An Empirical Study on Performance Evaluation and Job Satisfaction of Sales Promoters of HNB Assurance in Jaffna District. Dr. T. Velnampy
S. Sivesan
Senior Lecturer
Asst. Lecturer
Dept of Commerce
Dept of commerce
Email – tvnampy @yahoo.co.in
[email protected]
Extended Abstract Every organization is very most interested in cultivating high productivity from the employees.
For this purpose, they regularly evaluate the
performance of their employees. In a way, performance evaluation is considered as a significant element in the organization, because performance increases satisfaction. In turn satisfaction may lead to performance. Even this may be a recycling process, the present study
is initiated on” the
performance evaluation and job satisfaction” with the samples of 50 sales promoters of HNB Assurance in Jaffna district. The study found that 60% and 62% of the respondents fall under the moderate level of performance and satisfaction respectively. Descriptive statistics suggest that completion of work within the time, quality of work, perseverence are most important factors determining performance where as creativity and innovation are the least importance factors. Similarly happy to work, payment and superior subordinate relationships are the most important determining factors of satisfaction where as promotion, participation in decision marking are least determining factors. Finally correlation value indicates that (0.579) performance and job satisfactions are positively associated at 0.01 levels. i.e. as the performance increases satisfaction of sale promoters of HNB Assurance increases. Key words: – performance, productivity, satisfaction.
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1. Introduction:Most of the enterprises in the word are evaluating performance of their employees as a motivational tool. Because, it is one of the key element in motivating function in human resource management. HNB Assurance is popular service organization which is established in Sri Lank later part of 1995. But Jaffna branch was established in 2004 for providing the general and life insurance policies. In the point of views of service organization, service providing to employees such as front line officers, sales promoters etc, are very important and the sales promoters should be treated as king of organization. Because, sales they are bridge with customers and organization. Their satisfaction leads to build customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and customer retention, service quality of organization, organizational profitability, and long term survival of the organization.
Performance evaluation is a systematic evaluation of a worker’s performance potential for development. It is a process that estimating or judging the value excellence qualities or status of some object, person or thing individually and collectively, it is part of the other staffing processes, viz recruitment, selection, placement and indoctrination. (Mamoria 1968).
Sri Lanka is a developing agricultural country; Insurance sectors play a vital role in the growth of economy and also automatically increase risk taking mentality of entrepreneurs.
Performance evaluation helps to achieving objectives, satisfaction result achievement of individual and organizational goals. Satisfaction is increased by performance, and job satisfaction of sales promoters of HNB
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Assurance can also be enhanced through the performance.
Hence it is
necessary to identify the relationship between performance and satisfaction.
2. Research problem Job satisfaction is an important element in achieving organizational and individual performance. Performance increases satisfaction through various factors. Hence today organizations take much important in employee performance Even though there are so many factors affecting the job satisfaction it is found that the performance evaluation has a considerable influence. Some researches pointed out that employees, performance lead to high job satisfaction (Blum and Naylor 1968) and some revealed the negative or no relationship. Further there is an argument that whether the performance increases satisfaction or satisfaction increases performance. Whatever it is understood that this is not an end process, this is a recycling process. Hence the present study is made to know that how far the performance influences the job satisfaction?
3 Objectives of the study Main object of the study is to identify the relationship between performance and job satisfaction of sales promoters of HNB Assurance. Subobjectives are 1. To assess the levels of performance prevailing among the sales promoters of HNB Assurance. 2. To find out the degree of satisfaction of sales promoters in HNB Assurance. 4. To identify the factors which determine the performance.
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4. Literature Review Performance evaluation is considered as main aspect in inducing people. The success of an organization largely depends upon how its resources are efficiently and effectively deployed in order to achieve its objectives and goals. Human resources are considered to be the most important resource. Therefore the performance of employees has grate impact on the success of any organization. Performance management system has been adopted by organizations in order to enhance employee’s performance make more timely and accurate staffing decision and enhance the overall quality of the fine’s services and products. Performance evaluation could, thus, be seen as an objective method of judging the relative worth or ability of an individual employee in performing his tasks. If objectively done, the
evaluation can help to identify a better
worker from a poor one. Similarly, there is a strong between induction, training, and appraisal. In a large number of firms in UK, a new recruit is expected to discuss this schedule of work in achieving induction objectives, and this schedule of work become part of his job (Stewart and Stewart, 1977). Job satisfaction may be defined as a “reintegration of effect produced by individual’s perception of fulfillment of his needs in relation to his work and the situation surrounding it” (Sinha, 1974). Hoppock (1935) defined job satisfaction as “any combination of psychological, Physiological and environmental circumstances that causes a person truthfully to say “I am satisfied with my job” Performance appraisal identifies areas where the employees need training and once the contents are identified, it becomes easy to select teaching technology, reading, material and other training necessities. Similarly, performance appraisal can also provide data to determine promotions, 4
transfers and even demotions of the employee. Thus it has direct bearing on other personnel decisions (Shetty, 1970). It has also been found that data provided by performance appraisal is increasingly being used by a superior as a basis for counseling the employee (Mc Gregor, 1972). The purpose is to help the employee to overcome his weaknesses and become more effective in his job. Perhaps, one of the most important roles of a manager or a supervisor is to “motivate, encourage, build, train, reinforce, and modify behaviour” of his subordinates (Yager, 1981). This can happen only if there is regular and frequent interaction between the superior and his subordinates. If the interaction is based on acknowledgement, there should be ample praise, corrections, comments and suggestions by the supervisor on the tasks performed by the subordinate. This interaction process can be seen as performance appraisal because in each interaction process some comments are exchanged on the tasks in hand. In any appraisal process, three elements are involved (Niazi, 1979). These are administrative matters related to appraisal, appraisal itself and identification of potential. Niazi (1982) pointed out that in performance appraisal there are subsystems, and there is need to dealing them from each other. In fact, he goes to the extent of suggesting that each one of these subsystems should be handled by separate individuals. One distinct advantage foreseen in any such attempts is that, to some extent, the “string pulling” can be minimized, because the subsystems are managed independently leading to greater effectiveness of performance appraisal. Generally after the appraisal interview the employee is left alone to improve his performance on the dimensions discussed in the interview till his performance comes up for evaluation next year. And with the interview over, the supervisor may think that his job is over. In effect, his real job begins from the moment. The supervisor should monitor now and them whether the
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improvement. In the performance in the areas found weak is taking place or not, and, if not, help the employee to achieve the required improvement.
Malhotra (1982) suggested a performance improvement model which necessitates supervisors to monitor the performance every four months on the achievement of targets given key factors determining success and making necessary mid-course corrections. Blum and Naylor (1968) opined that job satisfaction is a general attitude which is the result of many specific attitudes in there areas, normally, specific job factors, individual characteristics and group relationships outside the job. The father of scientific management, Taylor’s (1911)23 approach to job satisfaction
was
based
no
a
most
pragmatic
and
essentially
pessimistic philosophy that man is motivated by money alone. That the workers are essentially “stupid and phlegmatic” and that they would be satisfied with work. If they get higher economic return from it. Over the years, we have moved away from Taylor’s solely monitory approach
to
a
more
humanistic
orientation.
From
a
simple
explanation based on money to a more realistic but complex approach to job satisfaction, it has come a long way. New dimensions of knowledge are added everyday and with increasing understanding of new variables and their interplay, the field of job satisfaction has become difficult to comprehend. Sideman and Watson (1940) in their study, a sampling of men and women were asked to report on the job previously held which was most satisfactory to them and to give reasons for their selection the result, the study reported that congenial working condition and social conduct, responsibility, initiative prestige, recognition, friendly association, Work fitted to vocational level and
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variety of duties are more important contributing factors in job satisfaction than salary. Vroom (1964) has done an excellent job examining the relationship between job satisfaction and various aspects of job behavior and perhaps summarizing his findings are the best way of giving the reader on overview. Vroom categorizes studies in terms of which job behaviors are correlated with job satisfaction. Specifically, he groups them into studies of turnover of absenteeism accidents and job performance. Hulin and Smith (1964) obtained measures of five separate aspect of job satisfaction from 295 male workers and 163 female workers drawn from four different plants. The data were analyzed with respect to the mean the satisfaction for the male and female workers Analysis indicated that in three plants the female workers were significantly less satisfied than their male counterparts (p. < 0.05) while in the fourth plant there was no significant difference. A test on the relative size of the differences indicates that the ordering of the difference in satisfaction level was some what consist and across the four samples (p< 0.01). Measurement of job satisfaction has come to acquire the same fate as the measurement of intelligence. Since there is no agreement on a specific definition, generally questionnaires are developed to measure satisfaction with various aspects of work and the resultant behaviour or score is called job satisfaction. Today, as intelligence is defined as what is measured by intelligence test, job satisfaction can also be defined as what is measured by job satisfaction questionnaire. Most studies of job satisfaction have been concerned with operationalising it rather than defining it. According to Locke (1976) such an approach describes that a certain relationship works but tells nothing as to why it workers. This seems to be the case with job satisfaction. Researchers have been found to be more interested in choosing the unit of measurement from the several
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available but little by way of a definition of job satisfaction has been attempted. One would assume the acceptance of a definition of job satisfaction as a precursor for the choice of the unit of measurement. However, despite these numerous attempts in the past, various others will be made in future to measure job satisfaction. Perhaps, the earliest of the know scales of measuring job satisfaction is that by Hoppock (1935). He developed essentially four items, each one with seven alternative responses. If a person chooses the “least satisfied” of the seven alternatives, he gets a score of 100, and700 if he chooses “most satisfied” alternative for each item. Other alternatives represent a 100-point addition to the previous alternative. Thus, if a person chooses first alternative for all four items his total score is 400. Similarly, if he chooses second alternative in all four items he gets a score of 800, and so on. The maximum total possible is 2800 provided all four seventh alternatives are chosen. But Hoppock takes the average of the four item (range 100-700) for developing the satisfaction index. Although in its original form, job satisfaction index by Hoppock is generally not used now but its variations can be spotted in the literature. Hoppock’s index is, perhaps. The only direct measure of job satisfaction. Other (and there are quit a lot) have indexed job satisfaction in terms of the responses to a variety of questions which deal with factors that are directly or indirectly connected with jobs. These responses are usually measured on a variety of scales ranging from simple yes-no to 7-point or 5-point agreedisagree type of scale. Employees performance are satisfactory, the appraisal interview is conducted with the purpose of promotion and make development plan. Promo table is the easiest of the three-appraisal interview. The person’s performance is satisfactory and there is promotion ahead. Your objective is to discuss the person’s career plans and to develop a specific action plan for the educational and professional development the person needs to move the next.
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Not promote able is for employees whose performance is satisfactory but for whom promotion is not possible. Here supervisor’ objective is to maintain satisfactory performance. This is not easy. The best option is usually to find incentive that is important to the person and enough to maintain satisfactory performance. When the person’s performance is unsatisfactory but correctable, the interview objective is to layout and action plan for correcting the unsatisfactory performance. When the employee is unsatisfactory and the situation is uncorrectable, you can usually skip the interview. You either tolerate the person’s poor performance for now, or dismiss the person. 5. Conceptualization Conceptualization attempts to visualize the causality of research problem prior undertaking research. In this research we can explain the relationship between performance and job satisfaction.. Figure 1: Conceptualization model
Performance evaluation
Job satisfaction
Completion Completionof ofthe thework Quality of work work Freedom towork work Quality of Ability to work Independently independently Ability to work Knowledge Knowledge Perseverance Perseverance Creativity Creativity Innovation Innovation Training Training Discipline Discipline
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Payment Promotion Happy to work Subordinate- supervisor relationship Direction of supervisor Achievement Appreciation Participation in decision making proud to work Enough description
6. Data collection Primary and secondary data are used for the study. Primary data are collected through the questionnaire and interviews, and secondary data are collected from books, journals magazine and etc. 7. Sampling Design There are 75 sales promoters working under the HNB Assurance in Jaffna district. For the purpose of this study 50 sales promoters were selected randomly. 8. Methodology The information about sales promoter’s performance and job satisfaction were collected from questionnaire. The questionnaire consists of 3 parts. The A part consists sales promoter’s personal profile and the part B consists ten statement to measure the performance of sales promoters of HNB Assurance. Part C consists ten statements to measure the job satisfaction with 5 point Likert scale which are valued as
Always - 5 Frequently - 4 Occasionally - 3 Seldom - 2 Never - 1
The total score for the sales promoter’s performance will be in the range of 10 to50. Sales promoter’s performance is divided into three groups. Viz lower level, moderate level, and higher level. The score of below 23 indicates low level, the score between 23 – 39 indicates moderate level and above 39 score indicates high level. Satisfaction: - The total score for the sales promoters’ satisfaction will be in the range of 10 - 50. Satisfaction is divided into three groups. Viz low level, moderate level and high level of satisfaction. The score of below 35 indicates
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low level. The score between the 35 - 40 indicates moderate level and above 40 score points out high level. 9. Hypothesis The following hypotheses are developed for the purpose of the study. H1: Performance and job satisfaction are positively correlated. H2: There is no relationship between performance and satisfaction. 10.Analysis This part concentrates with the presentation of data as the levels of performance and satisfaction, descriptive statistic, relationships between variables in HNB Assurances. Table 1:
Levels of performance Levels
No of sales promoters
%
Low
6
12
Moderate
30
60
High
14
28
Total
50
100
.
Table1 shows that most of the sales promoters (60% in total) in HNB Assurance are in the moderate level of performance. This is higher than the other levels of performance such as low and high with 12% and 28% respectively.
Many factors such as completion of the work, ability to work independently, quality of work, knowledge, perseverance, creativity, innovation, training and discipline determine the sales promoter’s performance.
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The table 2 shows that to what extent the above factors influence in determining the sales promoter’s performance. The factors have been arranged according to mean, and standard deviation. Table2: Descriptive statistics for performance Mean 4.16
Rank of Mean 1
Std 0.650
Rank of Std 3
Freedom of work
3.98
5
0.869
8
Quality of work
4.04
2
0.755
5
Ability to Work independently Knowledge
3.74
8
0.777
7
3.84
7
0.650
3
Perseverance
4.00
3
0.756
6
Creativity
3.38
10
0.901
10
Innovation
3.64
9
0.898
9
Training
3.86
6
0.535
2
Discipline
4.00
3
0.495
1
Factors Completion of the work
From the above table, we can observed that according to mean value, completion of work within the time, quality of work and, perseverance and discipline are the most important factor in determining performance of the sales promoters . However creativity, innovation and ability to work independently are not considered as important. Conversely, on the basis of standard deviation, discipline, training and knowledge play an important role on performance where as creativity, innovation, and freedom of work are considered as the least important performance factors.
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Levels of satisfaction The overall score for satisfaction were divided into the three groups and the details of the output are presented in Table 3. Table3: Levels of satisfaction No of sales promoters Levels
%
Low
3
6
Moderate
31
62
High
16
32
Total
50
100
From the above table, most of the sales promoters in HNB Assurance fall under the moderate level of satisfaction. 62% of total employees are in moderate level of satisfaction. This is higher than the other level of satisfaction such as low, high with 6% and 32% respectively. Many factors determine the sales promoter’s satisfaction, such factors are payment, promotion, happy to work, direction and subordinates- supervisor relationship achievement, appreciation, suggestion proud to work and enough description. . The following table shows that, to what extent the above factors influence in determining sales promoter’s satisfaction. The factors have been arranged according to mean, and standard deviation.
Table -4 Descriptive statistics for satisfaction Mean 4.10
Rank of Mean 2
Std 0.678
Rank of Std 5
Promotion
3.46
9
0.762
8
Happy to work
4.24
1
0.687
6
Direction of supervisor
4.02
5
0.622
2
Factors payment
13
4.06
3
0.767
9
Achievement
3.80
7
0.728
7
Appreciation
3.76
8
0.625
3
Suggestion
3.46
9
0.862
10
Proud to work
4.06
3
0.550
1
Enough description
3.96
6
0.638
4
Subordinates-superior relationship
From the table- 4 we can observe that, according to mean value the most important factor in the sales promoter’s satisfaction are happy to work and payment. Promotion and suggestion from subordinates are the least important factors.
On the basis of standard deviation, proud to work, and direction of supervisor are considered as the most important satisfactional factors where as suggestions and subordinates-superior relationship is the least significance factors. Correlation The research is undertaken to find out the relationship between sales promoter’s performance and job satisfaction in HNB Assurance. Correlation analysis was carried out to find out the nature of relation ship between the variable based on the value of correlation. Table -5 Correlations for HNB Assurance Performance
Job satisfaction
Performance
Job satisfaction
14
1
.579(**)
.579(**)
1
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Correlation analysis was carried out to find out the relationship between variables. Correlation value was 0.579, which is significant at the 0.01 level. It indicates that as the performance increases, satisfaction increases. Hence hypothesis is accepted.
11:Conclusion 28% of sales promoters feel high level of performance in HNB Assurance Ltd. 60% of sales promoters feels moderate level of performance. This is higher than other levels of performance. 32% sales promoters are in high level of job satisfaction in HNB Assurance Ltd. 62% sales promoters of are in moderate level of satisfaction which is higher than other levels of satisfaction The correlation value between performance and job satisfaction of HNB Assurance Ltd. is 0.576. It is significant at 0.01 levels. There is positive linear relationship between the performance and job satisfaction. According to the co-efficient of determination, 58% of variance is accounted for job satisfaction by performance. 42% of variance can be explained by other factors. Finally, performance influence to the job satisfaction. So, effective performance will lead to high sale promoters’ satisfaction. So, hypothesis is accepted.
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12: Suggestions The following recommendations are given below. a. Appraisal process should be properly defined. b. performance should be evaluated by suitable evaluator c. Individual goals, plan and task and explained should be clearly defined. d. Introducing new technology to do work more easily and accurately e. . Rigid rules and also strictly enforced instruction and other regulation should be relaxed in order to increase the good relationship between the sale promoters and leaders. f. The manager should ensure that, there are adequate human resource, materials and means for accomplishment to avoid the work fatigue. g. Involve the employee in decision making and implementing the taken decision. References 1)Mamoria, C.B, Personnel management ,Himala Publishing house Bomby,1980 2) Garry Dessolor, Human Resource Management 4th edition, publishing person Education (Singapore) pet rtf – 2004. 3)Blum, M.L and Nylor, J.C industrial psychology it’s theoretical and Social foundation, Newark, Harper of Row 1965. 4)Cole, A,G, Management theory and Practice, 5th Edition DP Publication Hoppock, R, job satisfaction, New York harper 1935.
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5)Bolar, M. Performance appraisal Readings, Case studies, and a survey of practice, publishing vikgs(new delhi) 1978.
6)Sawlapurkar, M.P merit rating Practice in and ground greater Bombay Indian management, 1967. 7) Peler F.D Rucker, Management, Task, Responsibilities, Practice 8) Armstrong, M, Handbook of personnel management practice( London, Kogan page, 4th edition,1993) 9) Green, GD, industrial Relations( London , pitman publishing ,4th edition,1994) 10) Breadwell, I, and Holden, L, Humanresource management: A contemporary perspective (London, pitman publishing ,1994) 11) Woodruffe, C, Assessment centres( London,IPM,1990) 12) Dale, M, and Iles,P, Assessing London, Kogan 1992)
management Skills(
13) Muching Personnel selection methods : an international review of industrial and organizational psychology (New York, Jone 1986) 14) M. Prof Nadarajasundaram, “Performance management” Managements focus, vol, 1, 1995 (Management studies union, University of Jaffna 15) Ghosh .P.K. Maheswary .G.C. Studies in Management theory Wiley eastern ltd, New Delhi. 16) Haddow M, administrative management case studies (London, pitman publishing 1993)
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