Impact of Employee Participation on Job Satisfaction - Dissertation Example

Impact of Employee Participation on Job Satisfaction Executive summary The job satisfaction of employees at work place is determined by various factors such as tasks involved, compensations and benefits given to employees, working environment etc. Employees’ participation in decision making is being considered as an important factor to being job satisfaction. In the last few years, the companies are seeking to change their organisational structures to increase the level of employees’ participation. This research paper evaluates the impact of participation on overall job satisfaction of employees. The research will be conducted on five organisations and to collect the data, a survey will be designed with a sample of about 250 participants, 50 from each organisation. The data will be collected through questionnaire and it will be analysed through SPSS software. The data will be analysed by using SPSS statistical techniques including frequency analysis, cross tabulation analysis, Cronbach alpha analysis and Pearson analysis. The three hypotheses will be tested through statistical analysis. It is expected that this research study will find a positive relationship between level of participation of employees at work place and their job satisfaction. Moreover, it is also expected that degree of organisational trust and level of employee motivation play a very significant role in increasing the impact of participation. This research study is very useful from academic and practical point of view, because it will end up with some really useful and practical recommendations. Introduction One of the major challenges which the management of most of the organisations are facing is to develop and implement effective human resource strategies. Developing effective human resource strategies are required because they enhance the overall performance of organisations. Job satisfaction, employees participation, team empowerment are some important components of human resource strategy. Since most of the organisations are facing structural weaknesses and internal challenges, therefore, learning the determinants of job satisfaction has become very important for management. It is generally argued that employees’ participation in organisation, enhance their motivation level thereby, increasing the job satisfaction of people. The aim of this report is to evaluate whether there is a link between employees participation and job satisfaction or not and how participation may increase job satisfaction. This report is very important to understand the factors which may help the organisation to increase job satisfaction to the workers. In addition to the impact of employees’ participation on job satisfaction, this report will also determine the role of level of motivation and organisational trust of employees. Therefore, this report will be really worthwhile for the companies to learn the importance of employees’ participation at workplace. Literature review To achieve high individual and organisation performance, companies are seeking to devise various strategies and employees’ participation in decision making is one of them. Huge literature work has been done to study the impact of employees’ participation on job satisfaction. Georgellies and Lange (2007) highlight that relation between employee participation and job satisfaction is quite strong in organisations however, literature related to job satisfaction and performance of employees is still facing a gap. The researchers have usually found a positive relation between the two variables. Increase in participation of employees in organisations has a positive impact on job satisfaction, commitment and productivity of employees (Bhatti & Qureshi, 2007). Participation of employees affects job satisfaction of employees indirectly through influencing the job characteristics (Wright & Kim, 2004). Some researchers found that impact of participation gets stronger through moderating factors such organisation trust, goals clarification etc. Clarification of goals has a stronger impact on commitment of employees as compared to employees’ participation in organisations (Khan et al). Employees’ participation increases the perceived responsibility of employees, which is directly related to employee monitoring and job satisfaction (Valentine, 2004). Various research studies also found that there is no relation between employee participation and job satisfaction. The decline of overall job satisfaction between 1992 and 2001 in Britain resulted in downward movement of task discretion and upward movement of work effort, however, the employees’ participation did not increase during this period, therefore, and decline in job satisfaction is no where related with participation (Green, 2004). The early literature also suggests that although participation may not have a direct impact on job satisfaction, however, some intervening variables or moderating variables increase the impact of participation. Higher level of organisational trust increases the level of job satisfaction and commitment of employees and lowers their turnover intention, because perception of employees towards fairness of means and outcomes in organisations (procedural justice and distributive Justice) play a significant role in enhancing the level of satisfaction (Fatt et al, 2010). In academic literature, there are two theories of job satisfaction. The first one is Hackman and Oldham (1975) theory which suggests that five core dimensions which make the jobs different are skill variety, task significance, task identity, and autonomy and task feedback and the critical states which an employee may undergo include experienced meaningfulness of work, experienced responsibility for work outcomes and knowledge of results of work activities. When an employee experiences these three critical psychological stages his level of job satisfaction increases. On the other hand, the second theory of Daniels suggest that five factors contributing to job satisfaction are positive effect, anxiety & comfort, depression & pleasure, emotional experience and kindness & anger (FDS). The above academic and professional literature suggests that a significant relationship exists between employees’ participation and job satisfaction, regardless of the direct or indirect nature of relationship. Therefore, the aim of this report is to identify whether nowadays, companies are promoting employees participation or not to enhance job satisfaction. Purpose of study This descriptive research study has been designed to analyse the current practices of employees’ participation at workplaces and their impact on job satisfaction. Research Objectives The major objectives to conduct this research study are as follows: This report aims to determine whether the current practices of employees’ participation in the public and multinational organisations are satisfactory or not. This report also aims to analyse the impact of employees’ participation on job satisfaction. Finally, it will come up with the recommendations that will assist the organisations to improve the job satisfaction of their employees. Research Questions The research questions that have been developed based on research objectives and literature review are as follows: 1. To investigate the extent to which employees are involved in decision making, planning and goals setting of the companies. 2. To determine whether participation of employees enhances their job satisfaction or not. 3. To investigate the ways through which decision making roles of employees could be enhanced at workplaces. Hypotheses Following are the hypotheses which will be tested in this research study: Hypothesis 1: The higher level of employees’ participation at workplaces in decision making process enhances their job satisfaction level. Hypothesis 2: The level of employees’ motivation appears as a strong intervention in increasing the level of job satisfaction. Hypothesis 3: The level of employees’ organisational trust moderates the level of employees’ participation in decision making and achieving job satisfaction. Expected Results At the end of this research study, I expected to obtain the mentioned research objectives. I expect that I would identify the strategies through which organisations are trying to increase the employees’ participation at workplaces. In fact, participation of employees is not always related with decision making, but there are various other aspects which will be covered in this research. I also expect to determine a significant relationship between participation and job satisfaction. Moreover, I also expect to identify whether participation has a direct or indirect impact on satisfaction. It is also expected that organisational trust will appear as a moderating variable and employee motivation as intervening variables between participation and satisfaction. In short, I anticipate to find the extent to which the organisations are relying on employees’ participation practices to increase their job satisfaction and to ultimately achieve good performance. Methods Research Design The proposed research study aims to evaluate the impact of employees’ participation on job satisfaction of the employees. Primarily, it will be a quantitative research study because it involves the collection of data and deals with statistical analysis. Moreover, since this research study also involves the testing of hypotheses by collecting data therefore, it can be also categorised as descriptive research study. The method that has been chosen to collect the data is surveys. It is one-point research study because all surveys will be conducted together and there is no time frame for the study. The reason for selecting this research design is the nature of the topic because to analyse the impact of participation on job satisfaction, there is a need to collect data directly from employees of different organisations. Moreover, since the current situation of the company is to be evaluated therefore, I have selected one-point time research design. Variables There are total four variables that will be used in this research study. The only independent variable is Employee Participation and the dependent variable is Job Satisfaction. Moreover, two other variables include the intervening variable, motivation and the moderating variable, organisation trust. The level of participation, being the independent variable will show the attitude of employees towards current job and it will be measured by measuring the involvement of the employees in decision making. Degree of job satisfaction, being the dependent variable is the indicator of job functionality of the employees. Degree of motivation, being the intervening variable, is an indicator of motivated behaviour and positive attitudes of the people. Finally, degree of trust, being a moderating variable is the indicator of trust of people in organisation. Data collection method The data will be collected through surveys which will be conducted in the organisations. To conduct the survey, five organisations will be selected. Those organisations will be selected, which will allow to conduct the survey and which will be operating for years. A questionnaire will be designed, which will be circulated in the selected organisations both by hand and online. To collect the data, the questionnaire will be having different sections, which will be designed in consideration to the selected variables. The rating scales will be used in data collection and the data will be measured at ordinal level. The survey questionnaire will be divided into five sections. In the section I, the demographic details will be taken such as gender, age, marital status, education level, experience and hierarchical level of participants. In section II, the questions related to employees’ participation in organisation will be collected. There will be ten questions which will ask the participants to agree or disagree with the statements about their perceptions on organisation and working atmosphere. In section III, questions related to employee satisfaction will be asked. The participants will be asked to agree or disagree with the ten given statements regarding their satisfaction level in relation to opportunities given to them to participate in organisation. In section IV, to collect data on employees’ level of motivation, ten questions will be asked to determine the extent to which the participants agree or disagree about their motivation in jobs and on workplace. The final section will be having questions related to organisational trust. The statements in this section will ask the participants to agree or disagree with the questions related to the level of trust provided by their organisation. About 250 questionnaires will be get filled from five organisations (50 from each). The five organisations will be selected in such a way that at least three different industries could be targeted. The level of employees will be from officer level to manager level. Reflection on the strengths and limitations of the proposed The major strength of this report is that it will be a very comprehensive report discussing the impact of employees’ participation on job satisfaction. Secondly, data from different companies operating in different industries will be collected, which will give another advantage to this report. Thirdly, the questionnaire used to collect the data will be very comprehensive, which will increase the quality of collected data. Fourth, the proposed statistical techniques and use of SPSS software will ensure that collected data has been analysed correctly and findings are reliable. Moreover, this report will be useful not from academic point of view, but it will also provide useful information to the management regarding the participation of employees at workplaces. Although, I would try my best to come up with an error free report, however, I do agree with some limitations of this report. The major limitation of this report is the geographical limitation. Because of geographical limitation, I may not be able to consider cultural aspects. Secondly, sample size has been taken to make the results of this research study significantly reliable; however, the sample size is still smaller to make general conclusions. Thirdly, the attitude of participants towards the survey may not be very serious, which may reduce the reliability of data provided. Analysis and interpretation of data After collecting the data, it will be organised on word excel, so that data analysis techniques can be applied. All data collected from different organisations will be combined and data analysis will be conducted in SPSS software. SPSS software techniques will be used to apply the statistical techniques on data. The statistical techniques that will be used for data analysis include frequency analysis, cross tabulation analysis, Cronbach alpha analysis and Pearson correlation analysis. The frequency analysis will be used to analyse the variables having moderate or discrete variables such as age, number of years of experience etc. The cross tabulation analysis will be conducted to relate the questions for example, if few participants have answered ‘yes’ when asked about their participation in the company, then what would they have answers when asked whether they are motivated to achieve organisational goals or not. Cronbach alpha will be used to analyse whether significant level of internal consistency is present or not in collected data. Finally, Pearson correlation analysis will be done to analyse the kind of relation between variables. As there are different statistical techniques that will be used to investigate the hypotheses therefore, throughout the data analysis part, the research questions and objectives will be highlighted if supported by the data findings. Moreover, Cronbach alpha and Pearson correlation analysis will be conducted to determine the relationship between participation and satisfaction; participation and motivation; participation and organisational trust; organisational trust and satisfaction; employee motivation and satisfaction and participation and satisfaction. Since most of the data will be collected through rating scales, therefore, whilst analysing the data on SPSS software, coding scheme will be used. As there will be ten statements in each section including Section II, III, IV, V therefore, all forty questions will be using the same coding scheme. There will be five ratings in each question including strongly agree (5), agree (4), neither agree or disagree (3), disagree (2) and disagree (1). To analyse demographic variables, the coding scheme will be slightly different. For male participants, (1) will be used whereas, for female participants (2), will be used. The coding scheme for marital status includes single (1), married (2), widow (0) and divorced (3). Similarly, the other variables will be following the same coding scheme. Ethical Issues In this research study, an important management issue will be investigated. There are various kinds of organisational structures adopted by companies such as bureaucratic, functional, matrix structure etc. These structures vary based on the level of authority, kind of decision making process and level of hierarchy. For example, in a bureaucratic organisation, the level of participation of employees is usually lesser than the level of participation of employees in a decentralised company. To determine whether the participation of employees increases their job satisfaction or not, is important for management, because of increasing competition. However, conflicts may arise that whether the employees have a right to participate in decisions or affairs of the company or not. A Reflective Section As I am doing this project under Business Research Methods therefore, I have prepared myself mentally to conduct a comprehensive research. Since I already knew that I would require significant primary research therefore, I have selected a topic for which data collection will not be tougher. Whilst doing the research I believe that I would not be facing any significant practical problem. The typical resources I will require for this research study are as follows: Internet Jstor Articles or other Journals Digital Library SPSS Software Microsoft Office Funds I do have access to all these facilities, which will make it easier for me to conduct a research like this. However, I need to get permission for conducting surveys in the organisations, which I believe; I would obtain by showing official university letter. Secondly, I do agree that questionnaire is also lengthy however; it will be distributed by hand, so that the employees should be properly conveyed about the importance of the report from academic and practical point of view. Thirdly, I expect some biased or socially acceptable answers from participants, therefore, to reduce such problems, it would be conveyed to the employees that information collected through surveys will be strictly confidential. Bibliography Bhatti, K. K. & Qureshi, M. T. (2007) Impact of Employee Participation on Job Satisfaction, Employee Commitment and Employee Productivity. [Online] Available from: http://www.bizresearchpapers.com/Bhatti.pdf [Accessed 14 June 2010]. Fatt et al. (2010) The Impact of Organizational Justice on Employee’s Job Satisfaction: The Malaysian Companies Perspectives. American Journal of Economics and Business Administration. [Online] 2 (1), 56-63. Available from: http://www.scipub.org/fulltext/ajeba/ajeba2156-63.pdf [Accessed 14 June 2010]. FDS. (n.d.) Motivation and Job Satisfaction: The Malaysian Companies Perspectives. American Journal of Economics and Business Administration. [Online] 2 (1), 56-63. Available from: http://www.scipub.org/fulltext/ajeba/ajeba2156-63.pdf [Accessed 14 June 2010]. Green, F. (2004) Understanding Trends in Job Satisfaction: Final Report. [Online] Available from:http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/Images/job_satisfaction_green_tcm6-8237.pdf [Accessed 14 June 2010]. Khan et al. (n.d.) Impact of Goal Clarity on Organizational Commitment in Telecommunication Organizations of Pakistan. [Online] Available from: http://www.wbiconpro.com/707-Ibtisam.pdf [Accessed 14 June 2010]. Wright, E. B. & Kim, S. (2004) Participation’s Influence on Job Satisfaction. Review of Public Personnel Administration. [Online] 24(1), 18-40. Available from: http://rop.sagepub.com/cgi/content/short/24/1/18 [Accessed 14 June 2010]. Valentine, R. S. (2004) Men and Women Supervisors' Job Responsibility, Job Satisfaction, and Employee Monitoring. [Online] 24(1), 18-40. Available from: http://www.springerlink.com/content/x852qg5w4j412083/ [Accessed 14 June 2010]. Read More