In this chapter, the research framework, hypothesis, sample, data collection, questionnaire design, pilot test, research procedure, measurement, control variables, and data analysis method are described. This research adopts quantitative research process to examine the relationship among organizational politics, job satisfaction, and perceived supervisor support.
Research Framework
According to the purposes of the study and literature review, the research framework is composed as seen in figure 3.1. The independent variable is organizational politics. The dependent variable is job satisfaction. And the perceived supervisor support serves as the moderator.
As mentioned earlier, this research aims to examine that organizational politics has a negative significant relationship with job satisfaction. Furthermore, by bringing in the perceived supervisor support, the research aims to examine further whether the PSS helps improving this relationship in a positive aspect.
Figure 3.1 Research Framework
Organizational Politics Job Satisfaction
Perceived Supervisor Support (PSS)
H1 H2
Control Variables - Job Position - Job Tenure
- English Proficiency
Research Hypotheses
Based on previous research questions, literature review, and research framework, the hypotheses are originated as follow:
Hypothesis 1 Organizational politics has a negative effect on job satisfaction.
Hypothesis 2 Perceived supervisor support helps weaken the negative relationship between organizational politics and job satisfaction.
Sample and Data Collection
The target participants were employees working as the first-lined customer representatives, specifically those who performed check-in process and boarded passengers to the aircraft at the boarding gate, at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, Thailand. The important requirements for participants who were eligible to complete the questionnaire were that they had to be full-time employees and were currently employed by the airline companies at the time they completed the questionnaire form.
The questionnaire was done in a paper-based pattern and was distributed directly to first-lined customer representatives. As the convenience sampling technique was adopted by the researcher, the data collecting process was done onsite the location where the questionnaire distribution occurred during mid March 2015 for 2 weeks length. The convenience sampling was applied by randomly ask the employees that fit with the requirements to fill up the questionnaire and immediately handed it back to the researcher.
Another channel for collecting more data was to pass the questionnaire to internal employees as they helped distributing those questionnaires to other employees. After that, they collected and returned them to the researcher.
In total, 365 paper-based questionnaires had been handed out and all were returned to the researcher. The response rate was 100%. However, after reviewing all questionnaires, 65 respondents or 18% from the total response rate were excluded from this study as they were
ineligible to answer the questionnaires due to the lack of pre-determined requirements. Thus, the final response rate was 300 questionnaires or 82%.
Questionnaire Design
All questionnaire items used in this study were well-developed items from three main sources of literature. The original use of different Likert scale types was maintained, but some wordings use was conveyed into the first person sentence so that all items actually reflect the perception of the participants themselves.
The questionnaires were primarily developed in English language. Since there was no limitation on the nationality of target participants, the English version remained untouched.
However, it was assumed that the majority of participants might be Thai, therefore, all items were self-translated by the researcher into Thai language, aiming to prevent misunderstanding and unclear wording for the target participants.
The meaning and grammatical accuracy of the questionnaire items were approved by using an expert review method. A professional translator who currently works as a translator at the United Nations in Bangkok headquarter crosschecked the English version. While a professional translator who works in a translation company crosschecked the Thai version.
Personal Information
Personal information, containing the supervisor’s nationality, job position, department, job tenure, and English proficiency score and the demographic information consisting of participants’ age and gender was displayed at the end of the questionnaire.
These information helped the researcher to identify the characteristics of the participants.
Measurement Organizational Politics
For measuring how first-lined customer representatives employees in the aviation industry at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, Thailand depict the organizational politics, the
questionnaire was adopted from the Perceptions of Organizational Politics Scale (POPS) by Kacmar and Ferris (1991). The researcher used the questionnaire, which contains a total of 12 items suggested by the authors. The 7-point Likert scale rating from 1 as strongly disagree to 7 as strongly agree was used in this questionnaire section. The researcher also altered the wordings used in this questionnaire into a first person statement as well as a sentence pattern referring to the work of Kacmar and Carlson in1997. The reliability coefficient or the Cronbach’s alpha of this questionnaire was .87.
Table 3.1.
The Perceptions of Organizational Politics Scale (POPS) Questions
1. I can get along here by being a good person, regardless of the quality of my work 2. There has always been an influential group in this department that no one ever crosses 3. Policy change does help improving the situation in office only a few
4. I build myself up by tearing others down
5. Favoritism rather than merit determines who gets ahead around here 6. I do not speak up because I am afraid of retaliation by others
7. I feel that pay and promotion policies are not politically applied 8. I feel that pay and promotion decisions are consistent with policies 9. Promotions in this department generally go to top performers (R) 10. Rewards come only to those who work hard in this organization (R)
11. I am encouraged to speak out frankly even when the are critical of well-established ideas (R)
12. There is no place for yes-men around here: good ideas are desired even when it means disagreeing with supervisors (R)
Note: (R) indicates the item is reverse scored
(continued)
Adopted from “Perceptions of organizational politics scale (POPS): Development and construct validation.” By Kacmar, K. M., & Ferris, G. R. (1991). Educational and Psychological Measurement, 51, 193-205. Copyright 1997 by JAI Press Inc.
Job Satisfaction
Aiming to measure the level of job satisfaction, the questionnaire was adopted from the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) by Weiss, Dawis, England, and Lofquist (1967). The questionnaire used in this study was a short version, which contained a total of 20 items out of a total of 100 items in the long version. The researcher kept the 5-point Likert scale rating as well as maintained the scale definition as suggested from the original work.
Since the questionnaire was aimed to measure how satisfied the first-lined customer representatives feel about the aspect of the job, the scale rating starts from 1 as very dissatisfied to 5 as very satisfied. The overall reliability coefficient or the Cronbach’s alpha of this questionnaire was .90.
Table 3.2.
The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) Questions 1. Satisfy with the ratio between work hour and rest hour 2. The chance to work alone on the job
3. The chance to do different things from time to time 4. The chance to be somebody in the community 5. The way my boss handling people
6. Competence of my supervisor in making decisions
7. Being able to do things that do not go against my conscience 8. The way my job provides for steady employment
9. The chance to do things for others
10. The chance to tell people what to do
11. The chance to do something that makes use of my abilities 12. The way company policies are put into practice
13. My pay and the amount of work I do 14. The chances for advancement on this job 15. The freedom to use my own judgment
16. The chance to try my own methods of doing the job 17. The working conditions
18. The way coworkers get along with each other 19. The praise I get for doing a good job
20. The feeling of accomplishment I get from the job
Note: Adopted from “Manual for the Minnesota satisfaction questionnaire: Minnesota studies in vocational rehabilitation: XXII.” By Weiss, D. J., Dawis, R. V., England, G. W., &
Lofquist, L. H. (1967). Minneapolis: Work Adjustment Project, Industrial Relations Center, University of Minnesota. Copyright 1967 by the Work Adjustment Project Industrial Relations Center University of Minnesota.
Perceived Supervisor Support (PSS)
In order to measure how first-lined customer representatives employees in the aviation industry at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, Thailand depict the perceived supervisor support (PSS), the PSS questionnaire was adopted from the work of Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison and Sowa (1986). The researcher used the short version of the questionnaire, which contained a total of 16 items suggested by the authors. The 5-point Likert scale rating from 1 as strongly disagree to 5 as strongly agree was used in this questionnaire section. The researcher also revised some wordings used in this questionnaire from “organization” to
“supervisor”. The reliability coefficient or the Cronbach’s alpha of this questionnaire was .97.
Table 3.2. (continued)
Table 3.3.
The Questionnaire for PSS Measurement
Questions 1. My supervisor considers my goals and values 2. My supervisor really cares about my well-being 3. My supervisor cares about my opinion
4. Help is available from my supervisor when I have problem 5. My supervisor is willing to help me when I need a special favor 6. My supervisor values my contribution to the well-being
7. My supervisor cares about my general satisfaction at work 8. My supervisor takes pride in my accomplishment at work 9. My supervisor tries to make my job as interesting as possible 10. My supervisor shows little concern for me (R)
11. If given the opportunity, my supervisor would take advantage of me (R)
12. If my supervisor could hire someone to replace me at a lower salary, he would do so (R) 13. My supervisor fails to appreciate any extra effort from me (R)
14. My supervisor would ignore any complaint from me (R)
15. My supervisor disregards my best interests when it makes decisions that affect me (R) 16. Even if I did the best job possible, my supervisor would fail to notice (R)
Note: (R) indicates the item is reverse scored
Adopted from “Perceived organizational support.” By Eisenberger, R., Huntington, R., Huntington, S., & Sowa, D. (1986), Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 500-507. Copyright 1986 by the American Psychological Association Inc.
Control Variables
A total of two control variables are used in the study. These control variables do have some influences on the relationships that the researcher aims to investigate as well as help creating a demographic area of the samples.
Job Position
The job position of the samples must be first-lined customer representatives working at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, Thailand. The researcher limits the job position to manager, supervisor, leading agent, and agent because employees in some companies have to perform their duties in teams consisting of people from different position levels. According to the study of Robbins and Judge (2013), in assigned tasks or teamwork, status inequity may take away job satisfaction among employees, consequently influencing to low performance execution. As a consequence, junior or new-joining employees may be demotivated and decrease interest when working with more senior employees.
Job Tenure
Wong and Law (2002) stated that the employees that have many previous job experiences are likely to response and master their interactions related to organizational politics with others in a more effective manner.
English Proficiency
The first-lined customer representatives generally use English as the main communication language. Not only communicating with the passengers, some employees have to directly communicate with foreign supervisors. A study by Hechanova, Beehr, and Christiansen (2003) determined that the language ability has a potential impact on the communication effectiveness because the lack of the language skill isolates the employees and makes it difficult for them to communicate and understand communicating contexts.
Pilot Test
As a part of securing the reliability and validity of the questionnaire, a pilot test was conducted in order to ensure the proper use of wordings and to review the relationship between all variables. The pilot test samples were 30 first-lined customer representatives currently work at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, Thailand. These 30 test samples were intentionally being excluded from the final questionnaire. Most of the participants were female (70%). According to the demographic information, it seemed like all participants did not have much working experiences in the aviation industry since an average working length in the current companies was only a year (76.7%). Furthermore, an estimate age of participants was generally between 22-26 years old (83.3%) as shown in Table 3.4.
Table 3.4.
Descriptive Statistics for Pilot Test (n=30)
Item Sample characteristics Frequency Percentage
Gender Male 9 30
Check-in and boarding gate Total
8 30
26.7 100 English Proficiency
Score
TOEFL iBT 4 13.3
TOEIC 26 86.7
Total 30 100
To continue, the reliability and Pearson correlation analysis were also conducted for the pilot test to confirm the reliability of the questionnaire items and get a brief understanding of the relationship among each item. Table 3.5 presents the mean, standard deviation, correlations, and reliability for the pilot test. The Cronbach’s alpha for the questionnaire items were .69 for organizational politics, .90 for job satisfaction, and .95 for perceived supervisor support. The result of the correlation analysis indicated that organizational politics had a negative correlation with job satisfaction (r=.-53, p<.01). While perceived supervisor support was significantly positive correlated with job satisfaction (r=.67, p<.001).
Table 3.4. (continued)
Table 3.5.
Mean, Standard Deviation, Correlations, and Reliability (n=30)
Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
1. Age 24.83 2.76
2. Tenure 1.23 .43 .30
3. Job Position 1.27 .58 .16 -.12
4. Gender .30 .47 -.22 .33 .08
5. Check-in .40 .50 -.03 .19 -.14 .06
6. Boarding .33 .48 .36 -.06 .16 .00 -.58**
7. Supervisor's Nationality
(Japanese) .10 .31 -.14 -.18 -.16 .02 .18 -.24
8. Supervisor's Nationality
(Malaysian) .10 .31 -.23 -.18 -.16 -.21 .18 .00 -.11
9. Supervisor's Nationality (Thai) .73 .45 .16 .33 .28 .07 -.28 .11 -.55** -.55**
10. English Proficiency – .35 .23 .22 .18 .26 -.28 .28 -.52** -.20 .43*
11. Organizational Politics 3.48 .69 -.38* -.16 .06 .28 -.23 .01 .37* .12 -.24 -.11 (.69)
12. Perceived Supervisor Support 3.66 .71 .18 .01 .04 .02 -.00 .28 -.38* .06 .04 .29 -.28 (.95)
13. Job Satisfaction 3.48 .63 .29 .25 -.19 -.03 .24 .06 -.29 .01 .02 .18 -.53** .67*** (.90) Note: *p<.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001
Job Level: 1 = Agent, 2 = Leading Agent, 3 = Supervisor; Gender: 0 = Female, 1 = Male; English Proficiency: 0 = IELTS, 1 = TOEIC
Data Analysis
Since this is the quantitative study, the data is collected by using the questionnaire.
The researcher used the IMB SPSS version 21 and AMOS version 22 during the data analyzing process. The data analysis section includes the descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis, hierarchical regression analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).
Descriptive Statistics
In order to explain the means, inter-correlation amongst variables, variance, and standard deviation, the descriptive statistics is applied. The distribution pattern and demographic information in percentile are also demonstrated to comprehend the trait of the first-lined customer representatives.
As so, age, gender, supervisor’s nationality, job position, department, job tenure, and level of English proficiency were required from the first-lined customer representatives. The gender was divided into male and female. The job position consisted of 3 options, which were agent, leading agent, and supervisor. The department consisted of 3 options, which were check-in, boarding gate or both. The first-lined customer representatives had choices between TOEFL both paper-based (PBT) and internet-based (iBT) tests, IELTS, and TOEIC in the level of English proficiency section.
Pearson Correlation Analysis
This study used the Pearson correlation analysis as a tool for finding if there was the linear or direct correlation between organizational politics, job satisfaction, and perceived supervisor support. At the point when the correlation is high, it demonstrates that there is a solid relationship between two variables. The relationship goes otherwise if the correlation is low. A minimum approval for the correlation result is when the Pearson’s correlation (γ) does not go below than 0.4. Meanwhile, the mean correlation is set between 0.4 and 0.7 as the γ over 0.7 is perceived as high correlation.
Hierarchical Regression Analysis
The hierarchical regression analysis was applied in this study to test out if perceived supervisor support had a moderating effect on the relationship between organizational politics and job satisfaction. Both hypotheses were tested using the same method. Two control variables were entered as the prior step to test if organizational politics had a negative affect on the level of job satisfaction. Then, perceived supervisor support was brought in so that the researcher could run the interaction analysis process to see whether the moderating effect existed or not.
Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA)
The researcher selected the AMOS for performing a validity test of the questionnaire that was used for collecting data. By doing so, the researcher was able to confirm whether the questionnaire was suitable with the measurement method and fit with the previous theories or studies. There was only one dimension in each variable, which meant that there was one factor in each variable category. Thus, this questionnaire set can be considered as a one level questionnaire.