Evidence regarding the association between teleworking and job satisfaction is mixed. This study aims to examine whether leadership capacity is statistically positioned between favourable teleworking perceptions and job satisfaction in a highly regulated financial-services setting.
A quantitative approach was applied, and 190 questionnaires were collected through a cross-sectional survey of employees from six branches of a banking organisation in Lima, Peru. After prespecified response-quality checks, the primary analytical sample comprised 127 respondents. Ordinal confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling of latent variables were estimated using robust weighted least squares (WLSMV). In addition, measurement-model comparisons, reliability and validity analyses, common-method diagnostics, Monte Carlo confidence intervals, and sensitivity analyses of the estimator, item retention, case retention and control variables were performed.
The total association between teleworking and job satisfaction was positive (B = 0.610, ß = 0.396, 95% Monte Carlo CI for B [0.352, 0.871]), supporting H1. Teleworking was positively associated with leadership capacity (ß = 0.509), and leadership capacity was positively associated with job satisfaction (ß = 0.753). After leadership capacity was included, the residual direct association between teleworking and job satisfaction was negligible (B = 0.020, ß = 0.013, p = 0.818). The indirect association through leadership capacity was positive (B = 0.589, ß = 0.383, 95% Monte Carlo CI for B [0.404, 0.786]). The model explained 25.9% of the variance in leadership capacity and 57.7% of the variance in job satisfaction.
The study conceptualises leadership capacity as a set of organisational and managerial capabilities – work organisation, employee well-being, communication, professional development and self-efficacy support – rather than as a specific leadership style. The findings provide contextualised evidence of an indirect statistical association linking favourable teleworking perceptions with job satisfaction through this capability-based construct in a regulated Latin American banking setting. Given the cross-sectional, single-organisation and convenience-sampling design, the contribution is associative rather than causal and should be interpreted within this context.
