EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND JOB SATISFACTION

Transcription

1 EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND JOB SATISFACTION Ng Kim-Soon* Gunasegeri Manikayasagam Faculty of Technology Management and Business Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia *Corresponding Abstract Employee engagement is on the decline and there is a deepening disengagement among employees today. During economic downturn, engaged employee with full workforce can make differences of survival or success of business organization. The construct and dimensions to measure employee engagement are unclear. There is still no any well known and acceptable concept of these constructs and measures. In other words, researchers and reviewers do not use the same components and dimensions to describe employee engagement. Today s works environment has evolved considerably. The process by which we expect engagement to happen needs to be fully understood so that managers can have strategies or manage other context issues to enable full employee engagement. The paper aims to determine the components and dimensions of employee engagement, and investigate its effect on job satisfaction of an oleo chemical company. Factor, reliability and multiple regression analyses were employed to analyze the data. This study answered the research questions formulated. Recommendations to organization are reported. Key words: employee engagement, job satisfaction, leadership, communication, employee involvement 1

2 1.1 INTRODUCTION According to [1], Manager Director of Tower Perrins, higher levels of employee engagement can lead to stronger business performances which in turn lead to higher levels of engagement. A survey carried out by Global Workforce Study found that high levels of employee engagement enjoyed an average increased of 13.7% in their net income and companies with low levels of employee engagement averaged a 3.8% drop in net income. Engagement is a relatively new field of study [2]. [3] are among the earlier researchers on employee engagement. According to [2] and [3], employee engagement focuses on the issues of commitment, satisfaction and organizational behaviour. [4] perceived engagement in the form of personal engagement where people use varying degrees of themselves in their work roles by having their own perception and definition of the both engagement and disengagement is where people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances. Engagement is characterized by energy, involvement, and efficacy and this is a directly opposite to the three burnout dimensions of exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy [5]. Social Exchange Theory provides a theoretical foundation to explain why employees choose to become more or less engaged in their work and organization. The conditions of engagement in both [4] and [5] s models can be considered economic and socio-emotional exchange of resources. When employees receive these resources from their organization they feel obliged to repay the organization with greater levels of engagement. In terms of [4] s definition of engagement, employees feel obliged to bring themselves more deeply into their role performances as repayment for the resources they receive from their organization. On the other hand, [4] explains the disengagement of the employee engagement occurs when people withdraw and defend themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances. When the organization fails to provide these resources, individuals are more likely to withdraw and disengage themselves from their roles. In this case, the amount of cognitive, emotional, and physical resources that an individual is prepared to devote in the performance of one s work roles is contingent on the economic and socio-emotional resources received from the organization. [6] of Towers Perrins reported that employee engagement makes it meanings as the degree to which employee think, feel and act in line with company goals which includes the extend to which employees go the extra mile in their work in the form of discretionary effort, creativity and energy. [6] added that if an employee wants to be fully engaged, they need to possess rational understanding of the organization's strategic goals, values, and how employees fit. Employee must have emotional attachment to the organization and motivation and willingness to invest discretionary effort to go above and beyond. [7] explained that an engaged employee is a person who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about, his or her work. In his book, Getting Engaged: The New Workplace Loyalty he explains that truly engaged employees are attracted to, and inspired by, their work ( I want to do this ), committed ( I am dedicated to the success of what I am doing ), and fascinated ( I love what I am doing ). Engaged employees care about the future of the company and are willing to invest the discretionary effort exceeding duty s call to see that the organization succeeds. Rutledge urged managers to implement retention plans so that they could keep their top talent. According to [8], employee engagement can be achieved through the creation of an organizational environment where positive emotions such as involvement and pride are encouraged, resulting in improved organizational performance, lower employee turnover and better health. [9] argued that when individuals feel positive emotions, they are able to think in 2

3 a more flexible, open-minded way and are also likely to feel greater self-control, cope more effectively and be less defensive in the workplace. 1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT [10] and [11] state that employee engagement is on the decline and there is a deepening disengagement among employees today. In the time of economic downturn, engaged employee with full workforce can make differences of survival or success of the organization [1]. Employee engagement has been defined in many different ways and the definitions and measures often sound like other better known and established constructs like organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior [8]. According to [12], the constructs and dimensions of the employee engagement are in the development stage. The specific employee engagement is unclear and there is no acceptable constructs. In the other words researchers and reviewers do not use the same components to describe employee engagement. In the above concerned, this study is significant in the development of employee engagement constraint and to find its relationship with job satisfaction. In relation to the above problem statement, the objectives of this study are to find the components of employee engagement, the components of job satisfaction and to study the relationships between employee engagement and job satisfaction. 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS To provide better insights into the areas that enable employer to improve the management of their employees, the following research questions were formulated: i. What are the components of employee engagement? ii. What are the components of job satisfaction? iii. Is there a relationship between employee engagement and job satisfaction? 1.4 SCOPE OF STUDY This study was conducted at an oleo chemical factory located at Rawang town, in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. The population of this study is the production operators and supervisors. All the identified eighty (80) production operators and supervisors were distributed the survey questionnaire to answer. 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY Current researches are difficult to generalize its findings on components of employee engagement. Thus, this study has the potential to provide awareness to the company on the components of employee engagement and improvement to job satisfaction and the relationship between them. Such study will also be able to provide new evidence and reference material to researchers who are interested to further delve in this area. 3

4 1.6 RESEARCH FRAMEWORK The research framework for this study is presented in Figure 1.1. Employee Engagement - Communication - Leadership - Employee involvement Job Satisfaction - Intrinsic - Extrinsic - Commitment Figure 1.1: Research Framework 3.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Type of Study This is a cross-sectional study. Survey method was employed to collect the data to answer the research questions. It is conducted among the targeted population through selfadministrated questionnaire. The unit of anlaysis is the production operators and the supervisors at their workplace where they answered the specified questions in the questionnaire. 3.2 Population All the identified eighty (80) production operators and supervisors were given the survey questionnaire for them to answer. However, a total of 66 of them responded to this study and were used in this study. This gives a response rate of 82.5 per cent. 3.3 Questionnaire Design and Measurement The survey questionnaire form for this study (refer to Appendix A attached) is made up of three parts. Part A is questions requiring respondent to answer about their background. Part B are questions about the respondent perception about their pperceived employee engagement at their workplace covering items on leadership, communication, commitment, and employee involvement. Finally, Part C comprises of questions related to job satisfaction. The respondents were required to circle on the appropriate score base on a scale of 1 to 5 for each of the statement of their level of agreement of employee engagement and job satisfaction respectively. 4.0 ANALYSES AND FINDINGS 4.1 Profile of Responding Companies Table 1.0 tabulates the profile of all the 66 employees that had responded to the research survey. A total of 54 respondents are male and the remaining 12 are female. Eithteen of the respondents are of age between 21 to 25 years of age, 43 of them between 26 to 40 and the remaining 5 are over 41 years of age. Forty-five respondents are production operators with 10 being the production supervisors. A total of 5 respondents possessed primary education, 46 with secondary education, 9 possessed diploma and the remaining 6 of them possessed degree qualification. Twenty-nine of them are single and 37 are married. A total of 19 respondents have service of less than 3 years in the Company, 39 with 4 to 10 years and the remaining 8 have worked for more than 10 years with the Company. 4

5 Demographic (N=66) Categories Frequency Percent 1 Gender Male Female Age years years Over 41 year Respondent s job position Operator Supervisor 4 Respondent s education background Primary School Secondary Sch. Diploma Degree 5 Marital status Single Married 6 Number of years of service Less than years More than 10 Table 1.0 General Characteristics of Respondents Factor and Reliability Analysis All of the items on employee engagement and job satisfaction were subjected to factor analysis using Varimax rotation and reliability analysis. The number or items and description of these dimensions are shown in Table 2. Cronbach's alpha was used to assess the Dimensions of employee engagement and job satisfaction Number of Items Description of Dimension Cronbach s Alpha 1.Leadership 4 Transformational Leadership Transactional Leadership Communication 2 Peers Communication Supervisor subordinate Communication Commitment 4 Employee Commitment Employee Involvement 4 Employee Job Involvement Job Satisfaction 5 Extrinsic Job Satisfaction Intrinsic Job Satisfaction Table 2.0 Reliablity of measurements: Dimensions of Employee Engagement and Job Satisfaction 5

6 consistency of the entire scale. Reliability scores of those in the range of = 0.70 are considered acceptable [13]. The items on employee engagement yielded 6 dimensions and were aptly named intrinsic leadership ( = 0.667), transactional leadership ( = 0.720), peers communication ( = 0.602), supervisor subordinate communication ( = 0.813), employee commitment ( = 0.807), and employee job involvement ( = 0.783). The items of job satisfaction yielded 2 dimensions. These are extrinsic job satisfaction ( = 0.819) and intrinsic job satisfaction ( = 0.690). All the above reliability coefficients results are acceptable. 4.3 Correlations Analysis The correlations result between the variables studied is tabulated in Table 3.0. It shows that Correlations (n=66) Variables Transformational Leadership 1 2 Transactional Leadership.41 ** 1 3 Peers Communication.46 ** Supervisor subordinate Communication.54 **.29 *.33 ** 1 5 Employee Commitment.44 **.27 *.53 **.54 ** 1 6 Employee Job Involvement.29 * **.39 **.64 ** 1 7 Extrinsic Job Satisfaction.59 **.42 **.34 **.37 **.33 **.31 * 1 8 Intrinsic Job Satisfaction.34 ** **.24 *.53 **.36 **.22 *. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Table 3.0: Correlations between Variables all the components of employee engagement, transformational leadership, transactional leadership, peers communication, supervisor subordinate communication, employee commitment, employee job involvement, are correlated with extrinsic employee satisfaction. However, all the components of employee engagement except transactional leadership are correlated with intrinsic leadership. It is observed that the extrinsic and intrinsic components of job satisfaction are not correlated. 4.4 REGRESSION ANALYSIS For regression analysis, the threshold values of condition indices were usually in the range of 15 to 30 and the common variance values of factors (VIF) were from 1 to the cut-off of not to exceed 10 were used. Threshold value of 2.5 was used to check for outlier s case and those outside the range were dropped from the regression analysis. All these were done to ensure that the results of regression are valid. 6

7 4.4.1 Regression between Employee Engagement and Extrinsic Job Satisfaction The result of regression of perceived uses of employee engagement and employee extrinsic job satisfaction is tabulated in Table 4.0. It indicates that R 2 change is.325 and the R Square Adjusted R Square R Square Change Change Statistics F Change df1 df2 Sig. F Change Durbin- Watson Table 4.0: Regression between Employee Engagement and Extrinsic Job Satisfaction relationship is significant at p< It implies that all the 6 dimensions of employee engagement explained a total of 32.5% of variation in enhancement of employee extrinsic job satisfaction. For multiple regression analysis, the minimum R 2 for statistical significant with a power of 0.80, 5 independents variables and sample size of 50 at 0.01 and 0.05 levels are respectively 29% and 23% [28]. In this study the sample size is 66 with 6 independent variables and the R 2 is 32.5 %, at p=<0.001 indicating that the regression model is valid. The Durbin Watson value of also suggests that the result of the regression model is valid Regression between Employee Engagement and Intrinsic Job Satisfaction Table 5.0 tabulates the result of regression of employee engagement and employee intrinsic job satisfaction. R Adjusted R Change Statistics Durbin- Square Square Watson R Square Change F Change Table 5.0: Regression between Employee Engagement and Intrinsic Job Satisfaction The F-Change shows 6.737, R square change and Durbin Watson indicate there is a significant relationship between employee engagement and employee intrinsic job satisfaction. 5.0 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUDING REMARKS df1 df2 Sig. F Change Leadership plays a vital role in employee engagement [14]. Both transformational and transactional leaderships are correlated to intrinsic and extrinsic employee job satisfaction and transformational leadership is correlated to extrinsic job satisfaction. [14] found that line manager or the manager creates a micro-environment and to develop employee engagement. The result also shows that supervisor subordinate is correlated with extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction. [14] suggests that this is possible as line manager possesses skills in communication, giving feedback, performance management, and giving recognition. [14] He reiterated that leadership makes differences in the working life or the environment in making the employee to be engaged. According to [15], organizations that feature formal structured goal setting and leadership processes leads to higher level employee engagement and this leads to increased employee optimism which in turn leads to improved employee performances. 7

8 [16] stated that there are four important environmental factors connected to engagement. These are relationships, work-life balance, values and leadership practice. Relationship means the good relationship built by the employer with their employees. Employee feel free to rise out their opinion and needs required. The leadership practice comprises the transformational leaders who inspire followers to adhere to a common vision and authentic leadership combines ethical and transformational leadership qualities. [17] provided four reasons why engaged workers perform better. Engaged employees often experience positive emotions including happiness, joy and enthusiasm, experience better health (physical and psychological), create their own job and personal resources (e.g. support from others) and they transfer their engagement to others. Research by [18] found that employee commitment and employee involvement towards the public sector found that the employee engagement in the public sector is less effective compared to the private sector. Thus, it supported that employee commitment is important in engaging employees at work. The result of this study also supported [19] that organisation that foster engagement realises success in terms of job satisfaction. The components of employee engagement which are also drivers of engagement are the transformational leadership, transactional leadership, employee communication, organizational communication and employee involvement. The job satisfaction is divided into intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction. Organization leads engagement of employee at work, and to fulfil this role, an organization can focus on this driver of engagement to drive engagement. 5.6 Recommendations This paper attempts to provide some useful insight into determining the components and dimensions of employee engagement, and investigate its effect on job satisfaction in an oleo chemical factory. Based on the literature reviews, the researchers highlighted as well as discussed the important elements contributing to employee job satisfaction at workplace and improved employee s job performance. Today s works environment has evolved considerably. The process by which we expect engagement to happen needs to be fully understood so that managers can have strategies or manage other context issues to enable full employee engagement. Correct employee management strategies drive and improve employee job performance. Supervisor providing feedback and guidance, help employee on what is expected of them, have clear understanding of where the employee supervised is heading, and acknowledges employee improvement in their works are important qualities the leader need to have. Engaged employee through freely sharing of ideas, feelings, and hopes, difficulties faced at workplace, listen to difficulties of employee, and react constructively to employee need are among the constructive ways that can enhance employee satisfaction. A workplace that makes employee proud to work there and giving the feeling of like to work there are important in creating employee work satisfaction. This will also encourage employee to recommend others to work there. Employee participation, work immensely, difficult to detach from their job and happy working for the company are good sign of job satisfaction. 5.7 Conclusion The components of employee engagement are the transformational leadership, transactional leadership, employee communication, organizational communication and employee involvement. The job satisfaction is divided into intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction. This study has showed a positive relationship between employee engagement and job satisfaction. 8

9 Thus, through providing employee engagement opportunities, a company will improve employee job satisfaction. Engaged employee leads to higher job satisfaction. RERERENCES [1] Gebour, J. (2009). Getting employees onboard and engaged. Accessed on July 23, 2009 from [2] Saks, A.M. (2006). Antecedents and consequences of employee engagement, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 21(7), [3] Katz, D. and Kahn, R. L. (1978). The Social Psychology of Organizations, (2nd Edition). New York: Wiley. [4] Kahn, W.A. (1990). Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 33, [5] Maslach, C., Schaufelli, W.B. and Leiter, M.P. (2001), Job burnout, Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 52, pp [6] Ballendowitsch, J. (2009). Employee Engagement A Way Forward To Productivity, Towers Perrin-ISR Case Study, Towers Perrin-ISR, 14, July. [7] Rutledge, T. (2005). Getting Engaged: The New Workplace Loyalty, Mattanie Press, Toronto. [8] Robinson, D., Perryman, S. and Hayday, S. (2004). The Drivers of Employee Engagement, Institute for Employment Studies, Brighton. [9] West, G. (2005). High performance Work Systems and Firm Performance: A Synthesis of Research and Managerial Implications. Journal of Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management. [10] Bates, S. (2004). Getting engaged, HR Magazine, Vol. 49(2), [11] Richman, A. (2006). Everyone wants an engaged workforce how can you create it?, Workspan, Vol. 49, [12] Little and Little. (2006). Employee Engagement: Conceptual Issues, Journal of Organizational Culture, Communications and Conflict, Vol. 10 (1). [13] Hair JR, J. F., Anderson, R. E., Tatham, R. L., and Black, W. C. (1998). Multivariate Data Analysis (Fifth Edition), Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. [14] McBain, R. (2007). The practice of engagement: research into current employee engagement practice, Strategic HR Review, Vol. 6(6), [15] Medlin, B. and Green, Jr., K.E. (2009). Enhancing performance through goal setting, engagement, and optimism, IMDS, Vol. 109 (7), [16] Wildermuth, C. and Pauken, P.D. (2008). A perfect match: decoding employee engagement Part 1: engaging cultures and leaders, Industrial & Commercial Training, Vol. 40(3),

10 [17] Bakker, A.B., Schaufeli, W.B., Leiter, M.P. and Taris, T.W. (2008). Work engagement: an emerging concept in occupational health psychology, Work & Stress, Vol. 22(3), [18] Pritchard, K. (2008). Employee engagement in the UK: meeting the challenge in the public sector, Development and Learning in Organisations, Vol. 22 No.6, [19] Mathieu, J., and Zajac, D. (1990). A review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of organizational commitment. Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 108,

11 ATTACHMENT A SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE A STUDY OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND JOB SATISFACTION i

12 SECTION A RESPONDENT BACKGROUND 1. Age Umur years tahun 2. Number of services with this company Bilangan tahun berkhidmat dengan syarikat in years tahun Department Jabatan My position Jawatan 5. Gender Jantina i. ii. (Please tick ( ) on the box ) (Sila tandakan ( ) pada kotak) Male (Lelaki) Female (Perempuan) 6. Race Bangsa (Please tick ( ) on the box) (Sila tanda ( ) pada kotak) i. ii. iii. iv. Malay (Melayu) Chinese (Cina) Indian (India) Others( Lain-lain) 7. Marital Status(Please tick ( ) on the box) Status perkahwinan (Sila tanda ( ) pada kotak) i. ii. Single (Bujang) Married (Berkahwin) 8. Education Level Tahap Pendidikan (Please tick ( ) on the box) (Sila tanda ( ) pada kotak) i. ii. iii. iv. Primary(Sekolah Rendah) Secondary(Sekolah Menengah) Diploma (Diploma) Degree and above (Ijazah dan ke atas) 2

13 SECTION B: EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT INSTRUCTION: Please circle your appropriate score base on the scale of 1 to 5 for each of the following statements, where 1-Not Agreeable (NA) to 5- Strongly Agree (SA) Arahan: Sila bulatkan jawapan anda yang sesuai untuk setiap pernyataan berdasarkan skala 1 hingga 5 dimana: 1- Sangat Tidak Setuju(STS) hingga 5- Sangat Setuju(SS) LEADERSHIP (KEPIMPINAN) 1. My supervisor provides me with feedback and guidance Penyelia saya memberi saya panduan dan maklum balas 2. My supervisor helps me know what is expected of me Penyelia saya memberi saya apa yang diharapkan daripada saya 3. My supervisor has a clear understanding of where I are going. Penyelia saya mempunyai pemahaman yang jelas terhadap apa yang saya lakukan 4. My supervisor shows respect for my personal feelings. Penyelia saya menunjukkan rasa hormat terhadap perasaan saya 5. My supervisor acknowledges improvement in my quality of work Penyelia saya mengakui peningkatan kualiti kerja saya 6. My supervisor see that the interests of employees are given consideration Penyelia saya memberi pertimbangan terhadap kepentingan pekerja COMMUNICATION (KOMUNIKASI) 7. I can freely share my ideas, feelings, and hopes Saya bebas berkongsi idea, perasaan dan harapan 8. I can talk freely about difficulties I am having at work Saya bebas menyuarakan masalah yang dihadapi semasa bekerja 9. The management listen the difficulties of workers Pihak pengurusan mendengar pada masalah pekerja 10. The management reacts fast the workers need constructively Pihak pengurusan bertindak pantas terhadap keperluan pekerja secara konstuktif 3

14 COMMITMENT (KOMITMEN) 11. I am proud to work at this company Saya bangga bekerja di syarikat ini 12. I would recommend this company as a good place to work to other people Saya akan mengesyorkan syarikat ini sebagai tempat yang baik bekerja kepada orang lain 13. I would prefer to remain with this company Saya memilih untuk terus bekerja di syarikat ini 14. I am satisfied with this company at the present time Saya berpuas hati terhadap syarikat ini untuk tempoh masa kini MOTIVATION (MOTIVASI) 15. I am motivated to produce good work Saya bermotivasi untuk menghasilkan kerja yang bagus 16. I am motivated with the rewards provided Saya bermotivasi dengan ganjaran yang diberikan 17. I am motivated to take pride of my work Saya bermotivasi untuk berbangga dengan kerja saya EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT (PENGLIBATAN PEKERJA) 18. I can continue working for very long periods of time Saya boleh bekerja untuk tempoh yang lama 19. I feel happy when I am working intensely Saya berasa gembira apabila bekerja 20. It is difficult to detach myself from my job. Saya berasa sukar untuk meninggalkan kerja saya 21. I am immersed in my work Saya amat menyukai kerja saya 4

15 SECTION C: JOB SATISFACTION INSTRUCTION: Please circle your appropriate score basing on your level of job satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 5 where: 1- Not Satisfy to 5- Strongly Satisfy (SS) ARAHAN: Berdasarkan tahap kepuasan kerja anda, sila bulatkan jawapan anda dengan menggunakan skala 1 hingga 5 dimana 1-Tidak Berpuas Hati (TBH) hingga 5-Sangat Berpuas Hati.(SBH) 22. I feel satisfy I am being paid a fair amount for the work I do. Saya berpuas hati dengan bayaran gaji yang diberikan kepada saya 23. There is really too little chance for promotion on my job Hanya terdapat sedikit peluang yang diberikan terhadap naik pangkat kerja saya. 24. My supervisor is quite competent in doing his/her job Penyelia saya mahir dalam kerjayanya 25. When I do a good job, I receive the recognition Saya mendapat pengiktirafan apabila saya melakukan kerja yang baik 26.I like the people I work with Saya suka dengan rakan- rakan sekerja 27.My job is very challenging Pekerjaan saya amat mencabar 28.The benefits I receive are good Saya menerima tawaran manfaat yang bagus 29. All in all, I am satisfied with my co-workers Secara keseluruhannya, saya berpuas hati dengan rakan Sekerja saya 30. All in all, I am satisfied with the supervision Secara keseluruhannya, saya berpuas hati dengan penyelia saya 31. All in all, I am satisfied with my pay Secara keseluruhannya, saya berpuas hati dengan gaji saya 32. All in all, I am satisfied with my promotion quality Secara keseluruhannya, saya berpuas hati dengan kualiti kenaikan pangkat saya 33. All in all, I am satisfied with my job Secara keseluruhannya, saya berpuas hati dengan kerja saya Thank You Terima Kasih 5