Importance of employee satisfaction in an organization

In the beginning, we are looking for the factor that influences job satisfaction among the workers/ front liner in SingTel. After that in the following chapter is about the review of the relevant literature. In chapter 3, we will looking for the method been use for this study and followed by chapter 4 is about the result and discussion from the analyses of data and findings of the research. And for the last chapter which is chapter 5, it summarized and recommend according to the finding and result.

Job satisfaction is about the feeling of the nature of the job. In order for an organization to be successful, it must continuously ensure the satisfactorily of their employees (Berry, 1997). The happier the workers, the more satisfied they are. Besides, satisfied worker also a productive worker. Organization with more satisfied employees tends to be more effective (Robbins & Judge, 2007). In today’s world, organization realize that is it important to keep their worker satisfied as human recourse is the important assets for the organization to keep their business running. With satisfied workers, they will deliver the better quality service to the customer which indirectly will increase customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is important as it is essential in building long-term, profitable relationships ultimately leading to customer loyalty and repeat business.

As for the workers, job satisfaction is important for the employees’ mental health (Smith, Kendall and Hulin, 1969). Upon study on job satisfaction, factor that influences the level of job satisfaction is vital to be addressed. They are many factors that influence level of job satisfaction such as the organization factor which may include working condition or anything that related to the working condition. For example: leadership style and pay.

Besides working condition, personal factors such as health issue and family conflict.

1.2 Problem statement

Human resources are the most valuable assets in an organization especially those high performing employees and it will be a trouble to company if those employees leaving or deliver bad service to their customer. One special issue is the low level of employee job satisfaction that brought difficulties in increasing service quality (Yi, 1993). Seta, Paulus and Baron (2000) pointed out that knowing the factors contributing to the employees’ satisfactions; the organization can plan properly and take appropriate step to increase positive behavior among employees. It means that organization or management need to prepare proper training or program such as reward, growth opportunities or job security in order to increase job satisfaction among the employees.

According to malhotra & Mukerjee (2004), Call centers facilitate flow of information and communication between firms and their remote customers via the telephone. According to Prahabkar, Sheehan, and Coppett (1997), call centers “….allow a company to build, maintain, and manage customer relationships by solving problems and resolving complaints quickly.” Front liners who work in call centre have to answer call from customer 24 hour a day throughout 365 days in a year. As a front lines, this job full with challenge and stress. They need to manage their emotion very well in order to deliver good services to customer. Therefore, it is important to make sure that the workers are satisfied with their current job scope.

Holman et al.’s (2007) “….number of call center employees stood at 450,000.” This is quite a huge amount in this communicating field. According to Zeithml & Bitner (2000), since the customer contact employees or popularly known as the call center agents are the link between the entire organization and the external customer, so they are able to influence the perception of the customer to the organization. From the previous study, there was evidence in between job satisfaction and performance deliver by the front liners.

Therefore, the research tries to find out the link between the job satisfaction and organization factors and also the personal factor.

1.3 Research Questions

The research questions will be:

1.3.1 To what extent is the influence of work conditions on employee job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel?

1.3.2 To what extent is the influence of promotion on employee job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel?

1.3.3 To what extent is the influence of gender on employee job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel?

1.3.4 To what extent is the influence of age on job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel?

1.4 Research Objectives

Based on the above research questions, this study intends to achieve the specific research objectives:

1.4.1 To determine the influence of work conditions on employee job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel.

1.4.2 To examine the influence of promotion on employee job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel.

1.4.3 To investigate the influence of gender on employee job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel.

1.4.4 To determine the influence of age on employee job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel.

1.5 Significance of the study

There are many studies revealed the factors that may affect job satisfaction but they are related to all aspect for the job satisfaction. The employee satisfaction theory (Vroom, 1964) and (Herzberg, 1966) employee satisfaction measurement tools, as well as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (Abraham Maslow, 1943), but there are rarely study regarding factors that may contribute to job satisfaction in call centre in Malaysia.

In Malaysia, call center are growing in a rapidly rate. There are many communication company increases the intake of the call center agent or in the other ways knows as front-liners. From this point of view, it is important for us to study on the front-liners job satisfaction. Since the number of employed for the front-liners are growing, through the study, it help the organization to understand what is the need for the entire front-liners, what is their basic request. Through this study, it help organization to knowing better on what is the benefit that they can provide for them for satisfaction and at the same time organization can deliver a good services to the customer.

Apart from that, this is a way to send out the messages for those who desire to work in this field. It is also information to the public who always complaining or disputing about the customer services staff without knowing their sacrifice.

1.6 Scope and Limitation of the Study

The scope of the study is to study the link between the job satisfaction and organization factors and also the personal factor in Sing Tel. These include work condition, leadership style, promotion, gender, personality and individual experience. The study limited only to the front-liners in Sing Tel.

1.7 Organization of the Research Project

This study consists of five chapters which are introduction, literature review, methodology, result and discussion followed by conclusion and recommendation. Each

chapter will discuss in depth later. In chapter 1, we are looking for the factor that influences job satisfaction among the workers/ front liner in SingTel. After that in the following chapter is about the review of the relevant literature. Chapter 3, we will look for the method been use for this study and followed by chapter 4 is about the result and discussion from the analyses of data and findings of the research. And for the last chapter which is chapter 5, it summarized and recommend according to the finding and result.

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

This chapter will discuss about the job satisfaction in several perspectives. It is includes definition of job satisfaction, previous studies on job satisfaction and the factors that influence the job satisfaction. A part from this, it is also a brief discussion regarding the job satisfaction among the staff in call center. And it ends with a brief summary for this chapter.

2.2 Job Satisfaction

According to Steyn &Van Wyk (1999), job satisfaction can be formally defined “as the degree to which individuals feel positively and/or negatively about their jobs”. From this, when an employee meets their needs or expectation, then they will feel the accomplishment and from here the degree of satisfaction can be determine.

Gordon (1999) claims that job satisfaction occurs when a job meets the expectations, values and standards of an individual and will influence their commitment and performance. So from here, it is how an organization gets satisfied their workers in order to get their commitment to performed well.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs was proposed by Abraham Maslow in 1943 from his paper A Theory of Human Motivation. According to Maslow, people are not satisfied with what they have and will always request for more. From the hierarchy, they are five level can be found in each individual which is physical, security, social, ego and self-actualization.

Physical needs are the base from the hierarchy. It includes the basic human needs such as the need for air, water, food, exercise and freedom form diseases. It is commonly achieve by the human being. Once this basic is achieved, then they will go for the other level which is the security. This level includes the need of safety, shelter and stability. In term

of the working environment, it means that an employee may demand for the job security, they can have a stabile job, being treated fairly and have a good pay for their job.

The third phase is the social, it includes the need of being loves, and they experience the feeling of belonging and inclusion. In the work place, the employee need to feel the sense of belonging and acceptance, once they have this feeling, it helps them to achieve the satisfaction on this level. Let say one’s cannot fulfill this level, for example maybe he or she facing problem in their marriage; it will lead to fail on this level. After fulfill this level, it comes to another level which is the ego or known as self-esteem and follow by the highest level which is the self-actualization.

Figure1. Maslow’s Job Hierarchy of Needs Model

2.3 Work Condition

According to Stallworth and Kleiner (1996) increasingly an organization’s physical layout is designed around employee needs in order to maximize productivity and satisfaction. Employee would prefer to work in an organization which can provide better physical comfort and convenience. With a better environment, it can reduce the unsatisfied feeling of the employees. According to Robbins (2001), working conditions will influence job satisfaction, as employees are concerned with a comfortable physical work environment.

2.4 Promotion

A study conduct by Ellickson and Logsdon (2002) claim that with municipal government workers where satisfaction with promotional opportunities was found to be positively and significantly related to job satisfaction. The chances to get promotion have a strong effect on the employee job satisfaction. From the study, the management can take notes that promotion can always be a motivation tools for them to ensure the employee can achieve their goals.

2.5 Gender

Gender is one of the demographic characteristic that researchers always investigated the relationship with the job satisfaction. Shahri (2001) found that male managers were more satisfied with their jobs than female managers in upper level management. From the study of Tang and Talpade (1999), it found that men tend to have higher satisfaction with remuneration in relation to females, while females tended to have higher satisfaction with co-workers than males. From the previous study, it shows that the job satisfaction effected by the gender.

2.6 Age

Most of the studies found the existing relationship between age and job satisfaction. According to the study done by Drafke and Kossen (2002), it shows that older employee with more working experience are more satisfied compare with younger employee, the study also claim that job satisfaction increase with age. Greenberg and Baron (1995) claims that generally older employees are more satisfied with their job compare with younger employee. From the reviews, it shows that age play a role in the employees job satisfaction.

2.7 Research Framework

The purpose of this study is to determine the factors affect the job satisfaction in call center. This part is regarding the discussion that forming the theoretical framework. It is based on the previous studies that had been review. There are two independents variables, which consist of the personal factors and the organizational factors. The personal factors includes gender and age, meanwhile the organizational factors includes work condition and promotion. Figure 2 shows the theoretical framework for the study.

Organizational Factors

Work condition

promotion

Job satisfaction

Personal Factors

Gender

Age

Figure 2 Theoretical Framework

2.8 Summary

This chapter has discussed about the factors that influence the job satisfaction. This was discussing clearly with different researchers and theorist. The Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs also reviewed as this theory related with the research topic. It is good for management to understand the factors that influence the job satisfaction. It helps organization to indentify those factors and avoid the mistake.

.

CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Hypotheses statement

Hypothesis 1

Ho: There is positive relationship between work condition and job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel.

H1: There is negative relationship between work condition and job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel.

Hypothesis 2

Ho: There is positive relationship between promotion and job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel.

H1: There is negative relationship between promotion and job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel.

Hypothesis 3

Ho: There is positive relationship between gender and job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel.

H1: There is negative relationship between gender and job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel.

Hypothesis 4

Ho: There is positive relationship between age and job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel.

H1: There is negative relationship between age and job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel.

3.2 Research Design

There are a lots of research method to use to analyze job satisfaction. There is no single method or the most appropriate on it. According to Punch (1998) each approach has it strength and weaknesses. When we understand each of the strength and weaknesses, we can select or combine the approach.

This study used quantitative methods involving survey questionnaires to collect the quantitative data. The purpose is to determine whether there is a correlation between the personal and organizational factors with the job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel.

The Job Descriptive Index (JDI) was used to measure the level of job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel. The Job in General (JIG) also used to measure the overall job satisfaction.

3.3 Research Sample

The present number of all the front liners in Sing Tel consists of 210 employees. Therefore, the sample was selected randomly from a total of 50 respondents that able to facilitate the objectives of the study. This sample size was according to the Roscoe’s rule of thumb (cited in Sekaran, 2003) which is stated that sample larger than 30 and less than 500 is appropriate for most research.

3.4 Research Instrument

The Job Descriptive Index (JDI) and Job in General (JIG) were used to measure the job satisfaction. The job descriptive index (JDI), created by Smith, Kendall,& Hulin(1989), is a

specific questionnaire of job satisfaction that has been widely used. It measures one’s satisfaction in five dimensions such as: pay, promotion and promotion opportunities, relationship with coworkers, supervision, and the work itself. The General Job Index is an overall measurement of job satisfaction. It was an improvement on the job descriptive index because the JDI focused too much on work 33 satisfaction.

The questionnaire consists 3 parts. The first part related to the personal factors in Sing Tel, the second part is regarding the job satisfaction of the front liners in Sing Tel and last part is about the organizational factors that affect job satisfaction.

3.5 Data Collection Procedures

As this is my previous company, so I will distribute the questionnaire to my ex-colleague. The questionnaires were answered by the respondents by following the instructions for each section. The questionnaire will be collected after all the respondents had answered it.

3.6 Data Analysis

Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) computer software program (version 12) was use to analyzed all the data that collected from the respondents. Descriptive analysis was used to explore the data collected as well as summarizing and describing the data. For this study, it was use to describe the gender and age.

CHAPTER 4

RESULTS AND FINDINGS

4.1 Introduction

This chapter reveals and reports the findings from the study of job satisfaction among workers/ front liner in SingTel. Fifty sets of questionnaire were distributed as mentioned in the research methodology. They were processed and analyzed using SPSS Package Program (Version 12) and the results are presented in tables. The first section will provide the background of the respondents. The second section will then provide the reliability of the variables. The third section will present the correlation analysis with regards to the relationship of the independent variables in influencing the dependent variable.

4.2 Frequency Analysis

4.2.1 Gender

Statistics

Gender

N

Valid

50

Missing

0

Gender

Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Valid

male

24

48.0

48.0

48.0

female

26

52.0

52.0

100.0

Total

50

100.0

100.0

Table 4.2.1: Gender

Table 4.2.1 shows the frequency distribution for gender composition. As stated previously, the total respondents for this study was 50. From the total respondents, 26 (52%) respondents were female while 24 (48%) of the respondents were male.

4.2.2 Age

Age

N

Valid

50

Missing

0

Age

Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Valid

19-29

14

28.0

28.0

28.0

30-39

21

42.0

42.0

70.0

40-49

12

24.0

24.0

94.0

50-60

3

6.0

6.0

100.0

Total

50

100.0

100.0

Table 4.2.2 Age

By referring to the table 4.2.2 above, the majority of the respondents were between 30 to 39 years old (42%), the second highest of the respondents were in the range of 19 to 29 years old (14%) followed by the respondents in the range 40 to 49 years old (12%) and finally the least was 50 to 60 years old group with 6%.

4.2.3 Overall Satisfaction

Overall Satisfaction

N

Valid

50

Missing

0

Overall Satisfaction

Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Valid

Not Satisfied

Slightly

0

0

0

0

Satisfied

12

24.0

24.0

24.0

Moderately Satisfied

32

64.0

64.0

88.0

Satisfied

6

12.0

12.0

100.0

Very satisfied

0

0

0

100.0

Total

50

100.0

100.0

Table 4.2.3 Overall Satisfaction

From the result of table 4.2.3, there are 32 respondent out of 50 is moderately satisfied with the overall satisfaction (64%), there are 12 respondents who are slightly satisfied with the overall satisfaction (24%) and only 6 respondents are satisfied with the overall satisfaction (12%). From this result, it concludes that most of the Sing Tel Front-liner only moderately satisfied with their current condition.

4.3 Level of Job Satisfaction

Job Descriptive Index (JDI) and Job In General (JIG) are used to measure job satisfaction in this research. The level of JDI and JIG and also others variable are measured by using the “mean”. The levels of perception to all variable are group into two categories as per below:

Mean

Std. Deviation

JDI &JIG

3.67

0.48

Work Condition

3.51

0.69

Promotion

3.21

0.69

Table 4.3 Level of Job Satisfaction, Work Condition and Promotion

Table 4.3 shows that the level of job satisfaction of the respondents is high with mean=3.67 and sd=0.48. Respondents also perceived that their level of work condition is also high with a mean=3.51 and sd=0.69. However, there was a moderate level of perception towards promotion with a mean=3.21 and sd=0.69.

4.4 Relationship between Job Satisfaction, Age and Gender

Pearson correlation (r) was used to test the relationship between job satisfaction, age and gender. The results are shown in table 4.3 below.

Correlations

tjs

gender

age

tjs

Pearson Correlation

1

.138

-.152

Sig. (2-tailed)

.

.338

.292

N

50

50

50

gender

Pearson Correlation

.138

1

-.004

Sig. (2-tailed)

.338

.

.980

N

50

50

50

age

Pearson Correlation

-.152

-.004

1

Sig. (2-tailed)

.292

.980

.

N

50

50

50

Table 4.4

It can be seen in the table 4.4, there is a positive relationship between gender and job satisfaction. but it is not significantly related to job satisfaction (r=0.138, p for gender is 0.138). Based on the result, it can be seen a negative relationship between age and job satisfaction at r=-0.152 but again it is not significantly related to job satisfaction (p for age is 0.292).

4.5 Relationship between Job Satisfaction, Work Condition and Promotion

Table 4.5 shows the correlation matrix output of job satisfaction, work condition and promotion.

Correlations

tjs

twc

tp

tjs

Pearson Correlation

1

-.137

-.499(**)

Sig. (2-tailed)

.

.343

.000

N

50

50

50

twc

Pearson Correlation

-.137

1

.620(**)

Sig. (2-tailed)

.343

.

.000

N

50

50

50

tp

Pearson Correlation

-.499(**)

.620(**)

1

Sig. (2-tailed)

.000

.000

.

N

50

50

50

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Table 4.5

It is found that job satisfaction is not significantly related to work condition but with a negative relationship(r=-0.137, p for work condition is 0.343). While for the promotion, the result shows that promotion is significantly related to job satisfaction and with a negative relationship(r=-0.499, p for promotion is 0.000).

4.6 Relationship between Job Satisfaction and Gender

T-test was used in the analyses of statistically significant gender.

Group Statistics

gender

N

Mean

Std. Deviation

Std. Error Mean

tjs

male

24

3.7262

.28546

.05827

female

26

3.7692

.27724

.05437

Independent Samples Test

Levene’s Test for Equality of Variances

t-test for Equality of Means

F

Sig.

t

df

Sig. (2-tailed)

Mean Difference

Std. Error Difference

95% Confidence Interval of the Difference

Lower

tjs

Equal variances assumed

.157

.694

-.541

48

.591

-.04304

.07960

-.20309

Equal variances not assumed

-.540

47.417

.592

-.04304

.07970

-.20333

Table 4.6

There were no statistically differences in the overall perception between the respondents group according to gender as for male, mean=3.72 and for female, mean=3.77. From the result, it shows that gender is not statistically significant in the perception of affecting front-liners in Sing tel.

Regression Analysis

Model

Unstandardized Coefficients

Standardized Coefficients

t

Sig.

Correlations

Collinearity Statistics

B

Std. Error

Beta

Zero-order

Partial

Part

Tolerance

1

(Constant)

4.622

.422

10.965

.000

twc

.199

.135

.232

1.473

.148

-.137

.214

.178

.591

tp

-.443

.104

-.677

-4.283

.000

-.499

-.538

-.518

.586

tgender

.012

.068

.021

.172

.864

.138

.026

.021

.953

tage

-.068

.039

-.217

-1.743

.088

-.152

-.251

-.211

.944

a Dependent Variable: tjs

Table 4.6.1

Based on the result from table 4.6.1, it shows:

Job Satisfaction= 4.622+0.199(twc)-0.443(tp) +0.012(tgender)-0.068(tage)

From this equation, it shows there is a positive relationship between work condition, gender and job satisfaction but not significant while relationship between age and job satisfaction is negative and significant. Only promotion is significantly related to job satisfaction with negative relationship.

4.7 Summary of Hypotheses Test

Hypothesis 1

Ho: There is positive relationship between work condition and job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel.

H1: There is negative relationship between work condition and job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel.

Therefore, accept Ho reject H1.

Hypothesis 2

Ho: There is positive relationship between promotion and job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel.

H1: There is negative relationship between promotion and job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel.

Therefore, reject Ho accept H1.

Hypothesis 3

Ho: There is positive relationship between gender and job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel.

H1: There is negative relationship between gender and job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel.

Therefore, accept Ho reject H1.

Hypothesis 4

Ho: There is positive relationship between age and job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel.

H1: There is negative relationship between age and job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel.

Therefore, reject Ho accept H1.

4.8 Conclusion

This chapter presents the results of the statistical analysis of the hypotheses. Correlation analysis was used to test the relationship among the variables of interest provided in the study. This study revealed that:

There is positive relationship between work condition and job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel.

There is negative relationship between promotion and job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel.

There is positive relationship between gender and job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel.

There is negative relationship between age and job satisfaction among the front liners in Sing Tel.

CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 INTRODUCTION

In order for an organization to be successful, it must continuously ensure the satisfactorily of their employees (Berry, 1997). In today’s world, organization realize that is it important to keep their worker satisfied as human recourse is the important assets for the organization to keep their business running. In this study, employee satisfaction is pivotal to Sing Tel in order to deliver good services to their customer and also become more competitive.

From the finding of this study, it is revealed that the job satisfaction of the employer is high. Promotion is the most influence factors compared to others. It is also revealed that the relationship between gender and job satisfaction is no significant.

5.2 Discussion of the Research Findings

This study is about factors that influence job satisfaction in Sing Tel front-liner. A satisfied employee will deliver good service to the customer and increase company image. Based on the results, it shows that work condition and promotion are the key factors that influence a employee satisfaction.

5.2.1 Research Question One

The first research question of this study was to identify what is the relationship for the organizational factors such as work condition and promotion influence the employee job satisfaction. Based on the results, it shows a positive relationship between work condition and job satisfaction. Arnold and Feldman (1996) promoted factors such as temperature, lighting, ventilation, noise, working hours, and resources from all types of working conditions. Since their job is mentally demanding, so a poor working condition will influence Sing Tel front-liner to perform their job. Besides, the physical design of the work place also has certain impact on job satisfaction. A better working environment and work condition can increase employee job