Contextual boundaries of personal resource translation: dual-path associations of role overload and job autonomy with job satisfaction among sports practitioners.

BACKGROUND

Sports practitioners work under sustained job demands while also relying on varying degrees of control over how work is organized. Whether personal resources are associated with occupational experience in the same way across different work structures remains uncertain. This study examined the dual-path associations of role overload and job autonomy with job satisfaction through work engagement and assessed the conditional role of job self-efficacy.

METHODS

A post hoc, theory-guided analysis was conducted using data from a broader cross-sectional survey of 358 sports practitioners in China. Confirmatory factor analysis evaluated the measurement model, and regression-based conditional-process analyses were conducted with adjustment for sex.

RESULTS

The five-factor measurement model showed a good fit (Comparative Fit Index [CFI] = 0.952, Tucker-Lewis Index [TLI] = 0.944, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation [RMSEA] = 0.051, Standardized Root Mean Square Residual [SRMR] = 0.058). Role overload was negatively associated with job satisfaction (B = -0.355, p < 0.001), whereas job autonomy was positively associated with job satisfaction (B = 0.293, p < 0.001). Both pathways showed indirect associations through work engagement. Job self-efficacy showed an asymmetric conditional pattern. The role overload × job self-efficacy interaction was negative (B = -0.152, p = 0.008), and the index of moderated mediation was -0.063, 95% bootstrap CI [-0.111, -0.016]. This negative interaction remained in the joint model that simultaneously included role overload and job autonomy (B = -0.124, p = 0.038). Johnson-Neyman analysis indicated that the adjusted association between role overload and work engagement was significantly negative when job self-efficacy was above 3.36. In contrast, job autonomy retained stable positive main and indirect associations, whereas its interaction with job self-efficacy was not robustly supported.

CONCLUSION

The asymmetric conditional pattern suggests that the association of job self-efficacy with work engagement may vary across demand-intensive and autonomy-related work conditions. This context-dependent interpretation provides a focused proposition for longitudinal and work-design research.