Objective  To explore the impact of perceived organizational support on job satisfaction and mediating effect of psychological capital on the correlation between perceived organizational support and job satisfaction among sanitation workers.

  Methods  With cluster sampling, we conducted a questionnaire survey among 1 342 sanitation workers in three cities of Liaoning province during June – August 2018. Perceived Organizational Support (SPOS), the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ), and Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ-24) were administered to the workers; SPSS 17.0 and AMOS 22.0 software were used in data analyses.

  Results  For all the participants, the mean scores were 32.75 ± 6.15 for perceived organizational support, 56.29 ± 7.21 for job satisfaction, and 86.34 ± 7.40 for psychological capital. Perceived organizational support showed a positive predictive effect significantly on job satisfaction (β = 0.497, P < 0.01). The four dimensions (self-efficacy, hope, resiliency and optimism) of psychological capital had positive predictive effect significantly on job satisfaction, with the beta values of 0.159, 0.180, 0.138 and 0.161 (P < 0.01 for all), respectively. The standardized path coefficient for mediating effect of psychological capital on the correlation between perceived organizational support and job satisfaction was 0.33, accounting for 49% of the total effect.

  Conclusion  Perceived organizational support can positively affect job satisfaction and psychological capital partially mediates the correlation between perceived organizational support and job satisfaction among sanitation workers.