Factors affecting employees job satisfaction in 2 9 fire prevention firefighting equipment co , ltd

OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA SCHOOL OF LIFELONG LEARNING HUTECH Đại hoc Công nghệ Tp.HCM ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I owe my deepest gratitude to Mr.. HUTECH Đại học Công nghệ Tp.HCM OPEN UNIVERSI

(OUM OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA od

IN

"2-9 FIRE PREVENTION &

FIREFIGHTING EQUIPMENT Co., Ltd." |

STUDENT'S FULL NAME: LE TRIEU SON

OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

SCHOOL OF LIFELONG LEARNING HUTECH Đại hoc Công nghệ Tp.HCM

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I owe my deepest gratitude to Mr Bui Phi Hung - who undertook to act as my

Advisor in study His wisdom, knowledge and recommendation to the highest standards inspired and motivated me throughout my study

With the knowledge I have just mattered through the MBA program and the experience I get, I hope of useful application into my jobs

I would like to give my heartiest thanks to my family and my co-students who

were always cheering me in my best times of study

Le Trieu Son

HUTECH Đại học Công nghệ Tp.HCM

OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

SCHOOL OF LIFELONG LEARNING

ADVISOR’S ASSESSMENT

Advisor’s signature

OPEN UNIVERSITY HUTECH

2 The structure of the paper 5

3 Aims and Objectives of study 5

3 Employee satisfaction strategy 16

CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 18

1 Introduction

As has been widely known, besides the important factors such as Infrastructure, Capital and Scientific and technical advances, the existence and development of any business always depends significantly on the efficient deployment of Workforce

These above factors have close relationship with each other and react to

each other Other factors such as machinery, material, goods, technology can be bought, or transferred, but the human factor can not It can be said that the

human resources plays the most important role in the existence and development

of an organization

Actually, human resource management is considered as an activity that is

both scientific and artistic medium human resources management is an area to

stick more to the organizational culture and contains many more human values

any regulatory areas any other treatment The employees’ satisfaction is

considered as the most important core of human resources management We can assert that the employees’ satisfaction has a critical role for the survival and development of any business or organization

"Human resources - the key to success" - in fact, it becomes especially appropriate nowadays and plays the most important role in the international economic integration Nowadays, enhancing employee’s satisfaction is considered as an important factor to achieve the engagement of the employees of

a company This paper shall focus on the employees satisfaction towards work

in practice As result, the employee’s satisfaction toward the job in a small sized company named "2-9 FIRE PREVENTION AND _ FIREFIGHTING EQUIPMENT Co., Ltd.", a company specializes in supplying and installation of

OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

SCHOOL OF LIFELONG LEARNING 9 HUTECH

employees

2 The structure of the research

This research paper consists of five chapters The first chapter starts with an introduction on the employee satisfaction on the view of human resource management strategies in which the research question, justification and limitation of the investigation is highlighted On the purpose of more in-depth

knowledge on this research topic, the second chapter provides critical analysis based on existing literature on human resource management strategies In order

to provide evidence of what is discussed in chapter two, the third chapter offers approaches of research design undertaken after the third chapter, the forth

chapter provides statistical analysis of the study The fifth chapter provides recommendations backed up with literature Besides, this chapter consists of

summary and conclusion based on the evidence found and areas of future research required

3 Aims and Objectives of study

This research paper aims to indicate the object of human resource — management strategies adopted within the organisation and identified the most effective strategies utilised to increase employees’ satisfaction and furthermore,

to increase their engagement to the company The aim of this study was to examine how employees respect and relationship with their manager impact on

OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

SCHOOL OF LIFELONG LEARNING HUTECH

Đại học Công nghệ Tp.HCM

their level of engagement, involvement and enthusiasm towards their job Lastly,

it investigated how training and development encourages employee move up the career ladder and whether it is practiced in this particular organisation However,

a justification of the overall examination is required to clarify the importance of

this research

Brief introduction of the company

Name: "2-9" Fire Prevention and Firefighting Equipment Co., Ltd

a Product and services

"2-9" Fire Prevention and Firefighting Equipment Co., Ltd is a professional company specializing in supply and installation of fire prevention system in civil and industrial works Its scope of works can be focused as follows:

* Consulting, designing on fire protection service including project set-up

* Supplying and installing fire alarm system, fire fighting system including sprinkler system, drencher system and fire hydrant system

* Supplying and installing lightning protection system, ventilation system

in civil and industrial works

b Human resources

Total employee : 205 including:

Engineer :42 Full skilled worker > 57 Semi-skilled worker : 85 Indirect workforce :21 (administration dept., procurement

department, accounting dept., designing dept., technical dept and HR Dept.) The qualification distribution of employee in the company is quite suitable

to its business on the purpose of economical term:

OPEN UNIVERSITY 3 HUTECH

SCHOOL OF LIFELONG LEARNING Đại học Công nghệ Tp.HCM

- Doctor of Science in fire fighting service 01

- Master of Business Administration 04

- BA in Business management and accounting 10

~ Elect engineers, mech Engineers 39

c Market

The company is operating on major projects throughout territory of S.R

Vietnam for many domestic and foreign customers

Further, The company is expanding its geographical market to abroad such

as Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar

d, Annual turnover and recruitment trend of the company

As a specialist in supply and installation of fire prevention system for civil and industrial works, due to the optimistic view of the market The company has

a very good back ground in finance as stated below:

Source: annual financial report of company, financial year of 2014, March 2015

Thought the income of the company has decreased in 2013 by the effect of the market, but in financial year of 2014, a very optimistic figure returns to the pages of the company's annual financial report It proves the right orientation of

the board of director of the company in business.

OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

SCHOOL OF UFELONG LEARNING (4) HUTECH Đại học Công nghệ Tp.HCM

Average income of employees in the company is about VND 8,560,000.00

a month, including allowance but not be calculated extra-time working In comparison of the profit and the labor cost of the company, it is easy to find that the percentage is about 20% of the annual turnover of the company

4 Research question

The aim of this research question was to get an insight of employee satisfaction in the company and based on the result, to build a appropriate human resource management strategy As a result, this research will make-a

comprehensive outcome that will correlate human resource management on the

purpose of employee retention Overall, the research questions shall be focused

on the term “factors affecting employee job satisfaction” in order to retain

talented staff For that reason, this study aimed at further investigating the

human resource management strategies utilised by a small sized company located in Vietnam Employee satisfaction in the company shall indicate by measurement and evaluation from the analysis of the feedback of the

questionnaire consisting six themes: Wage and financial rewards; Job characteristic; Peer relationship; Superior relationship; Working conditions and Promotion opportunity

5 Limitation of study

Many literatures indicate it is vital for an organisation to be aware of how

and where it is going to gain access for research (Johnson et al, 2007)

Moreover, this is necessary because it is required to make a research relevant

and interesting as well as lower limitation of the investigation (Johnson et al, 2007) Furthermore, Saunders et al (2009) argued that some individuals may not

be prepared to participate because of the amount of time and resources needed

They further argued that, this is also because organisations receive too many requests for access and therefore they find it impossible to allow access to all or some of these (Saunders et al, 2009) Similarly, Johnson et al (2007) agree

OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

SCHOOL OF LIFELONG LEARNING HUTECH

Đại học Công nghệ Tp.HCM

research studies are time consuming and thus costly for organisations For this

reason, many participants refused to take part in this research due to lack of time However, Cameron and Price (2009) demonstrate that an organisation may

have smaller findings and therefore will only represent smaller population As a result, a researcher must have sufficient time to overcome these limitations and establish credibility (Saunders et al, 2009)

6 Justification of the Study

Nowadays, the study and improvement of employee satisfaction of

organizations becomes a critical question As per opinion of Anaza and Rutherford (2012), although job engagement has been found to achieve a lot of promising outcomes for organisations in search of growth Nonetheless, making workforce engaged at work is not an easy job (Anaza and Rutherford, 2012) Welch (2011) acknowledged that Gallup (2008) engagement index revealed that

67% workforce surveyed were discovered to be either not actively engaged or

disengaged, whilst 33% employees surveyed found engaged at work Therefore,

these results have created widespread interest on this area (Welch, 2011 Anaza

& Rutherford, 2012) However, though this research consisted of various

advantages, there are also some limitations that require examination

7 Conclusion

In summary, chapter one is an abstract of the research topic and therefore it

included the research question and the purpose of the study Accordingly, this chapter has provided justifications and limitation of this study along with discussion of structure of the management research Alternatively, in order to better understand the research question “how does a large organisation effectively utilise employee engagement strategies in order to retain talented staff?” a critical analysis of literatures required to fully understand the HRM

strategies and gaps in the literature is presented in the next chapter: Chapter

Two.

OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

SCHOOL OF LIFELONG LEARNING HUTECH

Đại học Công nghệ Tp.HCM

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Introduction

In human resource terms, employee satisfaction means employees are contented with their work and position To be contented, they likely enjoy much

of their work, they feel management is fair and cares about them, and they are

comfortable in their work environment - both with other staffers, and with the resources they have available to complete their jobs

Besides, as another definition stated, employee satisfaction is the terminology used to describe whether employees are happy and contented and

fulfilling their desires and needs at work Many measures purport that employee

satisfaction is a factor in employee motivation, employee goal achievement, and positive employee morale in the workplace

For decades, human resource professionals have been concerned about workforce job satisfaction This can include elements such as, employees’ level

of contentment with their organizational culture, work environment, and overall compensation Employee satisfaction is typically measured through surveys

designed to gather opinions about human resource related issues like bonus

programs, benefits, and work as well as life balance, so human resource leaders

can implement changes designed to increase morale and, theoretically, drive higher retention

In summary, the simple definition about Employee Satisfaction could be stated as follows: the Employee Satisfaction is a measurement of an employee’s

“happiness” with current job and conditions; it does not measure how much

effort the employee is willing to expend

10

OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

SCHOOL OF UFELONG LEARNING Đại học Công nghệ Tp.HCM HUTECH

in organisations Therefore, engaged employees are fully perceived to be present and committed while emphasising their performance in their role Furthermore,

it is also defined employee satisfaction as an organisational method aiming to ensure that employees are committed to their workplace’s goals and values It is

also illustrated that through engagement, employees are encouraged to

contribute towards the business success and increase their sense of wellbeing Therefore, employee satisfaction is important because it offers competitive advantage in an organisation and hence organisations are continuously required

to engage employees

It is advised that employee satisfaction is important because employers

increasingly understand the importance of their reputation Accordingly,

employee satisfaction ensures employee engagement of the company, and as a

result, it assist the company in increasing employers’ reputation in the marketplace as well as protect them from the risks in relation to HRM policy of the company (Martin et al, 2005)

In today’s global economy, employee satisfaction has become a growing

concern in the literature (Bhatnagar, 2007; Simpson, 2009) Consequently, they

believe that it is an important factor impacting on organisational effectiveness,

competitiveness and innovation (Saks, 2006; Welch, 2011) Nevertheless,

Employees' satisfaction has been rarely investigated in the academic literature and comparatively little evidence found about its backgrounds and outcomes

(Rooy, et al, 2011; Shuck & Wallord, 2010; welch, 2011) Therefore, high level

of employees’ psychological wellbeing and employees’ satisfaction is

11 we

OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

SCHOOL OF LIFELONG LEARNING THUTECH Đại học Công nghệ Tp.HCM

fundamental in delivering vital outcomes which are related to high performing companies (Robertson & Cooper, 2010) In addition, Laschinger et al (2009) also argues that many studies have discovered that employees’ satisfaction has the ability to predicted employee turnover intention, workforce productivity, customer satisfaction and financial performance

Employee satisfaction Customer satisfaction

According to Mark graham Brown, (2006), there is a strong link between

employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction and between customer

satisfaction and future revenue

No-one can deny the relationship of employee loyalty and their satisfaction

- how committed is the workforce to the organization and if workers are really

contented with the way of things for gauging their likelihood to stay with the

company One of the main aspects of Human Resource Management is the measurement of employee satisfaction Companies have to make sure that employee satisfaction is high among the workers, which is a precondition for

increasing productivity, responsiveness, and quality and customer service

According to Heskett et al (1994), more satisfied employees, stimulate a chain

of positive actions which end in an improved company In another research it is

said that employee satisfaction influenced employee productivity, absenteeism and retention, Derek R Allen & Merris Wilburn, (2002) The success of any company is directly link to the satisfaction of the employees who embody that company, that retaining talented people is critical to the success of any organization, Freeman, (2005) Studies shows that businesses that excel in employee satisfaction issues reduce turnover by 50% from the norms, increase

12

HUTECH

Đại học Công nghệ Tp.HCM

OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

SCHOOL OF LIFELONG LEARNING

customer satisfaction to an average of 95 % & lower labor cost by 12%., Carpitella, (2003) Judge, et al, (1993), on the other hand, mentions that

employee satisfaction is positively correlated with motivation, job involvement,

organizational citizenship behavior, organizational commitment, life satisfaction, mental health, and job performance, and negatively related to absenteeism, turnover, and perceived stress and identify it as the degree to which

a person feels satisfied by his/her job

In the construction industry, where the quality of products is dependent on the skill of laborers and onsite supervisors, employees play a significant role in the success and outcome of the product and the company Profit and growth are stimulated directly (and primarily) by customer loyalty Customer loyalty is a direct consequence of customer satisfaction Customer satisfaction is heavily influenced by customer perceptions of the value of services they receive Value

is created by satisfied, loyal and productive employees

Human relations researchers further argue that employee satisfaction

sentiments are best achieved through maintaining a positive social

organizational environment, such as by providing autonomy, participation, and

mutual trust (Likert, 1961)

Employees satisfaction is really important because they can determine collaborative effort Consistent with this reasoning, Likert (1961) has argued that collaborative effort directed towards the organization's goals is necessary for achievement of organizational objectives, with unhappy employees failing to participate (effectively) in such efforts

In a unique study conducted by Harter et al (2002), based on 7,939 business units in 36 organizations, the researchers found positive and substantive correlations between employee satisfaction-engagement and the business unit outcomes of productivity, profit, employee turnover, employee accidents, and

customer satisfaction

13

HUTECH

Đại học Công nghệ Tp.HCM

OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

SCHOOL OF UFELONG LEARNING

they should be met first

Safety needs

With their physical needs relatively satisfied, the individual's safety needs

take precedence and dominate behavior In the absence of physical safety, people may (re-)experience post-traumatic stress disorder or transgenerational trauma In the absence of economic safety - due to economic crisis and lack of work opportunities - these safety needs manifest themselves in ways such as a

preference for job security, grievance procedures for protecting the individual from unilateral authority, savings accounts, insurance policies, reasonable disability accommodations, etc This level is more likely to be found in children

because they generally have a greater need to feel safe

14

OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

SCHOOL Of LIFELONG LEARNING HUTECH Đại học Công nghệ Tp.HCM

Belongingness and love needs

After physiological and safety needs are fulfilled, the third level of human needs is interpersonal and involves feelings of belongingness Deficiencies within this level of Maslow’s hierarchy - due to hospitalism, neglect, shunning, ostracism, etc - can impact the individual's ability to form and maintain emotionally significant relationships in general

Esteem needs

All humans have a need to feel respected; this includes the need to have self-esteem and self-respect Esteem presents the typical human desire to be accepted and valued by others People often engage in a profession or hobby to gain recognition These activities give the person a sense of contribution or

value Low self-esteem or an inferiority complex may result from imbalances

during this level in the hierarchy People with low self-esteem often need respect

from others; they may feel the need to seek fame or glory However, fame or

glory will not help the person to build their self-esteem until they accept who they are internally Psychological imbalances such as depression can hinder the person from obtaining a higher level of self-esteem or self-respect

Self-actualization

"What a man can be, he must be." This quotation forms the basis of the perceived need for self-actualization This level of need refers to what a person's

full potential is and the realization of that potential Maslow describes this level

as the desire to accomplish everything that one can, to become the most that one can be Individuals may perceive or focus on this need very specifically In another, the desire may be expressed athletically For others, it may be expressed

in paintings, pictures, or inventions As previously mentioned, Maslow believed that to understand this level of need, the person must not only achieve the previous needs, but master them

15

OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

SCHOOL OF LIFELONG LEARNING IHUTECH

Đại học Công nghệ Tp.HCM

3 Employee satisfaction strategies

As stated above and in comparison to the reality, the board of management

of the company built the appropriate strategy in human resource management policy There is variety of other employee satisfaction strategies utilised nowadays within organisations Relationship with Colleagues and Manager, Pay and Benefits, Flexible working and Career development Therefore, literature indicates that these methods are commonly practiced in contemporary human resource management to engage and retain talented employees in an

organisation (Bhatnagar, 2007; Luthans & Peterson, 2002) As a result, this

literature review has these six themes in relation to employee satisfaction

The policy mainly focuses on the main themes as follows:

literature reviewed highlighted that there is a recent tendency of employee engagement and its importance at different organisational level Subsequently, in

order to gain continuous success, Medlin and Green (2009) argue that employee satisfaction strategies must be implemented to encourage positive employee

16

OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

SCHOOL OF LIFELONG LEARNING 88" Dai hoc Công nghệTp.HCM AHUTECH

membership, and financial assistance pragmas (Bhatnagar & Biswas, 2010; Butler et al, 2004; Fry & Breaugh, 2004)

17

1 Introduction

Choosing the suitable methodology is significant for achieving effective

outcomes (Panneerselvam, 2004) This management research had adopted

several sources of data collection methods as part of the pragmatist approach to have a complete understanding of the phenomenon via triangulation (Green et

al, 2006) Hence, employees from different departments in the company have contributed towards this research by completing questionnaires Nevertheless, an direct interview with the HR personnel was not able to be carried out because of the characteristic of the company’s business

Literatures support that nowadays questionnaires are commonly used within

business research (Brace, 2008) According to, Bryman and Bell (2007)

questionnaires allow collecting large numerical data on people’s perceptions However, Bryman and Bell (2007) defined a questionnaire as a standard set of

prearranged questions distributed amongst participants Nevertheless, Chieh- Wen et al, (2008) emphasise that through questionnaires a researcher is able to

look at the total responses as a whole and can be broken into sub-groups to compare answers on specific questions Dillman (2007) postulates that this approach allows researchers to gather quantitative data and is one of the most widely used method in research Moreover, Billig (2003) recommends that likert scale is effective if it is used appropriately to answer the research topic

Conversely, Bell (2005) believes that generating good questionnaire is difficult

that helps answering the research question

2 Instrument for research

In this research, the survey questionnaire with closed questions is built

based on the reality of the business in Vietnam According to Bryman & Bell,

2003, the closed questions have their own advantages: easy to process answer; it

18

HUTECH

eee

Ky

Đại học Công nghệ Tp.HCM HUTECH

OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

SCHOOL OF LIFELONG LEARNING

The object of the survey consists of 201 employees exception for 3

members of board of directors

3 Conclusion

Overall, this chapter has outlined importance of the research methodologies for the research Besides, this chapter emphasised suitable method for the research Furthermore, pragmatic paradigm helps achieving better outcome to answer the research question “Factors affecting the employee's satisfaction in

the "2-9" Fire Prevention Equipment Co., Ltd" Moreover, before taking the

research further, validity and reliability as well as ethical consideration were taken into account Ultimately, findings of this research established from the use

of these methods are discussed further in the next chapter

19

McMillan and Atchley, (2011) postulate that the collected data must be

evaluated to gather valuable information Subsequently, this chapter discusses the primary data collected in order to help answer the research question “Factors affecting the employee's satisfaction in the "2-9" Fire Prevention Equipment Co., Ltd" Overall, this chapter demonstrated the research findings collected for this investigation as a result of in-depth analysis using open coding for the data

to interpret the outcomes

2 Form of research questionnaire

Besides the basic information of the interviewee such as age, gender, position and the department of interviewee and the time the employee works for

the company, there is no more questions used to clarify the interviewee on the

purpose of confidential

Strongly Agree Strongly Questions Agree |Neutral| Disagree Disagree

I am satisfied with the social welfare

offered by the employer

I am satisfied with the retirement plan

offered by the employer

20

OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

SCHOOL OF LIFELONG LEARNING

I am satisfied with benefit package

offered by the employer

Job characteristics

The mission of company I work for

makes me feel my job is useful

This organization inspires me to do

my best work everyday

Employees are treated as company's

most valued assets

I feel workplace safety receives

appropriate attention in department

I fellow employees are committed to

doing quality work

Superior Relationship

Communication between leaders and

employees is good in the organization

4 Employees are able to make decision

affecting their work

5 My manger orientates me clearly

about my goals and expectations in

3 Iam always appreciated and

recognized with my achievements

4 Iam committed to be successful in

job

5 Ireceive adequate for my

contributions and accomplishments

Additional Comments:

22