“The Impact of Organizational Culture and Communication on Employees’ Job Satisfactionin a Transnational Corporation in Egypt: A Case Study”
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents a background of the research topic, purpose, problem, objective, questions, scope and importance. In addition, to the thesis structure outline
1.1Research Background
Today, transnational corporations (TNCs) experience a lot of competition in the global market. A lot of changes happen quickly in the global setting and thus, the companies have to excel and perform well to stay in the competition, to ensure this, the first thing managers should consider is the satisfaction of the employees’. A content and well compensated set of workers tend to become more effective and efficient in doing their jobs. Numerous studies regarding job satisfaction, specifically the positive emotional response given by the employee to his/her job individually or as member of team has become a big deal.
Job satisfaction essentially refers to the collection of beliefs and feelings that people have about their existing job. Employees’ job satisfaction levels can change easily from extreme satisfaction to extreme dissatisfaction, they can also have attitudes about various aspects of their jobs such as the kind of work they do, communication between supervisors and subordinates, their pay, the culture of the organization..etc (George et al., 2008). Another most widely used definition of job satisfaction is the pleasurable or positive emotional state arising from the praising of one’s job or job experiences(Locke, E. A., 1976).
Job satisfaction is an important aim for any organization to achieve. When the employees’ satisfaction level increases, then this will lead in more returns to the organization. However employees’ dissatisfaction has negative effects on effectiveness and efficiency of the organization. So studying job satisfaction is one of the most considerable areas of organizations setup (Lai Wan, 2007).
Happy employees positively affect productivity in the workplace and on the larger society which in fact the general public which also impacts positively the organization's brand image. Job satisfaction also affects the bottom line by impacting on the performance of the employee though some indicate that this connection is weak or contrary to the belief that a happy employee is more efficient (Bassett, G., 1994).
There are various factors that affect job satisfaction such as leadership practices, management associations, communications, workload, teamwork, pay, personal growth and organization culture (Simons et al ., 2002). For the purpose of this paper we will be looking at two factors that affect employees’ job satisfaction in TNCs which are namely; organizational culture and communication.
1.2 Research Purpose
This research is focusing on employees’ job satisfaction in transnational corporations (TNCs) in Egypt. The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of organizational culture and organizational communication on employees’ job satisfaction in order to know how culture and communication of an organization assist in enhancing employees’ job satisfaction.
1.3 Research Problem
Enhanced employee performance is a key objective and measure of success for transnational corporations. In order for employees to perform at their best, they must have high levels of job satisfaction, which is achieved through a well-established organizational culture and effective communication. Therefore, the main question in this study is how and to what extent does an organization's culture and communication impact employee job satisfaction.
1.4 Research Objectives
This research has two main objectives:
1)To study the effect of organizational culture on employees’ job satisfaction.
2)To study the effect of organizational communication on employees’ job satisfaction.
1.5 Research Questions
The research study will attempt to answer the following questions:
1)To what extent the organizational culture affect the employees’ job satisfaction in a transnational corporation?
2)To what extent the organizational communication affect the employees’ job satisfaction in a transnational corporation?
1.6 Scope of research
The independent variables are organizational culture and organizational communication. The dependent variable is employees’ job satisfaction. The respondents of this research focus on the employees’ who work in transnational corporations in Egypt.
1.7 Research Importance
This study is both academically and practically important. The following section will explain the reasoning behind this importance.
1.7.1 Academic Importance
Individual variables such as organization culture and communication have been discussed in details before by many other scholars but only a few of them have gone ahead and researched the impact these variables have on employees’ job satisfaction. Employees’ job satisfaction is essential to all organizations and therefore has to be maintained and improved daily. For that to happen, more research studies should be done to increase the knowledge base and open more doors for other scholars to do further research on the relationship between organizations’ performance and factors such as those researched on this study.
This research study will help further the existing knowledge on factors that influences the employee job satisfaction rate of an organization. It will also go ahead and address various areas of concern that managers should look into to improve employee job satisfaction especially in transnational organizations.
1.7.2 Practical Importance
The research will gain information on two factors organizational culture and organizational communication, which is the major determinant of job satisfaction. By focusing on just these two factors we will be able to deeply analyze these factors and turn the inside out as well as expose any mythology surrounding these two determinants. This will directly affect how these factors are considered by corporations and organization in all forms and sizes. This is because all businesses and organizations stand on the shoulders of its human capital which is in fact its employees who bring their intelligence and skill sets into the achievement of a firm’s goals. Putting in perspective job satisfaction, looking after the psychological health of this primary resource will greatly impact the firm. The psychological wellbeing is greatly impacted by the workplace as most of the general population tends to define themselves by their profession (Warr et al, 1979) This will enable firms to better understand how the determinants affect the job satisfaction and adjust their policies in a positive manner which will affect their firms in many ways. It will also change the industry standards concerning this subject of job satisfaction.
1.8 Thesis Structure
Chapter 1: This chapter is an introduction to the research study.
Chapter 2: This chapter is composed of three main sections that provide a comprehensiveorganizational culture and communication overview. The first section reviews general literature about organizational culture. The second section focuses on organizational communication, the third on employees’ job satisfaction in relation with the two variables
Chapter 3: This chapter also offers an explanation of the methodology of this research. It presents the research design, the research framework, hypotheses, conceptual and operational definitions for the research variables. In addition, it describes the sampling, data collection methods and statistical analysis techniques used.
Chapter 4: This chapter presents the data that are generated from this study and their empirical examinations. It includes frequency tests, reliability (Chronbach Alpha), validity (Intrinsic and content), descriptive statistics (mean, mode, median, range, and standard deviation), correlation, and regression.
Chapter 5: This chapter also discusses the findings of the present study in comparison with that of previous studies in order to draw a conclusion. Moreover, it highlights the research implications and some recommendation for transactional corporations in Egypt. It also presents the academic and practical contributions. Finally, it outlines the research limitations and suggests directions for further research