Researching about overall job satisfaction at vietravel

1 / 50 ABSTRACT The purpose of this research will identify the level of Overall Job Satisfaction of the employees toward their job at Vietravel.. Determine the relationship between leve

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM

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RESEARCH PROJECT (BMBR5103)

RESEARCH ABOUT OVERALL JOB SATISFACTION

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ADVISOR’S SIGNATURE

(March 2017)

NGUYEN THE KHAI (DBA)

And for all those that gave me support, motivation, inspiration and courage, you all have my heart

Sincerely,

Nguyen Thi Thuy Mi Student

ABSTRACT 1

INTRODUCTION 2

About Vietravel 2

History 2

Philosophy 3

Employees at Vietravel 3

Community Responsibility 4

Business Review 6

Customers Review 8

Distribution Coverage 9

Competition 9

Research Problem Statement 10

Research Objectives 11

Research Scope 11

LITERATURE REVIEW 11

Definition of Constructs 11

Overall Job Satisfaction 11

Procedural Fairness 12

Supervisory Support 13

Satisfaction with Work Schedule Flexibility 14

Developmental Experiences 15

Argument for the Relationship Among the Constructs 16

Maslow’s Theory 16

Herzeberg’s Two Factors Theory 18

Goal Setting Theory 21

Hackman and Oldham’s Job Characteristics 21

Hypotheses 22

Research Model 23

METHODOLOGY 24

Data Collection 24

Overall Job Satisfaction 24

Satisfaction with Work Schedule Flexibility 24

Supervisory Support 25

Procedural Fairness 26

Developmental Experiences 28

Data Collection Progress 28

Data Analysis 29

RESULTS 29

Cronbach’s Alpha 29

Overall Job Satisfaction (OJS) 30

Procedural Fairness (PF) 30

Supervisor Support (SS) 31

Satisfaction with Work Flexibility (SFWF) 31

Developmental Experiences (DE) 31

Statistics Information 32

Descriptive Statistics 32

Correlation Statistics 32

Hypotheses Testing 33

Limitation of Research 36

My Thinking 36

REFERENCES 37

APPENDIX 40

Appendix 1: Survey 40

Appendix 2: Presentation 46

Figure 1 : Member of the Associations 5

Table 2 : Satisfaction with Work Schedule Flexibility Scale 25

Table 6 : Cronbach’s Alpha of Overall Job Satisfaction 30

Table 9 : Cronbach’s Alpha of Satisfaction with Work Flexibility 31 Table 10 : Cronbach’s Alpha of Developmental Experiences 31

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ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research will identify the level of Overall Job Satisfaction of the employees toward their job at Vietravel Determine the relationship between levels Overall Job Satisfaction of the employees with four factors: Procedural Fairness, Supervisory Support, Satisfaction with Work Schedule Flexibility, Developmental Experiences; level of Overall Job Satisfaction among the employees was analyzed based on four factors above and data will be analyzed using SPSS software There are two types of variables used in this research, which is Dependent Variable (DV) and Independent Variables (IV) Level of Overall Job Satisfaction is classified as the DV while the factors influence of Overall Job Satisfaction (Procedural Fairness, Supervisory Support, Satisfaction with Work Schedule Flexibility, Developmental Experiences) are classified as the IV

I think results of this research will help the CEO; managers of Vietravel have some solutions about human resource management to improve and increase our quality resource based on Overall Job Satisfaction of employees

Key words in this research: Overall Job Satisfaction, Procedural Fairness, Supervisory Support, Satisfaction with Work Schedule Flexibility, Developmental Experiences and Vietravel

Products & Services

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 Discover Tour (sea diving, mountain climbing…)

 Family Visiting Tour

 Transit Tour

 Other Services

 Air Service

 Money Exchange Service

 Transportation Service for Travel (car, high-speed boat, train…)

 Overseas Study Consultant Service

 Labour Export Service

Philosophy

With the “customer-centric” attitude and bringing sublimation to customer’s soul, Vietravel always put ourselves in the position of customers in order to understand your thoughts and opinions Therefore, your trips will be uniquely taken care of, with our diversified products, frequently upgraded services and the reasonable price and quality

of our programs regardless of weekdays or peak season during the year Besides years

of experience in organizing and operating tours, meeting all the requirements of our customers is also our utmost predominance

Employees at Vietravel

Currently, Vietravel has created jobs for more than 1,000 employees nationwide All employees working in the companies signed a labor contract in full, in accordance with labor laws Company performs construction labor regulations and collective bargaining agreements fully registered with the Department of Labor, Invalids and

is internal solidarity of all employees have been preserved and promoted All the aspirations of employees are subject leaders listen and respond, satisfactorily resolved

Community Responsibility

Not only perform successfully in business tasks, Vietravel also has been contributing

to all the activities that have a positive impact on the community Since 2013, our company has been organizing various programs, encouraging everyone to opt for responsible tourism and protect the environment by cooperating with the Department

of Cultures, Sports and Tourism Our program “Go Green - Green and Clean Tourism” was successfully organized throughout provinces like Hanoi, Ca Mau, Phu Quoc… contributing to the development of responsible tourism as well as raising environmental awareness to locals and tourists

Furthermore, Vietravel also contributes to programs such as: scholarship “Support to Viet’s talents”, the “Light for Life” Foundation – free eye surgery for poor and blind people throughout Vietnam – and numerous programs that brings both benefit and support for our society

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Awards

 2012, 2014, 2016: “National Brand Name”

 2001, 2002, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016: “Vietnam Tourism Awards”

 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016: “Vietnam’s Leading Tour Operator”; “Vietnam’s Leading Travel Agency” & “Asia’s Leading Travel Agency” (2014, 2015) in World Travel Awards

 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016: “Best Travel Agency - Vietnam” in TTG Travel Awards

(Figure 1: Member of the Associations)

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Business Review

(Figure 2: Company Development)

The company has constantly been targeting the mass market and acquired great success in the past The key products are a wide range of all-inclusive travel packages, covering a certain amount of famous destinations around the world, from Asia to Europe, Australia to America, Africa to, even, Antarctica These packages including transportation, accommodation, meals and sight-seeing activities, will be referred to as

“package tours” later on

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(Figure 3: Projective Growth Rate) The tourism industry has long been recognized as one of the most influential economic sectors in Vietnam, which has been constantly growing in recent years with good performance, driven by growth in all of domestic, outbound and inbound tourism markets Vietnam is one of the fastest growing tourism destinations in Southeast Asia, driven by the entrance of international hoteliers, an improved visa policy and investment into key infrastructure

With a large population of 92 million and the fast expansion of middle class families, the demand for travel has dramatically increased, especially outbound travels In 2016, there were more than 6.5 million people travelling abroad (15% year on year growth) Recently, Political Bureau has issued Resolution No 08/2017, which aims to make Tourism a key economic sector (Anon., 2017), which then create much more

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opportunities for all travel companies to invest more for development in the coming years aims to develop tourism into one of the country’s key economic sectors, attracting 17 to 20 million visitors by 2020 Tourism revenues are expected to reach US$35 billion, and four million new jobs are forecast

Great chance for development and expansion also comes with great threat from fierce competition It is because of competitive environment that businesses are more concerned about issues brand and customer loyalty Besides product, promotions, price and distribution are the fundamental marketing strategy fields, branding and customer loyalty are also get attention from the industry experts for its important role in successful business outcome

Customers Review

It is crucial to mention that Vietravel’s customers are mostly in the middle age, who are capable to pay for the service themselves and also for their families Traveling in group, and travel with family is two of the most mentioned characteristics of the Vietnamese regarding travel behavior As a matter of fact, a dominant amount, roughly 60%, of customers are from this segment (Internal report, 2016)

Yet customers age spans is getting younger, it is clearly noticeable lately that number

of customers below 40 year old is increasing Their expectations are also different and more sophisticated than current segment That leaves space for product development and also extension Yet it is important to maintain current segment as it is the main source of revenue

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Distribution Coverage

Having set the headquarter in Ho Chi Minh City, regional branches Hanoi, Danang and Can Tho, Vietravel has developed a distribution system with good coverage and good ability to take care of its customers while being on their trips Overseas offices in Singapore, Australia, America and France that to be opened in 2017 would also be assets to not only develop distribution channel and operation capability, but also be a great chance to catch up with international trends and opportunities Within tourism sector, particularly among travel company, it can be said that Vietravel has highest distribution coverage

Competition

Saigontourist is the main competitor of Vietravel Its brand is one of the most famous

tourism brand in Vietnam, it is widely recognizable by the development of a large scale throughout the country, outside the field of business travel it in the fields of hotels, restaurants and resorts Saigontourist brand is recognized through the creation

of a network of affiliates and affiliate (although many companies associated with investment capital ratio of Saigontourist very low) Saigontourist is slightly stronger in domestic travel, thanks to its wide range of hotel brands

Fiditour is one of the few tourism companies listed on the Stock Exchange (HNX),

the company began listing on the Hanoi Stock Exchange since 12/09/2011 However, the market value of the company as well as the brand is showing signs of slowing down, which reflected the market share and growing revenue decline

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TST is another new yet also strong competitor in terms of competitive price and

product research and development Although market share and brand awareness are both lower than Vietravel, yet they appear to be more flexible and adaptable, thanks to less complex organization system

Research Problem Statement

The employees work at Vietravel as they follow the strict standards that Vietravel offers, they also have to satisfy customers 24x7 And these travel activities keep going from North to South, to the international Customers of Vietravel are not only Vietnamese, but also foreigners Therefore, the pressure of work, working time, mutual support as well as the level of development of experience for employees is very difficult for Vietravel

Thus, the CEO of Vietravel has recognized that Overall Job Satisfaction of employees

is of paramount importance to sustainable development of the company

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Some factors such as Procedural Fairness, Supervisory Support, Satisfaction with Work Schedule Flexibility, Developmental Experiences are problems of human resource management at Vietravel

Research Objectives

This purpose of this research is finding the factors influence to the Overall Job Satisfaction of employees working at Vietravel Include workings: try to define

Overall Job Satisfaction; design research model and test related factors to check

influence relationship between factors and recommendation to improve the effectiveness of human resource management at Vietravel

Research Scope

This research focuses to issues related to Overall Job Satisfaction of the employees

of Vietravel based on their current operating mode and working condition The survey is also built to collect feedback from employees of Vietravel to provide a clear understanding of critical areas of Overall Job Satisfaction to enable CEO of Vietravel to set the effective strategies to improve Overall Job Satisfaction

LITERATURE REVIEW

Definition of Constructs

Overall Job Satisfaction

It was developed by Brayfield and Rothe (1951) to describe Overall Job Satisfaction

A more recent definition of the concept of Overall Job Satisfaction is from Hulin and Judge (2003), who have noted that job satisfaction includes multidimensional psychological responses to an individual's job, and that these personal responses have

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cognitive (evaluative), affective (or emotional), and behavioral components Overall Job Satisfaction scales vary in the extent to which they assess the affective feelings about the job or the cognitive assessment of the job Affective job satisfaction is a subjective construct representing an emotional feeling individuals have about their job Hence, affective job satisfaction for individuals reflects the degree of pleasure or happiness their job in general induces Cognitive job satisfaction is a more objective and logical evaluation of various facets of a job Cognitive job satisfaction can be unidimensional if it comprises evaluation of just one facet of a job, such as pay or maternity leave, or multidimensional if two or more facets of a job are simultaneously evaluated Cognitive job satisfaction does not assess the degree of pleasure or happiness that arises from specific job facets, but rather gauges the extent to which those job facets are judged by the job holder to be satisfactory in comparison with objectives they themselves set or with other jobs While cognitive job satisfaction might help to bring about affective job satisfaction, the two constructs are distinct, not

Procedural Fairness

It was developed by Scarpello and Jones (1996), to assess employee perception about the fairness of the procedure used for making pay related decisions

Greenberg (1987) introduced the concept of organizational justice with regard to how

an employee judges the behavior of the organization and the employee's resulting attitude and behavior (e.g., if a firm makes redundant half of the workers, an employee may feel a sense of injustice with a resulting change in attitude and a drop in productivity)

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Justice or fairness refers to the idea that an action or decision is morally right, which may be defined according to ethics, religion, fairness, equity, or law People are naturally attentive to the justice of events and situations in their everyday lives, across

a variety of contexts (Tabibnia, Satpute, & Lieberman, 2008) Individuals react to actions and decisions made by organizations every day An individual’s perceptions of these decisions as fair or unfair can influence the individual’s subsequent attitudes and behaviors Fairness is often of central interest to organizations because the implications of perceptions of injustice can impact job attitudes and behaviors at work Justice in organizations can include issues related to perceptions of fair pay, equal opportunities for promotion, and personnel selection procedures

Supervisory Support

It was developed by Greenhaus, Parasuraman and Wormley (1990), to assess employee perceptions of extent to which they received supervisory support in their job Supervisor Support is defined as the extent to which leaders value their employees’ contributions and care about their well-being A leader with high supervisor support is one that makes employees feel heard, valued, and cared about Although it sounds simple, providing this kind of support is one of the hardest transitions to make when promoted from employee to supervisor The move from

“process expert” to “motivational leader” is possibly one of the largest steps one can take in his/her working life If you are a supervisor or manager, take a minute to reflect on how you handled this hurdle Was it easy?

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So why is supervisor support so important for effective leadership? Because it is one

of the key behaviors that effective leaders develop as soon as they move from individual contributor to manager (In fact, it leads to positive outcomes at all levels

of leadership) In specific terms, organizational research has identified a myriad of positive outcomes associated with high supervisor support, including:

 Increased job satisfaction

 Stronger person-organization fit (degree to which personality/beliefs/values match organizational culture)

 Increased organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB)

 Improved employee perceptions of organizational support

 Improved relationships with employees

 In-role and extra-role performance

 Reduced job tension

 Reduced work-family conflict

 Reduced turnover (a secondary effect)

Satisfaction with Work Schedule Flexibility

It was developed by Rothausen (1994), to measure employee satisfaction with work schedule flexibility

Work Schedule Flexibility is those that vary from the standard work schedules of an organization Since flexible schedules must meet the needs of both the employer and the employee, flexible work schedules are based on worker needs within set parameters approved by a supervisor

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Examples:

A worker must work 40 hours per week and be present on a daily basis during “core hours” (e.g., from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm), and may, for example,

 Adjust arrival and departure times as he/she wishes on a daily basis, or

 Define new standard work hours (e.g., a set schedule of 7:00 am to 3:00 pm every day or of 7:00 am to 3:00 pm on Tues/Thurs and 10:00 am to 6:00 pm on Mon/Wed/Fri)

A worker must work 40 hours per week (but “core hours” do not apply), and may, for example:

 Vary start and end times on a weekly, or even daily, basis;

 Set a standard schedule such as 7:00 am to 3:00 pm on Tues/Thurs (in order to meet the school bus, take a college class, etc.), and 9:00 am to 5:00 pm on Monday/Wednesday/Friday (this form of flextime may be modified to allow the worker to vary a standard schedule as needed - e.g., at exam time, early school dismissal days);

 Occasionally work extra hours one day to make up for shorter hours worked another day;

 Work at night to better serve clients in another time zone

Developmental Experiences

It was developed by Wayne, Shore and Liden (1997), to describe the formal and informal developmental experiences a job affords employees

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Developmental activities are structured work/training experiences, agreed to between careerist and supervisor, with well-defined objectives intended to enhance job knowledge and skills Some people refer to developmental activities as a combination

of structured “on-the-job” activities and formal classroom training Some developmental experiences are designed to broaden a careerist's knowledge and understanding through a combination of expanded work experiences and formal training Others may be particularly related to specific job requirements, when skill enhancement is required to properly perform a task

Developmental work assignments, with appropriate levels of responsibility, are extremely beneficial for the development of competent multi-disciplined financial analysts Developmental assignments can involve short work assignments outside one's own organization, but inside the Installation When a broader more insightful knowledge of higher organizational management and program operations is required, developmental work assignments outside of the parent organization are an effective means of acquiring this experience and are highly encouraged

Argument for the Relationship Among the Constructs

Maslow’s Theory

Abraham Maslow developed the Hierarchy of Needs model in 1940-50s USA, and the Hierarchy of Needs theory remains valid today for understanding human motivation, management training, and personal development Indeed, Maslow's ideas surrounding the Hierarchy of Needs concerning the responsibility of employers to provide a workplace environment that encourages and enables employees to fulfill their own

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unique potential (self-actualization) are today more relevant than ever Abraham Maslow's book Motivation and Personality, published in 1954 (second edition 1970) introduced the Hierarchy of Needs, and Maslow extended his ideas in other work, notably his later book Toward A Psychology Of Being, a significant and relevant commentary, which has been revised in recent times by Richard Lowry, who is in his own right a leading academic in the field of motivational psychology

Abraham Maslow was born in New York in 1908 and died in 1970, although various publications appear in Maslow's name in later years Maslow's PhD in psychology in

1934 at the University of Wisconsin formed the basis of his motivational research, initially studying rhesus monkeys Maslow later moved to New York's Brooklyn College

The Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs five-stage model is clearly and directly attributable; later versions of the theory with added motivational stages are not so clearly attributable to Maslow These extended models have instead been inferred by others from Maslow's work Specifically Maslow refers to the needs Cognitive, Aesthetic and Transcendence (subsequently shown as distinct needs levels in some interpretations of his theory) as additional aspects of motivation, but not as distinct levels in the Hierarchy of Needs

Where Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is shown with more than five levels these models have been extended through interpretation of Maslow's work by other people

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Herzeberg’s Two Factors Theory

Frederick Herzberg (1923-2000), clinical psychologist and pioneer of “job enrichment”, is regarded as one of the great original thinkers in management and motivational theory Frederick I Herzberg was born in Massachusetts on April 18,

1923 His undergraduate work was at the City College of New York, followed by graduate degrees at the University of Pittsburgh Herzberg was later Professor of Management at Case Western Reserve University, where he established the Department of Industrial Mental Health He moved to the University of Utah's College

of Business in 1972, where he was also Professor of Management He died at Salt Lake City, January 18, 2000

Frederick Herzberg's book “The Motivation to Work”, written with research colleagues Bernard Mausner and Barbara Bloch Snyderman in 1959, first established his theories about motivation in the workplace Herzberg's survey work, originally on

200 Pittsburgh engineers and accountants remains a fundamentally important reference

in motivational study The study involved only 200 people, Herzberg's considerable preparatory investigations, and the design of the research itself, enabled Herzberg and his colleagues to gather and analyze an extremely sophisticated level of data

Herzberg's research used a pioneering approach, based on open questioning and very few assumptions, to gather and analyze details of 'critical incidents' as recalled by the survey respondents He first used this methodology during his doctoral studies at the University of Pittsburgh with John Flanagan (later Director at the American Institute for Research), who developed the Critical Incident method in the selection of Army

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Air Corps personnel during the Second World War Herzberg's clever open interviewing method gleaned far more meaningful results than the conventional practice of asking closed (basically yes/no) or multiple-choice or extent-based questions, which assume or prompt a particular type of response, and which incidentally remain the most popular and convenient style of surveying even today - especially among those having a particular agenda or publicity aim

Herzberg also prepared intensively prior to his 1959 study - not least by scrutinizing and comparing the results and methodologies of all 155 previous research studies into job attitudes carried out between 1920 and 1954

The level of preparation, plus the 'critical incident' aspect and the depth of care and analysis during the 1959 project, helped make Herzberg's study such a powerful and sophisticated piece of work

Herzberg expanded his motivation-hygiene theory in his subsequent books: Work and the Nature of Man (1966); The Managerial Choice (1982); and Herzberg on Motivation (1983)

Significantly, Herzberg commented in 1984, twenty-five years after his theory was first published:

“The original study has produced more replications than any other research in the history of industrial and organizational psychology” (source: Institute for Scientific Information)

The absence of any serious challenge to Herzberg's theory continues effectively to validate it Herzberg's central theory is very relevant to modern understanding

Vroom’s Expectancy Theory

Expectancy theory proposes that an individual will decide to behave or act in a certain way because they are motivated to select a specific behavior over other behaviors due

to what they expect the result of that selected behavior will be In essence, the motivation of the behavior selection is determined by the desirability of the outcome However, at the core of the theory is the cognitive process of how an individual processes the different motivational elements This is done before making the ultimate choice The outcome is not the sole determining factor in making the decision of how

to behave

Expectancy theory is about the mental processes regarding choice, or choosing It explains the processes that an individual undergoes to make choices In the study of organizational behavior, expectancy theory is a motivation theory first proposed by Victor Vroom of the Yale School of Management

Victor H Vroom (1964) defines motivation as a process governing choices among alternative forms of voluntary activities, a process controlled by the individual The individual makes choices based on estimates of how well the expected results of a given behavior are going to match up with or eventually lead to the desired results Motivation is a product of the individual’s expectancy that a certain effort will lead to

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the intended performance, the instrumentality of this performance to achieving a certain result, and the desirability of this result for the individual, known as valence

Goal Setting Theory

Goal setting (Locke, 1986) involves establishing specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-targeted (S.M.A.R.T) goals Work on the theory of goal-setting suggests that an effective tool for making progress is to ensure that participants in a group with a common goal are clearly aware of what is expected from them On a personal level, setting goals helps people work towards their own objectives Goal setting features as a major component of personal development literature The word goal is also one of the most recognizable words in management for motivational endeavors

It is considered an “open” theory, so as new discoveries are made it is modified Studies have shown that specific and ambitious goals lead to a higher level of performance than easy or general goals As long as the individual accepts the goal, has the ability to attain it, and does not have conflicting goals, there is a positive linear relationship between goal difficulty and task performance

Goals are a form of motivation that sets the standard for self-satisfaction with performance Achieving the goal one has set for oneself is a measure of success, and being able to meet job challenges is a way one measures success in the workplace

Hackman and Oldham’s Job Characteristics

In 1975, Greg R Oldhamand J Richard Hackman constructed the original version of the Job Characteristics Theory (JCT), which is based on earlier work by Turner and