Linking indirect compensation to behavioral loyalty: attitudinal loyalty and personal job satisfaction as key drivers

This study investigated the impact of indirect compensation on teachers’ behavioral loyalty in vocational colleges in Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, China, and also examined the impact of attitudinal loyalty as a mediator between indirect compensation and teachers’ behavioral loyalty. Six hundred questionnaires were distributed to teachers in six vocational colleges in Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, China, and 600 valid questionnaires were collected, and the data were analyzed by structural equation modeling (SEM) using the SPSS PROCESS macro. It was found that indirect compensation significantly increased teachers’ attitudinal and behavioral loyalty, and there was a positive correlation between attitudinal and behavioral loyalty; moreover, attitudinal loyalty mediated the relationship between indirect compensation and behavioral loyalty to some extent. Furthermore, this study incorporated personal job satisfaction as a moderating factor. The results revealed a significant moderated mediation effect: the indirect effect of indirect compensation on behavioral loyalty through attitudinal loyalty was stronger when personal job satisfaction was low or moderate, but became non-significant when personal job satisfaction was high. These findings provide new insights into the boundary conditions of compensation–loyalty mechanisms and highlight the importance of tailoring compensation strategies to teachers with different levels of personal job satisfaction