This chapter delineates the research methods, including the research structure, hypotheses, design, measure, and procedure. Moreover, it explains the statistical analysis instrument used to evaluate data.
Research Framework
Based on the research questions in Chapter I and hypotheses in Chapter II, the researcher further made up the research framework. The researcher used flexible work arrangements as the independent variable, which included three types arrangements (flexible workhour, flexible schedule and allowance for personal leave), job satisfaction and occupational commitment as dependent variables in the current study, and gender as the moderator among these variables.
Figure 3.1. presented the research framework for the current study.
Figure 3.1. Research framework.
Research Hypotheses
The hypotheses of study are demonstrated below as Table 3.1.:
Table 3.1.
Research Hypotheses
H1. Flexible work arrangements make a positive effect on employees’ job satisfaction.
H1-1. Flexible workhour makes a positive effect on employees’ job satisfaction.
H1-2. Flexible schedule makes a positive effect on employees’ job satisfaction.
H1-3. Allowance for personal leave makes a positive effect on employees’ job satisfaction.
H2. Flexible work arrangements make a positive effect on employees’ occupational commitment.
H2-1. Flexible workhour makes a positive effect on occupational commitment.
H2-2. Flexible schedule makes a positive effect on occupational commitment.
H2-3. Allowance for personal leave makes a positive effect on occupational commitment.
H3. Females present more job satisfaction than males after accessing flexible work arrangements.
H4. Females present more occupational commitment than males after accessing flexible work arrangements.
Research Design
The research used a national database with the quantitative method to examine the relationships between the independent variable (FWA), dependent variables (Job satisfaction, Occupational Commitment) and the moderator (Gender). The data was selected from the
“Taiwan Social Change Survey” (TSCS) by 2015, which is a formal nationwide social survey in Taiwan (Lu et al., 2008). This method was selected because the researcher intended to use
Besides, one of purposes of the research was to explore the changing of workplace trend between 2005 and 2015 in Taiwan. The researcher used TSCS data of 2005 and 2015 to observe differences, and compared to the results with the previous research by Lu et al. (2008), who also used the 2005 TSCS data to test the relationships between work flexibility and work outcomes (job satisfaction and organizational commitment) with the mediator of work-life conflicts, to explain the findings.
Research Sample
The TSCS series is based at the Academia Sinica Taiwan, which jointly operated by the Institute of Sociology and the Center for Survey Research, and becomes one of the most extensive social survey series of the world (Smith, Kim, Koch, & Park, 2006). By the end of 2015, the TSCS series has accumulated 56 survey data sets, covering 117,392 respondents including behaviors, attitudes and values. It is known for the rigorous methods, including household registration data sampled through the nationwide three-stage stratified proportion-to-population size (PPS), home visits completed by well-trained interviewers, exact administration, post-interview authentication, and data inspection. Under the banner of the ISSP, high-quality databases are widely used for academic research and cross-cultural comparisons (Lu, 2011).
In this study, the TSCS database was used for secondary data analysis, and the first author was the member of the TSCS research group. Respondents of the 2005 TSCS and the 2015 TSCS were sampled by stratified multi-stage probability proportional to size sampling.
Interviews were conducted by trained interviewers using the face-to-face home visit. TSCS has a stringent built-in protocol for replacement when a designated respondent is rejected or not found to establish a representative representation of the sample. (Smith et al., 2006; Lu, 2011).
For the analysis, the researcher only selected those respondents who were formal employees
with a full-time main job but not self-employed, including long-term full-time staff, term contract staff, human resource dispatching, outsourcing or contractor member, to maximize the potential effects.
Research Instrument
In order to compare the results of these two years, the researcher selected the mutual questions from the questionnaire of 2005 and 2015 as the research instrument, both of which came from the second module of TSCS - Work Orientation. With the theme of Work Orientation, the researcher chose related questions to measure the relationship between the independent variables, the moderator and the dependent variables. The Work Orientation module included the core questions of ISSP and EASS, as well as other important topics related to Taiwan’s work issues. The questionnaire was designed to fulfill the obligation of international community surveys, and to explore the social changes in Taiwan. The survey questionnaire was self-reported by attended respondents.
This instrument had a total 20 items, and was divided in five sections, which were:
I. Personal and demographic data II. Occupation
III. Job & Work Flexibility IV. Job Satisfaction
V. Occupational Commitment
From section I to V, this survey questionnaire used different statements, categories and rating scales in each item in each section. Participants chose the best answer according to their situations and attitudes.
Personal and Demographic Data
This section described respondents’ basic information and provided a descriptive analysis
of the survey participants; it assisted the researcher to select the suitable data from the original database. This section contained a total 4 items with information such as the respondents’ age, gender, residence, and marital status.
Occupation
This section described respondents’ occupational information using the C section
“Occupation” in Work Orientation; it assisted the researcher to select the suitable data from the original database. The section contained a total 7 items with information such as the respondents’ occupation, job category, employment status and his/her spouse’s employment.
Job & Work Flexibility
Flexible work arrangements were used as the independent variable. The independent variable was measured using the F section “Job & Work Flexibility” in Work Orientation. This section contained a total 3 items to present 3 different types of FWA. Each item used different statements and scale modes to represent the degree of authority of flexible work arrangements.
The presence of flexible work arrangements was surveyed:
(1) Flexible workhours phrased as “How your working hours are decided?” was addressed.
Participants chose from three descriptions: cannot change, within certain limits, and entirely free to decide, representing ascending degrees of autonomy or flexibility in work time.
(2) Flexible schedule phrased as “How your daily work is organized?” was addressed.
Participants chose from four descriptions: free to decide, within certain limits, and not free to decide. After reverse coding, a higher scores represented a higher degree of autonomy or flexibility in organizing schedule.
(3) Allowance for personal leave phrased as “How difficult would it be for you to take an hour or two off during working hours, to take care of personal or family matters?” was addressed. Participants chose from four descriptions: not difficult at all, not too difficult, somewhat difficult, and very difficult. After reverse coding, a higher scores represented a
higher degree of autonomy or flexibility in taking personal leave during work time.
Job Satisfaction
Job satisfaction was used as a dependent variable. This dependent variable was measured using the J section of “Job Satisfaction” in Work Orientation. This section contained 3 items in total, and each presented one dimensions of job satisfaction, which were relations, occupation, organization, respectively. Each item used different statements to represent the degree of job satisfaction.
The presence of job satisfaction was surveyed:
(1) Job satisfaction of workplace relations phrased as “How would you describe relations at workplace” was addressed. The facets of relations contained (a) “…..between management and employees” and (b) “….between workmates/colleagues”. Participants chose from five descriptions: very good, quite good, neither good nor bad, quite bad and very bad. After reverse coding, a higher scores represented a higher degree of satisfaction with workplace relations.
(2) Job satisfaction of main job phrased as “How satisfied are you in your (main) job” was addressed. Participants rated from 1 (completely satisfied) to 7 (completely dissatisfied). After reverse coding, a higher scores represented a higher degree of global job satisfaction.
(3) Job satisfaction of organization phrased with three statements as (a) “the willingness of hard working to help the firm/organization for succeed,” (b) “working proudly for the firm/organization” and (c) “turn down another job and stay with the firm/organization” were addressed. Participants rated from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree). After reverse coding, a higher scores represented a higher degree of satisfaction of current job.
Occupational Commitment
Occupational commitment was used as a dependent variable. This dependent variable was measured using the K section of “Occupational Commitment” in Work Orientation. This section contained 3 items in total. Each item used different statements to represent the degree
of occupational commitment.
The presence of occupational commitment was surveyed:
(1) Occupational commitment of job change difficulty phrased as “How difficult or easy do you think it would be for you to find a job at least as good as your current one?” was addressed. Participants chose from five descriptions: very easy, fairly easy, neither easy nor difficult, fairly difficult and very difficult, representing ascending degrees of normative commitment of occupation.
(2) Occupational commitment of job change possibility phrased as “How likely is it that you will try to find a job with another firm or organization within the next 12 month?” was addressed. Participants chose from four descriptions: very likely, likely, unlikely and very unlikely, representing ascending degrees of commitment to the firm/organization.
(3) Occupational commitment of job security phrased as “Do you worry about the possibility of losing your job?” was addressed. Participants chose from four descriptions: worry a great deal, worry to some extent, worry a little and not worry at all. After reverse coding, a higher scores represented a higher degree of commitment to the job.
Instrument Validity
The questionnaire of TSCS was available in both Chinese and English. The 2015 version followed the 2005 one. Scholars had not only translated the problems of International Social Survey Programme [ISSP] and Euro-Asian Astronomical Society [EAAS], discussed appropriate Chinese sentences, but also designed some special questions for important or unique social issues in Taiwan. During the formal questionnaire making process, since October 2013, the crew have had five discussions and referred to the examination and preliminary test results of the academic committee. In February 2015, a conference was held to allow question designers, people with relevant experience and research assistants to review and feedback the
questionnaire. Based on these comments, they modified the questionnaire and assessed the validity of the questions-related topics, such as the meaning of the design topic, the wording, the understanding of the interviewee, and the degree to which the interviewees need to know in determining the answers, recalling and mastering. For the questionnaire of Work Orientation, the crew has interviewed five people for the pre-test (Fu, Chang, Tu, & Liao, 2015).
Data Analysis
To represent the degree of variables in that section, the researcher intended to sum the scores of each item in each section, and then used SPSS statistics software for statistical analysis to examine relationships among variables. Also, the researcher intended to compare the scores of each item in section III to IV of data 2005 and 2015 to explain differences of workplace trends over the decade. The following statistics were used to analyze the data:
Descriptive Statistics
This analysis summarized the numerical results and presents them concisely (Healey, 2008). The results were shown in the forms of graphs, and tables to provide the reader a better picture of the data (Neuman, 2014). The descriptive statistics included the means and the standard deviation of the data.
Correlation
This analysis measured the strength of the relevance between two continuous variables (Gray & Kinnear, 2012). The results showed the strength of relationships between the independent variable (FWA) and the two dependent variables (JS and OC).
T-test
The analysis of t-test was used to determine if the means of two groups of data are significantly different from each other. The researcher used t-test to examine the means of variables among two sexes were equal or significantly different.
Hierarchical Regression
This analysis was used when there are two or more independent variables; and the purpose of this regression was to test causation (Gray & Kinnear, 2012). This study tested the direction and effects of the independent variable (FWA) on these two dependent variables (JS and OC), and the effect of the moderator (gender) in these two relationships (FWA and JS, FWA and OC).
Research Procedure
The procedure of this study was divided into six steps used to guide the research.
First, the researcher identified the topic by reviewing the related literature. Through literature review, it was found that with the evolution of work mode and work attitude, there were more and more studies discuss the cross-generational issues. Keywords included work flexibility, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and international differences. After determining the topic, the researcher established a theoretical framework.
Then, the research adopted the national survey (TSCS) as the reliable scale to measure the correlations between variables, analyze the data and compare with the results of the previous study using the same scale to observe whether any difference exists under these variables. The results of the analysis and comparison were also presented and discussed. In the final, the researcher made conclusions and suggestions that will benefit human resource management in Taiwan. The research process was illustrated below:
Figure 3.2. Research procedure.