Keywords

Job Empowerment, Job Satisfaction, Human Resources Agility, Jordanian Commercial Banks

JEL Classifications

M1, M12, M19

Introduction

The organizations seek to raise employee’s level of performance and develop them to achieve the objectives and competitive advantage of these organizations and their continuation in the market (Dessler, 2013; Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart & Wright, 2017). Likewise, job empowerment for employees has become necessary in the face of technological advances, as various business organizations are now doing the same work with fewer individuals (Hanaysha, 2016). This shows the importance of unleashing individuals energies by giving them power and strengthening the relationship between them and the organization that motivates them to present their ideas and develop their innovative contributions to serve their organizations (Hanaysha, 2016).

Therefore, many of the views and trends sought to advocate empowering employees and strengthening their position to provide creativity, innovation, and productivity, as an integral part of the organization's administrative system (Al-Ababneh, Al-Sabi, Al- Shakhsheer & Masadeh, 2017). Hence, job empowerment has emerged to increase the focus on the human element within the organization where workers? participation in development functions is enhanced through empowerment. This concept came as a result of the development of modern administrative thought, especially in the area of transformation from an organization that depends on bureaucratic control to an organization based on empowerment, and the consequent changes in the organization (Azbari, Akbari & Chaijani, 2015).

Over and above, human resource agility is viewed as one of the modern management concepts that have emerged to enable business organizations through their individuals to innovate and adapt to meet the challenges posed by the unstable business environment. This, for example, includes rapid advances in modern technology and communication, and the opening up of global markets (Sumukadas & Sawhney, 2004). Besides, job satisfaction aids in delivering a productive and propelled workforce, which supports employees to obtain understanding, aptitudes, and information to develop the bank's sector (Al-Abdullat & Dababneh, 2018).

Otherwise, human resources? effective use is often critical to the organization's long-term accomplishment over its rivals, particularly in technology and highly competitive sectors. The idea of a human agility resource has been discussed as vital to creating an agile organization since human resources agility depends on wise individuals as opposed to systems. Human resources agility is one of the potential influences on organizational performance and enhances the organization's odds of surviving in the competitive field of the present business world (Qin & Nembhard, 2010; Alavi, 2016).

In addition, adopting new management concepts and practices, such as human resource agility, ensures that organizations can adapt to surrounding changes. Human resources today become an essential strategic resource, a source of information and innovation, and a basis for excellence in a way that helps organizations perform their tasks efficiently and effectively, and to obtain the competitive advantage that guarantees their continuity, development, and prosperity (Sherehiy, Karwowski & Layer, 2007).

Problem Statement

A global financial crisis emerged in (2008) due to a series of events leading to the collapse of the banking system. It started in the United States of America, followed by countries of Europe, Asia, the Gulf States, and developing countries directly linked to the economy of the United States of America (Murau, 2018). Meanwhile, since the start of the global financial crisis in 2008, Jordanian commercial banks face many challenges that threaten their potential in the competition (Central Bank of Jordan, 2017). Pressures were created on these banks due to intense competition between them, with Islamic banks and foreign banks, both at the internal and external environment level. Likewise, the Jordanian commercial banks are working in a quickly changing condition. They encounter quick rivalry between banks, mainly as they all provide comparative administrations, and contending to pull in a similar pool of clients. The services group and building direct interactive relations with customers pick up clients loyalty and maintenance (Mohd Abu Bakir, 2019).

Furthermore, job empowerment is often a confusing concept to the managers in the workplace set into practice because they think that this rule decreases their authority. Besides, researchers have noticed in studies that many managers do not know the importance of job empowerment (Zaraket & Malek, 2018; Al-Abdullat & Dababneh, 2018). Additionally, according to (Alnaweigah, 2013), most banks in Jordan do not grant the employees freedom and power to make the decision, effective communication, the delegation of authority, and the limits of responsibility. In general, the staff takes orders directly from the department for implementation. Still, the staff member must be given more training and empowerment to have a cognitive and professional level that enables him/her to be effective, supported, have a positive impact on the development, and achieve the goals of banks. In this manner, it produces a regulative environment for workers in the bank sector (Dahou & Hacini, 2018; Al-Abdullat & Dababneh, 2018).

Moreover, human resource agility has been referenced as a beneficial procedure in the changing business environment. The absence of human resources agility has been recognized as one of the principal reasons for the organization's disappointments regarding business and environmental changes (Qin & Nembhard, 2015). Thus, making progress at the organization level would not be conceivable without proactivity, adaptability, and resiliency, which are the crucial roles in moving employees towards agility (Najatyan, Hassanawi, Chainsaw Sufi & Mulaili, 2013). Thus, human resources agility deals with unexpected situations related to changing environments works to adapt quickly, and focuses when needed to be more proactive and resilient (Qin & Nembhard, 2015; Snyder & Brewer, 2019).

Due to the changing environment, bank employees work under pressure, whereby an employee handles jobs meant for four persons (Alawiye-Adams & Afolabi, 2014). Furthermore, the problem arises from duties not being performed effectively or efficiently because the employees are engaged with an overbearing workload. This could, in turn, influence the job satisfaction and growth of the organization (Adenuga, 2015).

In this regard, several studies dealt separately with the concept of job empowerment, human resources agility, and job satisfaction, including studies by (D?Innocenzo, Luciano, Mathieu, Maynard & Chen, 2016; Muduli, 2016; Alavi, 2016; Al-Ababneh et al., 2017; Al-dalahmeh & Obeidat, 2018; Madanat & Khasawneh, 2018). Due to the limited studies examined in the relationship between job empowerment, human resources agility, and job satisfaction, this study aims to bridge this gap and explore the relationship between these concepts.

Research Objective

1. To determine the impact of job empowerment on human resources agility at Jordanian commercial banks.

a) To explain the impact of the delegation of authority on human resources agility at Jordanian commercial banks.

b) To explain the impact of work teams on human resources agility at Jordanian commercial banks.

c) To explain the impact of effective communication on human resources agility at Jordanian Commercial Banks.

d) To explain the impact of decision making on human resources agility at Jordanian commercial banks.

2. To analyze the mediation effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between job empowerment on human resources agility at Jordanian commercial banks.

Contribution of the Study

The importance of this study lies in the conceptual framework presented on the mediating effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between job empowerment with its dimensions (delegation of authority, work teams, effective communication, and decision making) and the human resources agility with its dimensions (proactivity, adaptability, and resiliency) in Jordanian commercial banks. Many studies have dealt with each of these concepts separately, such as in the studies of (Sumukadas & Sawhney, 2004; Alavi, 2016; Al-Ababneh et al., 2017).

Theoretical Significance

The theoretical significance of the current study comes through its coverage of this gap. This study may benefit researchers by adding new knowledge about the effect of job satisfaction as a mediator relationship between job empowerment and its influence on human resources agility. Hence, this conceptual framework may benefit researchers by adding new knowledge and applying this study in different sectors and various countries in future studies.

Practical Significance

The practical significance is shown by selecting the study population represented by the employees in total of (13) Jordanian commercial banks that play a vital role in Jordan's economy in all aspects. According to the researcher’s knowledge, this study is considered one of the first field studies of its kind in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, especially in this study’s population.

Thus, the current study may help the banking sector in general. The Jordanian commercial banks, in particular, benefit from their findings and recommendations and know what is applied to them and what should be applied. It helps provide banking services of high quality to adapt to the internal and external changes in the work environment and meet the needs and desires of different segments of customers, and access to the competitive advantages that should be achieved.

Literature Review and Hypothesis Development

Jordanian Commercial Banks

The Jordanian banking sector is one of the Jordanian economy main pillars, which added to about 18.8 percent of the GDP at market values in the second quarter of 2015 (Awraq Investment, 2015; CBJ, 2018; Alalwan et al., 2018). Hence, the banking sector is crucial to develop and improve profitability by bringing more customers and maintaining existing ones through meeting customers’ expectations and giving quality services (Al-Bawab & Al-Rawashdeh, 2016; Alalwan et al., 2018; Hani et al., 2019).

On the other hand, banking to private organizations has grown substantially in current years, following comparative increments in the Jordan banking segments degree of deposits. The Jordanian Commercial Banking (JCB) sector benefits from selling, purchasing, and utilizing accounts in foreign currency under the JCB organization. Note that, anyone may open accounts (current account, saving account, term deposit account) in both foreign currencies and Jordanian Dinars. The JCB also enables the currency swap in (Jordanian Dinar with foreign currency) inside JCB, where other currency exchange offices also work under the Central Bank Jordan guidelines and controls (ABA, 2011; JIC, 2015; CBJ, 2018). Jordanian Commercial Banks provide banking services to various segments of customers in all regions and cities of the Kingdom, where the number of employees in these banks, according to the Association of Banks in Jordan at the end of the year (2018) is (21247) employees. The number of male employees (13970) represents (65.75%), while the number of female employees (7277) represents (34.25%).

Human Resource Agility

Today’s challenging environment has put pressure on organizations to improve their adaptability, build resiliency, and implement their actions in a timely fashion. Thus, human resource agility emerged as a new solution to changing and dynamic environments in the early 1990s and became the essential factor for the organization's success and development (Al-Faouri, Al-Nsour & Al-Kasasbeh, 2014).

In this regard, human resources agility is viewed as one of the modern management concepts that have emerged to enable business organizations through employees to innovate and adapt to meet the challenges posed by the unstable business environment, such as rapid advances in modern technology and communication, and the opening up of global markets (Sumukadas & Sawhney, 2004). Moreover, human resources? effective use is often essential to the organization's success over competitors, particularly in highly competitive sectors. The idea of human resource agility has been discussed and is vital for the production of an agile organization because human resource agility depends on active employees rather than systems (Qin & Nembhard, 2010).

Thus, human resources agility is necessary for organizations to survive, improve, develop, and adapt to changing environments. There are two benefits to human resources agility. Firstly, it is the best way to provide and avoid the dynamics and threats in less time (Sherehiy et al., 2007). Secondly, it finds the best way of identifying the opportunities and capitalizes on them at the right time (Sharifi & Zhang, 1999). In this regard, previous studies stated that human resource agility had been grouped into three dimensions:

a) Proactivity

Known as when individuals in the organization take the lead by providing new ideas and suggestions, in addition to the ability to make the right decisions to solve the problems as well as to creatively deal with any situations they face (Sherehiy, 2008; Al-Faouri et al., 2014). In this vein, Alavi (2016) mentioned that proactivity anticipates and solves any organizational problems in changing environments and improvements in work.

b) Adaptability

The individual's abilities to work in any organization and change or modify their behaviors to go along with any changing situations in the external or internal work environment and respond to this change quickly (Sherehiy & Karwowski, 2014). Likewise, as indicated by Liebowitz (2008), adaptability contains rapidly commercialize innovations, quickly adapting to unanticipated changes, anticipate potential market opportunities for new services or products, expect crises and surprises, reduce market response times, receptive to new market requests, and adjust quicker than the competition, to accomplish flexibility with the evolving condition.

c) Resiliency

An organization must become resilient to a more extensive range of shocks and stresses to be prepared for environmental changes. Efforts to foster environment change resiliency must be bundled with efforts to achieve development and sustainability (Al-Faouri et al., 2014). Apart from that, (Al-kasasbeh et al., 2016) explained that resiliency is seen as the employee's ability to work efficiently under pressure in a changing environment. It is an attribute of human resource agility, which expresses the ability to function under stress against a changing environment efficiently (Griffin & Hesketh, 2003; Al-Faouri et al., 2013).

The Job Empowerment

The concept of job empowerment has focused on many types of research and practices for several years. It has taken many different forms, developing through employee engagement and participative decision-making into the modern empowerment perspective (Greasley et al., 2005; Purwanto, 2018; Sonal, Sangeeta & Vivek, 2019).

In this regard, job empowerment for employees has become necessary in the face of technological advances, as various business organizations are now doing the same work with fewer individuals. This shows the importance of unleashing individuals? energies by giving them power and strengthening the relationship between them and the organization at all administrative levels to motivate them to present their ideas and develop their innovative contributions to serve their organizations (Hanaysha, 2016; Purwanto, 2018). Therefore, many of the views and trends are sought to advocate empowering employees and strengthening their position to provide the opportunity for creativity and innovation and increase productivity, as an integral part of the organizations administrative system (Al-Ababneh et al., 2017). In this conceptual framework, the author concentrates on the following dimensions:

A) Delegation of authority

The process of granting authority to the lower administrative levels so that the staffs of the organization have the capacity to influence decisions from the top level to decisions about their performance (Liu & Li, 2017).

B) Work Teams

A group inside the organization that complements each other’s skills. Their experience and efforts could combine to fulfill a shared objective, and they see themselves responsible for that (Abuzid & Abbas, 2017).

C) Effective Communication

This kind of strategy is explained by circulation, information flow, and active participation across the organizations various levels. It is stated that trust and confidence in leadership are the most reliable predictors to ensure the achievement of the organizations goals (Yuesti & Sumantra, 2017).

D) Decision Making

This strategy is known as the process of allowing the organizations employees to express their recommendations, suggestions, and views regarding their department and work (Hanaysha, 2016). Finally, these four dimensions of job empowerment are seen as essential in any organization to help enhance these organizations performance and encourage employees to be motivated within the organizations.

Job Satisfaction

In simple words, job satisfaction is how employees feel about their jobs and the various characters of their works. There are fundamental reasons why organizations should be concerned with job satisfaction, such as employees deserve to be treated with respect, and job satisfaction can influence behavior that affects organization goals (Poursadeghiyan et al., 2016).

In this conceptual framework, job satisfaction is the mediating effect on the relationship between job empowerment and human resource agility, which produces a link between the organization and workers to achieve organizational goals. It helps the employees inside the organization adapt and overcome with changing environment, which prevents them from leaving their job. Besides that, job satisfaction is influenced by various factors, such as the pay, supervision, and nature of work (Davies, Van derHeijden & Flynn, 2017; Al-Abdullat & Dababneh, 2018).

So, job satisfaction helps produce a talented and motivated workforce that encourages employees to gain knowledge, experiences, and skills to develop an organization (Al-Abdullat & Dababneh, 2018). Likewise, job satisfaction is a feeling of employees about their job in the organization and the factors or situations that affect the employees, such as pay, work environment, and supervision that link employees with the organization (Valaei & Rezaei, 2016).

In contrast, Tufail, et al., (2016) add that a person with high satisfaction displays a positive attitude while unsatisfied persons will have a negative attitude about the work. This definition is extended by Bansal &Verma, (2013), who defined job satisfaction as an individual’s cognitive, affective, and evaluative feelings toward their works. Hence, the importance of job satisfaction has been widely discussed in previous studies, and it is stated that increased satisfaction among workers causes less turnover rate and absenteeism. However, there has been an agreement between academicians and employees that pay, job freedom, supervision, and work nature can be important determinants of job satisfaction.

In general, job satisfaction is the positive or negative reaction of the employee towards their business. A substantial level of job satisfaction of employees is an essential factor in the success of the organization. From this view, the management involving employees must be satisfied with their job and are more active than those unsatisfied with their job (Bayarcelik & Findikli, 2016).

Job Empowerment and Human Resource Agility

This part highlights and discusses the relationship between job empowerment and human resources agility. According to the previous studies Kock & Gemünden (2016); Aldalayeen & Aldofairy (2016); Mudali (2016); Ibrahim & Mona (2018); Deksnys (2018); Lee, Pak, Kim & Li (2019). These variables are crucial to the organization's growth, development, and adaptation to the changing environment. Besides, today’s economy is more dependent on individuals. In this regard, Sherehiy, et al., (2007) stated that to get human resource agility, the organization needs individuals to have an ability to participate in information, experience, skills, the effectiveness of cooperation, speed of developing new skills, and responsiveness to changing customer needs.

Additionally, job empowerment is an essential indicator of the right decision-making (Breu et al., 2001). In this regard, according to Fini & Fini (2016); Deksnys (2018), job empowerment is granting the authority and the right of decision-making to employees and effective communication to increase their efficiency and encourage them to play a useful role in the organization. Besides, according to Ibrahim & Mona (2018), job empowerment practices significantly influence human resource agility. Also, Lassoued & Guirat (2020) stated that job empowerment has a significant positive influence on improving problem-solving and decision-making abilities between employees. Moreover, Muduli (2017) indicated that psychological empowerment is positively related to workforce agility. Also, Ghalich Khani & Hakkak (2016) stated that empowerment is crucial in the organization, and it has a direct positive influence on organization agility. Furthermore, organizations need to be adapted to the environment to sustain and improve their efficiency in the face of extensive and continuing environmental changes. According to Shah (2017), there is a significant positive relationship between empowerment and organization agility.

Hence, the following hypothesis is made:

H1 Job empowerment positively relates to human resource agility at Jordanian commercial banks.

Delegation of Authority and Human Resource Agility

Delegation of authority is one of the modern trends practiced by managers that imply granting authority to the lower administrative levels so that the organization's staff can affect decisions coming from the top level to decisions about their performance (Liu & Li, 2017). In this regard, according to Alhosani & Rehman (2018), the delegation of authority significantly affects the overall efficiency of human resources. To achieve agile capacities for organizations, all employees should absorb a mindset directed towards human resource agility (Sumukadas & Sawhney, 2004). Additionally, Al-Jammal & Hamadat (2015) studied the influences of a delegation of authority on employee performance. They noted that delegation of authority has a positive relationship with efficiency among different jobs. Likewise, Thoms & Olarewaju (2018) appraised the relationship of a delegation of authority with the employee's performance insides the organization. They noted that the delegation of authority has a significant relationship with the organization's effectiveness. Moreover, according to Lassoued & Guirat (2020), there is a statistically significant positive impact of delegation of authority on improving problem-solving and the right decision-making abilities between employees. Furthermore, there also exists a positive and significant impact between the delegation of authority and human resources agility (proactivity, adaptability, and resiliency) (Aldalayeen & Al dofairy, 2016).

Thus, the following hypothesis is made:

H1a The delegation of authority positively relates to human resource agility at Jordanian commercial banks.

Work Teams and Human Resource Agility

A work team is a small group of organization staff that complements each other skills to combine their efforts and experiences to achieve a common goal. The staffs consider themselves mutually responsible, which may further increase agility (Abuzid & Abbas, 2017). In this regard, Muduli (2016) stated that organizational practices could improve the workforce's agile characteristics and behavior. In detail, work teams have a positive influence on human resources agility (proactivity, adaptability, and resiliency). Furthermore, according to Hawajrah (2019), work teams have a positive impact on the organization's strategy agility, while Erkutlu & Chafra (2012) stated that work teams are positively associated with proactivity. Likewise, according to Sofijanova & Zabijakin (2013), an organization that supports work teams has the most influence in improving agility. Finally, according to Ibrahim & Mona (2018), work teams job empowerment practices significantly impact workforce agility (proactivity, adaptability, and resiliency).

Thus, the following hypothesis is made:

H1b Work teams positively relate to human resource agility at Jordanian commercial banks.

Effective Communication and Human Resource Agility

Effective communication implies information flow, circulation, and active participation across different levels of the organization (Yuesti & Sumantra, 2017). In this regard, according to Lee, et al., (2019), job empowerment practices (effective communication) are positively related to human resource agility (proactivity) behavior. Likewise, according to Lassoued & Guirat (2020), there is a statistically positive significant impact of job empowerment (effective communication) on improving the right problem-solving and decision-making abilities between workers in different environments. Furthermore, according to Deksnys (2018), effective communication positively affects human resources agility (proactivity, adaptability, and resiliency).

Thus, the following hypothesis is made:

H1c Effective communication positively relates to human resource agility at Jordanian commercial banks.

Decision Making and Human Resource Agility

Decision making is the process of allowing the employees of the organization to express their views, suggestions, and recommendations on the decisions that concern their work or their department to adapt to changing environments (Hanaysha, 2016). In this regard, according to Kock & Georg (2016), decision-making quality is positively related to agility. Moreover, Nafei (2016) stated that organization agility (decision-making agility) is positively associated with organizational performance. Additionally, according to Sherehiy & Karwowski (2014), job empowerment practice (decision making) is positively and significantly related to human resource agility (proactivity, adaptability, and resiliency). Finally, organizational practices (decision making) are positively and significantly related to workforce agility (proactivity, adaptability, and resiliency) (Muduli, 2016).

Thus, the following hypothesis is made:

H1d Decision-making positively relates to human resources agility at Jordanian commercial banks.

Job Satisfaction as a Mediator between Job Empowerment and Human Resource Agility

Job satisfaction refers to employees feeling of fulfillment and happiness at the workplace, which determines their engagement and interest in the organization. Verplanken & Roy (2016) discussed that job satisfaction is not just due to pay and promotion, but also the freedom enjoyed by employees in decision-making and implementation processes resulting from job empowerment. Moreover, Top & Tarcan (2015) stated that with job empowerment, employees feel related to their works, which develops their insight into how well their work gives them meaningful things (Bello & Bello, 2017).

Meanwhile, the environment is rapidly changing, and the economy is more dependent on employees, which needs job satisfaction for employees with job empowerment to achieve human resources agility. In this regard, human resources agility requires activities of developing new skills, the interaction between employees, and responsiveness to customer needs. If these variables come together, we will produce a response to the changes and achieve the organizations goals (Ahammad, Glaister & Gomes, 2020; Muduli, 2017). These studies stated that job satisfaction as a mediator is significantly related to job empowerment and human resources agility.

Apart from that, when employees are satisfied with their works and have skills, capabilities, experiences, and powers, they can develop their work environment. This offers them opportunities to grow and allow top management to grant them the freedom to participate in all the organizations problems. It promotes human resource agility, where job empowerment in the organization can produce proactivity, adaptability, and employees? resiliency. Thus, when employees feel empowered, proactive, and resilient, job empowerment is more likely to be adaptable because of the improved resiliency that accompanies empowerment. Finally, job satisfaction as a mediator positively affects the relationship between job empowerment and human resources agility (Muduli, 2017; Al-Abdullat & Dababneh, 2018).

On the other hand, job empowerment can be deemed as enabling relationships of power through a process that encourages employees. Likewise, according to (Rahmat, Ramly, Mallongi, & Kalla, 2019; Al-Ababneh, 2017), job satisfaction as a mediator is a crucial and exciting issue since its benefits are competent to develop employees and increases job empowerment. By granting the employees their job freedom to participate with their managers and other employees allows them to continue the effort required to keep human recourses agility, and an essential indicator of employees adaptation to changing environments (Strauss & Mason, 2015).

Moreover, according to Stewart, Astrove, Reeves, Crawford & Solimeo (2017), job satisfaction produces a strong interpersonal relationship between employees and managers. A positive influence on job empowerment can be achieved through improved communication, work teams, and decision-making participation. When changes occur, the employees are pushed to adapt to changing environments and achieve human resources agility, which increases their loyalty and job satisfaction to the organization (Maheshwari & Vohra, 2015; Idris & Coughlan, 2018). Finally, these studies stated that job satisfaction, as mediating, positively affects the relationship between job empowerment and human resources agility with its dimensions. Additionally, employees with high satisfaction tend to be more adaptable and achieve the organization goals where employees with greater adaptability can improve their positive reactions about their job development, thereby increasing their job satisfaction towards their work (Tolentino, Garcia, Restubog, Bordia & Tang, 2013; Hirschi, 2014; Chan & Mai, 2015, 2016).

Besides this, Jamal & Ali (2017) argued that job empowerment practices could lead to positive organizational outcomes, such as increasing employee loyalty, decreasing turnover intention, improving job motivation and abilities, and increasing service quality. In this regard, Jiang, Flores, Leelawong, & Manz (2016); Bayarcelik & Findikli (2016) confirmed that empowered employees who are granted greater autonomy to decision making are usually more satisfied with their job. Therefore, job satisfaction plays an essential role between job empowerment and human resource agility.

Thus, the following hypothesis is made:

H2 Job satisfaction mediates the relationship between job empowerment and human resource agility at Jordanian commercial banks.

Conceptual Framework

This conceptual framework is proposed for this research, as shown in (figure 1) to facilitates an evaluation of the effect of Job satisfaction as mediating between Job Empowerment as an independent variable with its dimensions (delegation of authority, work teams, effective communication, and decision making) and Human Resources Agility as the dependent variable with its dimensions (Proactivity, Adaptability, and Resiliency) at Jordanian commercial banks. This is to improve the performance of the employees in these banks, provide the best banking services to different customer segments, and know the importance of job satisfaction as mediating between these variables In this regard, several previous studies have shown that job satisfaction as a mediator is very important and affects job empowerment and human resources agility with its dimensions. Thus, missing it in the long term leads to creating rebelliousness, reduces the feeling of responsibility, and affects the organization's social system (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012; Tolentino et al., 2013; Chan & Mai, 2015, 2016; Yari et al., 2018). Additionally, this conceptual framework may benefit researchers by adding new knowledge and applying this study in different sectors and various countries in future studies.

Discussion

This study adds to the developing literature and clearly explains the effect of Job satisfaction as mediating between the Job Empowerment with its dimensions (delegation of authority, work teams, effective communications, and decision making) as well as Human Resources Agility with its dimensions(Proactivity, Adaptability, and Resiliency) at Jordanian commercial banks. Therefore, according to previous studies, this study is one of the first studies investigating the relationship between these concepts and collecting them in this study. However, many studies have dealt with each of these concepts separately, such as in the studies of (Sumukadas & Sawhney, 2004; Alavi, 2016; Al-Ababneh et al., 2017). It concludes that job satisfaction has a significant positive correlation between job empowerment and human resource agility (Solajaet et al., 2016; Valdez et al., 2019; Ali et al., 2017; Jamal et al., 2017).

In this regard, job satisfaction as a mediator is essential in keeping human resources agility in the organization. Thus, missing it in the long term leads to creating rebelliousness, reduces the feeling of responsibility, and affects the organization's social system (Yari et al., 2018). Several studies have shown that job satisfaction as a mediator positively affects job empowerment and human resources agility with its dimensions. Additionally, employees with high satisfaction tend to be more adaptable and achieve the organization goals where employees with greater adaptability can improve their positive reactions about their job development, thereby increasing their job satisfaction towards their work (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012; Tolentino et al., 2013; Chan & Mai, 2015, 2016).

Besides this, Ali, et al., (2017) argued that job empowerment practices could lead to positive organizational outcomes, such as increasing employee loyalty, decreasing turnover intention, improving job motivation and abilities, and increasing service quality. In this regard, Jiang et al., (2016); Bayarcelik et al., (2016) confirmed that empowered employees who are granted greater autonomy to decision making are usually more satisfied with their job. Therefore, job satisfaction plays an essential role between job empowerment and human resource agility.

Conclusion

This conceptual study results from the theoretical gap in the importance of job satisfaction as a mediator between job empowerment and human resources agility at Jordanian commercial banks. This is to improve the performance of the employees in these banks, provide the best banking services to different customer segments, and know the importance of job satisfaction as mediating between these variables. The Jordanian banking sector is an essential economic sector contributing to the GDP, labor force, and the Jordanian economy main pillars. Therefore, this study is one of the first studies that investigate the relationship between these concepts. In other words, the significance of the current study comes through its coverage of this gap, where this study may benefit researchers by adding new knowledge about the effect of job satisfaction as a mediator between job empowerment and its influence on human resources agility. Thus, This concept paper can be applied in different societies and different countries in future studies and may help the banking sector in general and the Jordanian commercial banks, in particular, to be able to adapt to the internal and external changes in the work environment and meet the needs and desires of different segments of customers, and access to the competitive advantages that should be achieved.

Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest concerning the research, authorship, and/ or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and publication of this article.

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