The Moderating Effect of Perceived Supervisor Support on the Relationship between Organizational Politics and Job Satisfaction

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(1)The Moderating Effect of Perceived Supervisor Support on the Relationship between Organizational Politics and Job Satisfaction. by Warisa Krongboonying. A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Major: International Human Resource Development. Advisor: Yi-Chun Lin, Ph.D.. National Taiwan Normal University Taipei, Taiwan June, 2015.

(2) ABSTRACT Many of the researches and practices of Human Resource Development (HRD) draws directly on an organizational behavior, aiming to explain how people within an organization runs the management structure as well as what are the essences that combines together as the elements driving the organization forward. Recognizing the contextual nature of organizational politics is not a new idea. This issue is mostly perceived by the majority as a bad influencing factor in the work environment. Regardless of the expansive number of studies that analyze the antecedents of organizational politics, broadly is known about its association with the level of job satisfaction. On the other hand, genuinely little is realized that perceived supervisor support (PSS) is able to direct the relationship of those two components to a positive course. Thus, this study aimed to inspect the organizational politics as a negative impact on the level of job satisfaction among first-lined customer representative employees, particularly in the aviation industry. This study also examined further if the perceived supervisor support (PSS) helps weakening the relationship state of those two variables. This study was directed with the quantitative research design while the convenient sampling of 300 full-time employees were chosen from 3 initially job positions based at Suvarnnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand. The result found that organizational politics had a negative impact on the job satisfaction while perceived supervisor support did not have a moderating effect on the relationship of those two variables. Keywords: Organizational politics, Job satisfaction, Perceived supervisor support, Aviation industry, First-lined customer representative. I.

(3) TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................... I TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................... II LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................... IV LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................ V CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION .................................................................... 1 Background of the Study ......................................................................................... 1 Problem Statement .................................................................................................. 5 Purpose of the Study ............................................................................................... 6 Research Questions ................................................................................................ 7 Significance of the Study ....................................................................................... 7 Definitions of Terms .............................................................................................. 8. CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................... 9 Organizational Politics ........................................................................................... 9 Job Satisfaction ...................................................................................................... 13 Organizational Politics and Job Satisfaction .......................................................... 15 Perceived Supervisor Support ................................................................................. 20 The Moderating Effect of Perceived Supervisor Support ...................................... 23. CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY ................................................................ 25 Research Framework .............................................................................................. 25 Research Hypotheses .............................................................................................. 26 Sample and Data Collection ................................................................................... 26 Questionnaire Design .............................................................................................. 27 Measurement ........................................................................................................... 27 Control Variables .................................................................................................... 32 Pilot Test ................................................................................................................. 33 Data Analysis .......................................................................................................... 36. CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ........................................ 38 Descriptive Statistics ............................................................................................... 38 Reliability Analysis ................................................................................................. 40 Confirmatory Factor Analysis ................................................................................. 41 Pearson Correlation Analysis .................................................................................. 42. II.

(4) Hierarchical Regression Analysis ........................................................................... 43. CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS .............................. 47 Conclusions ............................................................................................................. 47 Implications ............................................................................................................. 47 Limitations .............................................................................................................. 49 Further Research Suggestions ................................................................................. 50. REFERENCES ............................................................................................... 52 APPENDIX ..................................................................................................... 59. III.

(5) LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 The Reactions of Job Satisfaction in Previous Studies Towards Organizational Politics ....................................................................................... 17 Table 3.1 The Perceptions of Organizational Politics Scale (POPS) ................................. 28 Table 3.2 The Job Satisfaction Questionnaire .................................................................... 29 Table 3.3 The Questionnaire for PSS Measurement .......................................................... 31 Table 3.4 Descriptive Statistics for Pilot Test .................................................................... 33 Table 3.5 Mean, Standard Deviation, Correlation, and Reliability .................................... 35 Table 4.1 Descriptive Statistics .......................................................................................... 39 Table 4.2 Supervisor’s Nationality ..................................................................................... 40 Table 4.3 Reliability Analysis ............................................................................................ 41 Table 4.4 Result of Confirmatory Factor Analysis ............................................................. 42 Table 4.5 Mean, Standard Deviation, and Correlation ....................................................... 43 Table 4.6 Result of Regression Analysis for Job Satisfaction ............................................ 44 Table 4.7 Result of Regression Analysis for Perceived Supervisor Support as Moderator ....................................................................................................... 45 Table 4.8 Result of Hypotheses Testing ............................................................................. 46. IV.

(6) LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1 Research Framework ......................................................................................... 25. V.

(7) CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. In this chapter, the general introduction of this research is provided. It includes the background of the study, the problem statement, the purposes of the study, the questions of the study, the significance of the study, and the definition of terms that will be used in the study.. Background of the Study In the world of organization, the word “politics” is perceived as an unacceptable action along with a strongly negative attitude. It is, certainly, hard to bring up as a talking topic comparing to other issues like fashion or gossip. Many employees regard organizational politics such as pursuing self-interests at the expense of others as something negative and to be minimized (Cohen & Vigoda, 1999; Vigoda, 2000). That is, employees who have power are proud of exercising theirs publicly. While employees who seek for power tends to hide their actions because they do not want others to know the actual intention. Politics can influence and encourage employees to be enthusiastic and pursue success for their job advancement as it encourages employees to achieve their goals (Aryee, Chen, & Budhwar, 2004). However, politics can also make them becoming selfish and arrogant, which directly increases the tension in working atmosphere. It is known, in general, that politics are used primarily to achieve power, either directly or indirectly by being promoted, receiving a larger budget or other resources, and gaining desirable assignments. Consequently, although most employees know that organizational politics are common, they avoid saying so when it concerns about one's own behavior (Farrell & Peterson, 1982). It is more common to talk about politics when complaining about peers or subordinates than it is in the context of one's own political maneuvering (Gandz & Murray, 1980). Most employees will not be likely to admit that they personally would consciously and willingly engage in political behavior. However, it is. 1.

(8) possible to infer that those who are seen as causing dissatisfaction are likely to be seen as an engaging in political behavior (Gandz & Murray, 1980). Organizational politics is thought to be an essential action in many associations as it is nearly identified with force, power, and impact. It has also been characterized in various ways. A typical topic going through is one of practices aiming for practicing impact (Kumar & Ghadially, 1989). Organizational politics, according to Dubrin (1978), has been classified into three overlapping groups; a method of gaining power, a strategy for impressing supervisor, and a strategy of career advancement. Organizational politics is a generally new territory of exploration. Most studies endeavored to recognize different political practices. Some of these practices are advancing restricted correspondence, controlling access to data and persons, killing potential restriction, vital substitutions, partnership arrangement, structure change, and ingratiation. Organizational politics is for the most part thought to be the darker side of organization. Nonetheless, studies have demonstrated that organizational politics is both useful and destructive for parts of the association (Kumar & Ghadially, 1989). The positive conclusions of organizational politics are professional success, acknowledgement and status, increased power and position, achievement of individual objectives, and job execution. The negative conclusions to the people are loss of vital force, position integrity, and hampered performance attainment. While it prompts to better coordination, correspondence, and group advancement, it additionally prompts to diversion for organizational objectives, abuse of assets, and clashes (Allen & Porter, 1983; Kumar & Ghadially, 1989). In organizations, a political issue is, for the majority part, thought to be unsafe, which accommodates supervisor’s perception of the fact that organizations are harmed by an overabundance of hierarchical political issues.. 2.

(9) Besides, one subject that has gotten expanded consideration and is accepted to be critical to employee viability is that of job satisfaction. The accomplishment of reasonable working environment applications including job satisfaction and the consequences of experimental exploration show the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational politics proposed that job satisfaction of employees is a vital part of organization (Allen & Porter, 1983; Zivnuska, Kacmar, Witt, Carlson, & Bratton, 2004). As such, the importance on organization applying of job satisfaction has been in various ranges, for example, pay, advancement, and different goals. Additionally, job satisfaction is a key variable in many studies regarding to organizational politics. It has been discovered to be significant to methodologies as various as organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behavior, employee turnover, and non-attendance (Witt, Andrews, & Kacmar, 2000). Given the key part job satisfaction plays regarding significant hierarchical elements, the comprehension of the factors and essence of job satisfaction are huge. This is especially valid for service provider organizations such as the aviation industry (Witt et al., 2000). The Aviation Industry The aviation industry employment is very demanding and includes troubles with substantial workload and it additionally includes fulfilling distinctive customers with diverse needs, which may influence the emotions of dissatisfaction and abnormal state of anxiety of the employees (Douglas et al., 2008). Job satisfaction can empower employees to control this anxiety and keep the negative impacts of one's disposition towards the work. In accordance with this, minimal amount of studies has demonstrated that job satisfaction is positively identified with organizational politics issues (Cropanzano, Howes, Grandey, & Toth, 1997; Ferris & Kacmar, 1992; Ferris et al., 1996; Kacmar, Bozeman, Carlson, & Anthony, 1999). In addition, since the aviation business is primarily concerned with the affection of service. 3.

(10) delivery and service fulfillment given to the customers through their employees, having employment fulfilled workers may serve as a favorable element in that these employees may have the capacity to place themselves in a positive perspective and these may help them know how to maintain a strategic distance from negative feelings and use feelings in versatile approaches to mitigate sentiments of dissatisfaction thus upgrade customer satisfaction (Randall, Cropanzano, Bormann, & Birjulin, 1999; Valle & Perrewe, 2000; Witt et al., 2000). In the organization, the supervisors assume critical parts to give formal criticism about workers' job execution and to focus employees' measure of job satisfaction. The encouragement from supervisors is more compelling than other social backings to employees according to the fact that supervisors take action as representatives in the organization to profoundly cooperate with employees, helping employees managing issues, and furthermore assess their execution straightforwardly (Perdue, Reardon, & Peterson, 2007). It is proposed that perceived supervisor support (PSS) is a paramount determinant of organizational viability and the level of job satisfaction. Most importantly, natural attributes, for example, supervisor support, do assume an analytical role that influences employees’ level of adjustment and also mental status when employees experience difficult situations (Pescosolido, 2002; Rhodes & Eisenberger, 2002). Despite the succeeding of the aviation industry in encouraging financial development, there is an imperative need to amplify the understanding of the elements that anticipate employee's perceptions towards organizational politics (Cho, Choi, & Lee, 2014). Also, there is likewise generally minimal thought about the strengthen relationship between organizational politics issues and job satisfaction if involving with perceived supervisor support as a moderator (Kimura, 2013; Mintzberg, 1983).. 4.

(11) Problem Statement Politics is also a taboo subject, which makes it difficult for employees to deal with this crucially important aspect of organizational reality (Drory & Romm, 1990). Therefore, it would be a mistake to pretend that politics does not exist or to fantasize that employees can be effective without appropriate use of politics. In the recent decades, various researchers have endeavored to give a suitable meaning of what constitutes political behavior in the organization (Kacmar et al., 1999). While certain likenesses may be said to exist among the definitions proposed as such, at present there is no generally imparted meaning of organizational politics (Drory & Romm, 1990). Despite the absence of agreement to a meaning of organizational politics, a few hypothetical works have helped to an applied establishment for this field of request (Farell & Peterson, 1982). Nonetheless, hypothetical work in this field has surpassed the observational, alongside the absence of definitional agreement, has not permitted the commitment of organizational politics to the management literature to achieve its maximum capacity. Maybe one purpose behind the constrained observational endeavors lies in the way that observationally inspecting the wonder of organizational politics presents analysts with very much a challenge (Kacmar et al., 1999). Organizational politics is considered as one of the major causes of an inclination of job satisfaction amongst employees. Any political related actions of employees will influence their practices and mindset to work despite the fact that workplace political environment impacts progression of desired goals and approach in the organization (Cohen & Vigoda, 1999). Employees who have a lower confidence in the organizational justice have a tendency to be less included in the workplace political process and are less content with their errands contrasting with employees who have a confidence in the hierarchical structure (Vigoda, 2000; Vigoda-Gadot & Meisler, 2010). That’s why political behavior in organizations is very. 5.

(12) covert, and subject to contrasts in perception (Drory & Romm, 1990; Gandz & Murray, 1980; Kacmar et al., 1999). Hence, the same behavior may be translated as contingent upon each employee’s related previous experience (Drory & Romm, 1990; Kacmar et a., 1999). But if employees have a positive perceived view towards actions of their supervisors, it will be easier for supervisors to address the need of employees even though their performance includes political related issues (Bass & Bass, 2008). Consistently with the study of Hochwarter et al. (2003), it shows that the measures of perceived supervisor support are joined with positive work result, which covers the general job satisfaction among employees and also the reduction of non-participation and the intention of leaving the job (Hochwarter et al., 2003).. Purpose of the Study It is commonly known that politics in the organizations is an important feature that leads to the declination of job satisfaction among employees (Witt et al., 2000). As mentioned earlier, the organizational politics seems to have a larger negative impact on the amount of pleasing feelings employees have towards their job than a positive one (Kumar & Ghadially, 1989). In line with this, there are several investigations in the literature showing significant negative relationship results between organizational politics and job satisfaction (Cropanzano et al., 1997; Ferris & Kacmar, 1992; Ferris et al., 1996; Kacmar et al., 1999; Randall et al., 1999; Valle & Perrewe, 2000; Witt et al., 2000). Nonetheless, there is a little known if there are any other factors, specially the perceived supervisor support, that help improving the negative relationship between organizational politics and job satisfaction to an opposite direction. And it is even less known of the relationship as it applies to the aviation industry. Therefore, this study will examine organizational politics as a negative effect on the level of job satisfaction among employees particularly in the aviation industry as well as examine if the perceived supervisor support helps improving the relationship condition of. 6.

(13) those two variables.. Research Questions According to the study purposes, these questions are originated in this study as following: 1. Does organizational politics have a negative impact on the level of job satisfaction? 2. Does perceived supervisor support help weakening the negative relationship between organizational politics and job satisfaction?. Significance of the Study Organizations are progressively getting to be mindful that the employees are the most important assets. There are examples in the aviation industry where a whole gathering of employees has suspended their service administrations as a protest to the organization. These people not only cause incalculable casualties to the organization as a whole in terms of customer dissatisfaction and additional cost, but also damage the level of employee’s contribution to the organization (Mintzberg, 1985). It is presumed that employees who are unambiguously dedicated to the organization are less inclined to abandon it and so the greater part of studies propose that organizational politics will stay as a standout management issue amongst the most prevalent management trend in years to come (Mintzberg, 1985; Randall et al., 1999). Presently, it is a time in which organizations periodically encounter with the need of enormous change. Pledged employees can be greatly profitable assets of the organizations in terms of encouraging a quick adjustment to evolving conditions (Hochwarter, Kacmar, Perrewé, & Johnson, 2003). Along with this, because of the expanding concerns inside the aviation industry, it is paramount for supervisors to understand how to effectively hold their employees (Humphrey, 2002). An understanding of the organizational politics issues that anticipates or identifies with job satisfaction accordingly gets to be more critical. It is additionally extremely valuable and intriguing to consider how perceived supervisor support. 7.

(14) helps the expand job satisfaction at work (Hochwarter et al., 2003). As an intention of this study, it is hoped that the results will provide useful information for supervisors particularly in the aviation industry regarding to the organizational politics as a relatively negative impact on the level of employment fulfillment among employees. It is also hoped that the results will provide an additional scope of how applying the perceived supervisor support enhancing the level of job satisfaction.. Definitions of Terms Organizational Politics Organizational politics is an action that members of an organization pursue either directly or indirectly to influence others by means not sanctioned by formal standard operating procedures in a purpose to achieve personal or group objectives (Witt et al., 2000).. Job Satisfaction Job satisfaction is an individual’s total feeling about their job and the attitudes they have towards various factors related to their job and perceive an influence of the relationship between the individual and the organization (Deconinck, 2010).. Perceived Supervisor Support Perceived supervisor support is defined as employees’ general beliefs concerning the extent to which supervisors value their contributions and care about their wellbeing (Kottke & Sharafinski, 1988).. 8.

(15) CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW. This chapter aims to provide background knowledge of three major elements used to conduct this research, which are organizational politics, job satisfaction, and perceived supervisor support. This chapter reviews the general concepts and also detailed explanations of literatures that support the hypotheses that are purposed based on research findings as well as describe the relationship between organizational politics and job satisfaction, and the moderating effect of perceived supervisor support towards organizational politics and job satisfaction.. Organizational Politics Recognizing the contextual nature of organizational politics is not a new idea because it is a natural occurrence. It is true that organizational politics is not a necessary thing in life, but somehow unavoidable. Some individuals see organizational politics as moral and powerful regarding acquiring sought assets singularly for a wander toward oneself (Hochwarter, 2012). Regardless, the dominant parts of individuals have a tendency to see this subject as an awful affecting component in the working environment as opposed to a decent one. A basic reason of organizational politics recognition lead to adverse conclusions lies in the fact that the association values that the worker’s commitment is disintegrated in situations related with political issues (Hochwarter et al., 2003). The development of organizational politics has caught the enthusiasm of researchers for quite some time, and there have been distinctive ideas introduced as to explain what organizational politics is about (Ferris et al., 1996). Numerous definitions have been proposed, however, there is a typical pattern reflected in various clarifications of organizational politics. Many of the common pattern mentions about a self-serving action, which is not authorized by the organization (Ferrell & Peterson, 1982; Ferris, Russ, & Fandt, 1989; Gandz & Murray, 1980). Mintzberg (1983) proclaims about organizational politics as. 9.

(16) individual or group action that is casual, apparently biased, disruptive, and illegitimate, endorsed neither by formal authority nor certified experts. Such action can deliver disagreement with people and/or groups against one another or against the formal authority of the organization. Mintzberg (1983, 1985) further characterizes organizational politics as an action that is not formally authorized by the organization, which creates clash and disharmony in the workplace. The political issue in organization is also foreseen as a result from the action of supervisors and colleagues, and from organizational policies and practices (Ferris et al., 1989; Ferris & Kacmar, 1992). The employees’ view towards organizational politics and its predecessors and outcomes is very important to be investigated further. In this sense, rather than solely an objective state, it is proper to conceive organizational politics as a subjective assessment (Gandz & Murray, 1980). Despite the fact that employees react to organizational politics on the premise of their biased notions of reality, not the actual reality, it has been contended that the perceptions of organizational politics are imperative to study regardless of the possibility that they are misperceptions of real events. Organizational politics is portrayed as a reflection of hierarchical governmental issues that go beyond the parameters of acknowledged authoritative conduct (Mintzberg, 1983). These practices are intended to advance speculation toward oneself and may even be at the cost of hierarchical objectives. An increasing level of examination has distinguished no less than five conclusions of organizational politics issues, which are the expansion of anxiety (Ferris et al., 1996), the lower work execution (Witt et a., 2000), the job pleasantness (Ferris et al., 1993), the mitigation of job obligation and the plan of turnover (Cropanzano et al., 1997). It is contended that power and political issues in organizations are identified with vulnerability, suspiciousness, doubt, envy, and distance. An urgent variable of connections. 10.

(17) between political practices and trust is fear of opponents. The fear of opponents from supervisors and jealousy from subordinates can bring about paranoid distortions (Allen & Porter, 1983; Kumar & Ghadially, 1989). Employees get to be suspicious of each other and through specific judiciousness and projections of their own dreams create an image of plots and counter plots. Organizational life is especially powerless against the impacts of distrustful thinking because it invigorates correlation while it inspires foresights of included power or fear for alarm of decreased force. It is watched that control and devious activities are unfavorable for advancement of trust despite the fact that a political-based relationship and clashes in organizational life include dangers connected with loss of power and instabilities about redistribution of power. Such a circumstance regularly leads to undecided attitude and feeling of individual defenselessness or disaffection. The feeling of defenselessness is especially sharpened in occasions, which extend additions and misfortunes of influence. The contrasts of power can upset interpersonal relations and lessen organizational success (Babin & Boles, 1996; Kumar & Ghadially, 1989). Butcher and Clarke (2002) define organizational politics as the constructive reconciliation of competing causes and is central to managing. In the other words, the organization serves as a big workspace that contains groups of challenging and competing employees who share common interests. And politics is the contradicted opinions or ideas of employees about the organization. It has been a drastically shifting of the political pattern in the organization in the past 20 years. The most obvious change appears in the new levels of power distribution in the business planning both domestically and internationally. Many decision-making processes do not rely on the high level managers anymore. Alternatively, the lower level managers in the management structure are the ones who make significant decisions such as strategic planning and on-site development plan.. 11.

(18) Others describe organizational politics as self-serving and manipulate behavior of individuals and groups to promote their self-interest at the expense of others. It also manifests itself through struggle for resources, personal conflicts, competition for power and leadership and tactical influence in order to control access to information and build a coalition (Deconinck, 2010; Drory & Vigoda-Gadot, 2010). In political situation, not all employees can get the level of associated help they are yearning for regardless of the fact that the psychosocial support of help that frequently accompany in the collaborations with supervisors (Hochwarter et al., 2003). The time that workers are permitted to interact with supervisors is turning into a limited asset and one that is conceivably defenseless to political control. Ferris et al. (1996) perceive organizational politics as a stress-related behavior in the workplace that stimulates any features that cause an employee to experience discomfort. It is a reaction of the organism to stressful events, which may be psychological, physiological, or behavioral, that respond to work-related environmental stress (Vigoda, 2002). As for stress, it relates to an uncertainty in an individual's environment and is stimulated by an inability to foresee coming situations. Employees in the organization are facing a high level of stress due to the inability and unwillingness to play politics as directed by others. Some of them eventually choose to respond as quitting the job. Similar assumption is also found in the study of Weiss and Cropanzano (1996) that events that happen in the workplace influence the emotional perception of employees, which is shown through the physical reactions towards the events. An intense stress organizational politics is likewise considered as a trigger event of aggressive and harmful behavior of employees in the workplace. However, the intense organizational politics cannot be explained without considering about other event factors such as characteristics of employees and office environment (Douglas et al., 2008).. 12.

(19) Job Satisfaction Levels of job satisfaction in each employee fluctuate over the time, climbing and falling like a roller coaster (Farkas & Tetrick, 1989; Rusbult & Farrell, 1983). This change may appear bizarre, given that individuals' pay, supervisors, coworkers, and work assignments do not transform starting with one hour then onto the next (Dormann & Zapf, 2001; Griffin, Patterson, & West, 2001). The key lies in recalling that job satisfaction reflects what one thinks and feels about an employment. Part of it is considered as rational, based on a careful evaluation of the employment and the things it supplies (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993; Fisher, 2000). At the same time, it is also emotional, based on what one feels while he is at work or contemplating about work (Huang & Van de Vliert, 2003). The most extreme negative disposition is described by feeling unfriendly, anxious, and irritated. Job satisfaction is a generally research and complex incident. Therefore, there are various meanings regarding of the definition. With the goal of this study, job satisfaction can be characterized as an individual’s aggregate feelings about their occupation and the disposition they have towards different viewpoints or aspects of their employments (Vigoda, 2000). An individual with high job satisfaction seems to hold for the most part uplifting attitudes than one who is disappointed to hold negative disposition towards their employment (Vigoda, 2002). To comprehend these features, researchers have to understand the perplexing and interrelated features of job satisfaction. This aspect of job satisfaction can be depicted as any part of a job that creates emotions of fulfillment or disappointment. This viewpoint can be valuable to organizations that wish to distinguish worker maintenance territories in which change is conceivable (Rothman & Coetzer, 2002). Job satisfaction is a consequence of an individual's perception and assessment of their employment affected by their own particular needs, values, and desires, which they see as being vital to them (Witt et al., 2000). Research has demonstrated that job satisfaction does. 13.

(20) not occur all alone as it is subject to authoritative components such as structure, size, pay, working conditions and authority, which vary to the hierarchical atmosphere (Rothman & Coetzer, 2002; Witt et al., 2000). Job satisfaction can be perceived as a response to a job, emerging from what an individual looks for in a job in comparison with what job gives to the single person. Job satisfaction among workers is a pointer of organizational viability and it is affected by organizational and individual elements (Rothman & Coetzer, 2002). Most supervisors understand that the work quality of their subordinates depends on the level of job satisfaction. Hence, it is required that people at all levels in the organization underlines the essentialness of job satisfaction as it affects a job execution of an employee's maximum capacity. The rising enthusiasm on job satisfaction in organizations is genuinely because of how it identifies with the cost efficiency for organizations. As said prior, the level of employment satisfaction or disappointment individuals involve in their work position is because of a few elements including their needs, work conditions and necessities. The increment in the personal satisfaction and the improvements with worldwide economy has brought changes in the prerequisites of people in their apparent needs and desires, and their work necessities (Tutuncu & Kozak, 2007). Job satisfaction is a critical concern for people and associations, as well as for society overall. The significance of job satisfaction is sorted into two levels; an individual level and organizational level. The individual level refers to an individual's mental well being and life fulfillment rely on upon one’s capacity to acclimate to work settings adequately and an execution of one’s maximum capacity and appreciate the work experience (Perdue et al., 2007; Pescosolido, 2002). The organizational level refers to a significant part to the achievement and profit of any organization regardless of how large or small. It is extent to. 14.

(21) which its employees can discover and keep up pleasing work conditions in a working environment and additionally fortify their capacity to contend comprehensively through viable work (Perdue et al., 2007; Vigoda-Gadot & Meisler, 2010). In addition, specifically in a service delivery industry, job satisfaction serves as a guarantee that employees will treat customers with most extreme admiration and eagerness and because of that the aviation business, particularly the service delivery part, obliges a larger amount of communication between the employee, employees in different departments, and customers (Arnett, Laverie, & McLane, 2002). At the point, when employees are fulfilled by their employment, they can surpass customer's desire and quality service providing work and this could eventually interpret into organizational productivity. Additionally, Tutuncu and Kozak (2007) purpose that job satisfaction has been identified with employees’ work execution, which is measured by employee productiveness. It has been corresponded with other work related variables, for example, more elevated amount of job execution, organizational citizenship, job advancement, individual inspiration, and anxiety resistance. Job dissatisfaction, then again, has a negative monetary impact on a slant to job departure aim and high turnover rate, lower productivity, and friction in the working environment (Arnett et al., 2002; Tutuncu & Kozak, 2007). Outside of the workplace, the level of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction has been corresponded with levels of enthusiastic fatigue, family stress, mental wellbeing, physical wellbeing issues, education accomplishment, work execution, and general life fulfillment all in all (Perdue et al., 2007).. Organizational politics and Job Satisfaction A study of Cohen and Vigoda (1999) purposes that political behavior of employees will affect their behaviors and attitudes to work according to the fact that workplace political environment influences continuity of goals and policy in the organization. Not only employees will be satisfied when they perceive that their job offers the pay, promotions,. 15.

(22) supervision, coworkers, and work tasks that they value, but it also reflects employees’ feelings about their actual work tasks, including whether those tasks are challenging, interesting, respected, and make use of key skills rather than being dull, repetitive, and uncomfortable. The authors use the spillover effect theory explaining that participation in the workplace makes people feel more self-confident, more interested in larger affairs, and more skilled in political exchanges (Sieber, 1974). There are four factors that are considered as a positive aspect of the spillover effect theory. The first factor is the role privileges. It refers to when employees have privilege rights that are institutionalized within each role along with certain duties. An employee who is a former political member enjoys special privileges and a higher status when he joins the organization at the top management level. The second factor is a status security. Believing in the meaningfulness of work reflects the degree to which work tasks are viewed as something that counts in the employee’s system of philosophies and beliefs. Participation in a new task role alters the relationship of moral support and renewal of effort in the original task role, which makes the employees feel more confident with their new abilities and skills, therefore, they will believe that their job title is still stable and secure (Cohen & Vigoda, 1999; Sieber, 1974). The third factor is the resources for status enhancement and role performance. The satisfaction of task role among employees creates a feeling like they are aiding the organization in some meaningful way is. It derives from an external partnership build up with an outside network or a community service activity, and certain information available only through experiences can be valuable resources for successful work functioning. The last factor is about personality enrichment and development. It refers to the degree of which the job provides freedom, independence, and discretion to the individual performing the work (Cohen & Vigoda, 1999; Sieber, 1974).. 16.

(23) When the job provides a sense of autonomy, employees will have an opportunity to develop their abilities and shine in the workplace (Ashkanasy & Daus, 2002; Fisher, 2002). It also seeks for a role appreciation from the peers as well as a positive view for the outcomes, which capture the degree of a feeling that employees are key drivers of the quality of the unit’s work rather than the result of careful instructions from your boss or a well-written manual of procedures. By gaining certain skills and level of confidence also lead to another relationship area that associates to a social life. Employees who have a lower trust in the organizational fairness tend to be less involved in the workplace political process and are less happy with their tasks comparing to employees who have a faith in the organizational structure (Vigoda, 2000; Vigoda-Gadot & Meisler, 2010). The political participation is a leaned social role when an educative function consists of practice in democratic skills that are, the more individuals participate, the better able they become to do so. Table 2.1. The Reactions of Job Satisfaction in Previous Studies Towards Organizational Politics Study. Reactions to organizational politics*. 1. Ferris and Kacmar (1992). Job satisfaction (-) “The results indicate that perceptions of politics enter the equation and demonstrate a significant inverse relationship with job satisfaction.” (p.103). 2. Ferris et al. (1996). Job satisfaction (-) “These results support prior research and our predictions that perceptions of organizational politics demonstrate…a (continued) 17.

(24) Table 2.1. (continued) significant inverse relationship with general job satisfaction…” (p.251) 3. Cropanzano et al. (1997). Job satisfaction (-) “Organizational politics was…while negatively related to job satisfaction and organizational commitment.” (p.172). 4. Randall et al. (1999). Job satisfaction (-) “As predicted by hypothesis 1, political perceptions were negatively related to affective commitment, job satisfaction, and both varieties of OCB.” (p.165). 5. Kacmar et al. (1999). Job satisfaction (-) “Each of these variables produced the same relationship…negative for job satisfaction…the overall results for the moderating effect of understanding were disappointing” (p.408). 6. Valle and Perrewe (2000). Job satisfaction (-) “…it is logical that the increased use of such behaviors under highly political conditions would be associated with decreased satisfaction, increased stress, and greater intentions to turnover.” (p.379). 7. Witt et al. (2000). Job satisfaction (-) “…politics score were significantly and (continued) 18.

(25) Table 2.1. (continued) negatively related to job satisfaction scores…our finding of an inverse relationship between politics and job satisfaction is consistent with previous research” (p.351,352) *Direction of relationship in parentheses: - = negative relationship Note: Adapted from “Stress-related aftermaths to workplace politics: The relationships among politics, job distress, and aggressive behavior in organizations.” By Vigoda, E. (2002), Journal of Organizational Behavior, 23(5), 571-591. Harrell-Cook, Ferris, and Dulebohn (1999) addresses that politics perceptions such as anxiety and stress, job dissatisfaction, job involvement, and job turnover influences the work outcome. Whether the organizational politics is a threat or not depends on individuals. This mostly occurs with employees who have low level of knowledge and understanding of how and why things happen the way they do because they do not have skills to manipulate the outcomes for their favor. It also leads to a decline of employee performance as well as selfmotivation. On the other hand, employees, at a general level, are satisfied with their jobs if they see the politics as non-threaten. If employees see that the workplace politics is a positive factor, they tend to have a higher rate of job performance, job satisfaction, and job environment (Grandey, 2003). Employees will be more satisfied when the organization allows them to do what they think it is valuable. Values, in the case, means the things that people consciously or subconsciously want to seek or attain: What do you want to attain from your job, that is, what things do you want your job to give you (Harrell-Cook et al., 1999; Tutuncu & Kozak, 2007). It can be a friendly working atmosphere, a good compensation or a sense of career achievement. Many of the values directly deal with things that organization can give you. 19.

(26) such as a raise of payment and a chance of frequent promotion. Some values are categorized as something subjective: whether you have a supporting boss or good coworkers. And still, some of the values are about the work content itself like whether your job allows you to use your creativity and work with freedom. Hypothesis 1. Organizational politics has a negative effect on job satisfaction.. Perceived Supervisor Support (PSS) Perceived supervisor support (PSS) is characterized as employees' general opinions concerning the degree to which supervisors esteem their commitments and empathize about their prosperity (Kottke & Sharafinski, 1988). PSS is a powerful factor developed from the commitment with the organization (Cole, Bruch, & Vogel, 2006; Gregersen, 1993). It concentrates primarily on how employees' dedication is influenced by their sense of duty from the organization such as extrinsic like pay and promotion or intrinsic like appreciation rewards. Employees normally establish a general belief reliable with the organization's dedication to them and demonstrate the agreement pattern by whether the organization admire their commitment or treat them in either good or unfavorable ways (Eisenberger, Huntington, Huntington, & Sowa, 1986). Person who sense high appreciation from the organization implies that they see high supervisor support. It has lately been proposed that researchers start to investigate the impacts of particular workplace peculiarities, including supervisor support and attention, on the experience of positive and negative work environment feelings (Ashkanasy & Daus, 2002; Cole et al., 2006; Fisher, 2002). For instance, as an aftermath of the various trades with supervisors, it is supposed that employees are presented to a mixture of circumstances that can evoke shifted emotional responses (Dasborough & Ashkanasy, 2002; McColl-Kennedy & Anderson, 2002). In this aspect, past researches have observed that supervisors who are sympathetic and receptive to employees' necessities are especially fruitful at dealing with. 20.

(27) employees' enthusiastic responses (Humphrey, 2002; Pescosolido, 2002). In this way, this study is contended that perceived supervisor support is straightforwardly related to employees’ emotional responses. Eisenberger,. Stinglhamber,. Vandenberghe,. Sucharski,. and. Rhoades. (2002). characterize the perceived supervisor support as the extent to which employees form a structure of general impressions that their supervisors are patronizing, admire their commitments and concern about their employees’ well-being. Sagie and Koslowsky (1994) recognize that throughout times of organizational vulnerability, employees have an expanded need to see that their initiative is consistently considered, require continuous and rigorous criticism, and must feel that the assets are accessible for them if necessary. Hence, it is induced that perceived supervisor support plays a fundamental part in an employee's evaluation in an emergency circumstance. Though positive supervisor-employee collaborations will escalate the view of perceived supervisor support, negative communications are relied upon to decrease it. Furthermore, employees will consider their collaboration with supervisors as a measure when assessing the signification of organizational emergencies on their individual prosperity (Cole et al., 2006). Partly, it is because employees utilize the supervisor-employee collaborations as signs to assess their relationship with their supervisors as well as with their organization (Dasborough & Ashkanasy, 2002; Eisenberger et al., 2002). As so, it is undeniable that supervisors have a great impact on building up the positive responses between supervisors and employees such as creating good workplace environment and giving accurate feedback and criticism to employees (Griffin, Patterson, & West, 2001). Conceptualizing this way, the perceived supervisor support is comprehended to be a paramount element in employees’ perception of their relevant surroundings. The research by Hochwarter et al. (2003) demonstrates that the amounts of perceived. 21.

(28) supervisor support are connected with positive work result, which covers the overall job satisfaction among employees as well as the decrease of non-attendance and the job departure aim. Employees imply the work as a complimentary relationship of employees offering their labor and creativity in exchange for rewards such as pay and promotion and emotional appreciation such as job satisfaction and self-esteem. In line with this, employees also establish viewpoints towards their supervisors regarding to which extent that the supervisors recognize their dedication and demonstrates an overriding sympathy towards their life wellbeing (Eisenberger, et al., 1986). As an outcome, employees who have a high perception of supervisor support are capable of addressing the requirements for appreciation, respect, and social personality and produce the performance that is beyond job execution and expected performance for the organization. The sensitization of insider and outside perceptions among employees is also another impact deriving from the effective perceived supervisor support. It is consistent with a theory that mainly talks about the quality relationship that develops between an individual subordinate and his or her supervisor, which can go further than employment relationship to the agreement trade of socialization (Stamper & Masterson, 2002). With the study of Kimura (2013), the degree of relationship between subordinates and supervisors in the organization depends on the feeling of being in-group or out-group due to different treatments received from the supervisors: whether subordinates feel that they are a part of the organization or they are just a group of people coming to work for the organizational benefit. Because even though employees hold the same job level and have same responsibilities, they are still able to experience differential relationship with the top managers. At the stage of employment relationship, employees tend to have a feeling of involvement when they have more privileged positions than others as well as enjoy favorable opportunities more than those who feel left out. Nevertheless, employees are likely to rely on. 22.

(29) trust that they will contribute their effort beyond the job requirement as they expect that they will receive rewards in the future (Stamper & Masterson, 2002). In order to terminate a feeling of being outsider of employees, the top management managers are encouraged to exercise some psychological politic behavior as a part of employment relationship (Kimura, 2013; Shanock & Eisenberger, 2006). As new joiners to the organization, they tend to form up comments about how well the organization treats employees. However, the prior comments can change overtime when these employees witness a good socialization in the workplace as well as being recognized from the top managers when they have an outstanding performance (Shanock & Eisenberger, 2006; Vigoda-Gadot, Vinarski-Peretz, & Ben-Zion, 2003).. The Moderating Effects of the Perceived Supervisor Support An essential goal of supervisors is to give practical profits to employees in efforts to encourage an upgrade of their work commitment (Ellen III, Ferris, & Buckley, 2013; Shanock & Ensenberger, 2006). Despite the fact that supervisors have formal systems for resource obtaining available for their employees, accessing to important and fundamental resources frequently is unattainable by hierarchically perceived means (Hochwarter, 2012). Hence, it is possible that employees are likely to form up the perceived supervisor support towards their supervisors as people who have the capacity of addressing the needs of employees by behaving politically. Ellen III et al. (2013) extensively characterize the perceived supervisor support as an impact view of employees towards the actions performed by supervisors to give employees important resources to development individual, group, or organizational purposes. This conceptualization perceives the supervisors can do much to expand resources for employees and that the conceivable practices to do so are not obliged to conventional and formal channels (Mintzberg, 1985). Such practices have been named "not officially authorized" by. 23.

(30) the organizations, and examples incorporate with supervisors working behind the scene, leading back room arrangements and slicing arrangements in efforts to achieve the process. A few researchers feel that the qualification and the positive conceivable outcomes of supervisors embracing political behaviors as Bass and Bass (2008, p.1193) expresses that employees should view the political supervisor support as “a positive light.” It is significantly reasonable that supervisors will act politically as a few researchers have contended that to be compelling, supervisors must be politically gifted and deft at overseeing organizational politics issues (Hochwarter, 2012; Mintzberg, 1983). By acting politically, supervisors can do much to address the need of employees. In the other words, by supervisors practicing political practices, it is an enable of provision of significant resources and extra open doors or dismissal of drawbacks obstructing objective accomplishment for their employees. Job satisfaction is a pleasurable or positive emotional perceptions deriving from the appraisal of one's job or previous job background. It is a general evaluation of the degree to which employees discover the job remunerating, satisfying, and fulfilling, instead of baffling and unsatisfying (Edmonson & Boyer, 2013: Stinglhamber & Vandenberghe, 2003). This kind of fulfillment normally passes through an evaluation of variables, for example, benefits, supervisor character, and management correspondence. Several researches have discovered that the perceived supervisor support is positively identified with a level of employees’ job satisfaction (Edmonson & Boyer, 2013; Stinglhamber & Vandenberghe, 2004). Based on the existing literature, the perceived supervisor support is ought to help employees' positive emotional perceptions and expand the level of satisfaction from the job. Hypothesis 2. Perceived supervisor support helps weakening the negative relationship between organizational politics and job satisfaction.. 24.

(31) CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY. 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.. Perceived Supervisor Support (PSS). Control Variables - Job Position - Job Tenure - English Proficiency. H2. Organizational Politics. Job Satisfaction H1. Figure 3.1 Research Framework 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.. 25.

(32) 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. 26.

(33) 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. 27.

(34) 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). 28.

(35) 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 (continued) 29.

(36) Table 3.2. (continued) 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.. 30.

(37) 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.. 31.

(38) 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.. 32.

(39) 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. Gender. Age. Job position. Job tenure. Department. Frequency. Percentage. Male. 9. 30. Female. 21. 70. Total. 30. 100. 21 - 25. 19. 63.3. 26 – 30. 9. 29.9. Above 30. 2. 6.7. Total. 30. 100. Agent. 24. 80. Leading agent. 4. 13.3. Supervisor. 2. 6.7. Total. 30. 100. 1 year. 23. 76.7. 2 year. 7. 23.3. Total. 30. 100. Check-in. 12. 40. Boarding gate. 10. 33.3 (continued). 33.

(40) Table 3.4. (continued) Check-in and boarding gate. 8. 26.7. Total. 30. 100. English Proficiency. TOEFL iBT. 4. 13.3. Score. 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).. 34.

(41) Table 3.5. Mean, Standard Deviation, Correlations, and Reliability (n=30) Mean. SD. 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**. .10. .31. -.14. -.18. -.16. .02. .18. -.24. .10. .31. -.23. -.18. -.16. -.21. .18. .00. -.11. .73. .45. .16. .33. .28. .07. -.28. .11. -.55**. -.55**. –. .35. .23. .22. .18. .26. -.28. .28. -.52**. -.20. .43*. 3.48. .69. -.38*. -.16. .06. .28. -.23. .01. .37*. .12. *. -.29. 1. Age. 7. Supervisor's Nationality (Japanese) 8. Supervisor's Nationality (Malaysian) 9. Supervisor's Nationality (Thai) 10. English Proficiency 11. Organizational Politics. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 12. Perceived Supervisor Support. 3.66. .71. .18. .01. .04. .02. -.00. .28. 13. Job Satisfaction. 3.48. .63. .29. .25. -.19. -.03. .24. .06. 7. 8. -.38. 9. 10. 11. -.24. -.11. (.69). .06. .04. .29. -.28. (.95). .01. .02. .18. -.53**. .67***. 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. 35. 12. 13. (.90).

(42) 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.. 36.

(43) 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.. 37.

(44) CHAPTER IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. This chapter focuses on critically identify the research hypotheses. The chapter is mainly divided into three parts, which are descriptive statistic analysis and inferential statistic analysis. The first section present is descriptive analysis of personal information of observers and exploring their perception towards politics issues in organization and supervisors as well as examines their satisfaction level on their careers. The second part shows the validity of the study. The last part emphasizes on the finding of research hypotheses by using hierarchical regression analysis.. Descriptive Statistics The data was gathered from 300 participants who are full-time employees working as the first-lined customer representatives, which are check-in and boarding gate agents, at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, Thailand. To collect the information of the participants, gender, age, job position, tenure, department, English proficiency, and supervisor’s nationality were included. Female is the majority participants in the study (64.7%). Most of them ages between 21 – 30 years (66.3%). There are averagely distributed in job position, which consist of agent, leading agent, and supervisor. Regarding with frequency, most of them are agent (37%) whose responsibility are at both check-in counter and boarding gate (49.3%). Their service length in present companies is principally between 1 – 3 years (39%). Most of them use English proficiency test of TOEIC (82%). In terms of supervisor, most of them are Thai (60%). The frequency and percentage of the demographic information are summarized in the Table 4.1 – 4.2.. 38.