The purpose of this study was to examine the structural cause relationships between cooperative
organizational culture, the empowerment of early childhood teachers, and job satisfaction by using a
structural equation model(SEM) analysis. The study raised the following research questions. The participants
in this study were 339 early childhood teachers working at state-run, public and private kindergartens and
state-run, corporate, public and company nurseries located in 16 ward districts of, Busan Metropolitan City
and 5 cities, in Gyeongnam Province. The findings of the study were as follows. First, the job
satisfaction, of early childhood teachers’ is directly influenced by cooperative organizational culture and
their own empowerment, Second, the teachers’ empoeerment was found to have a mediating effect on the
paths through which cooperative organizational culture influenced the job satisfaction of early childhood
teachers. These findings suggest that psychological factors, such as empowerment, together with job
environment-related factors such as cooperative organizational culture, have a close relationship with the
job satisfaction of early childhood teachers.