This chapter describes the research methods. Included are discussions of the Structure, variables, participants, instrumentation, procedures, null hypotheses, data analyses, assumptions, and limitations of the study.
Structure
The present study used an exploratory field study approach. The first part of the design was a comparison in nature, comparing contractors and employees on job satisfaction and OCB. The second part of the study was based on a correlational design relating the job satisfaction to OCB in both contractors and employees.
Variables
The independent variable was the employment status of workers, either contractor or employees. The intermediate variable was the job satisfaction and the final outcome variable was OCB.
Participants
The participant selection principal was to choose multiple companies where English is the official language and their headquarters are located at foreign countries.
In addition, there should be at least one fifth contractors in the participative company.
Two German based semiconductor company match well with the participant selection.
The two organizations were a perfect match for the study because the organizations maintained a large a number of contractors and employees and they are well known semiconductor companies over the world.
A total of 300 participants (60 contractors and 240 employees) were invited to participate. The research participants all worked in two large germen semiconductor companies in Taiwan branches. Criteria for inclusion were that the participants be able to read and understand English, be willing to participate in this study, and have been
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at their current job more than one month.
Instrumentation
Three instruments were used in the present study. One measured the job satisfaction, another one measured OCB, and the other one was a demographic questionnaire. A copy of the complete survey is shown in the administered format in appendix A. Approximately 10 to 25 minutes per respondent was needed to complete the entire survey.
Job satisfaction measure
Job satisfaction was measured with the 36-item form of the Job Satisfaction Survey (Spector, 1985). A 5-point Likert-type response format was used, ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The instrument yields nine sub-scales: pay, promotion, supervision, fringe benefits, contingent rewards, operating conditions, coworkers, nature of work and communication.
Validity evidence for JSS is provided by studies that compared different scales with one another on the same employee. For example, five of the JSS subscale (pay, promotion, supervision, coworkers, and nature of work) correlate well with corresponding subscales of the JDI (Smith, Kendall & Hulin, 1969), which is probably the most carefully validated scale of job satisfaction, these correlations ranged from .61 for coworkers to .80 for supervision. The JSS has also been shown to correlate with a number of scales and variables that have been shown in the literature to correlate with other job satisfaction scales. These include job characteristics as assessed with the JDS (Hackman & Oldham, 1975), age, organization level, absence, organizational commitment, leadership practices, intention to quit the job, and turnover (Spector, 1985).
Reliability evidence for JSS is the internal consistencies, or coefficient alphas, from a sample of 3,067 individuals who completed the JSS. The coefficient alphas ranged from .60 for coworker subscale, to .91 for the total scale (Spector, 1985).
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Organizational citizenship behavior measure
The 16-item OCB scale of Smith et al. (1983) was used to assess OCB. This measure consists of two dimensions measuring the two categories of OCB, altruism and general compliance, respectively. A 5-point Likert-type response format was used, ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Coefficient alpha reliability estimates were .88 and .85, respectively, for the two subscales.
Demographic questionnaire
Demographic variable included age, gender, education, length of employment, employment status (contractor or employee), and motivation for temporary employment and preference for temporary employment.
Motivation for temporary employment was assessed by the four-statement question developed by Polivka & Nardone (1989). Preference for working arrangement was assessing by a four-statement question. Contractors were asked which statement best describes their working arrangement preference.
Procedures
HR officials at the germen-based semiconductor company were invited to participate in the study. A meeting was arranged during which full disclosure of the details of the study were presented to HR officials.
With the assistance of company’s HR officials, all eligible workers were selected from personnel databases. All workers who have been working at their current job more than one month were included in the selection.
Selected employees were contacted collectively by sending a “news flash” (an announcement) and invited to participate in the study. Participants were asked to fill out the questionnaires attached in the email and send them back directly at various intervals during the day. A reminder was also enclosed in the mail that the participation of this study was voluntary.
Confidentially of the employee responses was assured and was maintained throughout the study. The instrument took approximately 10-25 minutes to complete.
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After collecting the questionnaires, the responses were transferred into an SPSS data file where summary scores were calculated and the data analyzed.
The result of this study will be presented to the HR officials in a monthly HR review meeting. Additionally, workers in this company will receive a summary of the overall results when the research ends.
Null Hypotheses
This research was testing the hypotheses, which are now expressed below in the null form.
Null hypothesis one
Contractors will score the same or higher on job satisfaction than employees as measured by the Job Satisfaction Survey (Spector, 1985)
Null hypothesis two
Contractors will score the same or higher on OCB than employees as measured by the OCB Scale (Smith et al., 1983).
Null hypothesis three
There will be either a significant negative relationship or no relationship between job satisfaction and OCB, among both contractors and employees.
Data Analyses
Once the surveys had been collected, data analysis began by transferring the data into a SPSS data file. The data were checked carefully for accuracy during the data entry process. The SPSS files for all data transformation and analysis were saved for future reference.
The instructions for scoring each instrument were carefully followed. Specifically, the responses were numerically coded (or reverse coded if appropriate) so that higher
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scores are associated with higher values on the variables measured. Next, summary variables were calculated for each scale and sub-scale in each instrument. The scales and sub-scales were calculated by summing the relevant items and then dividing by the number of items in the scale or sub-scale.
Descriptive statistics were calculated and data was summarized in tables. The independent student t-test was used to evaluate Hypotheses One and Two. Pearson’s correlation coefficients were calculated to examine Hypothesis Three.
Assumptions
An assumption in this study was that employees understood the questions and the instructions. Another assumption was that respondents answered candidly without pressures to respond in socially desirable ways.
Limitations
Like any research endeavor, this research did have some inherent flaws and limitations. Although these were kept a minimum, there were unavoidable limitations as discussed below.
Social desirability could have impacted how both contractors and employees responded to the questions. Gallup et al. (1997) hypothesized that contractors may be more influenced by social desirability pressures than employees.
This research did not use random sampling. The availability and participation of participants ultimately was determined by the organization and the individual employees. Therefore, non-random sampling could have affected the outcomes of this study.
The present research focused only on contractors and employees in two Germen-based semiconductor companies in Taiwan branches. Ultimately, the present study may only generalize to the company sampled.
Job satisfaction measure has been shown to differ across organization and in different jobs. This brings up the possibility that an organization or job effect that could be a threat to the internal validity of the present study. This variable in this study may differ across individual jobs.
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Lastly, the present research consisted entirely of self-report measures. This brings up one main concern. Self-rated performance measures are often criticized as being easily “faked” by employees who wish to look good. However, because employees will be informed about the purposes of the present research, “faking” is expected to be minimal and is not expected to be occurred differentially across the groups of contractors and employees.
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