Unveiling the Determinants of Organisational Commitment: The Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction among Secondary-Level Public Sector Employees in Sri Lanka’s North-Western Province

Organizational commitment of employees is a significant element in influencing performance, engagement, and service quality in the public sector. The findings indicate that employees in the Northwestern Province of Sri Lanka exhibit relatively low to moderate organizational commitment. Addressing this concern, the present study examines the determinants of organizational commitment of public sector secondary-level employees, considering the effects of transformational leadership and organizational communication in a bid to find the mediating role of job satisfaction. The study fills a contextual gap by examining how leadership behavior and communication practices can be used to enhance commitment in the Sri Lankan public sector. A quantitative approach was taken with simple random sampling for representativeness and fairness. Data were collected from 384 employees sampled from a population of about 96,000 through a structured questionnaire. Independent samples t-tests, multiple regression, Pearson correlation analysis and the Sobel test were used to study group differences, relationships between variables, predictive effects, and mediation. The results indicated that gender does not impact organizational commitment level. There is a strong and positive relationship between transformational leadership and organizational communication. And job satisfaction partially mediates these relationships, showing that higher job satisfaction strengthens the positive impact on communication and leadership on commitment. The results of this study highlight the significant role of employee satisfaction in sustaining organizational commitment levels. The study recommends practical remedies such as better communication channels, effective grievance mechanisms and leadership enhancing programmes to improve job satisfaction and boost commitment level. Overall, the study offers valuable insights for human resource management in the public sector, with the perspective of aiming of contributing to higher productivity and workforce stability in Sri Lanka and comparable regional environments.