Identifying Factors Affecting Job Satisfaction Of ...

ZENITH International Journal of Business Economics & Management Research________________ ISSN 2249- 8826 ZIJBEMR, Vol.3 (6), June (2013) Online available at zenithresearch.org.in

IDENTIFYING FACTORS AFFECTING JOB SATISFACTION OF FEMALE EMPLOYEES WORKING IN SERVICES SECTOR WITH SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO BPO DR.D.S.CHAUBEY*; NIDHI MAITHEL**; VISHAL GUPTA*** *DIRECTOR, RCMCA, ROORKEE **RESEARCH SCHOLAR PACIFIC UNIVERSITY UDAIPUR (RAJASTHAN) ***RESEARCH SCHOLAR PACIFIC UNIVERSITY UDAIPUR (RAJASTHAN)

ABSTRACT The business process outsourcing in India is expanding at a rapid speed in spite of global financial crisis of 2008. It is absorbing large number of talent pool of employees but has always been characterized by ungodly hours, monotonous job, low perceived value, dispirited efficiency resulting to high attrition level. Notwithstanding the ever rising attrition rate, it has become critical for the companies to satisfy their employees in order to retain them. The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that influence the satisfaction level of employees working in BPOs in Dehradun. Employee Satisfaction is one of the major issues in any organization, especially in the modern and youth oriented industry like BPOs where attrition rate is very high. Employees‟ performance, motivation, productivity, and overall contribution depend upon the extent to which employees are satisfied. This research paper provides an overview of the employee satisfaction investigates major factors of job satisfaction and examines overall job satisfaction. Total 110 female employees engaged in BPO of Dehradun were surveyed and it was found there is no significant difference in the mean of different factors of job satisfaction towards their working in bpos across the different age , marital status and designation of the employees except the training pattern and reward system. KEYWORDS: Employee satisfaction, Job Performance, Attrition Rate, ITEs & BPO & Call Center Industry (Arms of ITEs Sector) ______________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION Ever since India opened its doors to liberalization in the early 1990s there has been a steady transformation in India‟s economy. Self-reliance helped in building great institutions of learning and taking strides in various field of life in keeping pace with the rapidly changing world. Women who earlier stayed at home to attend their domestic duties now maintain both work and home simultaneously, participating in the process on an equal footing with men in social and economic development. Women have moved away from their traditional roles of homemaker and child rearing to social and business solutions. In the last two decade the information technology (IT) sector has boomed and now India is among the top IT hubs in the world. It has become a major centre for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). The business has grown

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tremendously and has given excellent opportunities to women to think beyond the four walls of traditional households. Outsourcing began in the early eighties when organizations started delegating their non-core functions to an external organization that was specialized in providing a particular service or product. Business Process Outsourcing is an industry which we all „Love to hate and hate to love‟. Jobs in BPOs are generally divided into two categories, back office and front office. BPO jobs are fairly well-paid in relative to other sector. At the turn of the millennium, India can be rightly called the foster-child of globalization. The liberalization in 1994 gave an unexpected boost to the ITES/BPO industry. According to the Research firm Gartner the Indian BPO industry will grow into a $1.2 billion market by 2011 and $1.8 billion by 2013. In India, the BPO industry experienced 30-40% average annual growth rates from 2000 to 2008 by (NASSCOM 2009). In the present scenario many UK and US based companies are looking at India, to outsource .The global BPO industry will be worth $230 billion by 2012 and India stands to gain $50 billion of that global pie. So one can say that currently BPO industry is at explosion and number of employees keeps on increasing. Contribution of BPO Company in National Economic Development Nearly two million graduates and 300,000 post-graduates pass out of colleges in India every year, the number only increasing by the day. Each of these degree holders is the main staple of outsourcing companies in India. The world has come to accept the fact that India is a superpower not only in the IT industry but also in the BPO sector, and more so in the latter case. Many companies have chosen India as their home for outsourcing work. In fact, almost all major IT industries have a base in India taking care of their back office work. The last few years have seen a tremendous growth in this sector, simultaneously resulting in the economic growth of India. India is in the phase of industry evolution highlighted by the greater degree of depth, specialization and competition. Outsourcing in traditional areas like customer care, financial services, manufacturing, IT, ITES is growing. Outsourcing is becoming more sophisticated. Customers are looking for business process excellence, speed to market, improvement in quality, benchmarking to world-class standards. There is increasing global competition and pressure on margins from emerging lower-cost outsourcing destinations. Risk factors for outsourcing like terrorism and war, disaster and disease make contingency plans a necessity. To begin with, acquiring the right talent is going to be a critical task for most BPO organizations. Studies conducted by Swami and Sekhar (2005) observes that a combination of factors like competition for talent from the local call centre industry and the low employability of many members of the qualified labour pool would act as a constraint for many BPO organizations. At present, women workers constitute about one-third of the total Call Centre and BPO workforce in India. However, despite such a major economic contribution of women to the industry, several challenges faced by them still remain to be addressed. There is a need to study the factor affecting job satisfaction of women engaged in BPO units. Accessibility of researcher with the respondents of BPO sector motivated him to select this topic for the proposed study. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Employee Satisfaction is one of the major issues in any organization, especially in the modern and youth oriented industry like IT & ITEs, BPOs and Call Centers where attrition rate is as high as up to 20-25%. Employees‟ performance, motivation, productivity, and overall contribution depend upon the extent to which employees are satisfied. Chawla ,Soni and Sitariya in their

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study on title”A Study on the Job Satisfaction Level of Employees working in BPOs and Call Centers in Western Ahmedabad” provides an overview of the employee satisfaction, investigates major conceptual and practical issues in the study of job satisfaction and examines general and overall job satisfaction among the employees by taking the sample size of 400 employees being equally divided among 10 major BPOs and Call Centers in western Ahmedabad representing the same at national level. The study indicates that the satisfaction level of employees is going up in this industry, but challenges remain at the same level Jain K.K., FauziaJabeen,Vinita Mishra and Naveen Gupta (2007) - “Job Satisfaction as Related to Organizational Climate and Occupational Stress: A Case Study of Indian Oil” published in the International Review of Business Research Papers found the results of the study also confirmed the assumption that high age group managers as well as high age group engineers were equally satisfied with their jobs and the study revealed the same findings when low age group managers and low age group engineers were compared on their job satisfaction level. Sengupta(2011) ,in his study on title "An exploratory study on job and demographic attributes affecting employee satisfaction in the Indian BPO industry", determine what and how jobrelated and demographic variables are associated with employee satisfaction of the BPO employees. The study indicates that there is difference of perception towards the job-related variables on the basis of gender, marital status, education, age, and tenure. Correlations revealed that interpersonal relationships, career progression, salary, company policies, working conditions, and authority have significant positive relationship with employee satisfaction and only accountability had a significant negative relationship with employee satisfaction. Regression revealed the significant determinants of employee satisfaction which were interpersonal relationships, career progression, salary, gender, accountability, and authority. Muhammad Umer and Muhammad Akram Naseem (2011) “Employees Retention (Human Capital) in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Industry” published in Global Journal of Management and Business Research (Volume 11 Issue 3 Version 1.0 Pg 90 -98). This paper aims to investigate the impact of variables (career development, supervisor support, work environment, work life balance) on employee retention. A total of 50 interviews were taken from managers of different BPO organizations. Graphical Analysis is indicating that these variables have significant and positive impact on employee retention. Very less research have been done about employee retention in business process out sourcing, especially in Pakistan. So, these finding will provide some insights to BPO‟s managers to make policies about employee retention. Muhammad Umer, Muhammad Akram Naseem (2011) in their paper “Employees Retention (Human Capital) in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Industry” aims to investigate the impact of variables (career development, supervisor support, work environment, work life balance) on employee retention. Sonal Pathak, and Anil Sarin in their research work on “Management of Stress Among Women Employees in BPO Industry in India : A Contemporary Issue” provides an overview of the challenges and opportunities facing by professional women in India. Changing social expectations both at work and at home have made this more complex. The study highlights the coping strategies that can be selected to further continue corporate journey to gender inclusion and the advancement of women in the organizations.

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Freeman, R. B.(1978) evaluate the use of job satisfaction (and other subjective variables) in labor market analysis. His study begins with a brief description of the satisfaction questions on major worker surveys, and then considers the use of satisfaction as an independent and as a dependent variable. Satisfaction is shown to be a major determinant of labor market mobility. According to the study carried out by Assocham(2010) Women engaged in private sector firms like BPO may be getting fat salaries but their job satisfaction level compared with females employed in public sector undertakings are low. The report indicates that "While working women in India find highest levels of job satisfaction in public sector undertakings measured at scale is seven, females engaged in BPO/KPO sector are least satisfied from their current jobs that averaged to 4 on scale of ten,"

Objectives of the Study and Research Methodology

The present paper has been taken up with the objectives of studying the factors of job satisfaction that mainly affects the employees working in BPO and assess the level of job satisfaction of women working in BPO. It was hypothesised that different factors of job satisfaction of women employees does not differs significantly across the age categories , marital status and their position in the organization. To achieve the stated objective data was collected using questionnaire. On the basis of review of literature and past studies the variable of job satisfaction of women were developed. Likert scale ranging 1 to 5 was used to assess the level of satisfaction of the women employees working in BPO units in Dehradun , the state capital of Uttrakhand. The data was collected personnaly using questionnaire. Researcher could contact 110 respondents. The data collected from the questionnaires was coded and feeded in SPSS software. Reliability of the scale was carried out using SPSS software and fount to be.770 which is sufficient to go for further analysis. The analytical tools used such as Bivariate data analysis techniques, like Chi square test, and one-way ANOVA, which are very powerful tools to build statistical relationship between variables are also used in this study. One way ANOVA was done to compare the attitude of the two groups of employees, The ANOVA was done to determine if there was a significant difference in the mean of different factors of job satisfaction among the women employees of two groups. The table 1 presents the demographic characteristics of respondents 23


Table 1General Profile of Employees

Age Marital Status

Experience

Organisation Experience

Designation

Categories 15-20 20-30 30-40 40 or above Unmarried Married fresher 0-3 years 3-5 years 5 years or above Less Than 5 Years 5-10 Years 11-15 Years 16-20 Years Executive Team Leader Manager

Count 46 54 7 3 51 59 86 17 4 3 53 42 14 1 80 22 8

Percentage 41.8 49.1 6.4 2.7 46.4 53.6 78.2 15.5 3.6 2.7 48.2 38.2 12.7 .9 72.7 20.0 7.3

Interpretation: Employee age and time in the organization (tenure) both were found by Herzberg et al. (11) to bear a U-shaped relationship with job satisfaction. Job satisfaction was found to be high when people started their first job, but it subsequently declined until people reached their late twenties or early thirties, when it began to rise. years, after which it increased..table 1 shows that age-wise distribution of women across the sample. 41.80% of respondents are from age group of 15-20yrs, 49.1% are from 20-30yrs & 6.4% are from age group of 30-40 yrs and only 2.7% from the age group of 40 or above. The socio-cultural factors also work against the women who are employed with BPO and Call Centers in India. Even if the woman is happy and satisfied with her night duty job, and is getting an excellent remuneration for it, but her troubles may begin once she gets married. In many cases the women are forced to quit their jobs because of the disapproval of the husband and his family. the marital-wise distribution of women across the sample indicates that 46.4% respondents are unmarried 53.4% are married. The length of experience and level of job satisfaction are always related with each others. Table 1 shows the total experience wise distribution of women across the sample. 78.20% of respondents are fresher and remaining are experience worker ranging there experience upto five years and more. The table also depict that majority of respondents are associated with present organisation for lesser duration. Most of the respondent belongs to executive category.

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Table 2 Factor affecting Job Satisfaction : Descriptive Study Statement Mean My supervisor is quite competent in doing his job 4.1400 My superior is not fair and supportive 2.7800 My supervisor is unfair to me 2.7600 My supervisor shows little interest in the feelings of female 3.0000 subordinates I respect my supervisor 3.6200 There is really too little chance for promotion on my job 3.1400 Those who do well on the job stand a fair chance of being promoted 3.4600 I believe I can move up in the company and earn more 3.8400 I am satisfied with my chances for promotion 3.2000 People get ahead as fast as they do in other places 3.7600 Conflicts are constructively/positively resolved in the organization. 2.9400 We are generally encouraged to resolve our conflicts rather than let 2.9000 them simmer There are helpful ways of preventing conflicts from getting out of hand 2.8800 in this Organization I have received the training I need to do a good job 3.3000 The training I receive is of high quality 3.3000 I get the training I need to further develop my skills 3.5400 I can set my own pace of work 2.8600 I enjoy working with my colleagues 3.3000 The people I work with are friendly 3.4000 Raises are acceptable. 2.7000 There is an opportunity to work for this institution until I retire. 2.7400 I am satisfied with the company‟s compensation program 2.6400

Std. Dev. 1.10675 1.05540 1.09842 1.16058 1.00793 1.16075 1.18166 1.20136 1.19523 1.07968 1.26829 1.28174 1.27199 1.26572 1.26572 1.19881 1.30946 1.48805 1.45686 1.24949 1.22574 1.24146

A descriptive analysis of various factor affecting job satisfaction are presented in Table 2. The employees mean scores for factors affecting job satisfaction performance ranged from 4.14 down to 2.70. These results indicate that the role of supervisor plays a vital role in motivating employees. On a Likert scale of 1 to 5, the employees ‟ lowest mean score was 2.70 for raises are acceptable and the highest mean score was 4.14 for My supervisor is quite competent in doing his job. The empirical research results clearly indicated that the majority of the respondent managers almost exclusively monitor financial dimensions of performance. Modest attention is being paid to non-financial dimensions such as customer satisfaction, degree of competitiveness, innovativeness, and resource utilization indicators. Table 3 Mean of various factors outcome promoting job satisfaction of women employees across Different designation categories of Respondents Designation Executive Team Leader Manager Total

supervision 3.2075 3.2636 3.6000 3.2473

promotion 3.5575 3.1909 3.3500 3.4691

conflict 3.1083 2.8485 3.3333 3.0727

training 3.0917 3.8333 3.3333 3.2576

relation 3.0042 3.0303 2.5417 2.9758

reward 2.9875 2.3636 2.2083 2.8061

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Mean of different variable constructed for identifying the level of satisfaction of women employees in BPO with the different factor like nature of supervision , promotion policy , conflict management, training and development opportunity, staff relationship and reward system across the Different designation categories of Respondents . composite mean was calculated with the help of SPSS software. The information presented in the table 3 indicates that the mean of different factors of job satisfaction towards BPO across the different level of designation reveals that satisfaction over supervision and promotion scored highest mean across the respondents of different designation of women working in the organization. Table 4 One Way ANOVA across the Designation

supervision

promotion

conflict

training

relation

reward

Between Groups Within Groups Total Between Groups Within Groups Total Between Groups Within Groups Total Between Groups Within Groups Total Between Groups Within Groups Total Between Groups Within Groups Total

Sum of Squares 1.128 52.306 53.434 2.441 72.154 74.595 1.751 101.001 102.752 9.541 100.161 109.702 1.638 157.631 159.269 9.798 136.731 146.529

df

Mean Square 2 .564 107 .489 109 2 1.221 107 .674 109 2 .876 107 .944 109 2 4.770 107 .936 109 2 .819 107 1.473 109 2 4.899 107 1.278 109

F 1.154

Sig. .319

1.810

.169

.928

.399

5.096

.008

.556

.575

3.834

.025

One-way ANOVA analysis was carried out with the assumption that mean of different factors of women attitude does not differ significant across the designation of respondents. From the table 4, it is clear that calculated value of F is less than the tabulated value of F (3.00, α = .05) for all factor. Hence the null hypothesis is accepted, indicating that there is no significant difference in the mean of different factors of job satisfaction in their respective organization across the different designation category except in the case of reward system and training and development opportunities.

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Table 5 Mean of various factors outcome promoting across Different Age categories of Respondents Age supervision promotion conflict 15-20 3.1217 3.5174 3.0145 20-30 3.2926 3.5000 3.1852 30-40 3.3429 2.7714 2.8095 40 or above 4.1333 3.8000 2.5556 Total 3.2473 3.4691 3.0727

job satisfaction of women employees training 3.0870 3.3580 3.8571 2.6667 3.2576

relation 2.7971 3.0864 3.0000 3.6667 2.9758

reward 2.8478 2.8086 2.3333 3.2222 2.8061

Mean of different variable constructed for identifying the level of satisfaction of women employees in BPO with the different factor across the Different age categories of Respondents . Composite mean was calculated with the help of SPSS software. The information presented in the table 5 indicates that the mean of different factors of job satisfaction towards BPO across the different age groups reveals that advantage over training and promotion scored highest mean across the respondents of different age of women working in their respective organisation. Table 6 One Way ANOVA Across Age Category of Respondents Sum of df Mean Square Squares supervision Between Groups 3.255 3 1.085 Within Groups 50.179 106 .473 Total 53.434 109 promotion Between Groups 3.895 3 1.298 Within Groups 70.700 106 .667 Total 74.595 109 conflict Between Groups 2.126 3 .709 Within Groups 100.625 106 .949 Total 102.752 109 training Between Groups 5.448 3 1.816 Within Groups 104.254 106 .984 Total 109.702 109 relation Between Groups 3.566 3 1.189 Within Groups 155.703 106 1.469 Total 159.269 109 reward Between Groups 2.164 3 .721 Within Groups 144.365 106 1.362 Total 146.529 109

F 2.292

Sig. .082

1.946

.127

.747

.527

1.846

.143

.809

.492

.530

.663

One-way ANOVA analysis was carried out with the assumption that mean of different factors of women attitude towards job satisfaction does not differ significant across the age of respondents. From the table it is clear that calculated value of F is less than the tabulated value of F (3.00, α = .05) for all factor. Hence the null hypothesis is accepted, indicating that there is no significant

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difference in the mean of different factors of job satisfaction across the different age category. Table 7 Mean of various factors outcome across Marital Status of Respondents Marital Status supervision promotion Unmarried 2.9686 3.5137 Married 3.4881 3.4305 Total 3.2473 3.4691

towards their working in BPOs

promoting job satisfaction of women employees conflict 3.1569 3.0000 3.0727

training 3.4771 3.0678 3.2576

relation 2.8954 3.0452 2.9758

reward 2.7386 2.8644 2.8061

table 7 shows the mean of different factors of job satisfaction of women towards BPO across the different marital status. It is seen that advantage over supervision and promotion scored highest mean across the respondents of different marital status of women working in their respective organisation. Table 8 One Way ANOVA across Marital Status of Respondents

supervision

promotion

conflict

training

relation

reward

Between Groups Within Groups Total Between Groups Within Groups Total Between Groups Within Groups Total Between Groups Within Groups Total Between Groups Within Groups Total Between Groups Within Groups Total

Sum of Squares 7.383 46.051 53.434 .189 74.405 74.595 .673 102.078 102.752 4.583 105.119 109.702 .614 158.655 159.269 .433 146.096 146.529

df 1 108 109 1 108 109 1 108 109 1 108 109 1 108 109 1 108 109

Mean Square 7.383 .426

F 17.314

Sig. .000

.189 .689

.275

.601

.673 .945

.712

.401

4.583 .973

4.709

.032

.614 1.469

.418

.519

.433 1.353

.320

.573

One-way ANOVA analysis was carried out with the assumption that mean of different factors of women attitude towards job satisfaction does not differ significant across the marital status of respondents. From the (table6), it is clear that calculated value of F is less than the tabulated value of F (3.00, α = .05) for all factor. Hence the null hypothesis is accepted, indicating that there is no significant difference in the mean of different factors of job satisfaction towards their working in BPOs across the different marital status except in the case of supervision and training

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Conclusions and Suggestions Job satisfaction is critical to retaining and attracting well-qualified personnel. In this line, study suggests that employee job satisfaction is an attitude that people have about their jobs and the organizations in which they perform these jobs. Job satisfaction is generally recognized as a multifaceted construct that includes employee feelings about a variety of both intrinsic and extrinsic job elements. It encompasses specific aspects of satisfaction related to pay, benefits, promotion, work conditions, supervision, organizational practices and relationships with coworkers. Study indicates that age, marital status and designation significant impact on the factor of job satisfaction like nature of supervision, promotion policy and training and development opportunities. Hence it is suggested that Promotional policy should be reviewed and employees those who are competent enough and do well on their job must get fair chance of being promoted. Conflicts should be resolved positively and employees should be given encouragement to solve the conflicts. It is also suggested that suitable compensation plan should be developed as employees are not satisfied with the compensation plan of the organization. References:  Philip Kotler, “Marketing Management”, 11th edition, Pearson education Asia Publication.  C.R.Kothari, “Research Methodology methods & techniques”,New Age International(p)ltd.publishers,2nd edition.  Santoshi Sengupta, (2011) "An exploratory study on job and demographic attributes affecting employee satisfaction in the Indian BPO industry", Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal, Vol. 4 Iss: 3, pp.248 - 273 –  Labor Economics, Volume 4, Issue 4, December 1997, Pages 341-372  ECONOMICS TIMES,Women working in PSUs more satisfied than in BPO/KPO: Assocham PTI Mar 7, 2010, 11.56am IST  “BPO E-SatSurvey”. Tech Journal ,Volume 1 , No. 2 , 2007,. December 2007. Published: Freeman, R. B. "Job Satisfaction As An Economic Variable," American Economic Review, 1978, v68(2), 135-141.  Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies , Vol. 2, No. 2, pp.41-49, Feb 2011  http://www.studymode.com/essays/Satisfaction-Level-Of-Employees-Working-In629245.html  http://indiabudget.nic.in/es2010-11/echap-10.pdf  http://www.ijmbs.com/13/sonal.pdf http://ncw.nic.in/pdfReports/NIGHT%20SHIFT%20FOR%20WOMEN.pdf  http://www.google.co.in/search?q=%93BPO+ESatSurvey%94.+Tech+Journal+%2CVolume+1+%2C+No.+2+%2C+2007%2CDecember+ 2007.&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF8&sourceid=ie7&redir_esc=&ei=zDDFTsnZKJHrrQeGmKDNCw  http://www.citehr.com/76880-women-bpo.html  http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/keyword/job-satisfaction  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_satisfaction  http://indiabudget.nic.in/es2010-11/echap-10.pdf  http://www.indianeconomics.org/bpo-contribution-to-the-indian-economy.htm  http://www.ijmbs.com/13/sonal.pdf http://ncw.nic.in/pdfReports/NIGHT%20SHIFT%20FOR%20WOMEN.pdf 29