Introduction

Job issues are important and fundamental issues in today's societies. Urbanization, industrial development, globalization, economic competition, and factors like them have made employment a fundamental issue in today's human life (1). One of the main issues in the field of work is job enthusiasm, which has many negative consequences. Job enthusiasm refers to the factors of conditions and circumstances that cause the individual to be motivated, directed, and continue to behave in a desirable manner in relation to his job position (2). One of the important variables that can predict job enthusiasm in employees is cognitive ability. Empowerment is a process through which an individual becomes aware of his internal needs, desires, and capabilities and acquires the necessary abilities with the aim of achieving his desires (3).

A comprehensive process of employee empowerment in an organization requires attention to the psychological dimension; Because the necessary condition for empowering employees is to create the right belief and perception of employees towards it, which is provided through a psychological approach. Therefore, successful managers of the organization take action by focusing on the psychological and perceptual dimensions of employees from a psychological perspective, and a bottom-up approach flows in the organization (4).

Another variable that seems to have a mediating role in the relationship between cognitive ability and job enthusiasm in employees is job self-efficacy. Job self-efficacy is affected by enthusiasm and behavior, it affects them reciprocally, and its high levels will increase the individual's participation in job tasks and behaviors. People who do not believe in their abilities become frustrated and helpless in critical situations, and the likelihood of them behaving in a desirable manner decreases. These people are afraid of facing challenging problems, and as a result, their performance suffers. This in turn will lead to feelings of inefficiency and job burnout (5).

Given that cognitive ability, self-efficacy, and job enthusiasm are three important variables in understanding employee behavior that affect employee performance, increase productivity, improve service delivery, and increase its quality, therefore, examining these variables is necessary with the aim of promoting job enthusiasm and reducing burnout in employees and subsequently increasing the effectiveness of the organization. Most studies conducted on the concept of job enthusiasm are descriptive studies, and studies on these variables are few. Considering these cases, the present study aimed to answer the question of whether there is a relationship between cognitive ability and job enthusiasm and mediating job self-efficacy of employees of sports and youth departments in Qom province.

The success and progress of a company or an organization depends on its employees. Therefore, proper human resource management is an important part of maintaining or improving the health of the business. In addition, HR managers can monitor the labor market to help the organization's competitiveness, which can include ensuring that rewards and benefits are fair, planning events to prevent employee burnout, etc. (6). On the other hand, the importance of human resource management in managing the people present in a workplace to achieve the organization's mission and strengthen the culture, and when done effectively, it can lead to the development of the necessary skills in current employees through training and development and greatly increase their productivity (7).

In today's competitive world, one of the important tools for creating transformation and survival of organizations and achieving the desired goals is the human element. Among them, what gives life to the transformation process and guarantees the survival of the organization is human resources. The role of humans in the organization and the way they are viewed will have a significant impact on the failure or success of the organization. The role of human resources is becoming more prominent every day and is now considered the only factor in achieving success and sustainable competitive advantage in the organization. This is especially true in today's economic knowledge (8).

Today, despite the high importance of empowering human resources, increasing their job self-efficacy and job enthusiasm, unfortunately, in Iran, due to numerous reasons, including the vagueness of organizational goals (9), the lack of a proper definition of work and personal relationships (10), the lack of a proper system for performance evaluation (11), the lack of definition of appropriate indicators for measuring (12) and human resource productivity (13), and some factors in the market that arise from the uncompetitiveness of the business environment (14) and the country's economic structure (15), a specific mechanism for improving the quality of human resources has not been defined and even this mechanism is not taken very seriously. Therefore, recognizing and addressing employees' cognitive ability, enthusiasm, and job self-efficacy is of great importance.

Method: The present study used structural equation modeling to evaluate the conceptual model (relationships between cognitive ability, job self-efficacy, and job engagement) with empirical data. In the conceptual model of the present study, cognitive ability and job self-efficacy variables will be measured and evaluated as exogenous variables and job engagement variable as endogenous variable. Given that the present study falls into the category of structural equation modeling projects, two items were tested and evaluated: a) Assessing the fit of the conceptual model, which indicates the degree of agreement between the conceptual model of the present study and the collected studies, and b) Assessing the model hypotheses, which examines the relationship between the model variables.

Participants: The population of this study was all employees of the sports and youth departments of Qom province who are working, with a reported number of 356 people. Given the limited size of the population, the entire population was considered as a sample. Also, convenience sampling was used in this study.

The present research tool is as follows:

Cognitive Empowerment Questionnaire (Spritzer et al., 1997): The number of items in this questionnaire will be 19 and its aim will be to measure the psychological empowerment of employees in the organization and its dimensions. This questionnaire also has subscales of competence (questions 1 to 3), autonomy (questions 4 to 6), effectiveness (questions 7 to 9), meaningfulness (questions 10 to 12), and trust (questions 13 to 19). The validity and reliability of this questionnaire is as follows: Timournejad et al. (2010) used written and oral opinions of specialized professors and experts in this field to increase the validity of the questionnaire, considering the conditions and regulations governing the organization. Also, in order to determine the reliability of the questionnaires, first 30 people were selected from the statistical population and the questionnaire was provided to them, and then Cronbach's alpha method was used to determine the reliability of the questionnaire (Eskandari Nasrabad, 2019).

Betz et al.'s Job Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (1996): The short form of the Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Scale was designed by Betz et al. in 1996 to assess an individual's belief about whether he or she is able to successfully complete the tasks necessary for career decision-making. This test was developed based on Krait's theory (1987) which considers five dimensions involved in career decision-making and therefore had 5 subscales: professional commitment (questions 5, 9, 14, 18 and 22), commitment to the goal (1, 10, 15, 19, and 23), goal setting (2, 6, 11, 16 and 20), planning (3, 7, 12, 21 and 24) and problem solving (4, 8, 13, 17 and 25). Each subscale will have 4 items, so the entire test consists of 14 items (Rahmanpour, 1400).

Salvanava et al.'s Career Enthusiasm Questionnaire (2001): This questionnaire will consist of 41 questions designed by Salvanava and Schöffli in 2001. This questionnaire will consist of 3 components. These dimensions will include vigor (6 items), self-dedication (5 items), and absorption (6 items). Questions 1-6 will measure professional energy (ability), questions 7-11 will measure professional dedication (self-dedication), and questions 12-17 will measure professional passion (absorption). Responses to all items of this scale will be graded from strongly disagree to strongly agree (Asadifar, 1400). Salvanava et al. (2001) reported the validity of the questionnaire through internal consistency of 0.56 to 0.84 and confirmed the discriminant validity and convergent validity of this tool. The validity of the questionnaire was examined through confirmatory factor analysis in the study of Amjad Zavarat et al. (2017). The values ​​of its indices are: the ratio of the model fit criterion to the degree of freedom (df/X2 = 2.723), the comparative fit index (CFI = 0.905), and the root mean square error of estimation (RMSEA = 0.080). Considering that the RMSEA index is less than 0.1, the CFI is higher than 0.90, and the PCFI index, which is equal to 0.667, is higher than 0.50, the model fit was reported to be good and the validity of this questionnaire was confirmed; the reliability of the questionnaire was also reported to be 0.86 (Khidmati,2020).

Results: In general, when working with the AMOS program, each of the obtained indicators alone is not the reason for the fitness or non-fit of the model, and these indicators should be interpreted together. The values ​​obtained for these indicators show that the model is in a good state of explanation and fit.

What can be seen from the results of the above table is that the factors of all three scales have significant factor loadings at a confidence level of 99 percent (p<0.01). Given that in the models tested above, the paths between the variables are the same as the research hypotheses, the following is a test of other research hypotheses along with the tables of direct and indirect effects.

What can be seen from the results of the above table is that cognitive ability has a direct effect on job satisfaction, the relationship between cognitive ability and job satisfaction in employees is directly equal (t = 3.38 and β = 0.38). Therefore, the hypothesis proposed between cognitive ability and job enthusiasm in the employees of the sports and youth departments of Qom province is positive and significant; it has been confirmed with 99% confidence. Also, job self-efficacy has a direct effect on the employees' job enthusiasm, the relationship between job self-efficacy and job enthusiasm is directly equal (t = 4.96 and β = 0.47). Therefore, the hypothesis proposed between self-efficacy and job enthusiasm in the employees of the sports and youth departments of Qom province is positive and significant; it has been confirmed with 99% confidence. Also, cognitive ability has a direct effect on job self-efficacy, the relationship between cognitive ability and job self-efficacy in the employees is directly equal (t = 6.56 and β = 0.67). Therefore, the hypothesis proposed between cognitive ability and job self-efficacy in the employees of the sports and youth departments of Qom province is positive and significant; it has been confirmed with 99% confidence.

What emerges from the results of the above table is that the hypothesis proposed regarding the existence of an indirect effect of cognitive ability and job enthusiasm through job self-efficacy has been confirmed with 99% confidence.

Conclusion: Cognitive empowerment is the process by which individuals' feelings of self-efficacy are enhanced through conditions that eliminate helplessness and helplessness. These conditions can be implemented through formal organizations or informal techniques (16). According to Van Idikking et al. (17), empowerment is a multifaceted concept and cannot be defined by a single concept. They define empowerment more broadly as a state of intrinsic job-related enthusiasm that includes four internal perceptions that reflect individuals' desire for a career plan.

Cognitive empowerment is defined as a construct of job enthusiasm that emerges in four cognitive domains: meaningfulness, competence, self-determination, and impact. These four cognitive domains reflect active (rather than passive) tendencies in relation to the task role. Active dispositions mean that individuals want and feel that they can perform important work roles in their occupational context. These four cognitive domains combine to create a more general construct called psychological empowerment. In other words, the absence of even a single dimension can reduce, if not eliminate, the overall degree of perceived empowerment. Thus, these four dimensions represent a nearly comprehensive or complete set of perceptions and perceptions relevant to the understanding of cognitive empowerment (18).

Some general assumptions about this definition of empowerment need to be made clear: First, empowerment is not a durable personality trait that can be generalized to all situations; rather, it is a set of perceptions that are created by the work environment. Thus, empowerment represents a stream of perceptions that individuals have about themselves and in relation to their work environments. Second, competence is constantly changing, meaning that individuals can see themselves as more or less competent rather than as either competent or incapable. Third, competence is not a universal construct that can be generalized to different life situations, but is specific to the scope and area of ​​work (19). Therefore, the relationship between cognitive competence and job enthusiasm can be justified. In explaining the findings, it can be said that one of the factors related to each individual's performance is believing in their own abilities and strengths. It can be said that self-efficacy is an important factor for successfully performing a function and the basic skills necessary to perform it. Effective performance requires both having skills and believing in the ability to perform those skills. Managing changing, ambiguous, unpredictable, and stressful situations requires having multiple skills. Given the social wind that proves the connection between internal cognition and behavior, it emphasizes that personality self-control factors such as self-concept, self-efficacy, and self-confidence affect all behaviors. Self-efficacy plays a fundamental role in the acceptance, maintenance, and persistence of behaviors and is the most important personal factor in behavior change (20).

An individual's attitude about himself is considered a fundamental and important psychological issue that can provide the basis for an individual's academic and social success and at the same time be affected by it. There is also an interaction between attitude and learning. Most theoretical models of achievement motivation consider individuals' beliefs as the most important and direct determinant of achievement. In fact, the assumption of all these theories is that individuals' expectations for success and their perception of their ability to perform various tasks play a major role in motivation and behavior. Also, judgments of an individual's ineffectiveness in a situation create more pressure than the quality and characteristics of the situation itself. People with low self-efficacy have pessimistic thoughts about their abilities and avoid any situation that they believe is beyond their abilities. In contrast, people with high self-efficacy view difficult tasks as challenges that they can master (21).

Self-efficacy is one of the main factors in desirable personality development and is one of the concepts that has attracted the attention of researchers and experts in psychology and educational sciences in the last few decades. Many scientists have concluded that teachers with high self-efficacy are people who express themselves with a sense of confidence in rejecting and utilizing their talent and creativity and are easily influenced by environmental factors. According to psychologists, a person with high self-efficacy evaluates himself positively and has an appropriate attitude towards his own and others' theories of providence. However, someone with low self-efficacy often has a positive attitude towards the world around him. This person is basically someone who feels little pride in themselves (22); therefore, the relationship between job self-efficacy and job engagement in employees is predictable.

In explaining the findings, it can be said that the effect of participatory systems on empowerment is both cognitive and job engagement. Cognitively, such systems enable individuals to use information better and, as a result, better understand the ways of influencing organizational activities. From the perspective of job engagement, participatory systems facilitate individuals' trust in the organization and increase their sense of control, job involvement, and organizational identification. However, individuals' perceptions of empowerment are very important; many researchers believe that the benefits of empowerment are achieved when individuals first feel empowered (the reason for the failure of some empowerment research and projects) because, according to Bandura's human factor model, individuals actively perceive their environment and it is these perceptions that influence their behaviors.

Research limitations:

In this study, data collection was done by questionnaire and the responses were evaluated based on self-reporting and the responses given depend on the individual's honesty and self-assessment; since this method inherently has limitations such as distraction, inaccuracy, judgmental error, and misinterpretation of instructions, which can affect the results of the study. Undoubtedly, intervening variables such as the influence of subcultures and social and economic conditions can affect the results of the present study. The sample of the present study consists of employees of the sports and youth departments of Qom province, which makes it difficult to generalize the results to other people and other places.

Keywords: Cognitive Ability, Enthusiasm, Self-Efficacy.

Ethical Considerations

Compliance with ethical guidelines

The ethical principles observed in the article, such as the informed consent of the participants, the confidentiality of information, the permission of the participants to cancel their participation in the research. Ethical approval was obtained from the Research Ethics Committee of the Islamic Azad University.

Funding

This study was extracted from the M.A thesis of first author at Department of Sport Psychology of Islamic Azad University.

Authors' contribution

All authors contributed equally to the conceptualization of the article and writing of the original and subsequent drafts.

Conflict of interest

The authors declared no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all participants of the present study.