ArticleFrontiers in psychology2026
When hygiene factors become motivation: a moderated mediation analysis of gender, hierarchy, and job satisfaction in Saudi Arabia's public sector.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
Purpose: Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 has rapidly expanded female government employment and reformed performance accountability, yet how gender and hierarchical job level shape motivation-satisfaction dynamics in this context remains untested. This study examines whether these demographic boundary conditions moderate the indirect effects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on job satisfaction through supervisory communication and recognition. Design/methodology/approach: A stratified random sample ( Findings: Extrinsic motivation predicted satisfaction more strongly than intrinsic motivation ( Theoretical contribution: Herzberg's hygiene-motivator boundary does not hold in this collectivist, high power-distance setting: supervisory recognition-classified by Herzberg as a hygiene factor-operates as an active mediating pathway whose strength varies systematically with gender and hierarchical level. The asymmetry between supported hierarchical moderation of extrinsic motivation and non-supported moderation of intrinsic motivation aligns with Maslow and Alderfer Existence-Relatedness-Growth (ERG) predictions of differential need activation across hierarchical strata. Practical implications: Findings indicate that supervisory leverage on satisfaction varies systematically with employee demographics: extrinsic recognition is more consequential for satisfaction at entry levels, and intrinsic engagement is more consequential for female employees. Pilot implementation across two-three departments per ministry is recommended before ministry-wide policy adoption. Originality/value: This study tentatively proposes the Constrained Need Activation (CNA) idea as a preliminary, context-specific conceptual proposition for motivation-satisfaction dynamics in collectivist public-sector environments, requiring future replication before broader generalisation. It extends related Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) studies through the simultaneous test of gender and job-level moderation in Saudi central government during Vision 2030 implementation.
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