RESEARCH PROJECT (BMBR5103) FACTORS AFFECTING ON-THE-JOB BEHAVIOR AT SPARTON CORPORATION STUDENT’S FULL NAME STUDENT ID INTAKE ADVISOR’S NAME & TITLE : : : : MAI VAN VIEN CGS00018511 SEPT 2014 NGUYEN THE KHAI, DBA December 2015 Master Project ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS On the very outset of this report, I would like to extend my sincere & heartfelt obligation towards all the personages who have helped me in this endeavor Without their active guidance, help, cooperation & encouragement, I would not have made headway in the project I am extremely thankful and pay my gratitude to my faculty Nguyen The Khai,DBA for his valuable guidance and support on completetion of this project in its presently I extend my gratitude to my boss, Mr Drew Graham Richmond for giving me this opportunity I also acknowledge with a deep sense of reverence, my gratitude towards my family, who has always supported me morally as well as economically At last but no least gratitude goes to all of my friends who directly or indirectly helped me to complete this project report Any omission in this brief acknowledgement does not mean lack of gratitude Thank You Mai Van Vien (Alex) Page of 75 Master Project Advisor’s Assessment - Advisor’s signature NGUYEN THE KHAI, DBA Page of 75 Master Project TABLE OF CONTENT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF TABLE ABSTRACT CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION General Medical Segment 11 Complex Systems Segment 11 DSS Segment 11 Risks and Uncertainties 12 Sparton Vietnam 14 Research Introduction: 15 Goal of the Research 15 Objective of the Research 15 10 Limitations of the Research 16 11 Research Questions 16 CHAPTER II: LITTERATURE REVIEW 17 Organization Commitment 17 Work Control 20 Goad and Process Clarity 23 Fairness Perceptions of an Organization Policy 25 On the Job Behaviors 29 CHAPTER III: RESEARCH MODEL AND HYPOTHESES 31 Research Model 31 Hypotheses 31 2.1 Organizational Commitment 31 2.2 Work Control 34 2.3 Goal and Process Clarify 38 2.4 Fairness Perceptions on an Organization Policy 41 2.5 On the Job Behaviors 44 Research Methodology 47 3.1 Introduction 47 3.2 Research design 48 3.3 Sampling 48 Page of 75 Master Project 3.4 Data collection method 49 3.5 Data collection instrument 50 3.6 Analysis of data 50 CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS AND RESULT 52 Demographic Characteristics of the respondents 52 Reliability Analysis 53 Descriptive Statistic 54 Correlation of all variables statistics: 55 Hypotheses Testing 57 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION 59 Summary and Discussion: 59 Management Implications 60 Limitations and Recommendation for Further Research: 62 REFERENCES 64 APPENDIX A 68 APPENDIX B 73 Page of 75 Master Project LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Financial highlights of Sparton Corporation…………………………….09 Figure 2: Hypothesized Research Model………………………………………… 31 Figure 3: A summary of demographic characteristics of the respondents…………53 Figure 4: Correlation of all independent variables with dependent variable………57 Page of 75 Master Project LIST OF TABLE Table 1: Summary of Cronbach’s Alpha of the variables……………………54 Table 2: Descriptive Statistics……………………………………………… 55 Table 3: Summary of Correlations of all variables………………………… 56 Table 4: Model Summary of all hypotheses………………………………….57 Table 5: Coefficients of all hypotheses………………………………………58 Page of 75 Master Project ABSTRACT The success of an organization is widely believed to stem from individuals’ contributions and its fellows are precious assets of an institution This is especially true for Sparton Corporation Sparton Corporation is currently facing challenges is in recently some employees have intention to leave Sparton Corporation after being a long time in service Accordingly, identifying the factors affecting the levels of organization commitment to attract employee’s cooperation and contributions in the long time is critical Being able to tackle this mission will bring about a desirable success for Sparton Corporation in the Human Resource Management The theoretical framework of this study will be tested by collecting data from 300 Sparton Corporation employees in the Office and Production floor They are provided their ideas in the trial and official surveying processes The reliability analysis, descriptive analysis, and hypothesis testing were employed to analyze the data The purpose of the study is to explore factors affecting to the organizational commitment of employees in Sparton Corporation through a questionnaire Following the analysis process, factors collected are Organizational Commitment, Work Control, Goal and Process Clarity, Fairness Perceptions on an Organization Policy and On The Job Behaviors The interpretation of collected data will be followed by the researcher’s strategic recommendations related to organizational commitment In spite of unavoidable limitations, the research outcomes are expected to be a possible constructive source for Sparton Corporation to refer in planning and developing the strategies to enhance the organizational commitment of the employees Key words: On The Job Behaviors, Organizational Commitment, Work Control, Goal and Process Clarity and Fairness Perceptions on an Organization Policy Page of 75 Master Project CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION General Sparton Corporation and subsidiaries (the “Company” or “Sparton”) has been in continuous existence since 1900 It was last reorganized in 1919 as an Ohio corporation The Company is a provider of design, development, and manufacturing services for complex electromechanical devices, as well as sophisticated engineered products complementary to the same electromechanical value stream The Company serves the Medical & Biotechnology, Military & Aerospace and Industrial & Commercial markets through three reportable business segments; Medical Device (“Medical”), Complex Systems (“CS”) and Defense & Security Systems (“DSS All of the Company’s facilities are certified to one or more of the ISO/AS standards, including ISO 9001, AS9100 or ISO 13485, with most having additional certifications based on the needs of the customers they serve The Company’s products and services include offerings for Original Equipment Manufacturers (“OEM”) and Emerging Technology (“ET”) customers that utilize microprocessorbased systems which include transducers, printed circuit boards and assemblies, senso9rs, and electromechanical components, as well as development and design engineering services relating to these product sales Sparton also develops and manufactures sonobuoys, anti-submarine warfare (“ASW”) devices used by the United States Navy and other free-world countries Many of the physical and technical attributes in the production of sonobuoys are similar to those required in the production of the Company’s other electrical and electromechanical products and assemblies The Company uses an internal management reporting system, which provides important financial data to evaluate performance and allocate the Company’s resources on a segment basis Net sales are attributed to the segment in which the product is manufactured or service is performed A segment’s performance is evaluated based upon its operating income (loss) Page of 75 Master Project A segment’s operating income (loss) includes its gross profit on sales less its selling and administrative expenses, including allocations of certain corporate operating expenses Certain corporate operating expenses are allocated to segment results based on the nature of the service provided Other corporate operating expenses, including certain administrative, financial and human resource activities as well as items such as interest expense, interest income, other income (expense) and income tax expense (benefit), are not allocated to operations and are excluded from segment profit These costs are not allocated to the segments, as management excludes such costs when assessing the performance of the segments Inter-segment transactions are generally accounted for at amounts that approximate arm’s length transactions Identifiable assets by segments are those assets that are used in each segment’s operations The accounting policies for each of the segments are the same as for the Company taken as a whole Financial Highlights: Figure 1: Financial highlights of Sparton Corporation (source: Sparton annual report) Page 10 of 75 Master Project work hard and demonstrate commitment to the organization Institute tenure timetables rewarding the commitment of long-standing employees Use the Sparton’s history to install a desirable corporate culture Sparton have a long history full of uplifting stories contributing to the company culture and encouraging continued loyalty Tell these stories during employee orientation to instill commitment in new employees Create a rich employment environment Host employee events such as picnics and holiday parties Make the company a fun place to work Secondly, Goal and Process Clarity, many organizations will inevitably be confronted with more age-diverse teams Based on the finding in this present study, we suggest that organizations and managers pay more attention to teamwork design More specifically, the mediating role of goal clarity calls for attention of managerial interventions on goal setting, such as outlining and clarifying team goals, and on team role design, such as connecting individual responsibilities to the team goals Finally but not all, Fairness Perception of an Organization Policy, this research showed that the Sparton has a fair and professional working environment because all employees are satisfied with the fairness at work There are numerous steps an organization can take to increase levels of employee engagement and fairness in the workplace A few examples are listed below; however the list is far from exhaustive The most important aspect to note is that as the levels of reported involvement employees have throughout the employment life cycle increases (or in other words, the number of touch-points affected), the higher the reported levels of employee engagement and fairness For example, five procedural components, (thereby reinforcing the notion of procedural justice), specific to job evaluation were identified by Greenburg (2002) that can be easily incorporated by the organization.1) Soliciting for and using input from others prior to evaluation, 2) Using two-way communication during the information gathering process, 3) Allowing the employee to have the ability to Page 61 of 75 Master Project challenge/rebut the evaluation, 4) Rater familiarity with the ratees’ work and 5) Consistent application of standards across the organization (Beugré, 1998) Simply using rater diaries for performance evaluation decisions greatly enhances the ratees’ perceived level of fairness The diary also helps to ensure that information used for the evaluation is not simply the most recent – which is often what is most easily recalled and used by the rater Additionally, any element of selfappraisal by the employee is likely to increase the perceived level of fairness of the evaluation (Beugré, 1998) In terms of compensation and benefits, allowing employees to participate in the setting of their own wages may seem somewhat outlandish, but it can be an effective way to promote an employees’ belief in the fairness of those wages As pay systems reflect the distribution of outcomes and distributive justice; organizations should ensure full-disclosure of the employee pay plan or at the very least, limit the level of secrecy The ability to offer “cafeteria-style” benefits can not only assist the organization in reducing its overall costs, but the employee is then able to be involved in the decision-making process and is able to better understand the costs to both him/herself and the organization Organizations will undoubtedly find it quite difficult to incorporate employee involvement in all aspects of its internal and external operations Therefore, at the very least, they should incorporate and leverage effective communication and frequent feedback throughout all touch-points of the employment life cycle– from start to finish Both essential elements greatly contribute to both employee engagement and fairness in the workplace Limitations and Recommendation for Further Research: Firstly, the time is limited; most of Sparton have to concentrate on their daily work Answer the survey is not their high priority They will use free time on break Page 62 of 75 Master Project to fulfill this survey so the survey does had to spend a lot of time for explaining in the survey Secondly, it is limited of field, Sparton operate on electronic field so other bias factors may have implied an imprecision in the data collected, which is probably inapplicable at other field Finally, only 284 survey feedback count about 47% of Sparton employees This may take a little impact on the integrity of the output of the research For further research, it is recommended that should expanded to other field to obtain a more expository comparison Page 63 of 75 Master Project REFERENCES Adams JS (1965) Inequality in social exchange In: L Berkowitz (Ed.) New York: Acedemic Press Adv Exp Soc Psychol 2:267-299 Colquitt JA, Conlon DE, Wesson MJ, Porter COLH, Ng KY (2001) “Justice at the millennium: A meta-analytical review of 25 years of organizational justice research” J Appl Psychol 86 (3): 425-445 Dail L Fields (2002) Taking the Measure of Work – A Guide to Validated Scales for Organizational research and Diagnosis Sage Publications, Inc Esterhuizen W(2008) Organisational justice and employee responses to employment equity Unpublished MA thesis, University of South Africca Esterhuizen W, Martins N (2008) Organisational justice and employee responses to employment equity South Afr J Labour Relat 32(2): 66-84 Furnham A (1992) Personality at work: the role of individual differences in the Workplace London: Routledge Furnham A, Eracleous A, Chamorro-Premuzic T (n.d) Personallty, motivation and job satisfaction: Hertzberg meets the Big Five Retrieved December 28, 2011, from http://cms.gold.ac.uk/media/pms2.doc Getahun, S., Sim, B., & Hummer, D (2007) Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment among Probation and Parole Officers: A Case Study 13(5) Gilson, L.L & Shalley, C.E (2004) A little creativity goes a long way: An examination of teams’ engagement in creative processes Journal of Management, 30: 453-470 10 Golparvar, M., & Karami, M (2010) Moderating role of positive and negative affect in relation to organizational injustice and employee’s destructive behaviors Quarterly Journal of Applied Psychology, 4(3), 7-23 11 Greenhaus, J H., S Parasuraman and W M Wormley 1990 “Effects of Race on Organizational Experiences, Job Performance Evaluations and Career Outcomes.” Academy of Management Journal, 33 (1), 64-86 Page 64 of 75 Master Project 12 Hair, J.F., Anderson, R.E., Tatham, R.L., & Black, W.C (1998) Multivariate Data Analysis (5th ed.) New Jersey: Prentice-Hall International 13 Herzberg, F (1966) Work and the nature of man Cleveland, OH: World Publishing Company 14 Jamal, M (1997) Job stress, satisfaction and mental health: An empirical examination of self-employed and non-self-employed Canadians Journal of Small Business Manage- ment, 35, 48 –57 15 Jamal, M (2005) Short communication: Personal and organizational outcomes related to job stress and Type-A behavior: A study of Canadian and Chinese employees Stress & Health: Journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress, 21, 129 – 137 16 Janssen, O (2003) Innovative behaviour and job involvement at the price of conflict and less satisfactory relations with co-workers Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 76, 347–364 17 Kaliski, B.S (2007) Encyclopedia of Business and Finance, Second edition, Thompson Gale, Detroit, p 446 18 Laura McCann, Carmel M Hughes, Colin G Adair and Chris Cardwell (2009) Pharm World Sci 31:188–194 19 Lawler, E E & Stuttle J L (1973) Expectancy Theory and Job Behaviour Organizational Behaviour and Human Performance (1), p482-503 20 Luthans, F (1998) Organizational Behavior, Edition, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, Boston, p 147 21 Manzoor, M.U., Usman, M., Naseem, M.A., & Shafiq, M.M (2011) A Study of Job Stress and Job Satisfaction among Universities Faculty in Lahore, Pakistan Global Journal of Management and Business Research, 11(9):1 September 2011 22 Marginson, S (2003) Quality of higher education Australian Journal of Education.Monash University, Australia 47(1): 47-51 23 Masterson, S S., Lewis, K., Goldman, B M., & Taylor, M S (2000) Page 65 of 75 Master Project Integrating justice and social exchange: The differing effects of fair procedures and treatment of work relationships Academy of Management Journal, 43, 738– 748 24 Meyer, J P & Smith, C A 2000 HRM Practices and Organizational Commitment: Test of a Mediation Model Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, 17(4): 319–331 25 Nowakowski JM, onlon DE (2005) Organisational Justice: Looking back, looking forward Int J Conflict Manage 16(1):4-24 26 Oldham, G R., & Cummings, A (1996) Employee creativity: Personal and contextual factors at work Academy of Management Journal, 39, 607 – 634 27 Opotow S (1997) What’s fair? Justice issues in the affirmative action debate Am Behav Scientist 41(2):232-245 28 Parker, D F., & DeCotiis, T A (1983) Organizational determinants of job stress Organiza- tional Behavior and Human Performance, 32, 160 –177 29 Perry, J.L., Debra, M., & Paarl berg, L (2006) Motivating Employees in a New Governance Era: The Performance Paradigm Revisited Public Administration Review 66(4) 30 Raffety, B D., Smith, R E., & Ptacek, J T (1997) Facilitating and debilitating trait anxiety, situational anxiety, and coping with an anticipated stressor: A process analysis Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 892–906 31 Roch SG, Shanock LR (2006), Organisational justice in an exchange framework: Clarifying organizational justice distinctions J Manage 32(2):299322 32 Schriesheim, C., & Tsui, A N.(1980), “Development and Validation of a Short Satisfaction Instrument for Use in Survey Feedback Interventions,” Paper represented at the Western Academy of Management Meeting 33 Skarlicki, D P., Folger, R., & Tesluck, P (1997) Personality as a moderator in the relationship between fairness and retaliation Academy of Management Journal, 42, 100-108 http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256877 Page 66 of 75 Master Project 34 Smith, C S., & Brannick, M T (1990) A role and expectancy model of participative decision making: A replication and theoretical extension Journal of Organizational Behavior, 11, 91-104 35 Sparton website: http://www.sparton.com 36 Statt, D (2004) The Routledge Dictionary of Business Management, Third edition, Routledge Publishing,Detroit, p 78 37 Stecher MD, Rosse JG (2005) The distributive side of interactional justice: The effects of interpersonal treatment on emotional arousal J Manage Issues 17 (2): 229-246 38 Tang, T L., & Baldwin, L J S (1996) Distributive and procedural justice as related to satisfaction and commitment SAM Advanced Management Journal, 61, 25-31 39 Thibaut JW, Walker L (1975) Procedural justice: A psychological perspective Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum 40 Van Dyne L, LePine JA (1998) “Helping and voice extra-role behaviours: Evidenc of construct and predictive validity” Acad Manage J 41(1): 108-119 41 Williamson K, William KJ (2011) Organisational justice, trust and perceptions of fairness in the implementation of agenda for change Raadlography 17: 61-66 Page 67 of 75 Master Project APPENDIX A SURVEY QUESTIONNAIR Dear Sir/Madam, I am Mai Van Vien, a student of Open University Malaysia Business Research assignment is a most importance part in Master Business Administration Collaboration Program The purpose of this research is to help Board of Management to improve company’s situation of high employee turnover rate Thank you for talking your time to participate in this employee survey All of your answer will be kept confidential and will be used for the study purpose only Please answer the following questions by circling the number in the table below indicating the level of agreement to the questions Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any question regarding to this research Mai Van Vien (Alex) Email: vienmai@gmail.com Phone number: (+84) 916.592.779 I’m really thankful to your cooperation No Strongly Disagree Questions I'm quite proud to be able to tell people who it is that I work for Strongly Agree 5 I sometimes feel like leaving this employment for good (R) I'm not willing to put myself out just to help the organization (R) Even if the firm were not doing too well financially, I would be reluctant to change to another employer 5 I feel myself to be part of the organization In my work I like to feel I am making some effort, not just for myself, but for the organization as well Page 68 of 75 Master Project No Questions The offer of a bit more money with another employer would not seriously make me think of changing my job 5 I would not recommend a close friend to our staff ® To know that my own work had made a contribution to the good of the organization would please me 10 How much control you have over variety of methods you use in completing you work? 11 How much can you choose among variety of tasks or projects to do? 5 5 12 13 14 How much control you have personally over the quality of your work? How much can you generally predict the amount of work you will have to on any given day? How much control you personally have over how much work you get done 15 How much control you have over how quickly or slowly you have to work? 16 How much control you have over scheduling and duration of your rest breaks 5 5 5 5 17 18 19 20 21 How much control you have over when you come to work or lease How much control you have over when you take vacation or days off? How much are you able to predict what the results of decisions you make on the job will be? How much are you able to decorate, rearrange, or personalize your work area? How much can you control the physical condition of your work station (lighting, temperature)? How much control you have over how you your work? How much can you control when and how 23 much you have to interact with others at work? No Questions 22 Page 69 of 75 Master Project No 24 25 26 27 28 Questions How much influence you have over the policies and procedures in your work unit? How much control you have over the sources of information you need to your job? How much are things that affect you at work predictable, even if you can't directly control them? How much control you have over the amount of resources (tools, material) that you get? How much can you control the number of times you are interrupted while you work? 5 5 5 29 How much control you have over how much you earn at your job? 30 How much control you have over how your work is evaluated? 5 1 2 3 4 5 5 5 5 5 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 In general, how much overall control you have over work and work-related matters? My duties and responsibilities The goals and objectives for my job How my work relates to the overall objectives of my work unit The expected results of my work What aspects of my work will lead to a positive evaluation? How to divide my time among the tasks required of my job How to schedule my work day How to determine the appropriate procedures for each work task The procedures I use to my job are correct and proper Considering all your work tasks, how certain are you that you know the best ways to these tasks Paying faculty members for having babies is not fair to non-childbearing faculty members (R) Page 70 of 75 Master Project No 5 44 It is everyone's, including non-parents, responsibility to provide for children, and a parental leave policy helps to accomplish this task 45 It is not [the organization's] responsibility to provide paid time off to new parents (R) 46 Having a child is a strain on parents, and they deserve the aid of parental leave 47 Children are a necessary part of society and it is the responsibility of large institutions like [organization] to help in the effort 48 Those who choose not to have children should subsidize those who choose to have children under a parental leave program 49 In the past, employees have borne children without the benefit of special leave, and therefore it is not fair to offer parental leave to new parents (R) 50 Having a baby is a personal choice and provisions for that event should be made by the family, rather than by the employer (R) 51 52 53 54 55 Done more work than required Volunteered to work overtime Made attempts to change work conditions Negotiate with supervisors to improve job Tried to think of ways to the job better 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 43 Questions Every parent deserves the right to paid leave when a child is born Items denoted with (R) are reverse scored General information Gender Male Female Education High school College Bachelor Master Ph.D Other…… Page 71 of 75 Master Project Your position Direct Employee Staff Manager Senior Manager Supervisor Your service time: Under years from to years From to 10 years over 10 years End of Survey – Thank You! Page 72 of 75 Master Project APPENDIX B PRESENTATION SLIDE Page 73 of 75 Master Project Page 74 of 75 Master Project Page 75 of 75 [...]... obligation to continue employment Employees with a high level of normative commitment feel that they ought to remain with the organization (Meyer & Allen, 1997) Others have argued that commitment reflects the psychological bond that ties the employee to the organization but that the nature of the bond can take three forms, labeled compliance, identification, and internationalization (O’Reilly & Chatman,... employees, and there is no theory that defines the conceptual boundaries of the job control construct (Kasl, 1989; Sauter et al.,1989) Many occupational health psychology theories suggest that stress-relatedoutcomes con be improved by increasing employees’ control over their work Research is based on the assumption, and data indicating, that job that impose limits on control are associated with less... Organizational policy and the dependent construct: On the Job Behaviors To investigate impacting of independent constructs on the dependent construct, I propose a research model as below: Organization Commitment Work Control On the Job Behaviors (Workplace Behaviors) Goal and Process Clarify Fairness Perception of an Organization Policy Figure 2: Hypothesized Research Model 2 Hypotheses 2.1 Organizational... impact on the Job Behavior Doing this research is the first time for me, my limited experience may be also a limitation of this research 11 Research Questions The questionnaire will be established based on elements so that its answers to search the relationship between the job behavior and its element factors such as - How does the organization commitment influence on the job behavior? - How does work control... Commitment a Definition Employee commitment to an organization has been defined in a variety of ways included an attitude or an orientation that links the identity of the person to the organization, a process by which the goals of the organization and those of the individual become congruent, an involvement with a participation in an organization, the costs associated with leaving, and normative pressures... feeling of pride and belonging to the organization); involvement (the willingness to invest personal effort for the sake of the organization); and loyalty (attachment and obligation towards the organization) This is operationalized in the British Organizational Commitment Scale (BOCS), modeled on Mowday et al.’s (1979) Organizational Commitment Questionnaire, and has been widely used in the UK across a range... alternatives) from a job search and choice phase (.e., activating search generators, collecting information on job alternatives, and evaluating job alternatives, Power & Aldag, 1985) Similarly, Barber, Daly, Giannantonio, and Phillips (1994) suggested that job search behavior refers to identifying the existence of job opportunities and gathering more detailed information on selected job alternatives More recently,... organization The various definitions reflect three broad themes: commitment reflecting an affective orientation toward the organization, recognition of costs associated with leaving the organization and moral obligation to remain with an organization (Meyer & Allen, 1997) An employee’s liking for an organization is termed affective commitment and includes identification with and involvement in the organization... allocation of outcomes Niehoff and Moorman (1993) assert that interactional justice, in the form of interpersonal and informational, has an effect on co-worker relationships and organizational citizenship On the other hand, Crawshaw (as cited in Williamson and Williams, 2011, p.62) suggests that the agents of change within an organization could be linked with fairness perceptions and that adequate information... certainly includes an effective dimension and many include components that reflect normative pressures as well as practical considerations such as the costs of leaving an organization and locating another job with similar pay and benefits Hypothesis 1: Organizational Commitment is positively related to On – the – Job Behaviors b Measures of construct of Organizational Commitment This measure, developed ... as below: - Organizational Commitment - Work Control - Goal and Process Clarity - Fairness Perceptions of an Organization Policy - On The Job Behavior Organization Commitment Organizational commitment... as - How does the organization commitment influence on the job behavior? - How does work control impact to the job behavior? - How is the job behavior influenced by goal and process clarity? -. .. reflects the psychological bond that ties the employee to the organization but that the nature of the bond can take three forms, labeled compliance, identification, and internationalization (O’Reilly