The Role of Job Satisfaction in Highlighting the Relationship between Authentic Leadership and Organizational Citizenship Behavior in the Egyptian Hotels"

Job satisfaction is a critical factor in high-contact service sectors, such as tourism and hospitality, where frontline employees’ behaviors directly impact customer satisfaction and organizational performance. Drawing on social exchange theory, social learning theory, leader-member exchange theory, and job characteristics theory, this research investigates the role of job satisfaction in highlighting the relationship between authentic leadership and organizational citizenship behavior in the Egyptian hotels. A quantitative research design was employed, collecting data from 381 employees in hotels located in Aswan and Luxor using online-questionnaires. Moreover, structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) used to confirm the proposed hypotheses, which indicating that authentic leadership significantly enhances both job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior, while job satisfaction positively influences organizational citizenship behavior. Moreover, mediation analysis revealed that job satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between authentic leadership and organizational citizenship behavior. These findings highlighted the crucial role of authentic leadership in fostering employee satisfaction and encouraging discretionary behaviors beyond formal job requirements. Furthermore, the research offers practical implications for hotel management, emphasizing the importance of cultivating authentic leadership practices to improve employee engagement, service quality, and overall organizational performance.