“Exploring the mediating influence of job satisfaction on the relationship between job security and turnover intention: A case study of the hospitality industry of Jordan”

This study aims to examine the mediation influence of job satisfaction on job security and turnover intention among employees working at the frontline of Jordanian hotels. A quantitative empirical investigation is based on a self-administered electronic questionnaire; the data were collected from 170 frontline employees of 20 five-star hotels in Amman. The paper used Smart-PLS 4 software and statistical techniques to test the research hypotheses and analyze the obtained results. The study confirms the mediating role of job satisfaction in the relationship between job security and employee turnover intention. The results also found a significant negative impact of job security on turnover intention and a positive impact of job security on achieving employee job satisfaction. The paper highlights the need for senior management and human resources departments working in the hotel sector of Jordan to ensure employees’ job security and provide requirements that achieve employees’ job satisfaction, as these factors are essential in retaining employees.


INTRODUCTION
Human resources with the right competencies, appropriate capabilities, experience, and talents are critical in all organizations and departments, regardless of their type of activities (Al-Dalahmeh et al., 2020).Kotler and Armstrong (2016) confirmed that HR constitutes an essential component in the success and development of any organization.Therefore, investment in the development and empowerment of these resources is necessary to ensure the business continuity, success, and progress.The measures include training and development, promotion, teamwork, job security, and other HRM practices (Dessler, 2020).
Despite the importance of human resource practices, job security is essential in achieving job satisfaction.Thus, the significant gains resulting from job satisfaction for the employees and the organization alike significantly decrease employee turnover intention (Balz & Schuller, 2021).Mansour and Hassan (2019) defined job security as the employees' feeling that they are staying in and continuing to work in this job.
Job satisfaction is part of the emotional condition that results from the employee's feelings toward the job; the more positive these feelings, the greater the job satisfaction (Armstrong, 2020).Factors that can affect job satisfaction include those related to the employee himself and the work environment, such as leadership styles, HRM practices, and other work environment factors (Stewart & Brown, 2019).Olaimat (2018) studied the hotel sector in Jordan and indicated that HRM practices contribute significantly to increasing employees' overall job satisfaction in this industry.In addition, job satisfaction is unquestioning in increasing productivity, raising loyalty, and motivating employees to meet work challenges, also reducing turnover intention (Sinniah & Kamil, 2017).
Like many business sectors, human resources in the Jordanian hotel sector face several challenges, including the rise in turnover intention (Rashidah & Ayman, 2020).This problem has significant negative effects on business performance.For this reason, research and reports were conducted in the Jordanian market to search for the reasons that led to this increase in employee turnover intention (Al-Zgool, 2015).As a result, Rawashdeh and Tamimi (2020) indicated that human resources departments can contribute to controlling this challenge through many HRM practices that raise job satisfaction and, consequently, employees to accept their work and increase their job engagement.
Therefore, Jordan's hotel sector needs help retaining its employees because of the continuous rise in turnover intention (Helalat et al., 2019).This problem causes many challenges related to the optimal use of human resources.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Human resources constitute the most effective component in the success of organizations and are the most valuable assets among the various components of business sectors.Therefore, improving these resources and enhancing the capability to maintain them is the highest priority for human resources departments (Dessler, 2020).Human resources departments must also empower these resources and ensure job security for them so that these resources can carry out their work in the required manner (Noe et al., 2020).Job security can be defined as the employee's feeling that he/she is staying at work for the foreseeable future (Mansour & Hassan, 2019).David et al. (2019) defined job security as the employees' confidence that they would keep their job unless they decide to leave.Stewart and Brown (2019) emphasized that job security within the organization results from job stability, the organization's keenness to develop its employees, and their genuine desire to retain them.
Employees' feelings of job security stem from the keenness of human resources departments to develop employees, achieve their requirements, and ensure their retention (Stewart & Brown, 2019).Balz and Schuller (2021) confirmed the subsistence of an inverse relationship between employee job secu-rity and employee turnover intention.Al-Ajlouny and Nawafleh (2018) concluded that job security positively affects job performance and productivity.Madanat and Khasawneh (2018) investigated the impact of job security on different aspects of work.They confirmed a positive relationship between job security and employee job satisfaction.
Many business sectors face increasing employee turnover intention, especially in the service provider sectors (Park & Min, 2020).Like many business sectors in Jordan, the Jordanian hotel sector suffers many challenges, including the rise in employee turnover intention (Ali & Mohamad, 2019).In addition, this rise has become a significant concern for strategists in the hotel sector (Aburumman et al., 2020).Wei (2015) confirmed that human resources departments can control this challenge through many practices, including job security.
Scholars defined employee turnover intention as the employee's intention to change or to leave the current job (Price, 1977).Mobley (1977) stated that the reasons could be voluntary or involuntary.Armstrong and Taylor (2020) distinguished the difference between voluntary and involuntary turnover as it depends on who chooses or is willing to leave the work (the employee himself or the direct employer is the one who decided to terminate the employee's services).Given the high employee turnover intention in the Jordanian hotel industry, numerous investigations have been undertaken to examine this challenge and its root causes.Alhelalat et al. (2017) confirmed that despite the efforts made by organizations working in this sector, the turnover intention is still high.
Among the measures that organizations take to control the growing level of employee turnover intention, the practices of human resources remain the most critical role in this aspect (Sinniah & Kamil, 2017).These practices contribute significantly to achieving job satisfaction, which in turn helps reduce turnover (Makarim & Muafi, 2021).Jahya et al. (2020) emphasized that human resources departments introduce many practices that can be used to control turnover intention.Adam et al. (2020) showed that among the most prominent HRM practices that contribute to achieving job satisfaction is job security.Bos-Nehles and Veenendaal (2019) stressed that job security plays a prominent role in solving the problem of intention to turnover.It provides a feeling of safekeeping for the employees and that they remain in their jobs; this provides them with satisfaction that enhances their performance and decreases their intention of leaving their jobs (Falatah et al., 2021).
The rising turnover intention poses many challenges to the hotel sector in Jordan, which affects the plans and strategies of business management in this sector (Herachwati et al., 2018).The Jordanian market faces the continued rise in employee turnover intention creating many challenges, whether at the financial or administrative level, such as those related to re-employment, training, qualification, and development of new employees (Maqableh et al., 2022).In addition, these challenges affect employees because they work directly with customers, which may damage customer satisfaction (Rashidah & Ayman, 2020).
Rahman and Raju (2020) noted that one of the most essential that organizations must invest in is to achieve job satisfaction.Armstrong (2020) defined job satisfaction as the feelings that make up the employee's mental state, where positive feelings and attitudes toward the job refer to job satisfaction.Hoppock (1935) defined job satisfaction as a combination of factors resulting from the pleasure of doing this job that causes the employee to say, "I am satisfied with my job."In the same vein, Locke (1976) emphasized that job satisfaction is an internal feeling of the employee resulting from many practices in the work environment.Finally, Herzberg (1959) identified elements and procedures within the work environment that make the employee reach this feeling, including achievements and responsibilities.Among the many measures organizations take to develop their business, investing in human resources remains the most effective (Kotler & Armstrong, 2016).Thus, empowering these resources and providing the appropriate work environment will make a big difference in the effectiveness and efficiency of their work performance (Dessler, 2020).In addition, a good environment that enhances creativity and innovative behavior within a framework provides job security and increases performance (Shin et al., 2017).The employee's feeling of job security effectively controls many business challenges, including reducing turnover intention (Sokhanvar et al., 2018).The significance of employee job satisfaction lies in its ability to augment employee commitment to their work and engender greater acceptance of job duties, ultimately leading to a marked reduction in turnover intention (Sinniah & Kamil, 2017).
HRM practices are powerful in building a positive work atmosphere and great teamwork to increase satisfaction and reduce turnover (Al-Hamdan et al., 2017).In addition, AlBattat et al. (2013) found a direct relationship and association between employee job satisfaction and an inverse relationship with the level of turnover intention.In other words, the higher the job security, the lower the turnover intention (Agustinningtyas & Dewi, 2020).

AIM AND HYPOTHESES
The literature review indicates an inverse relationship between job security and turnover intention.Chen et al. (2019) confirmed that job security contributes effectively to achieving job satisfaction, thus, in turn, contributing to reducing turnover intention.This supports the credibility of the hypotheses of this study.
The primary purpose of the current study is to investigate the mediating impact of job satisfaction on the relationship between job security and employee turnover intention and the impact of job security on reducing employee turnover intention.
Guiding from the literature review, the present study set the following research hypotheses: H1: Employee job security significantly affects employee turnover intention.
H2: Employee job security significantly affects employee job satisfaction.
H3: Employee job satisfaction significantly affects employee turnover intention.
H4: Employee job satisfaction mediates the link between employee job security and employee turnover intention.

METHODOLOGY
This study applies a quantitative method compatible with the stratified samples selected for this analysis (frontline employees).To collect data, an electronic questionnaire was developed in Google Forms.In coordination with human resource directors and managers in this group of hotels, 400 copies of this questionnaire were distributed; 170 responses were collected from 20 hotels classified as five-star.The samples included employees in room service, front office, food and beverage services, and reception staff.
The theoretical model in this study was developed according to the literature review (Figure 1).Thus, this study seeks to determine the effect of job security on turnover intention and the mediating effect of employee job satisfaction on the relationship between employee job security and turnover intention.This model involves the theory of reasoned action (TRA) (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975), which was employed in supporting the methodology of this study.

Measures
Five-point Likert measure varying from 1 "Strongly disagree," 2 "Disagree," 3 "Neutral," 4 "Agree," and 5 "Strongly agree" has been employed.Job satisfaction was measured using the three items developed by Lee et al. (2010), as this scale is widely used in similar studies.The scale uses three items.Employee job satisfaction was measured by adapting four items developed by Macdonald and Maclntyre (1997), as adopted in much social research.Employee turnover intention was measured using Jackofsky and Slocum's (1987) measure, as it is widely used in this research field.This measure uses six items, e.g., "I frequently feel like leaving my current job."It should be acknowledged that the scales required modification and rendering into the Arabic language.

Sample
The population comprises the frontline members of 20 five-star Jordanian hotels located in Amman.This study targeted this group of employees because hotel customers directly contacted them.Table 1 shows the research demographics.

RESULTS
This study adopted the Smart-PLS 4 analysis software, through which the skewness and kurtosis for all items were identified, which is essential to ensure the quality of the data (DeSouza Bido & Da Silva, 2019).As a result, the results indicated no missing values, extreme skewness, or kurtosis in the total data.Furthermore, the study used SPSS software to detect any outliers, as no outliers were found in all study constructs.The current model adopted in this study is illustrated in Figure 2.

Model evaluation
Hair et al. ( 2014) suggested an approach to measuring and evaluating reflective measurement models.This approach initially suggests an evaluation of factor loading, in addition to estimating the credibility of Cronbach's Alpha and reliability test, because these estimates are essential in evaluating the reliability of inner consistency reliability.Next, average variance extracted (AVE) values are highlighted to assess the convergent validity of the models (Sarstedt et al., 2017).Table 2 shows that the quality standards required for the reflective measurement models are all available, and therefore this model can measure the relationship between the study variables.Table 3 shows the validity results using two criteria of heterotrait-monotrait (HTMT) ratios (Henseler, 2017).The study results showed that the VIF for all research variables is less than five, which removes any doubts about any potential issue in collinearity between the exogenous constructs (Table 4).Table 5 shows that job satisfaction negatively influences turnover intention (β = -0.286,P < 0.05), which supports H1.Employee job security has a positive relationship with job satisfaction (β = 0.437, P < 0.05), which implies that as job security increases, job satisfaction will increase; therefore, H2 is supported.The outcomes show that employee job satisfaction negatively influences employee turnover intention (β = -0.229,P < 0.05); H3 is fully maintained.
Table 6 shows that employee job satisfaction successfully mediated the relationship between job security and employee turnover intention, fulfilling H4.

Variables effect sizes
The size of an effect or F square (f 2 ) according to the results that evaluate the effect level of the omitted factor on the total model's predictive ac-curacy, which can be automatically generated by using Smart-PLS 4 through the PLS-SEM algorithm.Chow (1988) validates effect size rates of 0.02, 0.15, and 0.35 as small, medium, and large, respectively.The results show that job security has a large effect size (f2 = 0.235), while turnover intention has a range of small to medium (f2 = 0.081), whereas employee job satisfaction has a small effect size (f2 = 0.053).

Hypotheses testing results
Tables 5 and 6 present evidence of job satisfaction as a mediator in the relationship between employee job security and turnover intention.According to Nitzl et al. (2016), the mediating style resulting from this relation is partially mediated by job satisfaction.Table 7 shows the results of the hypotheses testing.

DISCUSSION
This study investigated the role of job satisfaction as a mediator in the relationship between job security and turnover intention among employees of five-star hotels in Amman, Jordan.Previous research has highlighted the significance of job security in enhancing employee performance and reducing the desire to quit the job (Brougham & Haar, 2020).Rahman (2020) also confirmed the significant impact of job satisfaction on reducing turnover intention and the positive role of job security in increasing job satisfaction.Furthermore, Alam and Asim (2019) indicated that job security enhances the stability of employees, raises their loyalty, and increases their ability to find innovative solutions to work challenges.This is because they feel safe and satisfied with their organization as if they are part of it, which negatively reflects employee turnover intention (Balz & Schuller, 2021).
Upon examining the collected data, there were no instances of extreme kurtosis or skewness, and no missing values were present.Utilizing SPSS software, the data from 170 respondents were analyzed to identify any outliers.The analysis found no statistically significant outliers within the dataset.Therefore, the methodology proposed by The current study supports the idea that employee job satisfaction plays an excellent mediating role between employee job security and employee intention to leave.This aligns with established academic theories and with the broader findings of related studies.Given the crucial nature of job security in the hotel industry, it is vital for human resources departments and each department head to provide job security as it has a significant positive impact on employee performance and satisfaction, ultimately leading to increased retention of employees within organizations.
This study has some limitations.First, it targeted five-star hotels located in Amman, Jordan.Second, this study is limited to one HRM practice: employee job security as an influencer of job satisfaction.Therefore, more studies in other areas are needed to measure the different impacts of other practices of HR, i.e., training, promotion, teamwork, and compensation.

CONCLUSION
The objective of the present study is to examine the mediating role of job satisfaction on the relationship between job security and employee turnover intention and the impact of job security on employee turnover intention.According to the analysis results, employee job satisfaction successfully mediates the relationship between employee turnover intention and job security.The results also show that job security significantly negatively impacts turnover intention and positively influences employee job satisfaction.The outcomes of the current study suggest that organizations in the Jordanian hotel sector should implement HR strategies that achieve job satisfaction and promote employee job security due to their essential role in improving employee retention.The study suggests that employee job satisfaction is a great mediator between employee job security and employee turnover intention.Furthermore, the benefits of job satisfaction extend beyond just reducing employee turnover intention.Thus, it can also improve employee performance, creativity, productivity, loyalty, and innovation.This highlights the importance of hotel human resource managers and hospitality leaders focusing on job satisfaction and security, which are directly linked to reducing turnover intention.
These findings can assist human resource departments within the hotel industry in Jordan.In addition, they can be a valuable resource for future research in the field.This study focused on and shed light on the increased turnover intention among hotel employees, which is not solely caused by a lack of job security but is a result of multiple factors.Despite this, research needs to continue investigating this issue to uncover the underlying causes and assist human resource managers in retaining their employees.
Job satisfaction can be achieved through two main and critical factors.The first is related directly to the work environment, and the other is associated with the employees.A work environment characterized by support and respect among colleagues reduces work stress and increases job satisfaction (Badrianto & Ekhsan, 2020).AlKahtani et al. (2021) emphasized that organizations that provide support and empowerment to their employees can achieve job satisfaction.Job satisfaction is also affected by many HRM practices, such as incentives, training, teamwork, and employee job security (Demircioglu & Berman, 2019).Given the great importance and sustainability of job satisfaction, particularly in the hotel sector, it is reflected in many aspects of work, such as loyalty and performance improvement (Phuong & Vinh, 2020).Allan (2019) confirmed a positive and direct relationship between employee job satisfaction and internal and external motivation.Researching the Jordanian hotel sector, Al-Hamdan et al. (2017) showed that a positive environment plays an active role in achieving job satisfaction.Human resource departments, through many practices, contribute to achieving job satisfaction (Olaimat, 2018).O'Connor (2018) and Li et al. (2019) confirmed a significant inverse relationship between the variables of employee job satisfaction and employee turnover intention.Human resource departments can enhance job satisfaction through many practices, including job security (Umrani et al., 2019).Bhargava et al. (2021) proved a positive relationship between employee job security and employee job satisfaction.Job security plays this role through the employee's sense of stability, which generates loyalty, improves productivity, increases innovation, and enhances work quality (Al-Ajlouny & Nawafleh, 2018).According to Romeo et al. (2020), a helpful work environment is essential in spreading the spirit of security and job stability, leading to increased job satisfaction.

Table 1 .
Demographics of participants

Table 3 .
Discriminant validity value of HTMT Hair et al. (2014)recommended some criteria for evaluating the structural research model, as this evaluation is based on evaluating constructs collinearity, path coefficient, and predictive accura-cy of the model, in addition to the impact values represented by f squared (f2).Furthermore, Hair et al. (2014) emphasized that the variance inflation factor (VIF) can be used to assess the extent to which the latent external variables are correlated, as VIF values less than five are considered appropriate and acceptable.

Table 5 .
Path coefficients according to a complete bootstrapping routine Note: JS -job security; JST -job satisfaction; TI -turnover intention.