HR Services and Employee Satisfaction in the IT Qatari Industry - Research Paper Example

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMAN RESOURCES SERVICES AND EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION IN THE IT QATARI INDUSTRY CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Globalization has produced radical changes in the world such that “knowledge and technology have become the dominant social forces shaping society” (Hage & Powers, 1997). As a result, knowledge management has become an integral part of competitive advantage for an organization, and human resource managers play a pivotal role in today’s business scenario. Human Resource Management has increasingly changed from a cost factor to a success factor (Biesalski, no date). Knowledge management is closely related to the Human Resource department because the role of HR is to strengthen the team efforts to control collective knowledge of the organization. The knowledge possessed by a firm is largely in the domain of expertise and experience possessed by the employees of the firm. One of the fundamental tasks of Human Resource Managers is to manage the skills and knowledge of the employees within the organization so that these skills and knowledge can be better utilized to achieve organizational goals. In this context, Cheese, Thomas, and Craig (1999) have posited, “ Given the strategic importance of talent and the ability to create and develop it, nurturing and developing talent has to become everyone’s responsibility in every organization” (p. 46). Employees are the foundation of every organization. Improving the performance of employees as well as developing measures that reduce staff turnover are major factors that might determine the success of businesses during the contemporary period. Recruitment of skilled and qualified employees is a vital strategy for a company leader to function successfully in the global environment. Retention of skilled employees is equally important because specialized and skilled workers may be in short supply and their knowledge, experience and skills can never be replaced. Wreden (2002) stated that “Studies by consultants with Bain & Co. showed that the companies with the highest employee retention also had the highest customer retention”. Chapter 1 presents the introductory part of the dissertation, the background information about the study and its objectives, the statement of the problem, the purpose of the study, the research design and questions, the significance of the study, the definitions of terms, and outlines the limitations and delimitations of the study. Problem Background G. Kameswari, Director of HR at Knoah Solutions who has more than 12 years of experience observed that the leaders of the organization should constantly motivate the skilled employees, not just in the form of giving them money but also creating the need for a sense of belonging and recognition (Kameswari, 2009). According to Buchen (2006), HR professionals are described as those individuals who are in a leadership position with the responsibility of recruitment and retention of employees, training of staff, and employee development. The process of training and retention of the employees is a very important function of all department managers along with the HR professionals. Motivating the workers by the departmental leaders is a viable option that could promote productivity in the organization. Another advantage of motivating employees is that motivated workers have a sense of belonging and the same sense of ownership of their company and therefore they would put maximum effort in their work fully knowing that their personal sentiments would be taken into consideration by the management (Harvard Business School Press, 2005, p. 12). A disgruntled worker is less productive, counterproductive, and contrary to the goal of profitability. Dealing with such workers will be a challenging task. He is one who finds faults with anything that has to do with the employer (Florczak, 2002, p. 62). Motivated employees are found showing organizational commitment. Novick, Morrow, and Mays (1993) have explained three factors that have a close relationship with organizational commitment and these are: “[1] Belief in the goals and values of the organization, [2] willingness to exert considerable efforts on behalf of the organization, and [3] desire to continue work with the organization.” (p. 270). Marrow (1993), has defined employee commitment as the effort shown by the employees who remain associated with the organization. Harter and Hayer (2002) have argued that, “the personalities of managers directly influence the satisfaction of their subordinates and that the satisfaction level of the subordinates directly influences the performance of the organization” (Hogan, 2000). According to the above mentioned research, the leaders play key role in changing the entire atmosphere of the organization by their influence on the employees. Leadership plays an important role in enhancing the employee commitment and thus to achieve the organizational success. Problem Statement The main problem being addressed in the research study is the apparent lack of power given to HR professionals in IT organizations in Qatar and the need to go beyond the traditional HR domain by changing the minds of the decision makers from CEO to front- line managers at all levels in the principles, practices, and processes of business management in order to enhance employee satisfaction through fair HR practices. While organizations spend time and money in the process of recruiting and training employees in order to produce better results and show excellent performance, their efforts must be expended to ensure that they choose right people in the right place. As Compton and Nankervis (2009) stated, recruitment is the process of sourcing the right people at the right time in the right place and at the right price (p. 15). HR professionals need to build effective human resources management strategies in order to ensure that the employees are satisfied and are provided with best services. They need to work closely with the executive management to provide the best services that advance the purpose of the employees to remain in the organization in a way that can help share their knowledge with other employees and to encourage them to respond effectively to changes taking place in the internal and external environment. However, the specific problem that is often encountered is that employee satisfaction affects staff commitment. Purpose of this study The purpose of this quantitative research study is to determine the relationship between critical dimensions of HR services provided and employee commitment by surveying 100 members from different departments of an IT institution based in Doha in the State of Qatar. The study aims at assessing the available information about human resource practices by focusing on how human resource managers could effectively retain the employees and what strategies could be implemented in order to satisfy employees in the working environment. The dependent variable of the study is employee commitment, which is based on how leaders can use effective ways of giving rewards and bonuses that can improve employee performance. The independent variables are recognition on the job, giving responsibility to the employees, flexibility of the leaders while dealing with their subordinates, and organizational culture. The leadership styles within organizations and the impact of these styles upon employees are also a part of this study. Theories of motivation will also be explored to assess how they contribute to effective motivation and retention of the employees. The purpose of this research is to assess the HR services that are provided in an IT organization in Doha and to find out the degree of employee commitment and satisfaction in the same organization by conducting a survey of 100 members from different departments of the same company. Significance of the study During the contemporary period, the high number of cases of staff turnover in an organization is indicative of the level of morale of workers, as well as their commitment to their jobs. Novick, Morrow, and Mays (2007) have posited that there are three factors that have a close relationship with organizational commitment and these are: “[1] Belief in the goals and values of the organization, [2] willingness to exert considerable efforts on behalf of the organization, and [3] desire to continue work with the organization” (p. 270). This study is particularly important in that it can give insight into pertinent issues that affect the performance of the workers. The research focuses on the lack of power given to HR professionals in a Qatar based IT organization and it points out that there is a growing need to go beyond traditional HR practices so as to improve employee satisfaction. Significance of the study to leadership The leaders of the organization have a vital role to play as far performance of the organization is concerned, with regards to the inevitable changes in the cultural landscape of the organization. In this context, organizational culture needs to be produced and structured, as well as presented so that the views of leaders in this particular case while retaining a sense of commitment among the workers at lower levels can be expressed (Palich, Cardinal & Miller, 2000). In most cases, the persons who are at the top of the hierarchy have the power to exercise strategic imagination, as well as impose their views as long they conform to the operations of the organization, with how the organization ought to function while retaining a sense of high morale among the workers. Leaders are responsible to effect change, to maintain an effective cultural environment, to build teams and create cohesion, to resolve conflicts and build the organizational culture through mentoring, coaching, inspiring and motivating (Kreitner, Kinicki and Buelens, 2002, p.450- 451). Nature of the study Quantitative data collections technique will be used in this study and will include primary as well as secondary data. Quantitative data are data that can be expressed numerically (Struwig & Stead, 2004). This often involves primary data collected from the employees through the use of questionnaires. Closed questionnaires will be used where a respondent is given a choice from those available and can indicate the chosen answer. The survey instrument selected for the study is a research questionnaire and has been selected because it provides a cost effective method of gathering data in a structured and manageable way (Wilkinson & Birmingham, 2003). Using a Likert style questionnaire helps to address the problem of subjective responses because it allows the collection of participant attitudes in a numerical format. Research design A research design is a conceptual structure, outline or blueprint of what the researcher will do in the study. Researchers will follow proper guidelines that are meant to obtain data to be analyzed, and ultimately used to attempt to solve the research problem or answer the sub- research questions. Research design represents the entire structure and working framework of the research that makes it possible and valid to draw more general conclusions from the study (Oppenheim, 1992). It works as the bonding element that holds other elements and parts of research together to give a perfect blend of conclusions and consequences of research. The researcher will use both primary data collection methods in order to provide reliable results. The research will be designed in a manner, which is meant to give a quantitative description of the findings from the selected population surveyed. Survey research will be used in this exploratory quantitative study because of the intent to determine if there is a correlation between HR Services and employee commitment. Survey research as a design is suitable when one is interviewing or administering a questionnaire to a relatively large numbers of people in geographically diverse locations (Singleton, 1999). Survey instruments, tested for validity and reliability, will be selected to ensure the construct validity and reliability the study. Sample size Data for this study will be from HR professionals and upper level managers as well as employees in a specific IT organization in Doha in the State of Qatar. Data will be collected from these individuals by way of a survey questionnaire on (a) the kind of services which are currently being provided by the HR department, and (b) the level of satisfaction of the employees with such levels of service. The Likert style AIM survey questionnaire will contain several variables measuring verbal responses in numerical values in the range of one to five with each response signifying the level of importance accorded by the respondent to a particular question. A Likert questionnaire along with a response format encompasses a five-point Likert rating. By averaging out the responses from all the participants, it is possible to obtain an overall score of how significant a particular variable is from the perspective of the research questions that have been proposed in this study. Data processing, analysis and presentation Quantitative information that would be gathered would be analyzed through statistical analysis techniques using the Microsoft Office software. SPSS statistical software will be used to carry out an analysis of the results. This would include tabulation of the statistical results that would be followed by a descriptive analysis. Correlations will be assessed between variables and chi square analysis will be carried out to determine the relative significance of the variables. Dependent and independent variables Questionnaires will be circulated among the employees of different designation and different departments. The dependent variable is the staff commitment that will be tested against several independent variables such as: recognition on the job, giving responsibility to the employees, flexibility of the leaders while dealing with his subordinates, and organizational culture. Research Questions Retaining employees can be considered from two different angles: horizontal and vertical. According to the perspective of horizontal policy, the leaders from HR managers make general and common rules for all employees. These rules and policies are applicable for each employee of the organization irrespective of his job profile and designation. For example, these include holidays, duty timing, salaries, and other benefits. The vertical policies are applicable to particular departments or designations. For example, if the employee is showing good performance, then his immediate boss who is the leader of the concerned vertical department motivates him. While dealing with employees, the leaders of the company should see whether the retention is being held both horizontally and vertically. Thus, HR managers should educate the leaders in the organization about employee’s retention and how to encourage staff commitment. The research question is: What is the relationship between the services provided by HR managers such as: filling the employees needs, recruiting, training, dealing with performance issues, and supporting employees and the levels of staff satisfaction? How or where will the services be defined? As stated, this is a broad question This study also examines the problem of retention of skilled employees within the context of financial organizations in Doha. The research sub-questions are: a) What measures are currently being implemented within each of the participant organizations to facilitate retention of employees? b) What are the HR services that need to be improved within these organizations? c) What is the relationship between the kind of HR services provided and the levels of staff commitment? Hypothesis The premise of this research study is that employee commitment has ties with the levels of the firm’s productivity. The nature of HR services provided and the relationship between HR personnel and other managers may also influence the levels of staff commitment. This study aims to determine the nature of HR services provided within a firm to the levels of staff commitment. The hypotheses for this study are: Ho: There is no relation between HR services provided and staff commitment. HA: There is a relation between HR services provided and staff commitment. This study would try to test the hypotheses to explore the relationship between staff commitment and the services offered by the HR personnel in a bid to motivate the workers and ultimately seeking to retain them. Theoretical Framework The theoretical underpinning of this study focuses on staff commitment and how HR managers can provide solution to motivate employees. In this study, the researcher will explore the theories of employee motivation, because the main objective of this study is to examine how the human resources managers handle the process of retention, and how they can deal with the retention process more effectively. However, it must be noted that if this retention is not under the framework of an HR manager, it may be difficult for him to take initiatives to retain so as to satisfy his employees. Motivation is defined as the incentive or motivator given to employees to improve their performance as a way of encouraging productivity and ultimately growth of the company. In some cases, satisfaction can be self derived, and no individual can give the other person satisfaction that is related with accomplishing an especially challenging job (Carrell et al., 1995). However, the core of this study is to explore the theoretical framework underpinning the need for an organization to give incentives that motivate workers in order to retain them as a way of turning around the fortunes of the company. In the context of examining motivation of employees at an IT firm in Doha, it must be noted that cultural and religious factors play a significant role in influencing motivation of employees and organizational performance. Budhwar and Mellahi (2006) have pointed out that Arabic countries are primarily masculine and conform to a hierarchical structure. Leadership would need to adopt a contingency approach, such that a productive balance is achieved between the requirements of each task, the team needs, the organizational climate and the situational, contextual pressures of the participated IT organization in Qatar. According to this approach, a leader would need to modify his or her approach to adapt to the contextual situation. For example, in a primarily masculine context such as that which exists in the Gulf, leadership by women would not be acceptable for a specific level. According to Jawabri & Levani (2006) the most important element in Middle Eastern culture is honor. The honor of the family is the top most priority in the region whose central person is the female. This cultural element requires the females to be pure and modest and therefore refrain from misbehavior or contamination. This culture defines the role of women in the domestic life posing restraints on the work life of women. Women are bound by the segregation problems, mobility in the working world, and the dishonor attached to any family or husband as a result of female working outside the home (Noormohamed, 2008; Miles, 2002). This causes the female representation in the Middle Eastern workforce to diminish. Many other cultural constraints are also attached for low participation of women in the workforce. One such constraint according to Miles (2002) is the son preference. In this, a woman is subject to preference among the family members over her son or brothers in looking for work. As it is a common perception that man is breadwinner of the house (Niekerk, 2002, p.99), more preference is given to the man in the house for the job search rather than encouraging woman to go out and look for work. Such constraints affect the women’s role in employment in Middle East negatively. The scenario has changed, as women are not participating in household responsibilities but are also increasingly seen in the work force which has usually been dominated by males (Gonzalez, Karoly and Constant, 2008, p. 111). According to Ross (2008) social theorists claim that women who wish to work outside their homes receive social as well as political liberation. This is true for developed countries but not so for developing economies such as Middle East. According to Yousef (2004), the Middle Eastern countries have the lowest levels of social and economic development in the world. The population in Middle Eastern countries approximately is 313 million with a GDP of $732 billion (Yousef, 2004). Unemployment rate in Middle East is 15% which is among the highest rates globally (Yousef, 2004). The low level of economic development is Middle Eastern countries includes the womens’ rate of unemployment which is higher than the males. The role played by the women in the Middle East workforce is very little but very crucial. As more and more women enter the workforce, it is encouraging for the new generation women to take education which was once thought as an unnecessary thing (Ross, 2008). As women participate in the workplace, it open ups the view that they can earn their own income and thus contribute to the household besides the traditional household duties. For this reason, many Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia and UAE are increasing the women percentage in the workplace by expanding the jobs available to them. Most of the employment sectors heavily populated by women are education and health care (Rubin, 2007). According to a census in 2000, the women workforce occupied 74% of primary school, 54% of secondary school and a certain percentage of them were involved as police officers, military officers and taxi drivers (Rubin, 2007). Although the number of women in the workforce in all over the world including GCC countries is increasing, the number of women is still low as compared to women who stay at home. Many researchers attribute the reason of less number of women in the workplace as compared to the number of males who stay at home to Islamic traditions. The Middle East is in a traditional sense a Muslim region and although all Arabs are not very religious, Islam plays a vital role and Islam has an overwhelming influence over almost every aspects of a person’s everyday life (Wunderle, 2008, p. 27). According to Ross (2007) and Ghimire (2006), people look towards Islam for direction in politics, education and business. Although Islam preaches that man and woman are equal, yet regarding human nature they have been ascribed of different tasks (Moghadam, 2003, p. 209), not many individuals in the Middle East have paid attention to the argument of men and women are equal and segregation and seclusion is prevalent in the name of Islam. The status of woman is a subject of controversy in light of modernist and fundamentalist views. In most countries of Middle East, segregation and practice of veiling by women hampers the entry of women in the workforce. For example, in Saudi Arabia, women have to be properly covered when they venture outside and are prohibited from entering into employment as it is considered a male domain (Rubin, 2007; Robertson et al., 2002). In contrast, women in Egypt participate equally in the workforce with the men and no rule of segregation and veiling is followed (Oxford Business Group, 2007, p. 22). The role of women in the workplace in Middle East is increasing especially in countries such as Egypt, Bahrain, Lebanon, Morocco and Kuwait as the governments are trying to provide better facilities to increase female participation (Moghadam, 2003). Female entrepreneurs are increasing rapidly. Many firms are operated by females in the aforementioned regions which are well-established, technologically advanced, productive and comparable to the male-owned firms not just regionally but globally (Ghimire, 2006). Most of these firms, according to Ghimire (2006), are 1.7 times more productive as compared to those owned and run by men. For example, a business to business trading site based in United Arab Emirates is run by a woman named Sheikha Lubna who is in addition to this is Minister of Economy of UAE and a role model for most of the women in the region (Ghimire, 2006). The active participation of women in the workplace both private and public is adding value to the economic growth of the region. In addition to this, employment opportunities are now provided on an equal basis to both male and female but in some region it is still undermined (Ghimire, 2006).. This is due to the effects of culture and religion on it which are discussed below. Additionally, male leaders would also need to be sensitive to the cultural and religious needs of their primarily. This corroborates the application of a contingency approach to management wherein a leader in a management position in the Middle East. Since HRM theories have been developed and tested primarily within a Western environment, their applicability in the Middle East may be limited within the Arab environment and particularly to Qatar. The problem that arises when western values as embodied in motivational theories are introduced in Middle Eastern culture is the conflict between Western values and the cultural values in Qatar For instance, when Saudi Arabia joined the World Trade Organization in October 2005, it resulted in a conflict between Western cultural elements imported into the country versus the national Saudi Arabian culture revolving around Islamic culture and teachings (Idris, 2007). The situation in Doha is similar to Saudi Arabia, where employees cannot be provided direct feedback on their work performance, especially if it is negative because this could potentially damage the self-esteem of the Arabic employees (Nydell, 2002, p. 35- 36). Nydell (2002) argued that the Arabs are very touchy and their self esteem is easily bruised (p. 38). On this basis, the customary practice in Saudi Arabia is to provide feedback to employees by using an intermediary in order to avoid conflict and the possibility of sending the wrong message (Gopalakrishnan, 2002 cited in Idris, 2007). A similar contextual situation also exists in Doha, where the Islamic culture conflicts with the traditional Western practice of providing direct feedback to employees on their performance, whether positive or negative. HRM leadership, therefore, needs to be oriented towards refining traditional Western feedback practices to make it less direct. Another aspect that must be considered is that many of the employees in IT companies are expatriates, because Islamic employees appear to prefer managerial positions as opposed to technical positions (Idris, 2007). When the performance of these Islamic employees are compared with the expatriates, it would immediately be perceived as favoring foreigners and not necessarily promoting the interests of the local population, Definition of terms Motivation. Motivation is defined as the incentive or motivator given to employees to improve their performance as a way of encouraging productivity and ultimately growth of the company (Armstrong, 2006). Employee commitment. According to Allen and Wilburn (2002), “employee commitment is a strong belief in and acceptance of the organizational goals and values, a willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organization and a strong desire to maintain membership in the organization” (p. 24). Employee commitment refers to the situation where the workers remain loyal and fully dedicated to continue working for the company under whatever circumstance (Palich; Cardinal & Miller, 2000). Recruitment: “Recruitment is the process by which a large number of prospective candidates are attracted by various methods to apply for the job” (Randhawa, 2007, p. 68) Recruitment is the process of searching and selecting right people for the right job at right costs. Thus, recruitment efforts seek to fulfill the needs of both the applicant as well as those of the organization. Culture: Mathis and Jackson (2007) define culture as societal forces affecting the values, beliefs and actions of a distinct group of people” (p. 43) Assumptions The assumptions of the study include the following: The participants in this study are volunteers who are prepared to give their views under no influence of jurisdiction or any form of force. The participants will be aware that their views will remain confidential and the researcher assumed that every participant would have the permission from the superiors to take part in the survey. It has been assumed that the participants will be truthful in their responses for validity and reliability of the results (Struwig & Stead, 2004). The ranking of subjective responses on a scale of one to five is also assumed to be adequate to cover the range of responses required. Convenience sampling will be used in this study by targeting one specific organization in Doha where the participation of HR personnel and other leaders will be sought together with employee feedback. Scope and Delimitations The scope of this study is aimed at discussing the levels of employee satisfaction with the services given by the organization especially the kind of services related to the improvement in staff commitment. The delimitations of this study are (a) examining service by HR professionals who have a minimum of five years of experience, (b) limiting the sample used in this study to the city of Doha in the state of Qatar, (c) ensuring that the professional experience of HR personnel in the field to ensure exposure to the study under review. Limitations of the study The limitations of this study include the following: (a) population is limited to a single private organization which has its own structures, (c) limited time to gather all the necessary information, and (d) some respondents may not be at liberty to express their views. Summary The purpose of this quantitative, descriptive research is to explore the relationship between critical dimensions between HR services provided and employee retention by surveying 100 members 100 members from different levels in a IT institution based in Doha in the State of Qatar. The study also aims at assessing the available information about human resources practices; especially the focus is on how effectively the leaders can retain the employees through devising effective techniques that can be used, and the role of HR personnel in improving employee commitment as an important objective of this study. The study identifies the limitations of the leaders in their approach of suggesting improvement. The independent variable will be the staff commitment which will be tested against several dependent variables such as: (a) recognition on the job, (b) teamwork, and (c) availability of training, giving responsibility to the employees, flexibility of the leaders while dealing with his subordinates and similar variables. This dissertation is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 presents the introduction, the statement of the problem, the purpose of the study, the research design and questions, the significance of the study, and the definitions of terms. Chapter 2 presents a historical and current literature review and assist in choosing the proper survey instrument for this study. The literature review includes an integrative conceptual framework of organizational culture and change. Chapter 3 presents the methodology used in the study, including the research design, population, sampling procedure, instruments and their selection or development, together with information on validity and reliability. Procedures for data collection and data analysis are included in chapter 3. Chapter 4 reports findings on (a) values of the two levels of management, (b) differences between the culture values of the levels of management, and (c) the extent of the relationship between aligned managerial values and readiness for change. Chapter 5 presents a summary of findings, conclusion, and implications for theory, practice, and social change. Recommendations for future studies are also included in this chapter. 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