Modern Labor Management and Personnel Work - Essay Example

Perhaps the central objective of modern labor management and personnel work can be said to be the heightening of morale or improving of workers' attitudes Kornhauser, 1930. Introduction Strategic management, in general, aims to influence the beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviours of management and employees, as well as other stakeholders. Behavioral management emphasizes a psychological approach to understanding and explaining human behavior within the organizational setting, and in recognizing that a clear relationship exists between employee participation, productivity, staff and customer satisfaction (Schlickman, 2003). It is generally accepted that quality management is a critical research area in present day corporate discourse. The topic has developed into an integral facet of business culture, on par with financial reports. Focus on individual behaviour is still recognized today by management researchers to be critical in planning management strategies. Behavioral management theory has been modified over time, to incorporate more cognitive and agenetic theories that are inclusive of an individual's socio and physical environment (Stroh, Northcraft, & Neal, 2001). As such, behavioural management theory provides guidance as to management and employee personal and occupational development, and in the identification of employee and target market expectations and needs. This paper will propose a qualitative investigation of job satisfaction among employees at a local bank. Firstly, a literature review will identify current knowledge to justify the design chosen. Secondly, the method will outline the proposed design, variables, materials, ethical considerations and procedure. Finally, a conclusion shall synthesize the main points of the paper and demonstrate the important implications of conducting this study to enhance employee work experiences and to increase workplace efficiency. Review of the Literature Behavioral management is a psychological approach to understanding and explaining human behavior; within the organizational setting, the general theory has been used for performance management. Corporations have used the theory to define work behaviors that are considered the most effective to get the job done (Coffs, 1997). Behavioral analysis incorporates a set of concepts and methods that can help to establish efficient and harmonious workplace environments. Behavior analysis concepts help us understand how people function within the realities of the world they live in. Drawing also on general systems concepts, behavioural management theory aids in understanding the reasons why an employee takes a course of action that they do, as well as informing management as to how to determine training needs; and how to communicate positive and negative feedback on employee's performance (Wilson, Lizzio, Whicker, Gallois, & Price, 2003). Importantly, and some say unfounded, job satisfaction has become the work attitude to be investigated by a majority of researchers seeking to establish a relationship between employee attitudes and workplace efficiency (Wright, 2006). Such study reveals information about the person as an employee, as well as a social entity. "Attitudes," "motives," "values," "perceptions," "personality characteristics," "intelligence," and "performance outcomes," can describe an employee in terms that management can apply to overall business strategies (Kane, 1996). Toyota Ltd takes a critical approach to investigating employee perceptions of work satisfaction. The give each employee a questionnaire for self-evaluation and management feeds back their interpretations, often, the employee might have a different target set as compared to management in terms of performance (Toyota Industries, 2004). Strengths are recognized, and the employee is mentored to work on their weaknesses so as to improve performance. Continuous improvement is always the goal for a company, and in terms of people it is recommended to train and re-train, rather than transfer or re-trench. It is an approach to performance where management defines the desired behaviors, and then management determines the degree to which an employee demonstrates these effective behaviors. One study found that ISO 9000 provided 86% of respondents with improved management, control, and/or organizational planning, which provided staff with a consistent work environment, encouraged a company culture of collaboration, inclusiveness and continual improvement (Lloyd, 1992 as cited in Schlickman, 2003). Other benefits which have been cited include; enhanced team-spirit; consistency in work performance; instilled a confidence in the reliability and dependability of co-workers, increased employee satisfaction and decreased perceptions of stress; an d improved employee moral and training programs (Saarelainen, 1997 as cited in Schlickman, 2003). Davis (2004) used a pre-post design to measure job attitudes across small businesses in the UK. Eighty participants completed a standardized questionnaire and took part in a structured interview before completing the questionnaire again. The design may have led to practice effects, as the participants had already completed the questionnaire in the initial part of the study. Also, considering the standardized procedure the participants would likely have been able to anticipate the research question and hypothesis, and the results could have been confounded by demand characteristics (i.e., participants responding as they think they should to please the researcher). Additionally, given the rigid format of structured surveys and interview, there was little scope for the investigator to obtain deeper meanings to attitudes and perceptions of job satisfaction, as the participants would have had to select from a set of pre-determined answers. The fact that a significant difference was found pre to post for job satisfaction shows that the structured interview may have caused a change in attitudes. However, the change may have been a Hawthorne effect, in that the participants were responding to the positive attention they were getting by being participants. In this sense the design appears to have confounded the results. The study also found that age, work status, gender, and seniority did not show significant impact over job satisfaction. Method Participants All 100 employees of a local bank will be eligible participants for this study. It anticipated that the sample will be comprised of an equal number of females and males, and that age and ethnicity will reflect the company's composition. The sample will be stratified with regard to job role (i.e., three representatives from each level, bank teller to senior management). Purposive sampling is a popular method of recrueitment as the sample size does not have to be fixed before the project begins. It is also an advantage for this study as the sample size will be constrained by time and available resources (Mack, Woodsong, MacQueen, Guest & Namey, 2005). Snowball sampling is a common purposive technique, often termed chain-referral sampling. Participants tap into their social networks to refer potential participants to the researcher (Mason, 1997). An advantage to this method is that "hidden populations" of people not usually accessible to the researcher can be accessed (e.g., non social elders) (Shank, 2002). Ethics Informed consent needs to be seriously considered at the start of any research project (Shank, 2002). Consent is about participants making a reasonable choice to take part in the study as such their aspirations need to "fit" with the goals of the research (Mason, 1997). To assure that the participants for the present study are fully informed, the primary investigator shall discuss the proposed consent form with her supervisor and colleagues, as well as have the form submitted to the university's research ethics committee. This will assure the investigator that possible ambiguities in meaning, confusing sentence structures and missing information are less likely to exist within the form (Patton, 2000). Informed consent includes the awareness of the researcher that participation is dependant on the elder's understanding of the aims of the project, and what is expected of the participant during their participation. Informed consent will ensure respect for participant dignity (Mack et al., 2005). Coercion of participation will be avoided at all costs, as the emphasis is on voluntary participation (Penslar, 1995). Hence, informed consent will maintain the well being of the participants as its priority. They will be provided with an information sheet about study, and when they acknowledge that they understand their requirements they will be asked to sign an informed consent form. Signing of the consent form will provide permission to have their interviews tape-recorded. The name and contact details of the researcher will be made known, and community contacts made available in case participants should be distressed during or after the interviews (Penslar, 1995). Materials As a semi-structured in-depth interview will be carried out, necessary materials will include notebooks and writing materials, as well as a tape-recorder, tapes and extra batteries. Part of the interview will be five standardized items on a 5-point Likert scale (1=Strongly Disagree to 5=Strongly Agree) taken from Davis (2004) study. A semi-structured in-depth interview provides a human element to the research process (Bryman, 2004; Shank, 2002). It is a flexible method in that it uses a guide of questions as a framework, whilst allowing the participant to have a free flow of conversation. As such, it provides an opportunity for the participant to talk in-depth about a topic (Mason, 1997). Although the order of items in the question guide will not change across participants, the different responses of each participant will necessitate different promptings for additional details. This type of interview provides the researcher with insight into the experiences of participants, from the participant's point of view (Guion, 2001; Mason, 1997). The interview is a one-to-one process, usually, and allows the researcher to gauge the participant's interpretation of the relationships they see between events, people and social values (Bryman, 2004). The researcher asks neutral questions and listens actively, does not approve or disapprove of answers, and does not encourage the participant to provide particular answers, instead facilitating the participant to follow up on previous answers (Padgett, 2004). For this project tape recordings of interviews will be used to type transcripts that will also incorporate researcher notes taken during the interview. The data will then be thematically coded for analyses (Patton, 2002). Design This project will use a qualitative research design, utilizing in-depth interviewing. The independent variables shall include: age, gender, ethnicity and role within the organization. The dependant variables for this study are perceptions of workplace satisfaction and co-worker cooperation. Statistical analyses of the raw data will be undertaken with NUD*ST v. 4 and SPSS v. 15. Thematic analyses, frequencies and percentages, Chi Square and Spearman's correlations shall be the statistical analyses used for this research study. For thematic analysis, following each interview the written notes of the interviewer shall be summarized, and assessed for their relevance to the questions asked. Comments on observations made during the interview will also be included. The taped interviews shall be transcribed verbatim onto a word document. Two raters, who will be unaware of the research hypotheses, shall independently identify key themes in the transcripts, in regards to the research question (N.B. Research assistants shall be paid "in-kind"). Inter-rater reliability will then be checked, and themes with at least a moderate agreement (r = .60) will be included for further analyses (Shank, 2002). Key themes will be organized into broad categories and specific sub-categories and labels provided respectively (Patton, 2002; Shank, 2002). Again, inter-rater reliability will be used to reach at least a moderate agreement. The primary investigator shall then make interpretative conclusions about each category and sub-category, evaluate proportions within each group, where possible assess the strength of an attitude or perception, and identify issues that differ dramatically in opinion across the sample (Padgett, 2004; Shank, 2002). Frequencies and percentages shall be obtained via basic descriptive analysis of all variables. The Chi square test shall be used for all categorical variables (e.g., gender, role within the organisation). Continuous levels of measurement shall be used for Spearman's correlations (e.g., age, perception of satisfaction score). Strengths and Limitations There are numerous strengths and weaknesses of this research study. Strengths include the gaining of a personal perspective as opposed to a group interpretation of experiences within the organization as would be the case with a focus group (Shank, 1995). Also, use of the interview method allows the participants to share their feelings, opinions and experiences of working within the organization in an in-depth and personal way (Mason, 1997; Padgett, 2004). It is a strength for this study to gain the individual's interpretation of events, and how they structure their worldview (Patton, 2002). The interview process will also allow the researcher to observe the conversational nuances, body language, casual comments and contradictions of participant interpretations (Mason, 1997). In fact, the interview process can be an extremely positive experience for both the interviewer as they are entrusted with the personal experiences of another (Mason, 1997). The interview can also be of benefit to participants in that it can be cathartic, allowing them to express themselves in a way that would not normally be possible, for example, if they are feeling frustrated about having to work within particular departments or with certain resources (Penslar, 1995). The use of audiocassettes to tape record the interviews shall increase the accuracy of reporting, transcription and the final interpretation by the primary investigator (Penslar, 1995). However, due to the subjective nature of the interview process, it is inevitable that the information collected will also contain biased opinions and feelings (Shank, 1995). Additionally, there will need to be a large number of participants to sufficiently compare responses (e.g., over 300, Penslar, 1995), and given the time and budget constraints of this project, this number is unlikely to be obtained. A strong contributing limitation is the different environments in which the interviews shall take place, increasing the likelihood of distractions that could influence responses (e.g., telephone calls, visitors, work commitments). Also, interpretation of the data will be subjective, and so exposed to researcher bias (Patton, 2002). Another limitation is that it is also possible that given the nature of the study that participants in lower roles may feel intimidated that their information will incriminate them in a poor light to their superiors and that there will be repercussions. Hence, their answers may be modified in order to please the researcher (i.e., demand characteristics, social desirability). Alternatively, the gender, age, social status or ethnicity of the primary investigator may influence responses inadvertently (Mason, 1997). Hence, reliability for the semi-structured in-depth interview will be low: there is unlikely to be consistency in the responses across the participants; there is a lack of standardisation of the interview process across the sample, in that it is semi-structured and so new questions arise based on the response of the participant; and there is a large amount of subjectivity in the interpretation of the response categories by the primary investigator. Thus, the results of this study will not be able to be generalized to a wider population (Patton, 2002). Conclusion In conclusion, the use of an empirical method to investigate job satisfaction is crucial to ensure the systematic measurement of such a concept, and to enable future researchers to replicate this study and to find similar results. Job satisfaction remains the most popular work attitude to be researched to determine ways to improve workplace relationships, employee well-being and company productivity and efficiency. It is anticipated that the present design will provide deeper insights into employee attitudes as it is semi-structured and so allows for their fuller expression of their attitudes and perceptions. A manager who has a clear understanding of the principles and assumptions involved in research design, collection, analyses and interpretation, can confidently make business choices that are informed by up-to-date, relevant, reliable and accurate information. This has dramatic implications for the advancement of measures to investigate job satisfaction. References Bryman, A. (2004). Social Research Methods, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Coffs, R. W. (1997). Human assets and management dilemmas: Coping with hazards on the road to resource-based theory. Academy of Management Review, 22(2), 374-402. Davis, G. (2004). Job satisfaction survey among employees in small businesses. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 11, (4), 495 - 503. Gill, C. W. L., & Jones, G. (2004). Strategic Management Theory an Integrated Approach, 6th Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. International Organization for Standardization (2006). ISO 9000. Retrieved October 10th, 2006 from http://www.iso.org/iso/en/ISOOnline.frontpage. Guion, I (2001) Conducting an In-Depth Interview. Family Youth and Community Sciences Department Document, FCS6012. Kane, R. (1996). The Significance of Free Will. Oxford: Oxford Press. Mack, N, et al. (2005). Qualitative Research Methods: A Data Collector's Field Guide. North Carolina: Family Health International. Mason, J. (1997). Qualitative Researching: An Introductory Text. New York: Sage Publications. Padget, D. K. (2004). The Qualitative Research Experience. Southbank: Thompson Learning. Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Penslar, R. L. (Ed.) (1995). Research Ethics: Cases and Materials. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Powell, T. C. (1995). Total quality management as competitive advantage: A review and empirical study. Strategic Management Journal, 16(1),p.15-37. Schroeder, R. (2003). Operations Management, 3rd ed. McGraw-Hill. Schlickman, J. (2003). ISO 90001: 2000: Quality management system design. Norwood, Ma: Artech House. Shank, G. D. (2002). Qualitative Research: A Personal Skills Approach. Columbus: Merrill/Prentice Hall. Stroh, L. K., Northcraft, G. B., & Neal, M. A. (2001). Organizational Behavior: A Management Challenge. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Toyota Industries Corporation (2004). Social & Environmental Report, 2004. Retrieved November 10, 2006, from http://www.toyota-industries.com/environment/library/pdf2004/p47-52.pdf Tvrdik, B. (1997). Costs and benefits of ISO 9000 registration. Retrieved October 10th, 2006 from http://www.ciras.iastate.edu/publications/CIRASNews/fall97/iso.html Wilson K. L., Lizzio A. J., Whicker L., Gallois C., & Price J. (2003). Effective assertive behavior in the workplace: Responding to unfair criticism. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33(2), 362-395. Wright (2006). The emergence of job satisfaction in organizational behavior. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewPDF.jspFilename=html/Output/Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Pdf/1580120303.pdf Read More