Research procedure

The questionnaires I provided for my participants are particularly for in-depth interview; therefore every single question on the questionnaire is very specific. In-depth interviewing is a one of the qualitative research technique which involves conducting intensive individual interviews with a small number of respondents to explore their perspectives on a particular idea, program, or situation. In this case I might ask participants who worked in foreign firms in Taiwan before and find out their experiences in the firms, the thoughts they have concerning the operations, processes, and outcomes of the firm, and about any changes they perceive in themselves as a result of their involvement in the firm.

The stages I went through to conduct in-depth interviews is the same procedure followed by other researches (Brinkmann, 2014): (1) plan, (2) develop instruments, (3) collect data, (4) analyze data, and (5) disseminate findings.

1. Plan

(1) Identify what information is needed and from the respondent.

(2) Ensure research will follow international and national ethical research standards

2. Develop questions and guilds

(1) Develop an interview protocol which guides the administration and implementation of the interviews. These are the instructions that are followed for each interview, to ensure consistency between interviews, and thus increase the reliability of the findings. The following instructions for the interviewer should be included in the protocol.

- What to say to interviewees when setting up the interview

- What to say to interviewees when beginning the interview, including ensuring informed consent and confidentiality of the interviewee

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- What to say to interviewees in concluding the interview - What to do during the interview? Take notes? Audiotape?

- What to do following the interview? Fill in notes? Check audiotape for clarity? Summarize key information for each?

(2) Develop an interview guide that lists the questions or issues to be explored during the interview and includes an informed consent form. There should be no more than 15 main questions to guide the interview

(3) Translate guides into interviewees’ first languages and test the translation if needed

3. Collect intel from the interviewees

(1) Set up the interviews with respondents

(2) Seek informed consent of the interviewee, whether and how the information will be kept confidential, and the use of a note taker and tape recorder.

(3) If interviewee has consented, conduct the interview (4) Summarize key data immediately following the interview.

4. Analyze Data

(1) Transcribe and review data.

(2) Analyze all interview data 5. Disseminate Findings

(1) Revise analyzed data

(2) Disseminate to respondents as appropriate.

The interview questions I have generated are mostly related to factors that may determine cultural impact employees’ job satisfaction: (1) work environment, (2) work condition, (3) work relationship. The reason why I didn’t conduct many questions directly insinuates cultural impact is because I want to avoid asking biased questions. I need to ensure my questions are completely neutral; none of them are leading questions.

Work environment is essential for understanding employees’ job satisfaction, because work environment symbolize a company’s distinct culture (David Ingram, 2014);

which includes management styles, hierarchies and human resources policies. More specifically, a company’s distinct culture defines how conflicts are handled, the freedom to

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try new things and failure without consequences, dress code policies, pre-dominated communication styles and other intangible matters. For instance, management styles, no company culture is inherently better than another. A company cultures must fit with their employees to increase job satisfaction, or else employees may look elsewhere to find a workplace better suited to their personalities. If a company wants to decrease its turnover rate, the first thing it might want to change is its work environment.

Another major factor that may change employees’ job satisfaction is work condition; it defines the condition when employees are performing their jobs in a company.

Work condition may vary with different factors such as (Tomislav Babić, 2013): (1) external factors which includes climate (meteorological conditions, temperature, humidity, drafts), lighting in the workplace, noise and interference, gases, radiation, dust, smoke and other harmful factors; (2) subjective factors which includes gender and age of the worker, fatigue, monotony, and unfavorable posture during work (3) internal factors related to the organization of production which includes duration of the work shift, work schedule, working time, work pace, and excessive strain. In favor of helping a company’s employees to accomplish their missions more efficiently, a company needs to fully understand and optimize its work condition for its employees; which also increase its employees’ job satisfaction as well. But in this study, I only focus on the discovery of subjective factors and internal factors of a company.

The last major factor I want to reveal in a company is its work relationship; in other words, it’s about the social circle of the employees in a company. According to Priti Ramjee (2014), when an employee feels emotionally or socially detached in the company and he/she cannot fit into the organization's culture or blend in with his/her colleagues, his/her feelings of dissatisfaction may start to emerge. Consequently, work relationships and interaction have an enormous impact on employees’ job satisfaction and retention.

Negative attitudes of an employee can lead to isolation and loneliness, which may instigate an employee's desire to resign. Besides the relationship with coworkers, the power distance in a company may affect its employees’ job satisfaction as well. For instance (Geert Hofstede, 1984), a low power distance society view the relationship between bosses and subordinates as one of its interdependence; but on the other side, a high power distance society sees the relationship between bosses and subordinates as one of its dependence. An employer who can recognize the impact of workplace relationships on employee

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satisfaction, and encourages flexibility and interaction, can transform a brittle workplace into a productive, satisfying environment. As for the explicit details of my quantitative questions, it is shown in Appendix I.

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IV. Results