Assessing the mediating role of motivation in the relationship between perceived management support and perceived job satisfaction among family doctors in Jiangsu province, China

(2023) 21:71 Xu et al. Human Resources for Health https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-023-00849-x Human Resources for Health Open Access RESEARCH Assessing the mediating role of motivation in the relationship between perceived management support and perceived job satisfaction among family doctors in Jiangsu province, China Xinglong Xu1, Lulin Zhou1, Sabina Ampon‑Wireko1*   and Prince Ewudzie Quansah1 Abstract Background The study aimed to examine the influence of perceived management support on job satisfaction through the mediating role of motivation among family doctors in the Jiangsu province of China. Methods Six dimensions of motivation were employed as mediators in the association between perceived manage‑ ment support and job satisfaction in collecting data to analyze the hypothesized relationships in the present study. A total of 600 questionnaires were distributed to family doctors in Jiangsu province. Structural equation model (SEM) in the analysis of a moment structure (AMOS) version 26 software was used to estimate the path coefficients. Results Perceived management support has a significant positive relationship with job satisfaction. Motivation had a fully mediated relationship with the association between perceived management support and job satisfaction. Conclusions The study’s findings suggest motivation is important in enhancing family doctors’ satisfaction and must not be underestimated. It, therefore, offers diverse recommendations for enhancing motivation among healthcare professionals. Keywords Family doctors, Motivation, Perceived management support, Job satisfaction, Jiangsu province Introduction An effective healthcare system requires motivated healthcare workers [1]. Healthcare professionals’ undesirable work environment has been a vital determinant that causes health care workers to leave for better prospects elsewhere. Workplace dissatisfaction contributes to burnout, high employee turnover, and *Correspondence: Sabina Ampon‑Wireko 1 School of Management, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, People’s Republic of China major underemployment in healthcare facilities [2]. Work satisfaction affect customer satisfaction and overall service quality [3]. Dissatisfied workers are likely to leave their jobs and the remaining staff can provide low-quality service [4]. This forces some businesses to make significant investments in expensive machinery, capital equipment, and complex technical systems, which typically results in the neglect of the business’s most important resource: its workforce [6]. It is important to note that productivity is typically influenced by aspects that are more humanrelated. Even if one invests in the latest technologies, productivity would barely rise in such a company if staff © The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativeco mmons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. Xu et al. Human Resources for Health (2023) 21:71 members waste time and money, are frequently absent, steal, and are not committed to their jobs. As a result, an organization’s employees are a necessary ingredient for increased production and achieving the organization’s goals and objectives [7]. Mahmoud [5] explores the impact of demographic characteristics on satisfaction among Ethiopian health workers using the logistic regression process. The analysis revealed that management support was strongly linked to the job satisfaction of the five independent variables. SM Assiri, SF Shehata and MM Assiri [6] used structural equation modelling to find a significant correlation between organizational support and employee satisfaction. In industrialized and developing economies, job satisfaction has been a significant measure of health services’ quality and success [7–9]. X Li, Y Zhang, D Yan, F Wen and Y Zhang [10] discovered that perceived management support would positively affect job control, resulting in increased job satisfaction among Chinese nurses. According to Y Lu, X-M Hu, X-L Huang, X-D Zhuang, P Guo, L-F Feng, W Hu, L Chen and Y–T Hao [11], high job satisfaction can boost employee morale and enhance an organization’s efficiency and development. Previous studies have discussed the effects of age and marital status[12, 13], educational level [14], and insufficient training opportunities [15, 16] on job satisfaction among health workers worldwide. Limited (if any) studies have explored the relationship between perceived management support and job satisfaction among family doctors in China. Due to the dearth of studies examining how management support and motivation impact job satisfaction among family physicians, the current study aims to address the following fundamental inquiries: how does perceive managerial support impact job satisfaction? What connection exists between job satisfaction and motivation? What further role does motivation play in mediating the connection between perceived managerial support and job satisfaction?. To fill the gap in the literature, this study has three objectives. First, by considering the organizational support theory of Eisenberger, the study aims to understand better the influence of perceived management support on family doctors’ job satisfaction. Second, we explored the relationship between employees’ motivation and job satisfaction. Finally, the study examines the mediating role of the family doctor’s motivation in the association between management support and job satisfaction. This goal is based on the notion that when family doctors feel the health management team respects their contributions, they are more likely to be inspired, sequentially resulting in job satisfaction. This study is essential, as China’s government’s interest is in reducing the growing turnover retention among health workers. The study will provide appropriate and specific Page 2 of 14 policy guidelines to achieve high job satisfaction and performance among health workers. This study adds to previous studies on the value of management support for health worke (...truncated)