This chapter contains the research methodology and design implemented in this study.
Also, the research hypothesis which has been obtained from the previous chapters was included. It outlines the discussions of methodological aspects, including research framework, research design, research sampling, the measurement instrument, pilot test, data collection, data analysis, and research procedures.
Research Framework
The research framework of the present study is developed from the previous studies and several models and theories derived from the literature review. The research presents how organizational identification moderates the positive effect of grit on organizational citizenship behavior. The relationship between variables to be examined in this study is presented in Figure 3.1. The variables consist of grit as the independent variable, organizational citizenship behavior as the dependent variable, and organizational identification as the moderator.
The hypotheses proposed in this study are shown as follows:
Hypothesis 1 Grit will influence organizational citizenship behavior.
Hypothesis 2 The relationship between grit and organizational citizenship behavior is moderated by organizational identification.
The hypothesis 1 is based on the JD-R model (Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner, &
Schaufeli, 2001) while the hypothesis 2 is grounded by social identity theory (Tajfel, 1974)
Figure 3.1. Research framework
Research Procedure
This part provided a description of the process that this study went through. The research procedure for this study is divided into several steps, as shown in Figures 3.2. at the end of this part.
Statement of Research Problem
The initiated idea of the present research problem came up from the educational background of the author in the field of psychology. Based on the personal interest of grit, which always is studied as a predictor of academic achievement in the field of developmental psychology, but in the fields of business and management addressed a lack of research. After several discussions with the thesis advisor, and later came up with the present research framework and the research sample in the hotel industry.
Control Variables:
Gender / Age / Tenure Grit
(X)
Organizational Citizenship Behavior
(Y) Organizational
Identification (M) H2
H1
Literature Review
The previous research related to all variables in the present study was reviewed to have more understanding and to assure the conceptual framework, which consists of the main three variables; grit, organizational identification, and OCB, no prior research has been studied before.
Development of the Questionnaires
The quantitative approach by relying on a survey-based method for data collection was used to conduct this study. A designed questionnaire was chosen from the previous reliable studies. The survey instrument included measures for three distinct variables: grit, organizational identification, and OCB. From the previous studies, all questionnaires were originally designed in English. As the participants were Thai, all questions were translated into Thai. The validity of the translations was examined and clarified by ten hotel employees for proving the accuracy of the translation.
Data Collection
The questionnaires were distributed to the hotel employees by means of convenient and snowball sampling. An online self-reported survey was designed as the major research instrument to collect data. The survey link was sent to several groups of hotel employees who agree to participate and to forward the link to their network members. Besides, the cover letter emphasizing the confidentiality of the study, and the anonymity of the respondents were on the first page of the online self-reported survey. The data collection period was the last two months, from January to February 2020.
Data Analysis
After collecting the data, the IBM SPSS Statistics 23 software was used to analyze the numerical data. Descriptive statistics were conducted for the sample profile, such as means and standard deviations. Correlation analyses were employed to examine the relationships among grit, organizational identification, and OCB. Hierarchical regression analyses were used for inferential statistics to investigate the moderating effect of organizational identification.
Result Interpretation
After data analysis, the result was used to interpret to examine the hypotheses of the study, and the literature review was used to discuss the findings.
Conclusion and Recommendation
The main purpose of the study was concluded, and the recommendation was provided for future research.
Figure 3.2. Research procedure Statement of Research Problem
Literature Review
Development of the questionnaires
Data Collection
Data Analysis
1. Grit
2. Organizational Identification 3. OCB
1. The Short Grit Scale (Duckworth & Quinn, 2009)
2. Organizational identification scale (Mael & Ashforth, 1992) 3. OCB scale (Podsakoff et al., 1990)
1.
Convenience sampling type: snowball sampling
1. Descriptive statistics analysis 2. Pearson correlation analysis 3. Hierarchical regression analysis
2.
Result Interpretation
Conclusion and Recommendation
Research Sample
The participants of this study consist of the hotel employees from four-star and five-star hotels in Bangkok, Thailand. The present research focuses on hotel employees from four-star and five-four-star hotels in Bangkok because of two reasons. First, this study chooses the hotel employees from four-star and five-star hotels in which a star rating was given by the Tourism Authority of Thailand in 2018. Recently, in Thailand, a four-star and five-star hotels are the fastest-growing segment of the hotel industry (Erawan, 2018). This trend is likely to impact the hotel industry as a whole such as it is making the labor market extremely competitive, which high demand for quality hotel employees. Second, the reason behind this is about the location, Bangkok, the Thai capital, is the most visited city in the world (Hamel, 2019).
Therefore, the hotels, especially a four-star and five-star chain hotels, are expanding the new hotel into this city (Erawan, 2018). All in all, the findings from this study would help them dealing with the two situations above. Moreover, these hotel segments have an enormous potential for development. In other words, the present study could have an impact on the growth and success of their business.
Measurement
The questionnaires in this study were adopted from the previous research. The designed questionnaire of the present study included two main sections. The first section contained questions about measuring three variables with 38 items: grit with 8 items, organizational identification with 6 items, and organizational citizenship behavior with 24 items. The second section contained demographic information of the participant. Moreover, to avoid the multiple participation responses, in the beginning, the participants have to answer the question that
“Have you finished this survey before?”
According to the first section, all questionnaire items were originally designed in English. As the participants were Thai, all questions were translated into Thai, and the validity was checked by a back-translation method (Jones & Kay, 1992) and was examined by ten hotel employees.
Grit
The Short Grit Scale (Grit–S) was employed to measure grit. This scale was developed by (Duckworth & Quinn, 2009), which originally grit scale have 12-item (Duckworth et al., 2007), then Duckworth and Quinn (2009) developed the 8-item to prove about validity and reliability and to develop as a shorter version of their previous. Response options were based on a five-item scale that ranged from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. Example items included the following: “I often set a goal but later choose to pursue a different one”
(reversed scored) and “I finish whatever I begin.” Cronbach's Alpha for this scale was .77 (See Table 3.1.).
Table 3.1.
Grit Scale
Items Questionnaire Component Cronbach’s Alpha Author
.77 1 New ideas and projects sometimes distract me
from previous ones.
Duckworth
and Quinn (2009) 2 Setbacks don’t discourage me.
3 I have been obsessed with a certain idea or project for a short time but later lost interest.
4 I am a hard worker.
5 I often set a goal but later choose to pursue a different one.
6 I have difficulty maintaining my focus on projects that take more than a few months to complete.
7 I finish whatever I begin.
8 I am diligent.
Note. Adapted from “Development and validation of the Short Grit Scale (GRIT–S),” by A.L.
Duckworth and P.D. Quinn. 2009, Journal of Personality Assessment, 91(2), p. 166-174.
Organizational Identification
A six-item organizational identification questionnaire was adopted from Mael and Ashforth (1992), which is grounded by social identity theory (Tajfel, 1974). An example item included: “When someone criticizes my hotel, it feels like a personal insult” and “My hotel’s successes are my successes.” (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). Cronbach's Alpha for this scale was .81 (See Table 3.2.).
Table 3.2.
Organizational Identification Scale
Items Questionnaire Component Cronbach’s Alpha Author
.81 1 When someone criticizes my hotel, it feels like
a personal insult.
Mael and
Ashforth (1992) 2 I am very interested in what others think about
my hotel.
3 When I talk about my hotel, I usually say ‘we’
rather than ‘they.’
4 My hotel’s successes are my successes.
5 When someone praises my hotel, it feels like a personal compliment.
6 If a story in the media criticized my hotel, I would feel embarrassed.
Note. Adapted from “Alumni and their alma mater: A partial test of the reformulated model of organizational identification,” by F. Mael and B. E. Ashforth. 1992, Journal of
Organizational Behavior, 13(2), p. 103-123.
Organizational Citizenship Behavior
With regard to organizational citizenship behavior, 24 questions were adopted from Podsakoff et al. (1990), which provides a clear, valid, and reliable measure of OCB. As the present study used the definition of OCB provided by Organ (1988), Podsakoff et al. (1990) also employed Organ (1988) definition and empirically tested and developed OCB measurement. Example items included the following: “I do not consider the impact of my actions on co-workers” (reversed scored) and “I help others who have a heavy workload.” Each item had 5-point Likert response categories from strongly agree to strongly disagree.
Cronbach's Alpha for this scale was .84 (See Table 3.3.).
Table 3.3.
Organizational Citizenship Behavior Scale
Items Questionnaire Component Cronbach’s Alpha Author
.84
1 I help others who have heavy work load. Podsakoff
et al.
(1990) 2 I do my job without constant requests from
my boss.
3 I believe in giving an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay.
4 I do not waste time complaining about trivial matters.
5 I try to avoid creating problems for co-workers.
6 I keep abreast of changes in the organization.
7 I tend to magnify problems.
8 I do not consider the impact of my actions on co-workers.
9 I attend meetings that are not mandatory, but important.
(continued)
Table 3.3. (continued)
Items Questionnaire Component Cronbach’s Alpha Author
10 I am always ready to give a helping hand to those around me.
11 I attend functions that are not required, but help the company image.
12 I read and keep up with organization announcements, memos, and so on.
13 I help others who have been absent.
14 I respect the rights of people that work with me.
15 I willingly help others who have work related problems.
16 I always focus on what is right, rather than what is wrong.
17 I take steps to try to avoid problems with other workers.
18 My attendance at work is above the norm.
19 I always find fault with what the organization is doing.
20 I am mindful of how my behavior affects other people’s jobs.
21 I do not take extra breaks.
22 I respect company rules and policies even when no one is watching me.
23 I guide new people even though it is not required.
24 I am one of the most conscientious employees.
Note. Adapted from “Transformational leader behaviors and their effects on followers' trust in leader, satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behaviors,” by P.M. Podsakoff, S.B.
MacKenzie, R.H. Moorman, and R. Fetter. 1990, The Leadership Quarterly, 1(2), p. 107-142.
Control Variable
Previous research illustrated the significant effects of demographic factors, such as age, gender, and tenure on organizational outcome variables (Smith, Emerson, & Boster, 2018).
Therefore, the present study includes age, gender, and tenure as control variables, which may be correlated with grit, organizational identification, and OCB.
Age. Previous research showed mixed results about the relationship between age and OCB. For example, Iun and Huang (2007) founded the older hotel employee performed less extra-role performance behavior as well as had less identification with their hotel than the younger ones. On the other hand, some researchers found a positive relationship between them (Wanxian & Weiwu, 2007). In the present study, it is coded as 1 = male, 2 = female.
Gender. Given the potential effect of gender on OCB found in hotel industry research (Budiman, Anantadjaya, & Prasetyawati, 2014). Kidder and Parks (2001) and Morrison (1994) noted that gender is an important factor in influent extra-role performance behavior. In a gender context, some researchers found that women are more likely than men to perform OCB (Wanxian & Weiwu, 2007).
Tenure. Tenure also was added as one of the control variables. Previous studies found that tenure has a positive relationship with OCB (Iftikhar, Shahid, Shahab, Mobeen, & Qureshi, 2016; Kegans, McCamey, & Hammond, 2012). McCloy, Campbell, and Cudeck (1994) suggested a high-tenure employee tends to have more knowledge, skills, and abilities in their job than a low-tenure employee. The open-ended question was used to ask for employee tenure, and the respondent has to answers in years and months.
Pilot Test
A pilot test was carried out before conducting the main study. This pilot test included the demographic questions and questions measuring three variables of research interest, 8-item grit, 6-item organizational identification, and 24-item OCB. The pilot testing of an instrument supported validity and reliability (Lam, Yuen, Mercer, & Wong, 2010). In the present study, the pilot test was conducted with a group of 60 hotel employees from four-star and five-star hotels in Bangkok, Thailand.
Table 3.4.
Reliability Test of Three Variables’ Measurement (N = 60)
Variables Cronbach’s Alpha Value
1. Grit .756
2. Organizational Identification .792
3. Organizational Citizenship Behavior .761
Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA)
This study adopted confirmatory factor analysis to test the fit between the observed data and the proposed model by conducting with a group of 288 hotel employees. The range of goodness of fit was adopted form Hooper, Coughlan, and Mullen (2008) to determine the model fit. Table 3.5. provided the criteria of fit indices, which included Chi-square divided by degree of freedom (χ2/df), root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), comparative fit index (CFI), Tuck-Lewis index (TLI), and standardized root mean square residual (SRMR).
The whole model was run through CFA using Mplus 7 edition software to see whether the data fit the theoretical measurement model.
Table 3.5.
Summary of Model Fit Indices and Model Test Results
Index Acceptable Level Satisfactory Level CFA Test Results
χ²/df < 5 2-5 1.804
CFI > 0.90 > 0.95 0.910
TLI > 0.90 > 0.95 0.905
RMSEA < 0.08 < 0.05 0.053
SRMR < 0.08 < 0.05 0.042
Note. Summary according to Hooper, Coughlan, and Mullen (2008).
According to Table 3.5., the overall fit of this final measurement model was 𝑥#/𝑑𝑓 = 1.804; CFI and TLI were both higher than 0.90. Moreover, RMSA and SRMR were 0.053 and 0.042, respectively. All these indices indicated an acceptable fit between the observed data and the measurement model. Therefore, these results indicated the scales of grit, organizational identification, and organizational citizenship behavior have adequate validity for use in this study.
Data Analysis
The statistical software of IBM SPSS 23 for Windows was utilized in this study to analyze the data. The descriptive statistical and inferential statistical techniques were applied to test the hypotheses.
Descriptive Analysis
SPSS was applied for analyzing information and acquiring descriptive data reports from the raw data of the respondents’ basic profile. The frequency distribution of demographic data (e.g., gender, age, and tenure) was measured as well as the means and standard deviations of three variables: grit, organizational identification, and OCB.
Pearson Correlation Analysis
The Person correlation analysis was employed to examine the relationships among grit, organizational identification, and OCB. This analysis is used for two purposes: (1) to understand the strength of the relationship between variables, (2) to understand the direction of the relationship between variables. If the coefficient is closer to +1 or -1, those two variables are a stronger association, while zero means no relationship between two variables. The positive sign and negative sign refer to the direction of the relationship between variables; the positive sign means a positive correlation between two variables, whereas the negative sign means a negative correlation between two variables.
Hierarchical Regression Analysis
Hierarchical regression analysis was used for inferential statistics to test cause-effect relationships between grit and OCB and to investigate organizational identification as a moderator. The present study was employed in the hierarchical regression model for running a moderated regression. All the control variables (i.e., age, gender, tenure) were entered into the equation in the first step. The mean-centered variables of grit and organizational identification were entered into the equation at the second step, and the third step, the interaction term between grit and organizational identification was entered into the regression model to test the variables’ influence on OCB.