The mediating effect of job happiness on the relationship between job satisfaction and employee performance and turnover intentions: A case study on the oil and gas industry in the United Arab Emirates

This study aims to examine the mediating effect of job happiness factor on the relationship between job satisfaction and both employees’ performance and turnover intentions in oil and gas industry in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The study utilized a total of 722 usable questionnaires that were administered to respondents in oil and gas industry in the United Arab Emirates. This study adopted structural equation modelling (SEM) approach to analyze these relationships. The Analysis of Data revealed that job satisfaction factor has a significant direct positive relationship with both factors the employees’ performance and the job happiness, while it has a negative insignificant relationship with employees’ turnover intention. On the other hand, the Job happiness displays a significant positive direct effect on job performance, but it records a significant negative effect on employee turnover intention. Results show that job happiness plays a mediating role between job satisfaction and employee performance and turnover intention. These findings may guide the implementation of policies by human resources or other organization managements in the UAE Oil and Gas industry. For instance, they may use job happiness (mental well-being) as a predictor of employee behaviors and then formulate recruitment policies that will help maintain employee happiness and satisfaction, thereby helping in employee retention. Corresponding author: Ali Ameen Email addresses for the corresponding author: aliameen.academy@gmail.com First submission received: 7th May 2018 Revised submission received: 3rd February 2019 Accepted: 2ns April 2019