational leadership impacts job satisfaction through empowerment at the significance level of 0.000, less than 0.05.This study follow the criteria of Hair et al. (2013) to test the mediation as follow, if variance account for (VAF) less than 0.20 no mediation, if VAF more than 0.20 and less than 0.80 inicate partial mediation, and if its more than 0.80 indicate full mediation.The value of V.A.F was 0.23.This indicates that the impact of empowerment is partial because its value is less than 0.35.

DISCUSSION
This study discovered that transformational leadership dimensions (idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration) statistically affect job satisfaction in pharmaceutical businesses in Jordan.These findings support Yang (2016).Next, empowerment significantly affects job satisfaction dimensions (fairness of pay and promotion, internal work environment, and achievements) in pharmaceutical companies in Jordan, supporting Abdul Hussein (2012).Transformational leadership dimensions (idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, leader's interest in, and individualized consideration) have a statistically significant influence on empowerment as a mediating variable in pharmaceutical firms in Jordan.These findings align with Joo and Lim (2013).
Transformational leadership (idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, the leader's individualized consideration) has a statistically significant effect on job satisfaction (fairness of pay and promotion).It is consistent with Stander and Rothmann (2008).In addition, transformational leadership statistically and significantly influences the internal work environment in pharmaceutical companies in Jordan, except for intellectual stimulation.Transformational leadership dimensions of idealized influence and intellectual stimulation have a statistically significant impact, while inspirational motivation and individualized consideration did not affect achievements in pharmaceutical businesses in Jordan.This finding aligns with Marius et al. (2008).The mediating variable of empowerment has a statistically significant impact on fairness of pay and promotion in pharmaceutical companies in Jordan, supporting Abdul Hussein (2012).
The mediating variable of empowerment has a statistically significant effect on the internal work environment dimension of job satisfaction in pharmaceutical companies in Jordan.This outcome confirms Abdul Hussein (2012).The mediating variable of empowerment has a statistically significant influence on the achievement dimension of job satisfaction in pharmaceutical firms in Jordan, aligning with Toragall and Vyas (2014).Transformational leadership dimensions (idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration) statistically and significantly affect job satisfaction through empowerment in pharmaceutical companies in Jordan.The results found a value of 0.23, which is less than 0.35 according to the standards of Hair et al. (2013).The impact was partial; this outcome does not support Chun-Chien and Li-Fen (2013), who discovered that the impact was full.

CONCLUSION
This study investigated the relationship between transformational leadership and job satisfaction.Moreover, it evaluates whether employee empowerment mediates this relationship.The findings a statistically significant impact of transformational leadership dimensions on job satisfaction in pharmaceutical companies in Jordan.The coefficient of R 2 (0.980) indicates that 98% of the changes in job satisfaction are due to transformational leadership.In addition, the results confirmed a significant impact of empowerment as a mediating variable on job satisfaction; the coefficient of R 2 (0.418) means that 41% of job satisfaction changes are due to empowerment.Furthermore, transformational leadership dimensions have a statistically significant impact on empowerment, and the coefficient of R 2 (0.164) indicates that 16% of the changes of empowerment are due to transformational leadership.Finally, the outcomes showed that transformational leadership significantly affects job satisfaction through empowerment, which shows that empowerment mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and job satisfaction, but only partially due to the value of V.A.F of 0.23.

alpha Independent variable: Transformational leadership dimensions
Table1showed that the ranged values of study variables dimensions' were between 0.72-0.91,which is more than 0.70, which indicated suitable internal consistency and stability.

Table 2 .
Variation and variance amplification factor test

Table 3 .
Relationship between transformational leadership dimensions and job satisfaction

Table 4 .
Relationship between transformational leadership dimensions and fairness of pay and promotion

Table 5 .
Relationship between transformational leadership dimensions and internal work environment

Table 6 .
Relationship between transformational leadership dimensions and empowerment

Table 7 .
Relationship between empowerment and job satisfaction

Table 8 .
Relationship between empowerment and fairness of pay and promotion

Table 9 .
Relationship between empowerment and internal work environment

Table 10 .
Relationship between empowerment and achievements

Table 11 .
Regression analysis for the transformational leadership dimensions and empowerment

Table 12 .
Relationship between transformational leadership and job satisfaction through empowerment