Research framework and theoretical framework

This chapter represents the findings from the data collected to conduct the study. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between employee job satisfaction and performance of the company. To conduct the research, content analysis method was adopted. Secondary data was collected from various journals and online sources regarding job satisfaction of the employees and company performance. There have been many studies on the employee job satisfaction, factors of employee as well as company performance and impact of job satisfaction on the employee productivity and performance of the company. The secondary data on revenue growth was collected from various related research works and reports of some Australian and multinational companies for the last four years. Data on employee job satisfaction was collected from employee survey results of various other global companies, sourced from online publications and websites. I used qualitative method for interpretation of the data. Examples have been taken from various companies and the research topic was examined by using qualitative data analysis method under deductive approach. The findings from the data and its explanations are presented below. In the end, a summary and discussion on the findings will be presented.

Relation of employee contribution on revenue growth

To conduct the study based on secondary data, I chose 5 best companies of Australia for sampling. All the 5 companies are ASX listed and those are PWC Australia, KPMG Australia, Westpac Group, CIMIC Group and Deloitte Australia (Gilchrist, 2018). On the basis of the performance of these companies from 2014 to 2017, it was assumed that employees contributed significantly in their growth, which indicates a higher job satisfaction of the employees, leading to better performance and enhanced customer satisfaction. These companies were considered as sample as they belong to different industries. This was helpful in throwing a light on the research topic in various industries. All the above companies are market giants in their respective industries having global operations. Along with the operating profits, these companies offer a great number of benefits to the employees.

As found from various literatures, company performance depends on many factors, such as, employee performance, employee motivation and job satisfaction, financial assets, resources, organizational strategies, market position, customer loyalty and satisfaction and many more external factors. The revenue growth of a company reflects the performance graph of it. Over the years, if a company shows growth in its revenue, then it can be said that the employees are contributing significantly in the growth of the company. The companies that are considered in this study are all product and service companies belonging to different industries, among which few are multinational companies and have business of billion dollars. I studied the revenue earned by these companies from 2014 to 2017 to reflect on the company performance during these years. The information on the revenue of the companies has been collected from the annual reports of the respective company. The findings are presented below.

Findings from the data collected to conduct the study

Figure 1: Revenue of PWC ($b), 2014 – 2017

(Source: pwc.com.au, 2018)

Figure 2: Revenue of KPMG ($b), 2014 – 2017

(Source: Kpmgcampus.com, 2018)

Figure 3: Revenue of Deloitte ($b), 2014 – 2017

(Source: Deloitte.com, 2018)

Figure 4: Revenue of Westpac Group ($b), 2014 – 2017

(Source: Westpac.com.au, 2018)

Figure 5: Revenue of CIMIC Group ($b), 2014 – 2017

(Source: Cimic.com.au, 2018)

From the above figures it is found that within 2014 to 2017, PWC, KPMG and Deloitte Australia have been experiencing a positive growth in their revenue and consequently its sales and profit. On the other hand, Westpac and CIMIC Group faced a fluctuating growth of revenue. According to 2017 Full Year Financial Results Announcement by the Westpac Group (Westpac.com.au, 2018), the fall in the revenue in 2016 can be attributed to the external factors and large individual provisions, which were significantly lower for that year. This resulted in decrease in the impairment charges. However, the non-interest income was lower by 7% leading to a decline in the total revenue. According to this report, the fall in the revenue growth was not related to the employee performance or job satisfaction; rather the consumer behavior played a significant role in declining the revenue for Westpac in 2016. In 2017, it has been found that there was an 18% reduction in the Australian banking customer complaints in 2017 leading to a business growth. The group also reported that there was an increase in the workforce engagement by 10% and it came to 79% and this resulted in claiming a position among the high performing companies in the world. However, it cannot be denied that employee performance plays a major role in growing the business of the companies and employee performance is highly influenced by motivation and job satisfaction of the employees. It can be inferred that employee motivation is not the only factor influences the performance of a company. Employee job satisfaction is one of many factors that play a significant role in improving productivity of a company, as reflected in the revenue growth of the above mentioned 5 companies.

According to study by Záme?ník (2014), employees are the biggest and most important resources of any company. Every activity of a company depends highly on the employees as the strategy making and implementation process is carried out by the employees only. A company can never make any move if it does not involve its employees in its actions. Hence, performance of a company is heavily dependent on the employees of the company and their performances. The measurement of the employee motivation can be done through the performance management. Through this system, the employers can review the performance of the employees for throughout the year and based on the performances, the employees are rewarded and given some benefits. These again work as a motivational factor some employees, who tend to put more effort in improving their skills and productivity.

Revenue growth of the companies and its relationship with employee job satisfaction

Another study by Gab?anová (2011) shows that employee productivity is heavily influenced by the job satisfaction and motivation of the employees. These factors play a significant role in employee performance, loyalty towards the company or employer, their willingness to perform better, which gets reflected in their productivity. As stated by Devadass (2011), the motivation for work represents a set of external and internal factors that initiate as well as influence the workplace and job related behavior and also determine the form, intensity, direction and duration of the attitude. Work motivation represents a middle range idea that is completely influenced by the job related events, people and place. There are many factors that influence the work motivation and job satisfaction of the employees of a company. As per the motivational theories by Maslow and Herzberg, the motivation of people depends on factors that satisfy their needs in a hierarchical manner and there are some factors in the workplace that influence the motivation positively and some factors affect negatively (Michael, Kwao & Gyamfi, 2015). Hence, the companies need to focus on providing the benefits to the employees to satisfy their needs and increase their motivations.

Two Factor Motivational Theory by Herzberg described the positive factors as the motivation factors and the negatively influencing factors as hygiene factors. According to Herzberg, attribution or behavioral factors, such as, challenging work process, responsibility, accountability, recognition for achievement, participation in decision making, and opportunity for useful contribution, and sense of importance to the organization work as motivation factors for the employees. These factors reflect characteristics of the individual and his willingness towards to job (Alshmemri, Shahwan-Akl & Maude, 2017). On the other hand, material factors, such as, remuneration, benefits, incentives, working environment and equipment, insurance facilities, safety and security, job stability, leave facilities that do not result in higher level of satisfaction are known as hygiene factors, which can cause dissatisfaction among the employees (Herzberg, 2017). Hence, it is essential that companies should provide satisfactory level of these factors to reduce the attrition rate, increase employee loyalty and enhance their productivity. In this context it can be highlighted that, PWC provides many benefits to the employees to increase their job satisfaction. As found the website of PWC, the company is sensitive about the cultural work environment and benefits for the employees. They want their employees to enjoy their work life and hence support them with a wide range of financial as well as non-financial benefits and rewards, such as, flexible working hours as per the convenience of the employees, 18 weeks of parental leaves, no dresscode, health and fitness perks of $925 per year, free coffee for all, referral bonuses, professional memberships and most importantly bonus and profit shares (pwc.com.au, 2018). Such facilities are expected to boost the morale, motivation and job satisfaction of the employees, which would push them to increase their productivity. Similarly, KPMG Australia also provides many benefits to the employees. The benefits include medical facilities and perks, insurance, money saving schemes, incentive program, and disability insurance (Kpmgcampus.com, 2018). The company recognizes the needs of the employees and hence creates opportunities for the employees to avail the most suitable benefit programs as per their needs. KPMG also believes that good benefits can attract and retain the valuable employees, which is beneficial for improving the performance of the company.

Companies selected for the study and the methodology adopted

CIMIC Group focuses on enhancing the skills of their employees. They provide opportunities for enhancing the leadership, accountability and responsibility among their employees to motivate them and increase their job satisfaction (Cimic.com.au, 2018). The company also fosters a performance driven culture in the workplace to maintain a healthy competition among the employees and help them to improve their productivity, which benefits the company’s performance. From the revenue growth of the companies in the past four years, it can be inferred that the companies put effort in motivating the employees, which has reflected in the growth of the companies.

Overtime, various consulting companies have conducted job satisfaction surveys on the employees to find out the factors causing impact on the job satisfaction of the employees. Few such surveys have been explored in this study to get an idea about the factors of job satisfaction in an organization and the employees’ perceptions about those. These surveys collected responses on multiple reasons of job satisfaction, which are mostly common across the industries. The findings of few such surveys are presented below.

Kayaku Safety Systems Europe (KSE Company) is a part of the global Nippon Kayaku Group. It conducts a job satisfaction survey every two years to know the opinions of the employees regarding the company operations. The aim of the company is to present the best possible working conditions to the employees so that they are comfortable and generate maximum productivity. In the recent survey, 472 (64%) of the total employees participated and answered 66 questions, that addressed the sections like boarding, benefits, communication, working environment, social stability, technical equipment, workplace safety, degree of awareness, company evaluation and satisfaction regarding working condition. The employees rated the company to be above average compared to the other companies in that region and they also said that they are satisfied with their work and working environment. The findings are as follows.

Figure 6: KSE employee satisfaction survey results

(Source: Kse-cz.com, 2017)

According to the survey responses, KSE Company is voted majorly for job stability and security with a good reputation. The employees voted for the company to be an important employer in the region, and majority also agreed that KSE provides good employee benefits and 10% voted that there is friendly work environment in the company. However, less number of employees voted for good relations with outside environment, ceaseless improvement, good wages, positive relationships at workplace and flexibility and frequent changes in the workplace, which indicates that the above mentioned factors contribute significantly in influencing the job satisfaction of the employees of KSE Company, but those were not emphasized by the company. It can be inferred that all these factors form a significant part of the employee job satisfaction, which influences the employees to increase their productivity, contributing in the organizational growth.

Factors that influence employee performance and job satisfaction

Another survey was conducted by Schaffhauser (2017) on the job satisfaction of the IT employees regarding the salary in the IT sector in 2016. In this survey, the IT professionals were asked questions regarding their salaries in the industry and their level of satisfaction regarding that.

Figure 7: 2016 IT salary and job satisfaction survey results

(Source: Schaffhauser, 2017)

The factors for job satisfaction, considered in this survey, were overall satisfaction regarding working with the company, salary, employee benefits, hours, supervisor, top brass or management, co-workers, physical comfort, equipment, department’s budget, and commute. It was found that the survey respondents provided mostly positive response on all other factors except for salaries, departmental budgets and top management in their organizations. However, most of the employees have a positive view towards supportive co-workers, working shift hours, supportive supervisors, commuting to their workplace, physical comfort and some of the benefits given by their companies. Thus, it can be said that dissatisfaction majorly comes from budget constraints of the company and clueless administration for maximum number of the survey respondents. Lack of budget often results in inability of the companies to upgrade their technology and equipment to sustain their growth in the market. The findings from the survey showed that the IT industry has been suffering from underpaid, underappreciated employees with lack of adequate professional training (Schaffhauser, 2017).

Oakwood Solicitors (2018) conducted an important survey to highlight the factors that cause stress at workplace and affect the job satisfaction of few random people. 81 out of 85 respondents said that they suffer from excessive stress at their workplace. Among these respondents, 40% worked in the public sector, while 55% worked in the private sector. Thus, stress and job dissatisfaction exist in both the private and public sectors (Oakwoodsolicitors.co.uk, 2018). It was also seen that 60% of people with salaries less than £30,000 per annum suffer from work stress.

Figure 8: Salary range of the participants

(Source: Oakwoodsolicitors.co.uk, 2018)

Figure 9: Factors causing workplace stress

(Source: Oakwoodsolicitors.co.uk, 2018)

The factors that were considered to be influencing the job satisfaction of the employees are excessive working hours, unfair wages, poor management, another co-worker causing trouble in the workplace, lack of progression, bullying or discrimination, extreme work pressure and others. The respondents chose multiple factors to be the cause of stress and job dissatisfaction in the workplace. From the survey, it was found that, majority, that is, 73% of the employees voted that poor management is cause for stress at workplace, causing dissatisfaction. This is followed by 58% voting for excessive workload, 46% voting for bullying or discrimination, 40% reporting for another co-worker and 34% reporting for excessive working hours. 22% of the participants indicated lack of progressive attitude and actions of the management causes stress and dissatisfaction for them, and 20% respondents said that they get unfair wages. Thus, it is found that poor management is a major reason contributing in the employee dissatisfaction and demotivation, which is reflected in their performance. Poor performance by the employees affects the company performance in a significant way.

Impact of Two Factor Motivational Theory by Herzberg on employee productivity

Figure 10: Time off work due to stress

(Source: Oakwoodsolicitors.co.uk, 2018)

41 (48%) of the respondents said that they take time off due to stress at work.

Figure 11: Amount of time taken off

(Source: Oakwoodsolicitors.co.uk, 2018)

The participants were also asked about how much time they take off due to stress. Among the 41 respondents, more than half reported that they take off time between one month and 6 months to reduce their stress and increase motivation for work.

Figure 12: Afraid to inform the employer

(Source: Oakwoodsolicitors.co.uk, 2018)

54 (64%) of the participants reported that they were apprehensive about informing their employers that they were suffering from work and workplace related stress. The employees reported that if they inform their employers that they feel stress, the employers might dismiss them for ill health or incapability. Thus, bullying by the management, non-supportive co-workers, insensitive behavior towards the problem of the employees and the fear of losing the job stop the employees to inform the employers about the stress factors in the workplace. These factors lead to demotivation and job dissatisfaction for the employees across various industries under public and private sectors, affecting their productivity. Thus, apart from good benefits, the companies must also provide a supportive working culture to the employees so that they feel comfortable and get the adequate support to enhance their skills and increase their productivity, thereby contributing in achieving the organizational goals.

From the above discussion it can be found that there are many factors that influence the employee motivation and job satisfaction of the employees, which on the other hand affect their performance and contribution towards organizational growth. The analysis of the responses of the survey participants showed that, poor management is the major cause of employee demotivation and stress, followed by poor salary, bullying and discrimination, constrained budget required for technology and equipment, non-supportive co-workers and work culture and excessive work pressure. All these factors co-exist with the positive factors, such as, good benefits, career progress opportunities, job security and stability, good reputation and flexibility etc.  Employee performance depends highly on these factors and their relative significance in the company. On the other hand, the performance of any company depends on the employee performance. If the employees of an organization are comfortable and satisfied with the salary, benefits and work environment, their performance improves resulting in the revenue growth of the organization. As seen from the revenue growth of top 5 companies in Australia and their employee benefits policies, it can be inferred that the companies are successful in providing employee job satisfaction, which helped them to achieve growth in their revenue as well as in overall performance over the past few years. Thus, it can be said that there is a direct and significant relationship between employee job satisfaction and company performance. Hence, hypothesis 1 is rejected and hypothesis 2 is accepted.

Benefits provided by PWC and KPMG to increase employee job satisfaction

Conclusion

This chapter presents the concluding remarks to this research study. The aim of the study was to explore the relationship between the job satisfaction of the employees and the performance of the company. To conduct the study, I collected secondary data from the official websites of top 5 companies in Australia and few examples of job satisfaction survey results from online sources. All these information was analyzed using qualitative analysis method to find out the trend between the two variables of the study. Some recommendations are also presented in this chapter for the organizations to improve the employee motivation and consequently company performance.

The research questions were formulated to examine the connection between job satisfaction of the employees and performance of the companies. To answer these questions, extensive literature review was done prior to the data collection and analysis. From the literature review it was found that, employee job satisfaction and company performance depend on numerous factors in the workplace. These factors play a significant role in influencing the employees to enhance their skills and increase their productivity, which ultimately influences the performance of the organizations. Based on the knowledge about the motivational factors and motivational theories, secondary data was collected. Revenue growth is an important indicator of company performance. The growth of a company is often measured by the growth of the revenue, as that indicates that the production is increasing and the business is expanding along with the market share of the company. While collecting the data for the study, I focused on top companies of Australia, which have global business operations, and gathered information on the revenue earned by the companies within the time period between 2014 and 2017. This information reflects the business growth of these companies over the years. It can be said that the all these companies have experienced a good growth over these four years and the employees played a major role in this. From the company profiles it is seen that all these organizations provide not only good wages to the employees, but also provides many benefits. From flexible work hours to attractive rewards and incentives, supportive work culture, long parental leaves, health perks etc. which motivate the employees to improve their performance and contribute in the organizational growth. These findings are aligned with the motivational theories by Maslow and Herzberg. An employee must be given benefits apart from good pay to satisfy his basic needs and the company is responsible in motivating him by providing such benefits.

There are some aspects of the companies, which are not contributing in enhancing the employee motivation and satisfaction and thereby improving the performance of the organizations. I conducted a general study on the relationship between employee job satisfaction and business performance of the organizations. The analysis of the employee survey response data found some issues, which the organizations need to focus on and amend accordingly. Following are the recommendations, which organizations can apply to improve their contribution in increasing employee satisfaction and motivation.

• It was found from the survey that majority of the employees, irrespective of their employers; consider poor management as a demotivating factor. Poor management include many aspects, such as, clueless management, unsupportive leaders and higher authority, insensitive workplace, bullying and discrimination by the management, irresponsible and indulging in hasty decision making by the leaders. These aspects create uncertainty among the employees, which jeopardizes their job security and stability. Thus, poor management affects the stability of the organization and security of the employees. The companies therefore should focus on creating a stable management as well as stable working environment, which can create a positive impact on the employees.
• The survey responses also highlighted that work stress in the workplace demotivates them, which affects their productivity. Work stress can generate from various factors, among which extra working hours and extra work pressure are mostly common across the organizations. These put immense pressure on the mind and health of the employees, which affect their productivity negatively. Thus, the organizations should take measures to limit the working hoursof the employees and should also reduce the excessive work pressure. For efficient performance, the employees should be happy. Hence, it is the duty of the organizations to provide them opportunities to enjoy their personal lives while working for the standard working hours. The employees should not be burdened with extra workload within as well as outside the shift timing.
• Budgetary issue is another factor that has negative impact on the employee performance. Lack of adequate budget stops the organizations in upgrading their technology and systems. This also creates obstacles in arranging training programs for the employees for enhancing their skills. Hence, the organizations should try to improve their stock of capitaland arrange for training programs for the employees, implement new technologies and upgrade their systems, which aids in improving the skills of the employees and assist them to improve their efficiency.
• The organizations should also invest inincreasing their reputation in the market through various welfare programs, such as, charities, sponsorships and social developmental projects. These activities help them to earn a good brand name. Working for a good, ethical and branded company boosts the morale of the employees to perform better and contribute in their organizational growth.
• All the organizations should conduct employee satisfaction survey in a regular intervalto identify the major problems in the company. They can also take employee feedbacks and take measures accordingly to fix the issues. This will not only improve the organizational work culture and operations by identifying the potential areas for return on investments, but also make the employees feel that they also important to the organization. The sense of responsibility and accountability and importance to the organization will work as a motivational factor for the employees.
• Lastly, the organizational culture as well as the skills of the employees contributes together in improving the performance of an organization. Hence, it is the duty of the organizations to provide a healthy working environment to the employees, where the teams will work in cooperation and support. Effective leadershipalong with the material benefits is necessary to motivate the employees in the right direction. The leaders should be able to identify the needs of the employees and work accordingly to get the desired outcome. Measures should be taken to reduce employee turnover rate, which would also benefit the company in its growth.

The study has some limitations, which can be addressed in future research works on this subject. Firstly, I focused on secondary data only. Primary data was not collected due to inconvenience of data collection and getting informed consent from the participants. Secondly, only qualitative method was used for the analysis. This was more of a descriptional study on the topic. Quantitative analysis provides a more scientific analysis, in which, based on numerical data and statistical calculations, a logical conclusion is reached. Mixed methodology can also be used for a more extensive study on topics related to employee motivation and job satisfaction and their impact on the company performance. Thirdly, in the secondary data, instances from various companies were examined. The companies were taken from various industries. In the future studies, the researchers can focus on one company in a particular industry and collect primary data to find out the specific impact of employee satisfaction on the company performance in that industry. This would provide more specific and in-depth knowledge on the particulars of that company, which might find out a new aspect of the topic. Lastly, in this study, I considered only the revenue growth as a parameter to reflect on the company performance or growth. However, there are many other factors that can reflect the organizational growth, such as, net profit, assets and liabilities, expansion of markets and business locations, sales value etc, which can influence the organizational growth positively or negatively. Thus, the future researchers can consider these other factors as a determinant and resultants of organizational performance while studying the impact of employee satisfaction or performance on the company performance.

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