Exploring The Link Between Employee Satisfaction And Organizational Productivity: A Research Proposal In The Manufacturing Industry

Literature Review

1.1 Background of the study

Organisational success depends on the employees’ morale and the effectiveness of the employees mainly relies on the training and experience. Within an organisation, managers want to have the satisfied employees so that the employees can improve the organisational productivity. The role of the managers in the organisation is to motivate the employees and to make the workplace a positive one (Boukis and Gounaris 2015). In the manufacturing industry; the value of the employees is significant and the employees expect good pay, autonomy, security, challenge and pleasant co-workers from the organisation. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to explore the link between the employee satisfaction and the organisational productivity in the manufacturing industry. In this proposal, a short literature review along with the data collection process of the research will be described. Most importantly; the research aim and objectives will be given with research questions.

1.2 Significance of the study

The employees, who are satisfied, love their job and the employees can increase the organisational productivity through increasing their potentiality. This research will be significant as the concept of research will strive to find the factors of employee satisfaction and organisational productivity. It is imperative to highlight the relationship between the organisational performance and job satisfaction is complex. This research is significant for the future researchers who will conduct the study based on the employee satisfaction and organisational productivity. In addition, this research proposal will be significant to the managers of the manufacturing industry as they will get to know about the factors of employee satisfaction and the importance of organisational productivity. In organisational behaviour; employee satisfaction is a crucial factor and this proposal will try to emphasis on making the relationship between employee satisfaction and organisational productivity.

The concept of employee satisfaction

Managers of the organisation take strategies to fulfil the desires and needs of the employees and the senior managers try to measure the factors of the employee satisfaction in the workplace. If the management of the organisation is successful in providing all the needs of the employees; the employees get satisfied. As stated by Men (2014), employee satisfaction mainly comes from the motivation of the work, employee goal achievement and positive employee morale in the workplace. The author further stated in his article that satisfaction of the employees is positive for the organisation as it includes the empowering the employees and treating the employees with respect and recognition. Moreover, according to Platis and Zoulis (2017), employers always try to make the environment of the workplace motivated so that the employees can work there with satisfaction. Within a manufacturing sector; the employee satisfaction is looked at in the area of management, empowerment, teamwork, communication and co-worker intention. The management of an organisation must focus on the job satisfaction as this can provide the benefit of creating brand awareness, lower employee turnover, increase bottom line profit, improve company productivity and reduce the recruitment cost.

Factors that drive employee satisfaction

Factors that drive employee satisfaction

According to Zhu et al. (2014), employee engagement and employee happiness is an important matter for the modern management and low employee engagement correlates with the decreased productivity of the organisation. The management of the organisation must appreciate the work so that the employees get motivated and feel valued for the organisation. On the other side, motivation and value for the organisation give the intrinsic motivation to the employees (Cerasoli et al. 2014). The superiors must have a good relationship with the employees and company must give the employees financial stability. In addition, the organisation must provide flexible working hours so that the employees must get the good work-life balance. The employees need to have a good working culture where the employees should have the good relationship with the colleagues (Huanng et al. 2015). In the small organisations; the employees expect to have the job security as it drives the employee satisfaction. Moreover, fixed and attractive salary is always a motivator for the employees and interesting job content gives the employee satisfaction.

The theoretical concept of employee satisfaction

Herzberg’s Two-Factor theory talks about improving the motivator factors to increase the job satisfaction. Motivator factors in the workplace are the achievement, work, personal growth, recognition and advancement; these factors help to improve the job satisfaction. In addition, Holmberg et al. (2018) stated that Herzberg talks about improving the hygiene factors which decreases the job dissatisfaction. Hygiene factors in the workplace are the working condition, policies and rules, supervisor qualities and base wage and salary; in the absence of these factors; the employees can get dissatisfied.

The individual factor of employee satisfaction is emotion as moods are longer lasting while emotions are often more intense. Emotions at work refer to various types of efforts which manage the emotional state. Huang et al. (2016) supported this by saying there are two personality factors of employee satisfaction locus of control and alienation. Sometimes, the employees of the organisation are expected to have the psychological wellbeing as it is the overall effectiveness of the psychological functioning of the work, community and family.

The concept of organisational productivity

As opined by Brettel et al. (2014), organisational productivity is the ability of the organisation, business or an institution to produce desired results with a minimum expenditure of time, energy, personnel and money and materials. Productivity within an organisation is very important as it relates to the fundamental and essential concept of the organisation. In the private sector; top ten business priorities are to increase enterprise growth, attract and retain the new customers, deliver the operational result, reduce enterprise cost, improve efficiency, improve profitability and attract and retain the workforce. Borghesi et al. (2015) supported this by saying productivity makes the organisation functions well. Organisational productivity can be increased by reducing the costs, improve the organisational efficiency, removing the duplication and making more efficient delivery of the work by the employees (Lazaroiu 2015).  The authors further stated that inputs in the products are the capital assets, energy, materials and labours.

Theoretical concept of employee satisfaction

Strategies to drive organisational productivity

Bakotic (2016) stated that employees who are happy in the workplace; devote private time to the work. The author further stated that the satisfied employees are committed and creative in the workplace as well. The author conducted an empirical research with more than 40 Croatian companies and the author concluded that satisfied employees have extraordinary performance. Manpower can increase the organisational productivity as the organisation can consider the training in department wise so that the employees can meet the required skills. Most importantly, in the manufacturing sector; the organisation needs to improve the equipment and machines so that the productivity of the organisation can be increased. Input materials can be increased as the organisation can use appropriate quality of materials, substitute of materials being used. The management invests in the development of the employees as financial gain is required. In the study of Shet et al. (2017), factors in the workplace are increased of globalisation, shortage of skills, demanding stakeholders and diversity of the workforce, which will help to increase the satisfaction of the employees. The authors used 272 government workplace departments as the sample size to find out the findings.

Gap in literature

The review of the relevant literature indicates that managers are facing challenges of retaining the employees and manufacturing organisations have been in the testing phase. Many of the researchers focused across different parts of the world within the subject of employee loyalty, retention and commitment. However, less focus was made on the organisational productivity and in manufacturing industry; there are small numbers of empirical studies. There is a gap to be identified in making the relationship between the employee satisfaction and the organisational productivity as there are numbers of variables attached to this.

3.1 Methodological position

Ontology in business research is defined as the science of being and it mainly deals with the reality of nature (Ledford and Gast 2018). This study will follow the ontology as it is the system of nature or belief which reflects the interpretation of individual which constitute the fact. Identification of ontology is difficult; however; the researcher will determine the research design. The researcher will select the descriptive research design. The researcher will also choose the deductive research approach. Ontology is mainly associated with the central question of doing the research from objectivist perspective. Objectivism states the position which social entities can exist in reality external to social actors concerned with their existence. As opined by Palinkas et al. (2015), ontological position mainly tells about the phenomena and their meaning have the existence of social actors. In order to collect the data based on employee satisfaction and organisational productivity; the researcher will collect the primary data.

Concept of organizational productivity

3.2 Research aim

The aim of the research is to find out the impact of employee satisfaction on organisational productivity. The research will focus on the manufacturing industry.  

3.3 Research objectives

The objectives of this research are:

• To highlight the factors those drive the employee satisfaction in the workplace
• To find out the relationship between the employee satisfaction and organisational productivity in manufacturing industry
• To point out the challenges faced by the manufacturing industry in gaining organisational productivity
• To recommend some possible solutions to the manufacturing industry to improve the satisfaction level of employees and organisational productivity

Primary research question

What is the relationship between the employee satisfaction and organisational productivity in the manufacturing industry?

Secondary research questions

• What are the factors those drive the employee satisfaction in the workplace?
• What are the challenges faced by the manufacturing industry in gaining organisational productivity?
• What could be some possible solutions to the manufacturing industry to improve the satisfaction level of employees and organisational productivity?

The success of organisations depends on staff members who like to enjoy the work, motivated by their duties and get rewards for their efforts. Satisfied employees shine with their efforts and their efforts help the organisations to get the desired organisational productivity. In the manufacturing sector; the management fails to understand the needs of the employees and negative management influences can lower the employees’ morale. The employees expect appreciation, work-life-balance, good relationship with colleagues and job security. However, manufacture organisational productivity depends on the soil, climate, human actions and financial conditions (Lee 2017). Therefore, this research strives to find out the primary research question of establishing the relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable of the research those are employee satisfaction and organisational productivity. Employee satisfaction mainly depends on two variables; which are external environmental factors and the personal characteristics. If the employees’ expectations level falls short; the employees become dissatisfied. The research questions aim to find out the answer to the larger issue of employee satisfaction and engagement which are needed for the organisational productivity.

As stated by Saunders et al. (2009), the process of collecting data for the purpose of doing the research is called research methodology. Research methods are the step by step research processes which help to collect and analyse the data for the research.

4.1 Method of data collections

There are mainly two types of data collections, primary data collection and secondary data collection. Primary data is collected from the respondents directly and secondary data is collected from the secondary data sources (Flick 2015). In this research; the researcher will collect the data using both primary and secondary data collection process. Therefore, Mixed Method will be used in order to collect the data. Primary data collection process will be helpful for this research as the researcher will collect the information for the specific purpose and direct conversation with the respondents will help to understand the issues regarding the employee satisfaction and organisational productivity. In addition, secondary data collection will also enrich the research as it is time-saving and cost-efficient.

4.2 Data collection process

In order to collect the data through primary data collection process; the researcher will conduct survey and interview sessions. The researcher will prepare 15 close-ended MCQ type questions in order to collect the data through a survey. The researcher will take the help of Google Sheet in order to prepare the questionnaire and Google Survey Sheet is helpful to share with the respondents. The researcher will contact with the respondents in order to share the Google Sheet with them. The respondents will be given a timeframe of 15 days to revert on the survey questions. In addition, the researcher will also prepare 8 open-ended questions based on employee satisfaction and organisational productivity in the manufacturing industry. These open-ended questions will be asked during the interviews.

Strategies to drive organizational productivity

Moreover, the researcher will also use the secondary data collection process where the researcher will collect the secondary data using the books, journals, websites, online articles, government reports and manufacturing industry reports.

The researcher might face the issue of collecting the survey data directly from the respondents as it is difficult to find out the maximum numbers of respondents for the survey. The researcher might face the difficulty of preparing the questions for the survey as well. Therefore, the researcher will use the online survey method in order to solve the issue of finding the maximum respondents. Online survey process will also be helpful to share with the respondents of the survey questions. In addition, the researcher will prepare the questions first and the researcher will use the strategy of ‘pilot testing’ where the researcher will send survey questionnaire to limited numbers of respondents in order to understand whether the respondents would get to understand the questions, options and wordings.

In addition, the researcher will conduct the face-to-face interviews; it might get difficult for the researcher to make agreements with the respondents because of the time issue. The researcher might get nervous during the interview process as it would be the first time to conduct the interview for the researcher. In order to solve the problem; the researcher will conduct some of the interviews as face-to-face semi-structured interviews and some of the interviews will be conducted via telephone.  

The researcher will find the different responses from interviews, surveys and secondary data. Therefore, there will be an issue to take the right data for the research. The researcher will conduct the ‘test-retest reliability’ to get the stability of data over time.

4.3 Sampling

The researcher will collect the survey data from the senior level employees in the manufacturing sector. Sample size will be kept as 200. The sampling technique of the survey will be simple random sampling where every person in the population has a probability of being selected. The researcher will ask to give e-mail ids of the respondents. The respondents will be sent their responses through e-mail.  

Sample population	Sample size	Sampling technique	Sampling frame
The senior-level employees of the manufacturing sector	200	Simple random sampling	Google sheet and online platform

Table1: Sampling of survey

(Source: Created by the researcher)

The researcher will collect the interview data from the managers of manufacturing industry. The researcher will collect the interview data from 4 managers. The sample size will be 4. The researcher will use the sampling technique of non-probability sampling using the semi-structured interview.

Sample population	Sample size	Sampling technique	Sampling frame
The managers of manufacturing industry	4	Non-probability sampling	Face-to-face and telephonic interviews

Table 2: Sampling of interview

(Source: Created by the researcher)

4.4 Data analysis

Collected data from the survey will be analysed using quantitative data analysis. Quantitative data are mainly numerical (Lewis 2015). Quantitative data will be collected using SPSS software where the researcher will try to establish the relationship between two variables. SPSS data analysis will be presented using tables and SPSS generated graph.

Collected data from the interview will be analysed using qualitative data analysis technique. Qualitative data are mainly descriptive and subjective. The researcher will analyse the findings using the thematic analysis technique. The researcher will use divide the findings into several themes identifying the patterned meaning across the dataset.  

4.5 Ethical considerations

This research is associated with human participants. Hence, the researcher will take permission from the respondents of the researcher by asking them to sign on consent paper. The researcher will take permission from the university to conduct the research based on human participants. The researcher will ensure that all the data will be collected for research purposes only and all the data will be destroyed once the research purpose will be done. The researcher will not reveal the names of the respondents; hence, confidentiality will be maintained. The researcher will not conduct any type of coercion during the survey or interview process or exchange of money and distortion of data will not be performed.

Conclusions

This research would shed light on the relationship between employee satisfaction and organisational productivity. This research will be significant as most of the previous researches have been done external and internal factors of employee satisfaction within the workplace. However, this study will be unique to establish the relationship among the various factors of employee satisfaction with the productivity of the organisation. However, this research will find out the factors of employee satisfaction which can accelerate the organisational productivity. The employees should be motivated and positive if the management wants to make the organisation productive. This proposed research will try to find out the gap why the satisfaction and happiness impacts on the productivity. This research will find out the factors of employee satisfaction which drive the organisational productivity. This researcher will try to find out the factors which can increase the organisational productivity. Each of the employees in a manufacturing sector finds satisfaction which motivates them to work hard. The managers of the organisation need to listen to the employees and it allows the creativity and personalisation. This research may find the result of increasing the organisational productivity and this research will strive to highlight the strategy of employee satisfaction. The anticipated findings of the research may be permitted for telecommuting, providing competitive benefits to the employees and respect the employees.

This research will be beneficial in the field of human resource management as the managers of the manufacturing sector and the future researchers of human resource field will get the idea of identifying the factors and challenges of employee satisfaction and organisational productivity. The process of productivity of the employees will be measured and the relationship between the productivity and job stress will be analysed. This study will find out the relationship through statistical analysis as well as qualitative analysis. Primary research technique will be used; therefore, the future researchers and managers will have the fair idea about the reduced job stress and increase job satisfaction and productivity.

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